Purpose

The council is in a contract
with NEC Software Solutions Ltd for its revenues and benefits IT
back-office system until 31 March 2025. Find out more about
NEC.
 
The system is a core
back-office system and enables processing of council tax billing,
business rates billing and underpins the housing benefit and
council tax support the council provides to local residents on low incomes.
 
To enable the council to remain
in compliance with legislative changes relating to council tax,
business rates and benefits, as well as deliver new initiatives
relating to council tax support, regular database updates are
required.
 
The council needs to procure
additional database administrator (DBA) support to enable ongoing
upgrades vital to ongoing and annual billing.
 
The council has no in-house DBA
skills, and an analysis on alternative options has been conducted
and due to the necessity for the system to function on a daily basis, and the high risk of any downtime,
it has been determined that the most appropriate solution is to
procure the support direct from NEC Software Solutions
Ltd.
 
The additional support can be
met from within existing revenue budgets (See appendix 1 –
confidential).

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Finance &
Commissioning approved the procurement of additional database
support from NEC Software Solutions Ltd for the revenues and
benefits system up until 31 March 2025. The cost of which will be
met from within existing revenue budgets.