Edinburgh funds tax freeze with IT outsourcing

City of Edinburgh councillors are set to give their approval to a major IT outsourcing contract extension to deliver £22 million in efficiency savings this Thursday.

The council will vote on continuing its strategic IT partnership with BT Government Services division until 2016, which it said will support the freeze on council tax and help drive forward the council's modernisation programme.

Councillor Gordon Mackenzie, Convenor of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: "We have the challenging task of modernising and improving services for the people of Edinburgh. At the same time, councils across Scotland are facing tight financial constraints and are being asked to deliver efficiency savings."

The extension recommendation follows the successful outcome of a two-year programme to improve the effectiveness of the ongoing 'Smart City Partnership' between the BT and the authority.

"Continuing our partnership with BT until 2016 will bring more than £22 million of savings over the next eight years, which we can use to deliver the best possible frontline services and help us modernise as a council," added Mackenzie.

The council entered its strategic IT partnership with BT in 2001. Since then, the partnership has replaced ageing mainframe systems and modernised its network across more than 200 sites citywide. It has also become a best practice case study for Microsoft.

In March 2006, the contract was renegotiated with the potential for an extension for a further five years until 2016, but linked to a targeted programme of improvement in the way the council and BT work together.

Improvement targets were to be met by 31 March 2008. Otherwise, the council had the option to revert to the original terms and end the partnership in 2011, or to limit the extension until 2013.

BT reported that, in overall terms, the partnership transformation programme has achieved a score of 88 per cent against 33 agreed critical success measures. This exceeded the 75 per cent level required to deem the programme successful.

And a further improvement programme for 2008/9 should be agreed by the end of March 2008.

Other stated improvements by the council include migrating all staff to a new email and intranet platform for the first time, a new Planning and Building Standards portal and an online application for housing and council tax benefits. The deal will also see the introduction of new administration systems for schools, social care services and human resources (HR) and procurement.

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