New Local Authority Software Framework Launched

The Crown Commercial Service has announced the new Local Authority Software Applications agreement is live and available for customers to access.

The agreement, developed with local council customers and stakeholders such as the Local Government Association (LGA), intends to assist in the LGA’s National ICT Commercial Category Strategy for Local Government.

According to CCS, the network offers an easy route for the procurement software and related service for core local government business areas.

Such goods and services include design, development, installation and commissioning of systems, on-going support and maintenance and some related business process services.

“Competent Suppliers Chosen”

CCS claims that chosen suppliers were selected for experience and ability in providing core business systems and associated services.

It adds that providers on the network have a comprehensive range of products available that combine quality, open standards, digital by default and value for money.

The launch of the Local Authority Software Framework agreement suggests that the government is still progressing towards it commitment to do 25% of all its business with SMEs by 2015 because 66% of suppliers fall under this category.

“The LGA estimates local authorities spend up to £2.5bn each year in ICT markets, with £1bn (40%) of this spent on sourcing and supporting all software applications,” claims CCS.

“Analysis of relevant supplier incomes showed that they generate revenues of approximately £500m from the UK local government market for the applications intended to be covered by this procurement,” it adds.

Agreement To “Address Key Issues”

The new agreement intends to address these key issues identified such as disjointed buying resulting in large disparity in price, poor service and outcomes delivered by suppliers and lack of innovation or slow pace of change in the supply market.

CCS says that savings will be achieved in the future by allowing customers to compare supplier prices this year with last year’s and enabling comparison between bids and establish any savings that have been achieved.

It adds that the main benefits of the Local Authority Software Framework are:

• lot structure to identify specialist SME suppliers
• increasing transparency of price through provision of catalogues, including support and maintenance
• catalogues of available application programme interfaces and software development kits
• co-ordinated SRM activity with local authority partners
• tie in to both central and wider public sector strategy
• removal of automatic price increases linked to indexation
• use of open book terms, particularly important for support and maintenance costs.

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