Financial analysis and accounting software package

Tender description

The provision of additional software and hardware and support services to create an enterprise resource planning system. In 2000 the Council published a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (reference 2000/S 178-115764/EN) inviting potential suppliers to tender for the award of a contract for the replacement of the Council’s existing suite of financial management systems, including payroll, so as to provide a single integrated system. The system was implemented in phases with a roll-out of a service by service basis. The specific published objectives of the Council in respect of the procurement were: 1) To provide the Council with a modern and robust financial system, which would enable efficient and effective monitoring of both its finances and performance; 2) To provide the Council with a system which would be flexible in approach, to facilitate both the changing role of the Council and the changing organizational structures within the Council, as it seeks to meet the needs of its citizens, 3) To improve communications and relations between the Council and its customers and suppliers, 4) To provide support for the Council’s programme of continuing service improvements to be facilitated by the production of benchmarking, Best Value and performance indicator information, and, 5) To provide a system that could be continuously updated to comply with any future legislation during the life of the contract. Subsequent to the above referenced tender process the Council entered into an agreement with Unit4 Business Software Limited (“Unit 4”) for the supply of the required software and hardware and ongoing maintenance of the same with the options for the purchase of additional modules to enhance the system. In order to meet its current needs, the Council wishes to purchase further business process management software and ancillary support services to supplement the above and thereby put in place an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP). The ERP will allow the Council to use a system of integrated applications to manage its business and automate back office functions related to technology, services, and human resources. The ERP will eliminate data duplication and provide data integrity with a “single source of truth”. The Council considers that the most appropriate way of addressing the need for an ERP is to purchase additional modules to its current system and subsume the requirement for the additional modules within a contractual arrangement with Unit 4 slightly broader in scope than the current one. The original OJEU notice, procurement documents and contract with Unit 4 give the Council the option of purchasing additional modules for the management system. The relevant additional modules that the Council has agreed to purchase from Unit 4 are: — HR and Payroll, — Asset Management, — Cash Receipting, — Project Management. In addition to the modules listed above, the Council has agreed to purchase from Unit 4 the following modules not provided for in the original procurement: — E-recruitment, — Corporate Management Reporting (Prevaro). The additional modules added to the existing system will provide the ERP. The approach of purchasing additional modules rather than purchasing a complete, standalone ERP or purchasing a system or systems supplementary to the existing Council system and thereby creating an output similar to that of an ERP is considered most appropriate for the following reasons: 1) Market testing has shown that the purchase of an ERP to replace the current system in its entirety would be disproportionately expensive in contrast with the cost of simply purchasing additional modules to the existing system or a supplementary system to enhance the existing. Local authority examples show that around £7million has typically been spent on the procurement and implementation of an ERP system. In any case, the purchase of an additional system to increase functionality would not deliver the ERP required by the Council. Continued in VI.3) Additional information:...