Agenda item

That

1.  The renewal of the agreement for the Academy Information system until 31st March 2027 at an estimated annual cost of £182k; £546k over 3 years be approved.

2.  The renewal of the agreement for Aspien Corporate Debt Management System until 31st January 2027 at an annual cost of £9.9k; £30k over 3 years be approved.

Report FSD24006

In July 2018, officers recommended to the Executive that the future provider of the Exchequer Service should undertake a health check of several IT systems used to deliver the service.  The Executive noted that due to the complexities of a number of the systems and the need to provide sufficient time to migrate high risk data, these health checks should be carried out within 12 months of the contract start date to confirm the value for money options going forward.

The Exchequer Services Contract commenced on 1st April 2020; however, the review of the Academy Information System (now known as Capita One Revenues & Benefits) and the Aspien Corporate Debt Management System were significantly delayed due to the impact of the pandemic.

Quotes for completing a full review of the Academy Information System were requested from our IT contractors, BT and from Liberata. Unfortunately, there were delays with obtaining the quotes and the delivery of the report, which was eventually delivered at the end of September 2023.

The report from Liberata recommended migrating to the NEC Revenues & Benefits system with transition costs of £1.52 million and annual costs of £259k on the basis that the NEC system offers greater automation which will improve collection and processing performance, however the indication from colleagues in the London Revenues Group (LRG) was that there was very little difference between the two systems. 

Discussions with Liberata regarding the contents of the system review were ongoing and were likely to be completed within the next few months.  The Department was also exploring the greater use of automation available within the Academy system. 

The Aspien Corporate Debt Management System was used by the Council’s contractors Liberata in conjunction with the Council’s financial system Oracle Fusion to bill and collect in the region of £60 million each year and the authorisation for extension of the agreement was due to expire in January 2024.

The Council changed its financial system from Oracle R12 to Oracle Fusion in April 2022. The review of the debt recovery module, Advance Collections had commenced however it had not been possible to complete this due to the bedding in of Oracle Fusion. It had been estimated that the review would be completed within the next 12 months and if the outcome of the review was that Advance collections should be implemented a further 18 months would be required.

The report sought authorisation to renew the licence agreements for both the Academy System and the Aspien Corporate Debt Management System beyond 2024. The cumulative value of these extensions made this an Executive decision.

The report had been scrutinised by the Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee at its meeting on 16 January 2024 and the Committee had supported the recommendations.

RESOLVED: That

1.  The renewal of the agreement for the Academy Information system until 31st March 2027 at an estimated annual cost of £182k; £546k over 3 years be approved.

2.  The renewal of the agreement for Aspien Corporate Debt Management System until 31st January 2027 at an annual cost of £9.9k; £30k over 3 years be approved.