Barclay Communications becomes the only Northern Ireland-headquartered provider appointed to the £300 million mobile solutions (lot 2) of the UK Government's £1.5 billion telecoms framework.
Belfast-headquartered Barclay Communications has become the first Northern Ireland-headquartered telecommunications company to secure a place on a major UK Government mobile framework, opening the door to contracts across thousands of public sector organisations and creating up to 15 new jobs.
The family-owned company has been appointed to Lot 2: Mobile Solutions of the Crown Commercial Service’s Mobile Voice and Data Services 2 framework, which has an estimated value of £300 million.
Barclay Communications is one of just seven suppliers appointed to Lot 2 and will sit alongside some of the biggest names in UK telecommunications, including BT/EE, Virgin Media O2, Vodafone and Gamma.
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The framework gives Barclay Communications the opportunity to compete for mobile contracts from public sector bodies throughout the UK, including central and local government, NHS organisations, emergency services, universities and councils.
Around 30,000 organisations are eligible to purchase services through the wider procurement network, while the total estimated value of the Mobile Voice and Data Services 2 framework is £1.5 billion.
As it prepares to compete for new business through the framework, Barclay Communications expects to create between 10 and 15 jobs over the next six to 12 months. Roles are expected to span customer service, account management, bid and tender writing, enterprise sales and marketing, with the scale of recruitment linked to the volume of new business secured.
Susie Megahey, Commercial Director at Barclay Communications, said: “For a Northern Ireland business to secure a place on this framework alongside some of the largest telecommunications companies in the UK is a major milestone for us.
“We have worked towards this for a number of years and invested significantly in ensuring Barclay Communications had the systems, people and capability required to compete at this level.”
Megahey said the deal will open up more opportunities to compete for significant public sector contracts, adding: ‘As that business develops, we expect it to translate directly into further investment and new jobs.”
Barclay Communications has already invested more than £150,000 in preparing the business for the framework and forecasts a further £250,000 investment. This will include recruitment, software development, marketing and the introduction of AI-supported tools and platforms. Existing customers will also benefit from this investment, with faster response times, improved self-service tools and more efficient account management.
A key differentiator for the Belfast company will be its ability to offer public sector customers access to all major UK mobile networks rather than being restricted to a single network.
Through its Barclay Bounce proposition, customers can use O2, Vodafone, EE and Three through one supplier, tariff and billing arrangement, with the flexibility to select the network best suited to individual users and locations.
For large public sector organisations operating across multiple urban and rural locations, this means mobile provision can be designed around coverage requirements across their estate rather than relying on one network to provide the strongest service everywhere.
John Roulston, Sales Director at Barclay Communications, explained: “Our multi-network capability puts us in a particularly strong position for this framework. Public sector organisations often have people working across a wide geographical area, where coverage can vary considerably.
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“We can provide each user with the network that works best for their location, while the organisation still benefits from one supplier, one contract and one billing relationship. That flexibility is a real strength of our offering.”
Susie Megahey added: “Being appointed to the framework is not a guarantee of revenue. We now have to go out and compete for individual opportunities, but it gives us a route into a market that simply wasn’t available to us in the same way before.
“It is also a significant endorsement of a locally-owned Northern Ireland company and our ability to compete nationally. We believe this can be a gateway to much bigger opportunities for Barclay Communications over the coming years.”
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