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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 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%