The Scottish Government

MOBILE TELEPHONY AND DATA

The current plan, endorsed by the NCF, is to take part in the new Buying Solutions (formally Office of Government Commerce Buying Solutions (OGCBS) mobile telephony framework on a national collaborative basis. This framework commenced on 1 January 2009.

More information on the mobile solutions framework can be found here: http://online.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk/services/Communications/Mobile/

Current status (March 2009)

• The potential for further savings through a national collaborative further competition is currently being assessed.
  

Next steps

• A decision will be made in consultation with the National Category Forum (NCF) and sectoral Centres of Expertise (CoEs) on whether to pursue a collaborative further competition.

Achievements to date

• Procurement Scotland worked closely with Buying Soultions on the new mobile solutions framework to ensure that Scotland's needs were addressed, in co-operation with centres of expertise to reflect sector requirements.
• Blackberry Cost Reduction - Procurement Scotland negotiated a £0.50/line/month reduction in line rental for Blackberry users with more than 1500 units on the Vodafone catalist contract. This reduction commenced in July 2008, and will result in an annualised cost reduction of around £50-75 thousand among public sector bodies across the UK.