Purpose

Report requesting Cabinet Member approval to a contract variation to enable the supply of system hosting facilities for the Synergy system. The system supports the School Admissions Service, Early Years Support , Free Schools Meals, and other Education services.

Reasons for the decision

To ensure Synergy is migrated before supplier support for the locally hosted system ends, reducing operational, security and compliance risks while maintaining statutory Children’s Services.

To provide the funding required to meet hosting costs for the remainder of the contract and maintain continuity of service.

Alternative options considered

One option is to keep Synergy in its current environment and migrate it through the Cloud Migration Project, which is due to complete in summer 2027.  This would require one of the following approaches:

a)    Negotiate with The Access Group to extend support for the current environment.

Advantages

•          Defers immediate capital expenditure.

•          Allows more time to align the migration with wider ICT and transformation decisions.

•          Reduces delivery risk during the busy admissions and financial periods identified in the project plan.

Disadvantages

•          Continues reliance on ageing infrastructure.

•          Increases future support and security risks.

•          The supplier may not agree to extend support.

•          Creates additional revenue costs for extended support.

Or

b)    Delay migration to the vendor-hosted platform by a further six months.

Advantages

•          Defers immediate capital expenditure.

•          Aligns resources with the Cloud Migration Project.

Disadvantages

•          Duplicates effort and resources by requiring testing for two platform migrations within 12 months.

•          Creates a likely conflict between the delivery timetable and business-critical periods.

•          Creates additional complexity and risk of meeting the December 2027 deadline.