5-year agreement will bring savings and increased efficiency to internal operational communications

Affiniti, the communications integrator created from Kingston Communications Business Services, Omnetica and Technica, today announces it has secured a two-part contract with Thames Valley Police (TVP) for the novation of its existing communications infrastructure and management of its voice and data systems for a 5 year term at a total value of £10m.

TVP's procurement process was assisted by Improcom, an independent IT and telecommunications consultancy.

Simon Chandler, Communications and Infrastructure Manager from TVP, said: "The effective management of Thames Valley Police's communications infrastructure is vital to the Force, with over 7,700 officers and staff using the telephone and computer networks. We are currently running one of the best voice and data networks within the police service with considerable development possibilities available in the future to use the technology to improve our policing service.

The savings made by using Affiniti mean we can further invest to improve our service and we can also be confident that the partnership will ensure that our networks run smoothly across the Force, providing the performance for officers and staff to operate effectively."�

The first stage of the project involved novation of the existing BT circuits to Affiniti which has provided Thames Valley Police with immediate rental savings, whilst giving Affiniti the visibility and control to provide monitoring, fault fix and change capabilities for both the circuits and the equipment in the network.

In the second stage Affiniti will manage the entire communications infrastructure for the contract term of 5 years. During this time Affiniti will work in partnership with Thames Valley Police to evolve and develop their communications infrastructure and the managed service so that they continue to meet the demands of modern policing for voice, data and video communications. As part of this, Affiniti will look to increase the efficiency and reduce costs of the voice network through its life cycle management services.

Affiniti will provide TVP with a 1-hour response Service Level Agreement (SLA) to the Force's 14 core sites. In order to facilitate the smooth running of such an operation, Affiniti will use a combination of onsite and offsite engineers to provide 24-hour support to assist in the utility of the processes as they are in place.

Gary Young, Managing Director of Affiniti commented: "This contract further confirms Affiniti's success within the emergency services sector with nearly 40 per cent of the UK's police forces now relying on us to supply and manage their communications infrastructure.  Our breadth of experience and understanding of the business challenges they face will now help Thames Valley Police, as one of the largest non-metropolitan police forces in the country."�

Affiniti, the communications integrator, specialises in designing, implementing and managing intelligent communications solutions for private and public sector organisations.

Some of its customers include: Experian, Carphone Warehouse, British Airways, Ford, Admiral Insurance, Edinburgh Telford College , Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen Hospital , Cheshire Police, Citigroup, Lloyds TSB.

Affiniti is part of the KCOM Group.

KCOM Group PLC provides a range of integrated IT and communications services to businesses, and internet and telecommunications services to selected consumer markets, within the UK .

The Group's portfolio of businesses works with both leading private enterprise customers and public sector organisations. Through its Affiniti, Smart421 and JAM IP brands, the Group delivers solutions covering unified communications, contact centre solutions, data management, applications integration and managed services.

The KCOM Group also includes a regionally-focused business, Kingston Communications, which supports small to medium-sized businesses. Through its KC and Eclipse brands, the business offers a wide range of internet-based and telecommunications services. The regional business also provides telephony and internet services to targeted consumers through its KC, Eclipse and Karoo brands.

The Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and employs over 2,700 people across the UK .

Sally Robards or Kate Mills
Kaizo
020 7580 8852
E: firstname.lastname@kaizo.net

Dianne White
Affiniti
01442 883370
E: dianne.white@affiniti.com