Purpose

The decision to extend the existing Managed Cybersecurity Service Contract with Intergence Systems Limited for a for a further year by executing the first +1 year as per the contractual terms of the contract length (3 +1 + 1)
Tendring District Council has been working with Cambridgeshire-based Intergence Systems Limited for the past three years. They have repeatedly demonstrated their knowledge and expertise supporting the council’s complex blend of critical systems and supporting infrastructure, in turn providing the high levels of business continuity and resilience that the council relies upon to deliver services to residents.
Intergence hold government level Security Clearance (SC) at Project, Design and Support Levels (Security Clearance conforms to BS7858). The company also has the following Security Governance and Risk Certifications: ISO:27001, ISO:9001, Cyber Essentials.
The Council has had a Managed Cybersecurity Service contract with Intergence Services Limited for the past 3 years, during which time, additional services have been added, including:
•Expansion of Managed SIEM (Security Information Event Management)
•Improved SOC (Security Operations Centre)
•Increase of protective devices, both physical and virtual
•Security Dashboards
The continuation of the Managed Cybersecurity Service contract will offer many benefits, including:
1.Cyber Protection and Support – extending the contract with Intergence will enable us to both continue and enhance the Security controls and processes we have in place. Moving to a new supplier will be a prolonged process and may risk a period of unsupported systems or exposure to poor technical support knowledge/ capabilities and increase our exposure to cyber threats.
2.Value for Money and Business Continuity – continuation of the managed security service ensures all the extra services and monitoring is kept with one supplier thus ensuring value for money, continuity of service plus a range of ‘value-add’ free services.
3.Resilience enhancements – The services and the knowledge and expertise provided by Intergence ensure the Council has a highly resilient, modern and enabling infrastructure.
4.Minimal service disruption and business risk – As part of and as an extension to the managed cybersecurity service contract, Intergence network management and support. Alongside the council’s IT and cyber team, Intergence provide resources, processes and technology to continuously monitor/ improve our network and response to service affecting incidents.
5.Single Point of Support – The managed service contract covers a complex mix of technologies and systems all supported by one provider. These include Wide Area Network (WAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Wi-Fi. Therefore, no diffusion of responsibility can occur.
6.Proven Knowledge and Expertise – working with the said company for a number of years and on a number of high-level projects (as previously outlined) has proven Intergence knowledge and expertise in the field.
7.Security, Governance and Risk – Intergence have Government level Security clearance (SC) staff at Project, Design and Support Levels (Security Clearance conforms to BS7858). The company also has the following Security Governance and Risk Certifications: ISO:27001, ISO:9001, Cyber Essentials.
The extension of the contract will be paid for from within existing IT and Resilience Team Service budgets.
The contract renewal costs are £58,644 per annum for the length of the agreement. These aggregated contract cost include licensing costs for a range of third party security solutions/services including addition cyber security tools.

Decision

The decision to extend the existing Managed Cybersecurity Service Contract with Intergence Systems Limited for a for a further year by executing the first +1 year as per the contractual terms of the contract length (3 +1 + 1).

Alternative options considered

Option 1 -Doing nothing is not an option.
Option 2 Without the extension of the contract, the council will create a huge weakness in its Cyber Security threshold and thus open itself to unnecessary threats.