East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service signs £11 million technology partnership with Telent
Iain Hoey
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Telent agreement with ESFRS
East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service (ESFRS) has agreed a five-year, £11 million partnership with Telent to support the next phase of its digital transformation programme.
The partnership will cover technology supporting operational response and emergency communications, alongside IT services including critical networks, line of business applications and user devices.
Under the agreement, Telent will act as principal partner as ESFRS moves from a co-located data centre to a cloud-first environment within Microsoft Azure and application vendor provided cloud services.
Kev Pilkington, Head of IT Managed Services at Telent, said: “This contract award demonstrates that long-term transformation is possible when technology partners truly understand their customers’ mission and work collaboratively to achieve it.
“By keeping vital IT systems running 24/7, we help ensure that East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service can focus entirely on what matters most that is protecting lives, property and the communities they serve.”
Cloud-first scope and service resilience
The programme is intended to make critical systems faster, more reliable and more connected, with a focus on maintaining consistent emergency response.
Justine Cadogan, Assistant Director Digital, Technology & Change at ESFRS, said: “Our technology systems are central to how we serve and protect our communities.
“Continuing our partnership with Telent gives us the confidence that our digital infrastructure will remain secure, reliable and fit for the future, supporting our firefighters and staff in delivering the best possible service for the communities of East Sussex.”
The statement said the enhanced infrastructure will strengthen cybersecurity, improve performance and data access and streamline information-sharing across teams.
The agreement also includes co-developing ESFRS’s future IT strategy, with work to consider opportunities in automation and predictive analytics to support planning, coordination and resource management across the Service.
Work delivered since 2016
The award follows a public procurement process and builds on a nine-year partnership between the organisations, dating back to 2016.
The statement said Telent has modernised ESFRS’s IT infrastructure, migrated legacy systems and provided round-the-clock managed services across more than 75 IT service categories.
These categories include station end mobilisation, wired and Wi-Fi network management and end-user support for stations and front-line crews.
It also includes digitising previously manual and paper-based processes for fire safety visits, including a tablet-based application for Site Specific Risk Information visits.
Barry Zielinski, Strategy & Development Director for Network Services at Telent, said: “From an operational perspective, this award ensures our teams can continue providing the dependable, secure infrastructure that the Service’s front-line staff rely on every day.
“Whether it’s maintaining seamless communication between control rooms and crews or ensuring systems are always online, our focus is on enabling ESFRS to continue to deliver a fast, coordinated response across every incident as well as supporting the essential prevention work reducing the need for operational response.”