Essex County Council chooses Fujitsu for £16.6m IT transformation project
Essex County Council has announced it has agreed a contract with IT services firmj Fujitsu to transform its corporate systems. Under the terms of the contract, which is worth £16.6 million over seven years, Fujitsu will implement a fully integrated and modernised enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment that also delivers enhanced functionality to retained legacy applications including Oracle E-Business Suite, Hyperion, OBIEE and Taleo. The project supports the council's long-term financial strategy to save at least £235m over the next three years while helping it to become more operationally efficient and expand the services it can offer to other public bodies throughout the UK. A new Oracle-based back office IT structure will enable Essex to take advantage of the extra system capacity to offer shared services to schools, libraries and other publicly funded institutions outside the boundaries of Essex and thus generate extra revenue for the county in the future, Fujitsu says. Councillor Derrick Louis, Essex County Council's cabinet member for corporate services and transformation, said: "Awarding this contract is the culmination of two years' hard work to replace more than 30 old and disjointed IT systems. These new, highly efficient, systems, which we aim to have up and running within the next financial year, will remove frustrating and unnecessary administration, duplication and repetition. Not only will there be significant savings over the coming years, this investment shows our commitment to making lasting changes to the way we deliver top quality services for the benefit of our residents and businesses. For example, it will soon be much easier for companies to do business with us as we streamline our online financial processes."
Pictured: Essex County Hall, Chelmsford by Stephen Richards/Geograph.org.uk
Fujitsu UK: www.fujitsu.com/uk
Shared gazetteer from Aligned for Christchurch and East Dorset
A shared service gazetteer management system is to be supplied by gazetteer specialists Aligned Assets to East Dorset District Council and Christchurch Borough Council. The two councils will be using Symphony iManage with its shared service module to manage all address and property data across both authorities. By having one geographical systems team using a single software interface as opposed to the two that were used previously, working practices will be simplified, accessibility will be increased, time will be saved on switching between software and money will be saved on training costs, the company says. Additionally, there will be savings through reduced licence fees, it says. Future plans involve integrating the address data into other council systems as those departments also migrate to new software packages and simpler sharing of East Dorset data and Christchurch data.
This integration will most likely be achieved through the use of Aligned Assets' Symphony iExchange module, which is currently being assessed by the shared service team. By allowing address data to be automatically exported to other systems, departments throughout both councils will be using the most accurate and up to date addresses, which will reduce errors and de-duplicate workloads, all without requiring additional resources due to the software's automation, the company says.
Symphony iManage: www.aligned-assets.co.uk/imanage
Capita to provide software support services to Cornwall Housing
Capita's software services business has been awarded a 10 year contract to provide Cornwall Housing Ltd with its OPENHousing software suite. This will include the installation and implementation of housing software, and the training and project management of professional housing management services. The contract will enable Cornwall Housing to store and access data about all of its properties and customers in one place, resulting in greater efficiencies, Capita says. The OPENHousing software will give residents access to the latest self-service tools, including a web portal that will offer a new channel for communication with Cornwall Housing to query rent accounts, report repairs and make payments. It will also allow Cornwall Housing to enhance customer service delivery; manage housing stock more efficiently; reduce duplicated administration work; improve data accuracy; and reduce costs with the consolidation of multiple systems into a single version, it says.
Capita Software and Managed Services: www.capita-softwareandmanagedservices.co.uk
