Agenda item

The Interim Executive Director of Finance presented the report regarding the renewal of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Contract and in doing so informed Members that the existing contract was due to expire at the end of June 2023. Members were advised that the procurement would take place through the G Cloud, a local government framework, as it had been previously. However, it was clarified that, the new contract would not include the use of the HR and Payroll modules. It was queried whether, given the issues that had been experience during the implementation of the ERP System, ifthe Council could procure a new supplier. Officers reported that were the Council to procure an alternative supplier to TechOne, the issue with Cash Receipting would still need to be cleared prior to any transfer to an alternative supplier. This would also result in further financial investment being made. Therefore, it was considered that to reprocure TechOne was the most satisfactory way forward. It was likely that there would need to be a further review process and potential new implementation in two years’ time.

Cabinet was informed that it was hoped that the issues experienced in the Cash Receipting module of the system would be resolved by the end of the calendar year and that an update was planned on the system in early July 2023. It was noted that several available updates had been skipped due to the previous issues experienced and now that the system was working well this update would bring the system back up to date. It was clarified that slipping some updates had been made to ensure stability within the system before any updates were made. 

In respect of the contract with Wincave, which was required in relation to the cash receipting system, it was reported that the contract did not expire until December 2023, however the process for procurement of a new contract would need to be undertaken in September 2023.

Following the presentation of the report Members asked several questions including:

·       Invoicing within the system – it was reported that there had been some issues experienced regarding invoicing previously, however these were now resolved and had resulted in the issuing of old invoices that needed to be paid. It was noted that this was a positive outcome of the system, in that the Council were able to chase any outstanding debts.

·       Systems Accountants – The use of Systems Accountants would be usual during the implementation of Finance systems. However, the Council did not currently have these roles within the Finance team. However, staff members had now been identified who could be trained in this area for the future. It was hoped that this would ensure that when the AMS contract finished, the finance team would be able to provide this function in-house.

·       The cost as a result of not procuring the HR and Payroll modules – It was reported that this was not yet known, and that the pricing would be set out in the framework contract. The £190K 2022/23 cost for system included a rebate for year 4 due to the issues encountered during the implementation.

·       Review of system – it was noted that any system needed to be market tested on a periodic basis. However, it was confirmed that regular testing took place on the ERP system within the Council and that the TechOne system was intuitive for users.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Enabling, queried the wording of the following resolution contained within the report. As follows:

‘That the AMS contract continued until the Council had confidence that their in house resource was capable of delivering all or part of that function.’

It was clarified and agreed that ‘their’ included in the resolution above referred to the Council, and not AMS.

Subject to the preamble above regarding resolution 2, it was

RESOLVED that

1)    the Council reprocured TechOne but at a reduced licence fee to reflect that HR and Payroll would not be used and delegated the finer negotiations to the Interim Director of Finance.

2)    the AMS contract continued until the Council had confidence that their in house resource was capable of delivering all or part of that function.

3)    the Wincave contract be renewed via a tender process in the autumn.