Four Essex councils in joint procurement deal

Four Essex councils have signed a shared service agreement with Capita which they claim will save £7m over the next five years, and cut their ICT costs by more than 45%.

Braintree, Castle Point, Colchester and Rochford councils will pay the company £8m to provide shared ICT support services. These will include a mix of service, asset, security and network infrastructure management, desktop support, server and data storage and consultancy.

Chris Siddall, cabinet member for efficiency and resources at Braintree council, said: "We believe our innovative approach will be keenly studied by other UK councils, all of whom are under intense pressure to make substantial cost savings whilst maintaining vital services to local people."

The councils successfully bid for £96,000 from Improvement East, a partnership of authorities in the east of England which provides support for improvement projects, to pay for the specialist legal and IT advice required to set up the joint deal.

Socitm Consulting supported the councils in the procurement, by providing specialist advice and support.

Doug Maclean, Managing Consultant for Socitm Consulting commented, "This is another example of us supporting a group of councils in a joint outsourcing agreement which releases substantial savings for the councils concerned". The first such joint approach was between Lichfield District Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.

Socitm Consulting offers a complete support service for outsourcing - combining procurement advice and support, technical requirements specification, and legal services.