Thorn EMI Plc’s Datasolve Ltd unit is to manage Cambridgeshire County Council’s IBM data centre in a deal worth UKP7.5m. A dozen organisations originally requested the tender document, and that was narrowed down to a shortlist which included the Sema Group’s Data Networks, Telecom Capita, and the Cambridgeshire-based company, Perthcrest Ltd. The Council currently employs 40 staff, and under the terms of the contract, they become Datasolve employ-ees. The contract also states that both Datasolve and the County Council will discuss upgrades and improvements to the data centre, but Datasolve say that the IBM 3090-200E machine is not fully loaded, so an upgrade won’t be necessary for some time. This is Datasolve’s first facilities management contract to be managed remotely, although the company has other clients in the UK public sector.
