The Executive Director (Communities and People) and the Head of Financial Services have submitted a report to update Members on the lessons learned from the implementation of the Housing Management System and the outcome of discussions with the supplier as to potential settlement; and to seek additional budget approval for further development of the product after the move to ‘business as usual’ which has now been secured.

Cabinet is recommended to:

1.        Note the lessons learned from the system implementation;

2.        Approve the proposed settlement terms offered by the supplier as referenced in Appendix 4 (exempt) and delegate authority to the Executive Director (Communities and People) in consultation with the Head of Financial Services and the Head of Law and Governance to finalise the terms;

3.        Recommend to Council the approval of additional budget of £263k in 2022-23 as detailed in paragraph 8 of the report; and

4.        Recommend to Council the inclusion of an additional budgetary amount of £497k of capital and £97k of revenue over the next 4 year period for the further development of the system (paragraphs 9-11).

The Executive Director (Communities and People) and the Head of Financial Services had submitted a report to update Members on the lessons learned from the implementation of the Housing Management System and the outcome of discussions with the supplier as to potential settlement; and to seek additional budget approval for further development of the product after the move to ‘business as usual’ which had now been secured.

Councillor Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies, presented the report and acknowledged the issues which had arisen during the implementation of the system.  The system had been commissioned in 2016, and it was only recently that it had been stable enough to meet requirements.  Many lessons had been learned as a result, and it was to the Council’s credit that it had commissioned its own report to identify areas where mistakes could have been avoided.   

The project had also been more costly than expected: partly because of the amount of time needed to fully implement the system, and partly because of the need to commission expert staff in order to successfully complete the implementation.  Retrospective approval of additional budget of £263k in the last financial year was sought: this had been approved by the Project Board but required formal approval by Cabinet and Council.  Going forward, an additional budgetary amount of £497K of capital and £97k of revenue over the next 4 year period had been identified, in order to fully maximise and optimise the use of the system.

Councillor Chapman also advised that, following discussions with the supplier, proposed settlement terms had been reached with regard to compensation for some of the extra costs incurred.  This was considered to be a fair settlement and was recommended for approval.

The Head of Financial Services corrected an error within paragraph 9 of the report: Council had given budget approval for £538k of capital (not £528k).  The Head of Financial Services also clarified that whilst the legal implications section of the report referred to extending the contract, this requirement had subsequently been resolved in negotiations. 

The Head of Financial Services also commented that in spite of all the issues, the experience had demonstrated successful collaborative working between many areas of the Council (including Finance, ICT and Housing) and ODS in order to achieve recovery to a steady state.

Cabinet resolved to:

1.        Note the lessons learned from the system implementation;

2.        Approve the proposed settlement terms offered by the supplier as referenced in Appendix 4 (exempt) and delegate authority to the Executive Director (Communities and People) in consultation with the Head of Financial Services and the Head of Law and Governance to finalise the terms;

3.        Recommend to Council the approval of additional budget of £263k in 2022-23 as detailed in paragraph 8 of the report; and

4.        Recommend to Council the inclusion of an additional budgetary amount of £497k of capital and £97k of revenue over the next 4 year period for the further development of the system (paragraphs 9-11).