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GSi Contract Extension Not Granted

By OGCbuying.solutions

As many of you are aware, we have spent much of the last year negotiating a 2-year extension to the GSi Framework Agreement with Cable&Wireless. This would have seen the GSi extended to August 2011 and synchronised with its sister service, MTS.

This proposal was put to the Managed Telecoms Executive (MTE) at their meeting on Wednesday 25th April 2007. The MTE decided not to grant the extension. Instead, the GSi has been directed to align with the emerging pan-government network strategy which is being developed by the Public Sector Infrastructure Board (one of the groups supporting CIO and CTO Council(s).)

Although any outcomes of this strategy are a little way off, one immediate impact is the decision that the GSi contract will not be extended. Instead, a successor service will be identified.

If that is the case, the GSi Framework Agreement will expire in August 2009. There is scope in the contract to allow Service Contracts to expire up to 6 months after this date, making the hard stop for GSi products and services as February 2010.

As many of you will remember, it took 18 months to migrate from GSi1 to GSi2. We therefore expect the migration to any successor service to be in the region of 2 years this time, due to the increased customer base and the bespoke products and services currently offered under GSi2. This means that these activities will need to begin in about 12 months time.

To support this migration, the GSi Framework Agreement allows for the development of a Service Transfer Plan with Cable and Wireless.

To allow us to develop an effective Service Transfer Plan, we intend to dedicate the next GSi Customer Forum to understanding your requirements of this plan.

We have invited Peter Court (GSi SRO and Chair of the MTE) to the forum to present to you his view on the future of GSi and its successor. We will also hold two mini workshops, provisionally entitled:

  1. What will be the requirements of the GSi successor service?
  2. What will your requirements be of the Service Transfer Plan?

We hope that you'll be able to attend the forum and add to these workshops. Details of the GSi Customer Forums can be found later in this eZine.

In the meantime, if you require any further information, please don't hesitate to contact us.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next customer forum.

Dates of the next GSi Customer Forum announced

Read more about the GSi Customer Forum

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© OGCbuying.solutions 2007

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