Alan Hyslop suggests:

> Local organisations get together and describe their ENTIRE
> communications needs (phone, fax, email, file transer, fire alarms,
> telemedicine, web, lab results, referrals, IoS, video conferencing, etc,

and then get a single supplier.

I think that this is insane. The company that supplies the best phone
service is likely to be BT or Mercury in most places. In others -
perhaps in the same natural community - you will have service from a
cable company or Ionica or whatever.

However the company that supplies the best Internet and email service
is very likely to be somebody like demon or compuserve.

With burglar and fire alarms it gets even more complicated, as the
phone companies manipulate the tariffs they charge the alarm companies
in order to steer business into their own infrastructure. Sometimes
there are security tradeoffs here and tensions with insurers.

The demand for a single supplier for everything - phone, email, alarms
and the rest - probably forces you to use BT and prevents you using the
competitive suppliers of specialist services. So it has prejudged the
tendering process before you start. It may be convenient for the
bureaucrats, and it may even give people a sense of importance to be
involved in negotiating contracts with a nine figure price tage. It is
certainly convenient for the winners.

But is it any good for the users?

What more sensible organisations (such as, for example, Cambridge
University) do is mix and match. Have a professional telephone manager
to get the best deals going on voice, fax, tielines and the like. Don't
be afraid of digging up the streets and putting in your own network if
you get shafted on the cost of calls from one hospital to another. Get
data services from wherever it's cheapest, be it the local cable company
or even Nynex. Route phone calls to Paris via New York if it's cheaaper
(it often is). Install your own burglar and fire alarm system if it's
cheaper than paying BT's leased line charges. Resell call capacity from
your switchboard to your students (in-house calling cards that are
cheaper than phone boxes).

In short, the organisation that's in control should be your organisation
be it hospital trust, HA or whatever. It should not be a supplier!

Ross


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