Chris Leggett, Service Birmingham, on Accredit UK

Service Birmingham is the joint venture between Birmingham City Council and Capita. This strategic partnership forms part of the Council's objective to find better and more innovative ways of delivering services for the benefit of employees and citizens.  The principle of this joint venture focuses on the provision of cost effective, sector leading, ICT services and in supporting the Council in achieving its Business Transformation objectives.

Corporate Development Director, Chris Leggett, presented Service Birmingham’s successful implementation of IT services at the recent Accredit UK Conference. He also highlighted, to over 100 attendees, the importance of developing a standard which identifies technology companies that meet stringent criteria and demonstrate best practice in service and skills.

While Service Birmingham already works with a number of larger suppliers, it is looking to grow its partner pool and is particularly interested in regional companies, especially SMEs that complement the skills of the Service Birmingham team.   

Service Birmingham is currently in talks with Accredit UK to discover how the new standards organisation can help to facilitate supplier selection.

By working with companies which have already achieved the Accredit UK standard, organisations such as Service Birmingham can speed up supplier short listing. Certified companies holding the Accredit UK standard are assessed independently and demonstrate that they have the right people, processes and track record to deliver quality IT services and products.

Chris Leggett said of the Accredit UK standard: “This standard is truly reflective of our needs. We have just gained ISO 20000 which requires that our processes are performed in a certain way. By working with Accredit UK, the task of working within the ISO 20000 framework will become easier as we will have access to a growing pool of pre-screened companies.

In addition, with backing from the National Computing Centre and Advantage West Midlands ICT Cluster the standard is supported both nationally and regionally and will benefit suppliers as well as purchasers. He added:

"SMEs holding the certification will gain competitive advantage as more purchasers recognise the value of the Accredit UK standard."

Chris Leggett, Corporate Development Director, Service Birmingham is responsible for relationships with partners and key relationships with Birmingham Council. He heads up a team of 30 people.