Contract Award - Idox Hosted and Managed Service
North Lanarkshire Council · 13 October 2022
Back to Planning Committee — 13 October 2022 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Planning Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref DWB/LB Date 13/10/22 Contract Award – Idox Hosted and Managed Service From Pamela Humphries, Head of Planning and Regeneration E-mail bowdenl@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Lorna Bowden 07939280460 Executive Summary Committee is asked to approve the award of a Call-Off Contract for Hosted and Managed service (the ‘Contract’) to Idox Software Ltd. The Call-Off Contract is for an initial period of 60 months anticipated to commence on 1st November 2022. The Council reserves the right to extend the Contract for additional periods up to a maximum of a further 24 months. The value of the Contract shall not exceed one million two hundred and nine thousand six hundred and eighty four Pounds Sterling (£1,209,684) exclusive of VAT. Recommendations It is recommended that Planning Committee approves the award of the Call-Off Contract to Idox Software Ltd at the maximum value one million two hundred and nine thousand six hundred and eighty four Pounds Sterling (£1,209,684) exclusive of VAT. This recommendation follows the completion of a procurement procedure facilitated via direct award from Crown Commercial Services Data and Application Solutions framework – Lot 2b Environmental and Planning. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve economic opportunities and outcomes Ambition statement (18) Ensure our digital transformation is responsive to all people's needs and enable access to the services they need
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1. Background 1.1 North Lanarkshire Council have used Idox software since 1996 for the Planning and Building Standards Services and all other Local Authorities in Scotland now use the Planning and Building Standards modules that integrate with the national eDevelopment Portals. The Idox software provides: • A case management system, Uniform, including modules for Planning, Building Standards and Estates and is also used for the Corporate Address Gazetteer (CAG) in the Gazetteer Management System (GMS) module. • An electronic document records management system to support document retention for Planning, Appeals, Enforcement, and Building Standards. • An Estates category is currently in Test and will eventually hold the documents related to Acquisition/Ownership/Leases and Disposal once they have been scanned. • Uniform is closely tied into our use of the online Scottish Planning Portal which gives the public 24/7 access to online planning services. • A public access portal provides Planning and Building standards registers on the NLC website, receiving over 61,000 searches per month, and also offers the public a place to submit comments on planning applications. 1.2 Some of the requirements within the Call-Off Contract are currently under contract with Idox Software Ltd. This contract for support and maintenance only is due to expire on 31st March 2023. There is an overlap in the new contract award to allow for the transition to cloud-based system. 1.3 The National Framework for the supply of Data and Application Solutions, established by Crown Commercial Services on behalf of the UK public sector, went live on 22nd February 2019. The Council is utilising this Framework by conducting a direct award to deliver a Call-Off contract for our new Social Care Case Management Solution. 2. Report 2.1 A user intelligence group (the ‘UIG’) of technical and procurement representatives was formed to review technical specifications, discuss trading processes, market conditions and trends, ways to maximise community benefits and sustainability and to agree the procurement strategy that would deliver maximum benefit for the Council via the Call- Off Contract. 2.2 The initial estimated value of the Call-Off Contract dictated that the procurement procedure be undertaken in accordance with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. 2.3 The procurement procedure was undertaken as a “Direct Award” from the Crown Commercial Services framework agreement for Data and Application Solutions RM3821 Lot 2b Environmental & Planning. 2.4 The Call-Off Contract award recommendation is made on the basis of an intelligent market search via Crown Commercial Services Digital Marketplace. 2.5 The tender(s) submitted by Idox Software Ltd has been evaluated as representing best value by the Council by analysing scope, service delivery, cost analysis, efficiency savings and available budget.
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2.6 Further details of the procurement procedure is provided in Appendix 1 and the SME status and location of all tenderers is located within Appendix 2. 2.7 The value of the Contract is one million two hundred and nine thousand six hundred and eighty four Pounds Sterling (£1,209,684) exclusive of VAT, including any option to extend. 2.8 The costs associated with contract delivery will be contained within the Revenue budget for Enterprise and Communities - Planning and Place, Built Environment, Asset and Procurement, and NL Properties. The onboarding cost will be contained within the Capital Budget of Business and Digital Price Savings / Increases 2.9 The Call-Off Contract will result in increased revenue costs for the services. The hosting and managed service will result in an increase off £103,359 per annum above the current £65,403.13 support and maintenance contract. This increase costs will enable services to: • Retain current levels of service; • Improve system uptime; • Reduce NLC IT and technical resources required to support the applications; • Reduce dependence on specialist knowledge and systems including Oracle and Citrix; and • Address issues of connectivity and performance for remote working. The costs to each service will be as follows: Planning and Place £64,129.56 Built Environment £64,129.56 Asset and Procurement £20,251.44 NLProperty £20,251.44 Price Stability 2.10 The Call-Off Contract will establish fixed costs for the term of the contract enabling the services greater certainty on cost for the provision of the software, future upgrades and support and maintenance costs Community Benefits 2.11. The procurement did not include a community benefit requirement as the framework only permitted inclusion of community benefits via mini-competition procurement procedure. As part of contract supplier management the supplier will be approached to derive unofficial community benefit. Fair Work First 2.12 Within their framework submission, IDOX advised that they will commit to the following areas of the Scottish Government’s “Fair Work First” initiative: • Appropriate channels for effective voice; • Investment in workforce development;
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• No inappropriate use of zero hours contracts; • Action to tackle the gender pay gap and create a more diverse and inclusive workplace; • Payment of the real Living Wage; • Offer flexible and family friendly working practices for all workers from day one of employment; and • No use of fire and rehire practice. Contract Strategy 2.13 Officers from Business Development and Support will be responsible for managing the Contract which will be undertaken in accordance with the Council’s agreed approach to contract and supplier management. 3. Measures of success 3.1 The Call-Off Contract will deliver the following outcomes; • A compliant appointment in line with the procurement legislation, Crown Commercial Services Framework Terms & Conditions and internal procedures. • Quicker and more stable connection to case and document management systems. • Improved uptime of case management system. • Reduction in unplanned outages 4. Supporting documentation Appendix 1 Summary of Procurement Process Appendix 2 SME Status and Location of All Tenderers Pamela Humphries Head of Planning and Regeneration
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Services will have increased revenue costs in place of the current support and Maintenance contract. Business and Digital will pay the onboarding costs from Capital and there are no direct savings from revenue. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐
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5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The Contract will result in migration of software and data to a hosted and managed service. Access to that service will require installation of a citrix client to service users devices. The service will also result in removal of on premises server, and a reduction in the support required from Business and Digital to deliver patching, upgrades and security testing and support. Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☒ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? Risk Description Impact H/M/L Mitigation Description Service delivery – if support and maintenance is not renewed then there would be significant impact on the service delivery should there be a system or hardware failure H Ensure replacement contract is in place for 31st March 2023 Improvements in remote access will not be realised. M Reduce remote working Reduction in planned and unplanned downtime is not realised M Appropriate Contract Supplier Management and performance appraisals. Current support and maintenance is provided by service team (Alex Hamilton/ David Baxter), NLC IT (Application Support Team B) and the IDOX service desk. There is a risk that unplanned incidents may occur if specialist resource detailed above from the service team or Business and Digital is unavailable. Unplanned downtime may result in longer service disruption. M To ensure unplanned incidents are minimised support calls should always be evaluated and prioritised using the service desk grading (P1, P2, P3 etc.) Training should be provided as required to service and service desk staff to ensure they are fully aware of how this process works.
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Front line staff should also be provided training in how to log calls and also to increase the awareness of what’s involved in completing key activities including user acceptance testing following any planned outages. By continuing with the current support model there is a risk of delay in upgrades and issue resolution as internal resources and expertise are scheduled or consultancy procured. M All requests for updates/upgrades should by default follow NLC’s ICT Change Management processes and timelines to ensure the required technical and governance support is available to match the timeline and expectations of the service.
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Appendix 1 – Summary of Procurement Process Response Procurement Procedure Utilised: Direct Award Governing Legislation / Regulations: Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 Date Call-Off Contract Strategy Approved: 02 September 2022 Number of Companies Invited to Take Part: 1 Tender Return Deadline: 30th September 2022 Number of Tenders Received: 1 Where Only One Tender Is Received, Why?: Direct Award Procurement Procedure Tenders Received from SME’s: 0 Tenders Received from NLC Based Tenderers: 0 Number of Recommended Tenderers: 1 Evaluation Team: Members of Business Solutions & Planning Anticipated Call-Off Contract Start Date: 01 November 2022 Total Call-Off Contract Period (Months): 60 + 12 + 12 Maximum Total Call-Off Contract Value: £1,209,684
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2 – SME Status and location of all Tenderers Name of Tenderer Size of Tendering Organisation (Micro, Small, Medium or Large) Location (Local Authority / Council Area) IDOX Software Ltd Large Reading Borough Council