EOLP BENEFITS PROFILE 2017/18 Overview

EOLP Structure

Essex Online Partnership (EOLP) formed in 2002 and currently has a membership of 16 public authorities. Essex Chief Executives EOLP is a strong partnership, which strives to share knowledge, resource and Association (ECEA) services to provide technology solutions that support the business needs to each The ECEA sponsor and support the EOLP, influencing partner organisation and reduce the cost of their technology. the strategic direction of the partnership. Since its inception, the partnership has developed significantly to support key aims of delivering cost effective ICT solutions where partnership working is appropriate. EOLP Support • Basildon Borough Council • Braintree District Council • Brentwood Borough Council • Castle Point Borough Council • Chelmsford City Council • Colchester Borough Council Management Group • Essex County Council • Essex Fire & Rescue The group brings together leads in IT that provide a • Essex Police • Harlow District Council strategic approach and a • Maldon District Council • Rochford District Council board for decision making. • Southend Borough Council • Tendring District Council • Thurrock Council • Uttlesford District Council

Sponsored by the Essex Chief Executives Association (ECEA), the partnership also currently support the Essex Customer Services Group.

Essex Customer Opportunities GI Group Web Group Through Services Group A group of experts in their A group of experts in their Technology Group field, focussing on sharing field, focusing on sharing A group that shares A group of technical leads and delivering Geographical and delivering Web-related knowledge and services across the partners, Intelligence. services. to reduce cost and deliver influencing collaboration, in line with customer and best practice and sharing service needs. knowledge.

EOLP support this group, which is not formally part of EOLP. Executive Summary Key Benefits

Essex Online Partnership (EOLP) continues to provide value to the 16 partners Whilst there are a considerable number of benefits associated to this successful through collaborative opportunities, sharing talent and working with other partner partnership, it is not possible to list them all. This report highlights those that have organisations. provided financial benefits and those that provide value that is easily recognised.

The Sharing Talent across Essex initiative and Cyber Security projects have progressed well for the partnership and will continue to do so. Collaborative Sharing Talent across Essex Frameworks are available to partners, which add value in saving time and money. Networking through the EOLP Groups continues to prove a popular advantage to The Sharing Talent across Essex project has seen the partnership develop an Essex being part of this partnership. wide initiative to share resource with the aim of building a skilled, more flexible pipeline of talent to help resource upcoming roles and projects.

The partnership has created a model for sharing talent partners to use a simplifying process with commonly agreed financial arrangements.

There have been some excellent examples of where partners have taken advantage of the Sharing Talent initiative. Case studies have been produced that provide the Over £50k savings made so far detail around how the process has come into play and how it has benefitted those for those taking advantage of this initiative partners involved. These can be accessed through the EOLP Website. Networking and skills exchange have been highly acclaimed by all involved Sharing Talent In addition to the financial savings that have been recognised by partners there has across Essex also been income generated. Partners that have provided skills from their technical resources have received income using the cost models detailed in the Sharing Over £85k Talent How to Share guide. saved on Hardware in 2017/18 The Framework continues to have excellent uptake by partners Shared training across the partnership has also provided savings. Mostly led by Hardware Essex County Council this has mainly focused on training being delivered at site, Framework such as ITIL Foundation. £25k saved by Thurrock Council Shared Knowledge Requests Through uptake of 2-Factor Authentication solution The partnership provides excellent opportunities for partners to share knowledge Freja 2FA with each other. This process is referred to as Shared Knowledge Requests (SKR) Exceptional Value and has an excellent take up by partners and the EOLP groups to gather information of networking, exchange of skills, best centrally from partners. practice and support A Shared Knowledge Request is administered and managed by the EOLP Support Team Working who deals with the request centrally, acting as a single point of contact from start to groups finish. In the last year there have been 33 SKRs successfully generated. It is difficult to put a financial cost saving to the service provided but it is widely acknowledged that having access to this knowledge pipeline saves money, time and resource. The sharing of knowledge and experience across the groups allows them to work Cyber Security together on the demands of implementing new technology, such as Microsoft Office 365 and Windows 10. Small Working Groups have worked well for the partnership Having good user awareness around cybercrime has been identified as one of the over the last year, enabling better engagement with the ability to feed back into the key elements and this has been top of the agenda for the new EOLP Cyber Security groups to share with everyone. Working Group. A major risk for organisations is a technique called Phishing, which is a method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive e-mails and websites. Through negotiation, the EOLP Support team successfully procured a Freja 2FA (Verisec) collaborative contract for partners with a company that provides tools to carry out mock phishing campaigns to build user awareness. Partners have been carrying The partnership purchased the Freja 2FA solution from Verisec in 2015 on a 3 year out random phishing exercises within their organisations over the past year. contract for all partners.

The Working Group are also looking at sharing effective E Learning modules and Freja provides secure remote access for all employees who are working away from are extremely fortunate to have access to a Cyber Security expert from Essex & Kent their main offices and locations, it can easily set up a secure connection between Police who will be offering free Roadshow/event style presentations to all partners. an employee’s home computer and their network, e-mail or other internal resources that they need to access. Strong membership and links into national advice is essential so the partnership has invested in its own WARP (Warning, Advice and Reporting Point) group. There will be 5 partners continuing with this solution for a further year. This allows direct links to the latest national information around security, keeping partners up to date with best practice for preventing cyber attacks. Collaborative Procurement Frameworks Partners are also signed up to the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre). The NCSC was set up to help protect critical services from cyber attacks, manage Hardware Framework major incidents, and improve the underlying security of the UK Internet through technological improvement and advice to citizens and organisations. Their vision is The Hardware Framework went under review with partners and it was decided to re- to help make the UK the safest place to live and do business online. procure after looking at other options. The Framework provides competitive costing and easy access with good delivery turn arounds, and includes suppliers such as Bechtle, Dell and XMA. EOLP Website In the last year we saw the majority of partners take advantage of the Framework In 2016 EOLP launched its new website. The site is hosted by Brentwood Borough and make good savings. Council through their Microsoft Azure platform. Partners have secure access to a member’s only area where they can find valuable information such as the partnership’s Frameworks and items on cyber security and sharing talent opportunities. Multi-Functional Device Framework A Framework for Multi-functional Devices (MFD) and Services, Managed Print EOLP Groups Services and Print Audit Services was created in 2015 and 3 of the partners took advantage. All 3 partners have made financial savings over the past 3 years. The The partnership provides technical networking groups in addition to the Framework ends in August 2019 and will be reviewed then. Management Group as detailed in the Structure diagram shown in this document.

• Opportunities Through Technology Other Frameworks • Geographical Intelligence • Web The partnership currently has access to the following Frameworks, with others on the horizon. This only further endorses the reputation of the partnership and how it These groups meet on a regular basis giving each partner the opportunity to send is being actively sought to participate in Frameworks developed by others. representation. IS Software and Hosting Services Framework However, Basildon as part of its ICT Transformation procurement tested the market for a new WAN and SIP provider. A number of suppliers were asked for alternative The Framework offers: quotes with the lowest quoted being three times the cost of the DUCL proposal. This for Basildon demonstrates value for money from the DUCL contract that would • Source and manage Microsoft Enterprise Agreement licenses; probably be replicated across the county. • Source and manage Software licenses, including support and maintenance;

• Source and manage hosting facilities, including support and maintenance; Essex Extranet • Audit and asset management of services procured through the Agreement; The Essex Extranet WAN is a private wide area network connecting interested • Market analysis – pre market engagement and market intelligence; government and public sector authorities in Essex, as part of the Essex Online • Implementation – support during and post implementation; Partnership. It provides a strategic communication platform for exchange of • Benchmarking – ensuring continuous improvement and value; information and for common applications which provide mutual benefit among the parties involved. The network is an IP-only network, capable of any-to-any • Contract Management support – contract and supplier management of communication. third party suppliers The network is private - it is securely segregated from public networks, and is an (unencrypted) virtual private network. In place since 2003 it is currently under review to assess its current day use to ensure that it still adds value. Information Systems – ICT Peripherals & Associated Services Framework

The scope of the Framework allows members to purchase from an End User List of products. The Framework also allows the provision of the following associated External Links services: The partnership boasts good relationships with external partner organisations, • A specific end users list for the partner if the one listed is not appropriate. which adds value to all partners. Knowledge and awareness of the partnership has significantly grown over the last year. • The Supplier provides access to their complete supplies catalogue. The catalogue will be a method for IT selected staff to order non-standard These are a few of those that EOLP engage with. items i.e. not on the agreed end user list, but part of the Suppliers’ catalogue, WEISF (Whole Essex Information Sharing Framework) is one of the external partners. to meet non- standard requirements. In the last year they have worked together to support the Pan Essex Fraud Data • Reporting on spend. To allow partners to identify what they are buying. Matching project led by Chelmsford City Council. A sharing protocol was developed and published to support data sharing by partners through this project.

The Government Digital Office has worked with the partnership to help partners Secure Networks successfully move forward after the changes in the GCSX Vodafone Contract. Representatives have attended group meetings to advise and support through what NGN has been a confusing and difficult time. It has endorsed the importance of partners working together and sharing. Partners were invited to be part of ECC’s Next Generation Network (NGN) contract back in 2012 with DUCL. This enabled Partners to connect to the NGN and Public To further enhance and grow the knowledge for partners around cyber security Sector Network (PSN), securely accessing information from each other and from the technical group have engaged with a representative from the National Cyber government departments. Security Centre (NCSC). This has provided a better understanding around what NCSC can offer and the important links available to partners. Partners have had access to additional services from DUCL, which some have procured, such as Internet, Telephony and SIP Trunking. The partners recognise that there are significant savings from being part of this contract but it has not been possible to benchmark all the services. Going forward Financial Statement

Subscriptions - The partners agreed to keep the annual subscriptions the same for 2018/19, which effectively means that there has not been an increase for the last 5 SERVICE years. At the end of this coming financial year there will be a significant drop in the Budget Reserve, and partners are aware that there will be a need for an increase or Hardware MFD Sharing Sharing Shared Freja 2FA Cyber Cyber Partner Framework Framework Talent Talent Training Security Security Benefits different approach to maintain services. Savings Income Metaphish WARP Contract Membership A Development Day took place in January 2018 to review the partnership and agree the way forward. New objectives have been drawn up and a refreshed approach to Basildon £2,133 £15,000 £1,500 £4,995 £500 £24,128 the Work Programme and the structure of meetings. The partnership continues to Braintree £3,321 £2,500 £25,000 £21,000 £2,000 £1,995 £500 £56,316 look at new ways of working and how to achieve benefits for all involved. Brentwood £1,995 £500 £2,495

Castle Point £281 £1,995 £500 £2,776

Partner Subscription Chelmsford £5,000 £500 £5,500 Colchester £7,542 £9,000 £1,000 £4,995 £500 £23,037 Basildon Borough Council £4,954 Essex County £69,488 £500 £69,988 Braintree District Council £4,954 Council Essex Fire £333 £1,000 £4,995 £500 £6,828 Brentwood Borough Council £2,102 & Rescue Essex Police £610 £4,995 £500 £6,105 Castle Point Borough Council £2,102 Harlow £1,995 £500 £2,495 Chelmsford City Council £4,954 Maldon £1,996 £6,000 £1,995 £500 £10,491 Colchester Borough Council £4,954 Rochford £6 £6,000, £1,995 £500 £8,495 Essex County Council £41,553 Southend £1,785 £4,995 £500 £7,280 Essex Fire & Rescue £2,102 Tendring £1,019 £1,000 £4,995 £500 £7,541 Essex Police £4,003 Thurrock £38,000 £25,290 £4,995 £500 £68,785 Harlow District Council £4,954 Uttlesford £602 £1,995 £500 £16,097 Maldon District Council £2,102 Total Savings £89,109 £17,500 £53,000 £10,000 £32,790 £48,930 £8,000 £259,329 Rochford District Council £2,102 Total Income £59,00 £59,000 Southend Borough Council £4,954

Tendring District Council £2,102

Thurrock Council £4,954

Uttlesford District Council £2,102

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