Issue - meetings

(Report of the Director of Corporate Resources): To seek agreement to a joint procurement with the London Borough of Waltham Forest  for a replacement managed service for the corporate SAP system, including the option of procuring separate managed services for each borough, utilising best practice processes which will enable future shared services.

The appendix to the interleaved report was the subject of a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as it contained exempt information relating to the business or financial affairs of any particular person (including the Authority holding that information).

The Committee considered a report seeking agreement for a joint procurement with LB Waltham Forest for a replacement managed service for the corporate SAP system which supports the Council’s finance, procurement, HR and customer services functions. The Council’s current ten year contract with Logica for the SAP system was due to expire in November 2012, with a joint approach to procurement proposed to improve value for money and to facilitate future back office shared service approaches. The provision would still exist however for procuring separate managed services for each borough should this prove the most appropriate option.

The procurement approach proposed would be based on a full EU tender led by Haringey, with SAP acting as an advisor and critical friend. It was acknowledged that a joint as opposed to sole procurement process was expected to take longer but that the potential financial benefits of a joint procurement were expected to outweigh the impact of any extended process. 

Legal advice was also being sought on the feasibility of extending the scope of any resultant contract on a pan London basis in line with the Capital Ambition Project Athena initiative underway which included a One-SAP project exploring the feasibility of establishing a shared IT platform across the seven authorities currently using the system. It was recognised that this was likely to be logistically challenging in recognition that the various authorities would be at different stages of readiness which might necessitate a staged re-tendering approach. 

RESOLVED

·      That approval be granted to the proposed approach for Haringey to undertake a joint procurement for a SAP managed service with Waltham Forest as detailed in the interleaved report with the option of procuring separate managed services for each borough if required.