Decision details

To approve the commencement of the procurement process for the provision of an HR and payroll administration system and delegated authority for the subsequent contract award, to replace the existing system arrangements which are due to expire on 31st October 2019.

To approve the approach of undertaking the procurement as a joint exercise with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

(i) To approve the commencement of the procurement process for the provision of an HR and payroll administration system and delegated authority for the subsequent contract award, to replace the existing system arrangements which are due to expire on 31st October 2019; and

(ii) to approve the approach of undertaking the procurement as a joint exercise with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

The existing HR & Payroll system contract is due to expire, and the provision of an effective HR & Payroll system is necessary to the delivery of HR services to the Council. Although current arrangements could be extended, such an extension only delays the need for a procurement process and delivers no financial benefits to the Council.

The potential for additional commercial benefits from a joint approach to the market alongside opportunities to develop ancillary operational benefits through both Council’s deploying the same system (albeit separate instances) and shared procurement costs make a shared procurement approach the best value option for SCC.

An alternative option to a procurement process was to extend the existing contract. However, this could only be extended by 2 years and as such would only have been deferring the activity and delay potential commercial benefits realised from a competitive tender process.

An alternative procurement approach was an SCC only process via the same CCS framework or through independent tender. However, this approach would not have provided the same benefits in terms of shared procurement costs, potential shared development costs, opportunity to share knowledge and expertise in operational and contract management areas and potential to provide additional business resilience through deployment of the same system.