Agenda item

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and IT

Simon Salmon, Head of IT, introduced the report requesting approval to undertake a competitive purchasing exercise to find the best value supplier of IT equipment.

Resolved to

(1)  delegate authority to the Head of Service (IT) to enter into contracts up to the value of £1.166m per annum using a compliant procurement process to: purchase PCs, Laptops, Tablets, Monitors and other peripheral devices required to meet operational needs and the requirements of the IT Equipment Programme to March 2024, and; employ delivery resources;

(2)  authorise recovery and repayment to the IT Efficiency Fund of varying amounts from departmental budgets to cover requests for new equipment made outside of the IT Equipment Programme;

(3)  amend the Capital Programme for the next 3 years by an initial value of £0.715m per annum and, thereafter, by the value of additional departmental purchases of up to £0.451m per annum but excluding the value of items procured to support schemes already in the Capital Programme. To transfer existing IT Efficiency Funding and departmental budgets as and when required to the capital programme to fund this amendment. No prudential borrowing or additional draw on the Capital Programme is needed.

Reasons for recommendations:

·  There is a high level of dependence on IT throughout the City Council for delivery of services to Citizens and to support joint working with partners. The IT Equipment Programme will support this by ensuring that all equipment is fit for purpose. Delegation of authority to purchase IT equipment in bulk using a compliant procurement process will ensure the ongoing, cost-effective procurement of devices to support the Council’s front-line services.

·  The single authorisation sought in this report will enable multiple procurements to be carried out over the approved period. This is to account for changes in technology that will occur over the period covered. The authorisation sought is for a projected volume of procurements based on historical trends. Should demand be less then fewer devices will be procured and authorised budgets will be retained within the IT Efficiency Fund.

·  For each procurement undertaken under this authorisation the approval of the Chief Finance Officer will be sought, prior to an order being placed, to ensure that the Council maintains the proper alignment between demand for equipment and the allocated budget.

Other options considered:

·  Do nothing. If nothing is done then the current contract for IT equipment will expire. From this point purchases of new equipment will have to be made within the Council’s Financial Regulations but on an ad hoc basis. This means that more procurements will be made, with a consequent increase in transactional activity adding to the cost of delivery. It is also the case that because purchase volumes will be lower there will be less opportunity to access economies of scale. The approach has therefore been discounted.

·  Move to a leasing model. Currently the Council adopts an approach to providing IT equipment that is based upon outright ownership and management. Some organisations have adopted a different approach, to lease equipment and also to buy support services as a part of this package. The benefits of this approach include smoothing the costs of equipment replacement and releasing the organisation from one of the day-to-day elements of IT service delivery. Initial investigation have suggested that this is not a desirable approach for the Council because of added cost associated with the model and the limits on future flexibility associated with it. The approach has therefore been discounted.