NI Water selects Magdalene and eircom NI for communications services contract.

NI Water has chosen Magdalene and eircom Northern Ireland to provide and maintain its essential internal telecommunications network in a 3 year contract worth over £2million.

Magdalene and eircom, chosen following a competitive tender, will upgrade and maintain NI Water's telecommunications infrastructure and position the government-owned company to rollout efficiency-enhancing initiatives.

The flexible agreement will allow NI Water to access a range of services as its requirements evolve, with the business assurance of guaranteed pricing for all future in-scope technologies.

Magdalene is the prime contractor will assume full management of the end to end service including the management of NI Water's extensive Microwave Radio Network which provides connectivity between all Northern Ireland Water facilities in the province. eircom will provide support and professional services to develop and maintain the internal voice and data communications network including Cisco Routers, LAN Switches, Security Solutions and a Nortel Telephony Solution across some 30 NI Water Offices.

"We're delighted to have the opportunity to work closely with NI Water, to support the delivery of its vital services to businesses and residential customers all across Northern Ireland," said Colin Hamill, Business Development Manager for eircom Northern Ireland. "The agreement gives NI Water the benefit of on-demand access to our skilled base of Cisco qualified, security accredited engineers, so its internal team is free to focus on its core business. NI Water's choice of eircom Northern Ireland is a strong testament to eircoms capability and the the skills of our team here."

Tony Irwin, General Manager of Magdalene, noted that partnerships such as these between government-owned companies and ICT specialists like Magdalene and eircom Northern Ireland also allow more comprehensive quality management. "The service-level agreements we deliver offer consistent, reliable, high quality across an organisation's communication services. Our close working relationship with eircom Northern Ireland will deliver quality assurance that is essential in helping NI Water achieve its strategic objectives."