Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Customers, Transformation and Resources. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Planning and Corporate Services.]

This report details how we can achieve greater saving with our SAP partner on the purchase of professional days of support and seeks approval to vary the current contact accordingly.  SAP is the software used to manage key council functions for finance, procurement and human resources.

The Cabinet Member introduced the report which sought approval of variation of the Council’s contract with Support Revolution that provided hosting and support for the Council’s Enterprise, Resource Programme. The ERP was explained to be a software platform at the core Haringey’s Finance, Human Resources, and other complex processes. It allowed those processes in separate functions of the organisation to share data, co-ordinating the organisation.

The Cabinet Member was pleased to announce that the programme would deliver: a platform for insourced permanent recruitment by April 2020; process, policies, and technology solutions for strategic procurement activity. This would provide significant improvements to Human Resources, Finance, and other functions of ERP so that users can work faster and easier; and fundamental changes to Finance, Human Resources and other reporting making it more easily accessed and more effective.

The programme required access to planned resources which were within the scope of both the contract with the Council’s ERP support partner, Support Revolutions, and the project scope and budget, to deliver.

The programme would allow decision making at an appropriate level for minor increases to and requests under the contract.

The Director for Customers, Transformation and Resources agreed to provide a written answer on the following questions to Councillor Cawley- Harrison.

• What were the hourly or daily consultancy rates for the provider that the figure of £272,000 had been arrived at?
• Beyond the initial £130k how much additional service was forecast and was expected to be the full £272k or lower?

RESOLVED

1.    To approve, under Contract Standing Order (CSO) 10.02.1b), a variation to the contract with Support Revolution Ltd for SAP Hosting and Support  in order to confirm an option for the Council to request consultancy services to support work on the Council’s ERP Improvement Programme between 01/10/2020to (est.) 22/12/2021, at a value of a total of up to £272,000 (calculated based on pre-agreed rates) and to be ordered by issue from time to time of one or more purchase orders.

2.    To approve, under Contract Standing Order (CSO) 10.02.1b) and pursuant to the variation referred to in the paragraph above, an initial order for a tranche of consultancy services valued at £130,000.

Reasons for decision

The Council is undergoing an ERP Improvement programme. ERP is a software platform at the core of Haringey’s Finance, HR and other complex processes. It allows those processes in separate functions of the organisations to share data – co-ordinating the organisation. It is provided by a company called SAP and supported by an SAP partner organisation called Support Revolution.

The programme will deliver:

·         A platform for insourced permanent recruitment by April 2020;

·         Process, policies, and technology solution for strategic procurement activity;

·         Significant improvements to our HR, Finance and other functions of ERP so that users can work faster and easier;

·         Fundamental changes to Finance, HR and other reporting making it more easily accessed and more effective.

The programme requires access to planned resources which are within the scope of both the contract with our ERP support partner, Support Revolution, and the project scope and budget, to deliver.

The programme will allow decision making at an appropriate level for minor increases to and requests under the contract.

Alternative options considered

·         Do nothing – we will be unable to deliver the ERP Improvement Programme.

·         Insourcing talent – It will not be possible to recruit an in-house expert SAP team and have them operational in time to deliver the project.

·         Open market tender – rejected as would have to onboard a new SAP support partner which would involve purchasing support days from existing partner in any case and unlikely to lead to reduced price/unit.