Gamma has strengthened its offer for public sector organisations such as hospitals, schools and central and local government, as well as for certain private sector suppliers who sell into those markets.
The move comes with Gamma’s accreditation to the Health and Social Care network (HSCN), the Government’s new top tier ‘network of networks’ for organisations providing health and care services. It allows such organisations to better communicate, exchange data and access NHS core applications.
Viewed as a key enabler for tighter collaboration to take place in an efficient and secure way, HSCN is a key stepping stone in the evolution of the patient experience through digital transformation.
Replacing the previous NHS National Network (N3), regarded by many as too expensive and well past its sell-by date, HSCN breaks the mould by engaging multiple suppliers and tightening up the already-tough accreditation criteria. Gamma is one of a number of suppliers on the framework, making for a more open, competitive and dynamic market place and ensuring best value for user organisations.
“Already thousands of NHS and private sector bodies have migrated away from the costly N3 network and come over to HSCN,” says Gamma’s head of public sector Sam Winterbottom. “It’s a chance to upgrade capacity, speed and bandwidth while paying less than before, and benefitting from meaningful service-level agreements and effective reporting.”
In addition to HSCN, Gamma has also won accreditation for the new Network Services 2 Framework Agreement (RM3808) run by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), being placed for the following services: Data Access, Local Connectivity, Traditional Telephony, Inbound Telephony, Mobile Voice and Data, Video Conferencing and Audio Conferencing. CCS expects to award three further lots in due course.
Fully supporting the HMG’s ‘cloud first’ initiative, RM3808 replaces the now retired RM1045 as the approved route for the public sector to buy into telecoms and network services in the cloud. It is aimed at providing a solid foundation for future digital transformation programmes across Government.
Gamma has also recently been approved as a supplier under the new GCloud11 framework for cloud computing services covering hosting, software and cloud support on a commodity based, pay-as-you go service.
Already thousands of NHS and private sector bodies have migrated away from the N3 network and come over to HSCN.
The new accreditations have helped bring further public sector customers to Gamma. Among them are:
HM Land Registry
Which entrusted Gamma to migrate some 13,000 telephone numbers onto its Inbound call control platform, saving money and adding more control, flexibility and functionality to the business of call handling.
University Clearing
Gamma is also a major supplier of telephony systems to Universities involved in clearing. This year a record 65,810 students were found university places through the clearing process, the vast majority of those universities relying on Gamma to deliver the very high volumes of calls that come in over just a few days.
University of Essex
The University of Essex, with 15,000 students and 2,100 staff has replaced its legacy ISDN phone system with Gamma SIP trunks and Gamma’s Inbound Service.
The solution has cut costs, improved reliability and enables call capacity to be cost-effectively and temporarily flexed upwards during high pressure times such as the annual UK universities clearing round.
