An outsourcing contract which will save us millions of
pounds was approved by councillors last night (Thursday 5
August).
An extraordinary meeting of Full Council approved the
recommendation to award the contract to Agilisys Limited for the
delivery of a number of support services including revenues and
benefits; and business improvement and procurement.
The contract award is subject to successful completion of due
diligence and contract formalities.
There will be no net loss of jobs with more than 200 new jobs
created over the next four years, and those new jobs will be
focused around the delivery of customer services functions.
This contract will mean budget savings of more than £13.6
million, with the majority of these being delivered by 2014/15.
£5 million of rental income for office space will be generated,
procurement projects reducing costs by over £5 million a year will
be realised and there will be savings of over £6 million through
business improvement initiatives.
Council Leader, Cllr Nigel Ashton, said: "One of the important
aspects of this contract award is that Agilisys will only be paid
once the benefits have been realised. They will be making
significant investment of around £4 million in programmes to
replace the financial management system and also in a system to
manage electronic data and records.
"I hope we can also dispel the myth that outsourcing means the
loss of jobs - I am quite clear that awarding this contract will
lead to no net loss of jobs. This deal will save taxpayers millions
of pounds while at the same time helping to protect jobs
and services in North Somerset.
"I believe that we are ahead of the game doing this and many
more councils will follow us along this path in the months to come
as they are forced to make savings of between 25% and 40%."
The services to be outsourced are ICT; some HR and finance
functions; payroll; revenues and benefits; contact centre;
procurement and business improvement; facilities management; and
print unit.
The annual cost of these services together with the provision of
a financial management system is £10.38 million.
The key dates for next steps are:
Early delivery agreement/letter of intent 6 August 2010;
Contract award 26 August 2010;
Service transfer (excluding Revenues and Benefits) 1
October 2010;
Revenues and Benefits Service transfer 1 May 2011.
You can read a copy of the report councillors considered
here.
