Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) telephony and data storage: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for information about telephony and UC/Collaboration.

1. Telephony and UC/ Collaboration
a. Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are currently in place.
b. When is your contract renewal date?
c. Who maintains your telephony system(s)?
d. Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools , if so which ones?

2. Microsoft
a) What Microsoft 365 licence do you have across the business e.g. E3, E5?
b) Which partner looks after your Microsoft tenant?
c) Where do you host your applications?

3. Storage
a. Does your organisation use on-premise or cloud storage or both?
b. Please confirm the on-premise hardware manufacturer.
c. Please confirm your cloud storage provider.
d. What is your annual spend on cloud storage?
e. How do you back up your data and with who e.g. Backup as a Service?

Response

The answers to your questions are below.

1. Telephony and UC/ Collaboration
a. Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are currently in place.
SPPA no longer use physical handsets in our office. All staff taking customer calls do so using a digital solution. Some senior staff use Government issued mobiles. We have a private third party contract providing our current call and email handling software. This is currently Netcall. Telephony infrastructure (SIPs, Channels etc.) is provided by Scottish Government.
b. When is your contract renewal date?
01/04/2023 for Netcall.
c. Who maintains your telephony system(s)?
Collaboration between SPPA IT Team, the software provider (Netcall) and Central Government Communications team.
d. Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools , if so which ones?
We use the Call and email Handling platform provided by Netcall: Converse. We also use MS Teams as we’re part of the Scottish Government and this is their current default internal communications tool. We do not manage this platform locally. Outlook exchange is used for emails, again managed by Central Government and not SPPA.

2. Microsoft
a) What Microsoft 365 licence do you have across the business e.g. E3, E5?
b) Which partner looks after your Microsoft tenant?
c) Where do you host your applications?
The SPPA does not have the information you have asked for because these licences are not managed by the SPPA. They are managed by Scottish Government centrally. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the SPPA does not have the information you have requested. However, you may wish to contact the Scottish Government to request this information. Details on how to request information can be found here: Request information - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

3. Storage
a. Does your organisation use on-premise or cloud storage or both?
Both.
b. Please confirm the on-premise hardware manufacturer.
Dell.
c. Please confirm your cloud storage provider.
Oracle.
d. What is your annual spend on cloud storage?
Unknown, as we are in our first year paying, but projected around £12,000.
e. How do you back up your data and with who e.g. Backup as a Service?
In house using Arcserve Appliances. Cloud sits with Oracle.

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.