South Lanarkshire Council has embarked on an £11m desktop upgrade with Computacenter.

The seven-year contract for a range of desktop-related services was awarded to Computacenter after the council conducted a tendering process.

Computacenter will be responsible for the entire lifecycle of the council's 5,000 desktops, laptops and printers, from procurement and installation to routine maintenance and disposal.

The supplier will also provide the council with initial installation training and software support.

"The council chose Computacenter after a full European tender and found it to give the best quality and cost effectiveness," said Kay Brown, head of IT at South Lanarkshire Council.

"The council sees IT as an enabler and we hope the new contract will provide us with the most responsive computer equipment and also help to drive down costs."

Jill Ashcroft, services delivery manager for South Lanarkshire Council, said in a statement: "Desktops are more and more becoming an integral part of most office-based work at the council, and play a critical role in providing and supporting the services we deliver to our customers.

"It is therefore essential that our desktop infrastructure is efficient and cost-effective to manage."

Ashcroft explained that managing such a large and distributed range of desktop PCs could be "extremely challenging". She added that the authority had been looking at various initiatives to simplify the process, including pre-imaging and security patch management.

According to Andy Purvis, director of Computacenter Scotland, the managed services model is becoming increasingly popular for local government organisations, as it enables them to retain control of their IT strategy while also gaining access to additional expertise and resources.

"IT transformation is a massive priority for the public sector, as technology - especially the internet - is becoming increasingly important to the successful delivery of local government services," he said.

The deal has review points every three years and the local authority also has the option of a three-year extension on the contract.