Cotswold District Council, Forest of Dean District Council, West Oxfordshire District Council and Cheltenham Borough Council (including Cheltenham Borough Homes) are planning a shared services programme under the name GO. They expect to save £3.4 million through the move.
"We expect to benefit from economies of scale that one council could not achieve alone and, in doing so, provide better value for money to our taxpayers," said Pat Pratley, senior responsible owner for the GO programme.
Access to up-to-date accurate data online will allow staff to make faster and better informed decisions. The platform will lower administration costs by offering self-service functions for day-to-day tasks such as ordering goods, claiming expenses and requesting annual leave.
Manager self-service capabilities allow departmental heads to take ownership of their service costs, removing reliance on centralised corporate control. The platform will also allow coordinated procurement to ensure the right goods and services are provided at the best possible cost.
"The scalability and flexibility of the platform was very important for our long-term plans as, once the project has been successfully implemented, the GO partners would like other public sector bodies to benefit from sharing services with us in the future," added Pratley.
The deal aligns the councils with the Government’s suggestion that local government should achieve shared back office functions. The councils have selected the UNIT4 local government platform from UNIT4 Business Software.
The platform is a single integrated solution with Agresso Business World, an ERP solution supporting finance, procurement, HR and payroll shared services.
