Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
Logicalis enables Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council to realise its plans for the "Sefton Learning Grid"
The Client
Sefton is a vibrant and diverse Borough, which includes the elegant resort of Southport, inner city Bootle, high quality residential areas such as Maghull, Formby and Crosby, and a coastline of international significance and many major components of MerseyPort.
Sefton Borough Council is committed to embracing developments in new technology to explore alternative methods of service provision which will meet the needs and demands of its citizens in the 21st century. The Council sees e-Government as an opportunity to fulfil those requirements and is committed to electronic service delivery to provide the modern council its citizens deserve. The Council's vision for e-Government is one in which Sefton's citizens, partners and suppliers are able to complete a wide range of transactions with the Council through convenient single points of contact, at times and through delivery channels of their choice (e.g. face to face, over the phone, or via the web).
The Challenge
Recognising that its e-Government strategy belongs not just to the Council but to all agencies delivering services in Sefton, implementation of the strategy has been put under the remit of the Sefton Borough Partnership, comprising representatives (and funding) from the Council, the FE Sector, and the Sefton Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The development of the Sefton Learning Grid, an ambitious Metropolitan Area Network offering broadband connectivity to more than 200 sites (including every school), formed one of the fundamental building blocks in the partnership's wider e-government initiatives. The project involved working in partnership with local public and private sector organisations, and was funded with a combination of public and private finance.
The Sefton Learning Grid was to be implemented in two phases. The first phase, to be completed by December 2001 was to provide the basic infrastructure required to sustain broadband communications, connecting up all council buildings and learning sites including schools, FE Colleges, libraries, adult education centres and community centres. In Phase II the emphasis would shift to populating the network with additional devices, developing applications, content and services.
For Phase I, the Council wished to implement a future-proof corporate MAN capable of delivering new IP-based applications, as well as supporting existing and legacy protocols, to allow the delivery of new services and the migration of the existing LAN and mainframe terminal based system to the more flexible, scalable infrastructure. The network provides the infrastructure for data, voice and traffic management information (traffic lights, CCTV and security systems).
The Solution
Logicalis, in partnership with Telewest Communications, was awarded a contract worth £9 million for the design and implementation of a high speed Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), with on-going management from its Ascot-based Network Operations Centre.
The network is based on a Cisco based hierarchical ATM network, with a meshed 622 Mbps resilient backbone infrastructure interconnecting the main areas of population within Sefton. Connected into the backbone are 202 remote sites; these locations consist of council buildings, schools, libraries and community centres.
Project Successes and Benefits
The implementation of Phase I was completed on time and to budget in September 2001. The Sefton Learning Grid provides access to a large number of potential learners that would otherwise be on the wrong side of the "digital divide". In future the Learning Grid will facilitate direct connection to broadband communications by major employers, and allow the creation of a market in Internet access via the Grid. Ultimately, Sefton Council hopes that the Learning Grid will become an "information utility" as pervasive and invisible as the gas, water or electricity supply.