Arun Council Sets Up Common Advanced Business Solutions 'Club'

Sep 29, 2015

Arun District Council has set up a way for 28 authorities to purchase financial management software from shared tech supplier Advanced Business Solutions.

Following a formal tendering process involving ten software providers, the tech firm has been selected as the framework’s single supplier. The first purchase made via the framework will see Arun implement the Advanced 'e5' solution to replace its in-house finance and debtor management systems. The software will go-live in April 2016.

Under the terms of the four-year agreement, 28 district and borough councils situated in East and West Sussex and Surrey may also use the framework to purchase e5 and associated maintenance up to £1.7m.

Through signing up, members of the framework can now negotiate directly with Advanced Business Solutions and specify their finance system solution requirements, without needing to go through a lengthy tendering and evaluation process to determine the most suitable supplier.

'Economies Of Scale'

Paul Symes, Programme Manager at Arun District Council comments, “We wanted to create a unique framework to reflect our ethos of working better together with neighbouring authorities and increase collaboration. As there are only seven councils located within West Sussex, we wanted to extend our invitation to other authorities in nearby regions to use the framework to drive economies of scale.”

Symes says he ad his team wanted a robust, fully supported and integrated solution to improve the quality of and access to financial information for council members, senior officers and budget managers. The organisation also required more streamlined reporting functionality with less duplication of effort by eliminating its reliance on third party systems and interfaces.

“We were impressed by the Advanced team and are now looking forward to working with them to implement the new e5 system," he added.

Dean Dickinson, Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions (Public Sector & Enterprise division), says, “We are delighted to have been chosen as the winning contractor on this unique single supplier framework. Arun’s forward-thinking vision enables other local authorities in the surrounding areas to replace their current, outdated accounting systems by implementing our software within a much shorter timescale.

“The framework also offers an opportunity for councils to consider collaborating effectively within a shared services environment to maximise cost and efficiency savings.”