Havering And Newham Councils To Share Budgeting Software

Havering and Newham Councils joined together for a pilot scheme which will see the two local authorities share the same budgeting and forecasting software.

The two local government bodies have formed a Joint Committee, known as oneSource, to deliver back office services.

They hope this arrangement will help to realise over £10m annual savings within the next three to five years.

Advanced Business Solutions is supplying the councils with its Collaborative Planning solution following Havering’s successful use of the product since 2011.

Havering has already been able to eliminate the use of multiple Excel spreadsheets with Collaborative Planning, as well as enabling users to accurately monitor its capital and revenue budgets within a controlled and transparent environment.

The solution will now be shared with Newham, further extending the authorities’ shared services initiative which is as the heart of an ongoing cost and efficiency drive.

“Collaborative Planning provides us with an easy way to manage our budgets online in a single place,” claimed operations manager for Havering Council Owen Sparks.

“The flexibility and effectiveness of the system gave us the confidence to recommend and roll-out the solution to Newham. As both councils share services it is important that our systems and processes are aligned to enable us to work together as smoothly as possible.

“System intuitiveness and ease of use are also essential to enable our budget holders to full engage with the financial management process. The use of the system has led to improved budget holder responsibility and ownership.

“We also have greater transparency of our finances and with the continued squeeze on local authority resources, it remains crucial to have that knowledge easily and quickly accessible,” he added.

Sharing IT Services Across London

Each council is also part of the One Oracle project – a group of seven councils in London using the Oracle ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software joining together to share an IT platform.

Havering went live with this project in August 2014 whilst Newham is due to go live sometime this year.

The aim of One Oracle is to enable local government to share best practice, while minimising the costs for hosting and upgrades, which will enable resources to be director to frontline services.

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