Transport Scotland network breakdown: FOI release
- Published
- 18 May 2021
- Topic
- Money and tax, Public sector, Transport
- FOI reference
- FOI/202100183505
- Date received
- 23 March 2021
- Date responded
- 20 April 2021
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
Information on telephony and U/C collaboration, Contact Centre provision, and Connectivity and Network Services provision.
Telephony and UC/ Collaboration
1. Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are currently in place.
2. When was the installation date of your telephony equipment?
3. When is your contract renewal date?
4. Who maintains your telephony system(s)?
5. Please confirm the value of the initial project
6. Please confirm the total ongoing annual spend on telephony
7. Please confirm the annual support cost for your telephony system
8. Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools , if so which ones?
Contact Centre
1. Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?
2. When was the installation date of your contact centre infrastructure? When is your contract renewal date?
3. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?
4. Please confirm value of the initial project?
5. Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?
6. And overall annual spend for the contact centre
7. How many contact centre agents do you have?
8. Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?
9. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre? What platform is used?
10. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What platform is used?
Connectivity and Network Services
1. Who provides your WAN and internet connectivity and the annual spend on each
2. Have you , or do you plan to deploy SD Wan services
3. Have you got SIP trunks, if so who from and confirm annual spend
4. Please confirm who provides your LAN, WIFI and Security infrastructure
5. Please confirm your annual spend on each
6. Please confirm your data centre switching and security infrastructure and have you deployed cloud based security and threat management
Organisation
1. How many employees do you have overall within your organisation?
2. Can you provide contact details for your procurement lead / category manager for these services?
3. Can you provide names and contact details for the following people within your organisation?
Response
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.
Telephony and UC/ Collaboration
1a. Mitel
b. Cisco
2a. Mitel: August 2017
b. Cisco: 2013
3a. Mitel: Telephony services are provided to us by the Scottish Government in perpetuity
b. Cisco: There is no contract for this service, it is owned by Transport Scotland’s Traffic Scotland service.
4a. Mitel: Scottish Government
b. Cisco: The system is maintained under the Traffic Scotland Systems Contract
5a. Mitel: £83,000
b. Cisco: Unknown, it was part of a wider relocation project in 2013 and included in those costs.
6a. Mitel: We do not hold this information. Telephony Services are provided to us by the Scottish Government as part of a wider provision of technology services for which we pay an overall cost by way of internal budget transfer. For the avoidance of doubt, Transport Scotland is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government
b. Cisco: Costs are not split out for these in regard to running costs. Circuit costs are detailed below.
7a. Mitel: We do not hold this information. Telephony Services are provided to us by the Scottish Government as part of a wider provision of technology services for which we pay an overall cost by way of internal budget transfer.
b. Cisco: It is included in the annual fixed costs to support the Traffic Scotland service under the Traffic Scotland Systems Contract.
8. MS Teams
Contact Centre
1. Not applicable
2. Not applicable
3. Not applicable
4. Not applicable
5. Not applicable
6. Not applicable
7. Not applicable
8. Not applicable
9. Not applicable
10. We have no such systems
Connectivity and Network Services
1a. Scottish Government as part of a wider provision of technology services for which we pay an overall cost by way of internal budget transfer.
b. WAN services are also an internal part of the Traffic Scotland IT estate and supported as part of the Traffic Scotland Contracts under the fixed charges. Internet connectivity is provided by Vodafone. Monthly rough costs are: £2000 (this covers the service and support of the CPE equipment etc).
2. No
3a.We utilise Scottish Government SIP trunks. See previous comments re costs.
b. Traffic Scotland: Vodafone, rough monthly costs are £3000 (this covers the service and support of the CPE equipment etc).
4a. Scottish Government
b. The Traffic Scotland LAN and security infrastructure is internal and part if the Traffic Scotland IT estate.
c. We also have a small local LAN (TRANSCOT), which we support mostly in house with infrastructure support available from ParkPlace Technologies and network / hypervisor support from Leidos.
5a. See previous comments re costs for Scottish Government services.
b. The Traffic Scotland LAN and security infrastructure is internal and part if the Traffic Scotland IT estate.
c. TRANSCOT: Parkplace Technologies charge £956 per annum, whilst Leidos provide their services on a time and materials basis call-off basis with no call-offs having been made in the current or last Financial Year.
6a. Data Centre infrastructure is provided by Scottish Government and we have no sight of the hardware or applications used
b. Traffic Scotland: While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies your request.
Disclosing this information would substantially prejudice our ability to protect government digital assets and digital information. Providing details about the nature of specific products we use puts information into the public domain which could subsequently be used by attackers or hackers to identify vulnerabilities, or to determine what our defences are. This could therefore enable them to target other types of attack or specific components of our defences and would constitute substantial prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs in terms of the exemption.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government. However, there is a greater public interest in protecting government information systems from attack or compromise and ensuring that Transport Scotland is able conduct its business effectively. There is also greater public interest in ensuring that ensuring that any identified vulnerabilities could not be used to attack Transport Scotland systems that hold information entrusted to us by the citizens for whom we provide online services, and for whom we also have responsibilities under the Data Protection Act to protect personal information. In this instance an exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) applies your request.
c. TRANSCOT: As per Traffic Scotland
Organisation
1. Circa 600
2. There is no such role in Transport Scotland
3 There is no such role in Transport Scotland
b. Head of IT - [redacted]@transport.gov.scot holds the title ICT Manager
c. Head of Digital Transformation - There is no such role in Transport Scotland
d. Head of Customer services - There is no such role in Transport Scotland
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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