HeadingModernising Wi‑Fi Infrastructure for Avon and Somerset Police

Challenge

ASP’s existing Wi-Fi estate had reached end of life and was no longer able to support the demands of modern policing. Device usage across the force had increased significantly, with officers routinely carrying both laptops and mobile phones, alongside Wi-Fi-enabled body-worn cameras. In addition, visitors and members of the public also required connectivity within police buildings.

Reliable and secure connectivity is critical to day-to-day policing operations, enabling frontline officers, investigators and support teams to access systems, share information and communicate effectively across the estate.

The legacy solution presented several challenges:

• Inconsistent coverage and known black spots in some locations
• Connection dropouts when users moved around sites, interrupting operational workflows
• Limited capacity to cope with peak usage, such as shift change handovers when bandwidth demand fluctuated significantly.

Alongside these technical challenges, ASP needed to ensure the replacement solution represented strong value for money. As a police force operating under budget constraints, affordability, transparency and procurement compliance were all critical.

Solution

Ahead of the formal procurement, ASP engaged SCC to provide consultancy support and undertake a proof of concept to identify, measure and benchmark the available market options. This early engagement enabled ASP to clearly define its technical and operational requirements and progress to procurement with confidence.

Following a competitive tender, SCC was selected to supply a Fortinet-based Wi-Fi solution, based on its technical fit, competitive pricing and confidence in SCC’s ability to deliver.

SCC supported the project through:

• Pre-scoping of the solution and creation of a detailed bill of materials aligned to ASP’s existing infrastructure
• Desktop Wi-Fi surveys across four sites identified as having known coverage issues or newly constructed buildings, ensuring capacity and coverage matched real-world operational demands prior to rollout
• Supply of approximately 800 Fortinet access points across 58 sites
• Flexible resourcing to support physical installation, including project coordination and on-site engineers
• Ongoing supplier engagement to mitigate risk during deployment and resolve issues quickly.

While SCC provided overall coordination, supplier management and access to flexible on-site resources, ASP configured and deployed a large proportion of the access points themselves, using SCC resources where additional capacity or specialist support was required. This approach allowed the force to maintain momentum while significantly reducing the number of external project days used.

Claire Weston, IT Project Manager at Avon and Somerset Police, said:

“We budgeted for around 40 days of configuration support and only ended up using two and a half. We did a lot more of it ourselves than we expected, which gave us flexibility and saved cost.”

SCC remained closely engaged throughout delivery, providing escalation support and working collaboratively with ASP and Fortinet to resolve issues quickly and minimise disruption. On SCC’s support, Claire added:

“When things didn’t go to plan, there were always solutions. We weren’t left waiting weeks – issues were picked up and resolved quickly.”

Following the successful tender, the originally specified access point model reached end of sale. SCC worked with Fortinet to supply a newer, higher-specification model at no additional cost. This upgrade enables seamless roaming between access points and future-proofs ASP’s wireless network for emerging standards, including Wi-Fi 7.

Outcomes

Improved performance, coverage and mobility

The new Wi-Fi solution has delivered a consistent and reliable wireless experience across Avon and Somerset Police’s estate. Officers and staff now benefit from improved coverage, faster connections and fewer dropouts, addressing the performance limitations of the previous solution.

The upgraded infrastructure is better able to support fluctuating demand across sites, including peak usage during shift handovers when large numbers of users connect simultaneously, ensuring network performance remains stable at critical operational times. Seamless roaming between access points also allows users to move around buildings without interruption, enabling officers to work across sites without loss of connectivity.

Minimal disruption to end users

The transition to the new Wi-Fi estate was completed with minimal disruption to officers and staff. Once initial technical issues were resolved, the rollout progressed without operational impact, with end users largely unaffected by the change.

“If it went wrong, we would have heard about it. We swapped them over, sorted the tech issues, and there were no problems at all. The fact the end users didn’t experience a change – that’s a win for us.” Claire Weston, IT Project Manager, Avon and Somerset Police

Supporting future requirements

The refreshed Wi-Fi estate provides a stronger foundation for ASP’s wider network infrastructure and is designed to support future growth in device density, evolving policing requirements and ongoing digital transformation initiatives across the force.

Demonstrable cost savings and cost avoidance

The project delivered measurable financial benefits for ASP. By self-delivering a large proportion of the configuration and deployment, the force significantly reduced the need for external support days. These saved funds have been redirected into other projects to deliver further benefit to the force. In addition, the move to the new solution also reduced ongoing support and maintenance costs by roughly £37K per annum, compared to the previous Wi-Fi platform, delivering extensive savings over the contract term.

The partnership between SCC and ASP is underpinned by regular communication, clear escalation paths and a collaborative approach to problem-solving, ensuring issues are resolved quickly and allowing deployment to progress efficiently.

The project demonstrates how SCC supports public-sector organisations with a flexible delivery model that combines early technical insight, competitive procurement and collaboration throughout deployment.