Agenda item

The Cabinet Member considered an extension and variation to the Customer Platform Contract. The existing contract had been in place since March 2016 with a contract term of 3 years and an option to extend for a further two periods of one year. The report sought Cabinet Member approval to extend the contract with Agilisys for both optional years, through to March 2020.

RESOLVED

      I.        To approve, in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 10.02.1(b), the extension of the Council’s Customer Platform Contract with Agilisys Limited for two further years, 2018/19 and 2019/20, for a value of a further £280k.

    II.        To approve, in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 10.02.1(b), the variations to the contract outlined in paragraphs 4.1 to 4.4 of the report with a consequential reduction from the initially envisaged overall 5-year contract value by £782k (see paragraphs 4.8 and 4.9 of the report and the Exempt report).

Reasons for decision

Whereas the Customer Platform contract included a broad scope of functionality, the Council’s definitive requirements became more focussed throughout the implementation phases, informed by organisational changes such as the Council’s transformation programmes in Adults and Children and Young People’s Services, the renewal of the Council’s contract with Homes for Haringey and the setting up of the Shared Digital service for Camden, Haringey and Islington.

The Council and supplier have been working to agree on the final changes as well as an appropriate reduction of the implementation and ongoing support costs under the contract to reflect the changes as well as to obtain better value for money for the optional years.

Cabinet agreed the existing contract with Agilisys in January 15 for 3 years through to March 18, at a cost of £1735k for the initial 3-year contract term with an option to extend for a further two years costed at the time at £848k, giving a full anticipated 5 years cost of £2583k.

Funding for years one and two of the contract comes from the Customer Service Transformation Programme capital budget. Year 3 requires revenue budget funding which Customer Services and Libraries have bid to have included in their budgets. The optional contract years would also require funding from the revenue budget.

Following rescoping efforts, Agilisys have offered a Year 3 cost reduction and have made an attractive proposition on the further two year contract extension that would bring the total five-year cost of the contract down by £782k from £2583k to £1801k. Some of the cost reduction is a result of not implementing some of the original products and services in My Account while agreeing new features in other areas, such as better customer data via Insight.

Alternative options considered

Do nothing:

If no changes were made to the current contract with Agilisys, the Council would be liable for higher year two implementation costs and higher year three support costs than now proposed (see further details in the Exempt Information), and would need to decide on decommissioning, extension or a replacement solution this year in advance of the contract end date of March 2018.

With over 35,000 customers using our online account, it is highly unlikely that we will cease use of this digital channel over the recommended extension period given we have invested heavily over the last few years to achieve this.

The digital platform for customer services and its customers / residents is fundamental to us reducing face to face and telephony contact.

Merging or switching to Camden or Islington’s solution facilitated by the Shared Digital service:

Shared Digital is reviewing applications in use across the three Councils, including the equivalents of My Account in Camden and Islington. Personnel from Haringey are working with Camden and Islington colleagues to compare each offer and share learning in this area. Any potential converging of technologies would only be implemented after the initial three year contract term and would benefit from the stability of an incumbent supplier. See section 8 of the report for comments from the Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) for Shared Digital.

In addition to shared technologies, any future proposed shared service arrangements for customer services is at least 2 years away and therefore Haringey would have to extend the current arrangement with Agilisys in 2018 and at that point we would be unlikely to obtain such a favourable cost reduction offer from Agilisys.

Procure a new maintenance & support provider:

My Account is an Agilisys product and is not available from any other supplier; neither can it be transferred to be supported by another supplier. Agilisys provide the My Account Customer Platform for Haringey as ‘software as a service’ and the availability, support and maintenance of My Account is only available from Agilisys.