Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold the information you have requested.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 – Do you use a tool for live chat/ web chat? Live chat is a tool that connects customers with actual, human support representatives. This allows your users to resolve issues in real time. Using live chat, customers can get answers quickly.They’ll spend less time waiting to find a solution or sifting through a knowledge base on your website.
Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) use the chat facility within Microsoft Teams for internal colleagues.
We do not have a live chat facility on our public facing website.
The following questions and answers are related to the Microsoft Teams chat solely.
Question 2 – If so, which supplier do you use for this tool?
Microsoft supply the Teams Package to ECFRS
Question 3 – How much do you spend annually on a live chat/ web chat tool?
Costs are included in our Microsoft Enterprise agreement, we are unable to provide a specific cost for the chat function within Teams.
Question 4 – Which month & year does your contract with your supplier end?
Our contract with Microsoft will expire in April 2026.
Question 5– Who is the budget holder for this contract?
Our Head of ICT is the budget holder for the contract with Microsoft.
We hope you find this information useful.
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Incident and other data is published on our transparency site. Incident Data (essexfire.gov.uk).
Please note that the response and data released to you as part of this request will be published on our website http://transparency.essex-fire.gov.uk/.
All requests will be anonymised and no personal information including contact details will be disclosed as part of this process.
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Thank you for your interest in Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, we hope this satisfies your request.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to apply for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of your original email and should be sent to informationgovernance@essex-fire.gov.uk or sent to our postal address: Internal Review, System & Data Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.
Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications.