Agenda item

Report of the Chamberlain. This report will also be supplemented by a presentation at the meeting.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain which provided a review of the second year of the Agilisys Information Technology Contract.

The report was supplemented by a presentation by the Chamberlain and representatives of Agilisys. The presentation provided information of the original intentions of the contract with Agilisys, progress made in years one and two of the contract, plans for year three of the contract and upcoming projects.  

The Chairman noted that there had been significant improvement over the last year. The Chairman also noted that it was vital that the Corporation kept up to date with current technology, and suggested that IT resources should be considered to be a consumable now, rather than an investment, as IT equipment was no longer likely to be a viable resource for more than three years.

The Chairman requested that the IT Newsletter be circulated to Members, as well as Officers.

Members asked a number of questions regarding the report.

In response to a question about whether the Corporation was required to use Microsoft products, the Chamberlain explained that there was not a requirement to do this beyond the current contract, and other providers would be considered when this contract came due for renewal. The priority would be ensuring the best deal and best service for the Corporation. Agilisys representatives explained that Microsoft remained the market-leader in enterprise software for business. Agilisys explained that one of their clients had desired to move away from Microsoft, but after using a competitor’s products, was now moving back to Microsoft.

A Member commented that while there were potential issues with ‘lock-in’ with Microsoft, Oracle products were likely to provide a bigger risk in this area.

In response to a question about storage and server costs, the Chamberlain explained that the contract was in budget for these areas, which were assessed on a pay as you go basis. However, he explained that retention of information was an area which needed consideration by the Corporation, as the current procedures of retaining all relevant electronic information indefinitely would lead to large increases in costs of storage over the life of the Agilisys contract. The Chamberlain also explained that there were potential implications under the Data Protection Act for retaining information indefinitely.

In response to a question about Agilisys’ plan to move the Service Desk Function for the Corporation to Rochdale, the Agilisys representatives explained that the Service Desk in Rochdale was expected to provide a better service to the Corporation.

In response to a question about apprenticeships, the Agilisys representatives admitted that they were behind schedule on the target to create 100 apprenticeships throughout the contract, having created 20 so far. However, there were six events scheduled throughout the third year of the contract to seek to increase the number of apprenticeships created through the contract, and a further review of apprenticeships would take place in March 2016. It was also noted that Agilisys had created Arch Apprenticeships to improve the quality of apprenticeship programmes in IT and Digital Marketing. This organisation had created over 600 apprenticeships over two and a half years and was now the major supplier of apprentices to organisations such Google and Barclays in the UK.

In response to a question about Application Support and the number of bespoke applications the Corporation had, the Agilisys representative explained that support was provided for around 650 applications, a proportion of which were bespoke. The Chamberlain explained that managing these Applications would require a detailed handover, and therefore discussions would begin regarding the extension of the Agilisys contract (for a two year period, in line with the contract) would begin in the near future.

In response to a question about the Police IT infrastructure risk, the Chamberlain explained that this remained a red risk on the Corporation’s Risk Register. The Chamberlain explained that this would remain a red risk until the IAAS project was completed for the Police, which was targeted for completion in December 2015. Following that, it was expected that the risk would reduce to amber. Further significant work to improve the Police IT network would be required to reduce this risk to green.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report and thanks Agilisys for their presentation.