Issue - decisions

Date of Decision:

9^th November 2023

Title:

Revenues & Benefits System – Proposed Hosted Solution

Decision Maker:

(Including Job Title)

Judith Badger, Strategic Director, Finance and Customer Services

Details of Specific Cabinet Delegation

or Delegation contained in the relevant Sub-Scheme of Delegation.

Council Constitution Appendix 9 Executive functions – Section 4C5, 3(d) Procurement and purchasing. To make decisions in relation to commissioning and procurement activity. Such activity should be carried out in accordance with the Finance and Procurement Rules.

Decision:

A decision has been made to award a new contract to the incumbent supplier of the Revenues & Benefits system, moving from an in-house managed system to a fully hosted service.

This will be a direct award via the Crown Commercials Services Vertical Application Solutions RM6259.

The contract value for the initial 5-year period is £1.18 million. There is an option to extend the contract by 2 further years.

Reasons for the Decision:

Whilst the existing contract still had 10 months to run, with an option to further extend for 2 more years, it was identified that aging servers would need to be replaced at significant costs to the service before the expiry of the contract. It was also an appropriate time to challenge the existing in-house managed processes and it was decided that a move to the supplier hosted managed service would provide a more robust, risk averse and efficient service into the future.

Details of alternative options considered and rejected:

Finance and IT colleagues considered various models for retaining the service provision in-house. However, the cost of essential hardware replacement and the lack of internal resource and expertise in certain areas meant that the hosted option was both better value, provided a more robust future-proofed alternative and was more risk averse.

Conflicts of interest declared by any Cabinet Member consulted by the decision maker which relates to the decision:

None.

Dispensations Granted:

(If any)

Not Applicable.

Reports or parts of reports considered

Report to Finance and Customer Services DLT 27/09/23.