Social Security communication infrastructure: FOI release

Information requested

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?

9. Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?

10. When was the installation date of your contact centre infrastructure?

11. When is your contract renewal date?

12. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?

13. Please confirm value of the initial project?

14. Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?

15. Overall annual spend for the contact centre?

16. How many contact centre agents do you have?

17. Do agents work from home?

18. Or just your offices?

19. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre?

20. What platform is used?

21. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform?

22. What platform is used?

23. Who provides your WAN and internet connectivity?

24. The annual spend on each?

25. Have you, or do you plan to deploy SD Wan services?

26. Have you got SIP trunks, if so who from?

27. Confirm annual spend?

28. Please confirm who provides your LAN, WIFI and Security infrastructure?

29. Please confirm your annual spend on each?

30. Please confirm your data centre switching and security infrastructure and have you deployed cloud based security and threat management?

31. How many employees do you have overall within your organisation?

32. Can you provide contact details for your procurement lead / category manager for these services?

33. Can you provide names and contact details for the following people within your organisation? CIO / IT Director, Head of IT, Head of Digital Transformation, Head of Customer services

Response

Below is most of the information requested. However, some of the information we cannot provide.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information requested because exemptions under section 38(1)(b), personal information and section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested

However, the Social Security Programme Business Case, published in February 2020, describes implementation costs of £651 million, to 2025-26. The information technology costs are included in the overall Chief Digital Office line on page 73, table 5.6.

Please find a list of the other information requested.

Telephony and UC/Collaboration

1. Vodafone Storm

2. Storm is a cloud based Software as a Service platform. There is no installation date, however, live service commenced on 29 March 2021.

3. 31 May 2023.

4. Vodafone.

5. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

6. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

7. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

8. Microsoft Teams

Contact Centre

9. Vodafone Storm.

10. Storm is a cloud based Software as a Service platform. There is no installation date however Service commenced on 30 March 2021 following contact award on 1 June 2020.

11. 31 May 2023.

12. Vodafone.

13. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

14. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

15. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

16. 560.

17. Yes.

18. Not applicable.

19. No.

20. Not applicable.

21. Yes.

22. Invotra.

Connectivity and Network Services

23. Capita SWAN.

24. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

25. No plans.

26. Not Applicable. Storm is a cloud based SaaS platform.

27. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

28. Scottish Government.

29. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that Social Security Scotland does not have the financial information on information technology in the format you have requested.

30. As a completely cloud based organisation there is no datacentre infrastructure. Security and threat management defences are utilised.

Organisation

31.  Social Security Scotland routinely publish Official Statistics on workforce numbers, including permanent staff, as part of the quarterly release ‘Social Security Scotland Workforce Information’.

Information on workforce numbers was last published on the 25 March 2021 and covered workforce numbers as at the 31 December 2020. This information is available from: Social Security Scotland - Social Security Scotland Workforce Information December 2020.

The quarterly period of reporting and the publication dates of Social Security Scotland’s Official Statistics on workforce are aligned with the both the Scottish Government’s ‘Workforce Information’ and the Office for National Statistics’ ‘Public Sector Employment’ statistics releases.

These Official Statistics are produced and released in line with the professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

32. Most of the contact details we hold constitute personal information and as a result an exemption at 38(1)(b) (personal data) of FOISA applies to this information.

33. The contact details you have requested constitute personal information and as a result an exemption at 38(1)(b) (personal data) of FOISA applies to this information.

You can find details of our Executive Team here: Social Security Scotland - Executive Team

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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.