TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington have approved the business case for investing almost £2 million in a unified communications system.
Members of the borough council’s executive board have also authorised officers to purchase the technologies and services.
The move is expected to produce efficiency savings on their own – that is without redundancy costs – which would pay for the implementation of the technology within two years.
As a result, board has been told, there may be a need to reduce the number of employees.
A report by executive member for finance, efficiency and improvement Paul Campbell (pictured) states: “As far as possible, this reduction will be managed through staff turnover – that is, not replacing staff who leave in affected ‘back office’ areas, as well as redeploying ‘at risk’ staff into other suitable vacant roles across the council.
“If redundancy is the only option then appropriate payments will be made.
“These potential costs would extend the payback period, however the business case remains robust.
“Any potential reductions in staff numbers would be subject to full consultation with affected staff and their trade unions and conducted in line with the council’s agreed human resources policies.”
An internal review of the council’s ICT has concluded that the existing telephony infrastructure requires replacement as it can no longer be efficiently supported.
“Including a unified communications implementation within the overall ICT modernisation programme presents an ideal opportunity to use the expertise of the current programme members and thereby reduce overall costs and risks.
It is estimated that a saving of £100,000 could be achieved if unified communications is implemented at the same time as ICT modernisation.
Council to invest in £2m comms system
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
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The problem lies with the people, NOT the equipment. It’s a pity they can’t sort the important things out like Traffic and potholes.
2 MILLION to replace an internal phone & communication system!?!?!? Which pot of money is this coming out of and is it really necessary as it wont directly benefit the taxpayers of Warringon… Riduculous waste of money, especially when companies such as Connexions in Warrington (who provide support and help to school leavers in finding a job etc and other vunerable youngsters ) are having their fundung cut by £500k by the council and government resulting in over 70 job losses and a much reduced services to the young people of Warrington………………… and not to mention the fact that £2 million could even go a very long way to revamping Walton Hall and it’s other buildings. Priorities ????????