The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham has
signed a £120m, 10-year deal to set up London's first local
government shared services centre from 1 October.
The centre, run by a joint venture company owned by the local
authority and systems integrator Agilisys, aims to run IT and other
back-office functions for a number of London boroughs.
Hammersmith & Fulham's head of IT strategy Jackie Hudson
said, "We are creating a centre of IT excellence in London. We have
strong partnerships and links across local government in London and
we would see ourselves delivering services to councils through the
shared services centre."
Some 140 council employees will be transferred to the joint
venture company, which is to be called H&F Bridge Partnership,
where they will work alongside a further 10 people from
Agilisys.
The contract will supply Hammersmith & Fulham with its IT,
but not other back-office functions. The council's Olas finance
system, Trent human resources system and Radius e-procurement
system will be provided by the joint venture.
The company will also run the electronic document management
system that underpins the council's social care records
project.
H&F Bridge Partnership will deliver Hammersmith &
Fulham's Customer First and Business Transformation project as well
as running the IT function. The joint venture will be paid a flat
rate of £12m a year for the next 10 years as the council expects
its business transformation work to reduce costs over time.
Hudson said, "It is difficult to say what the entire scale and
scope of the Customer First and Business Transformation programme
will be, but it will change customer contact across the council. It
is about improving the way that online transactions work and it is
about transforming the back office."
Hammersmith & Fulham said a benchmarking exercise by the
Society of IT Management found that its IT function already
delivered "good service" to the council.
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