Purpose

As a result of reviews carried out by the
boroughs of Newham and Havering in 2022, it was proposed that a
number of services, including IT, should be returned to the control
of each of the boroughs. This was approved by the Newham and
Havering Cabinets in April 2023.
 
Following this decision, and in relation to
IT, a programme of work is now underway to exit from the OneSource
IT arrangement to a sovereign Newham IT service.
 
As part of the requirement to establish a
Newham IT service, this report requests approval to procure an IT
contract for a significant value that will establish dedicated
Newham IT infrastructure and services. 

Decision

Decision:
 
For the reasons set
out in the report and its appendices Cabinet RESOLVED to Agree:
 

i) 
To proceed with;

· 
A procurement process to select a single IT partner
to deliver the split of shared technology and migration to modern
cloud platforms and services, and also manage areas of the Newham
IT service following the split from oneSource IT.

· 
Setting up an IT split programme team.
 
  The
estimated overall costs of this are £20.6m
over a 5 year period.
 

ii) 
That the Assistant CEO & Chief Digital
Officer bring back to Cabinet, in line with the Scheme of
Delegation, a report on the award of contract in consultation with
the lead member for Performance and Transformation and lead member
for Finance and Resources;

 

iii) 
To note that subsequently
to the publication of the report, Full Council on the
29th February set a budget and therefore paragraph 8.1.4
of the report be amended to reflect the financial
update.
 
Alternatives
Considered
 
a) 
Technology Split
 

1. 
The alternate approaches to achieve the technology
split were considered with different variations developed and
considered in consultation with both Newham and Havering. Both
Councils have agreed to work together where required to achieve the
split, however each Council will be in control of implementing
their own sovereign technology and undertaking any associated
procurements.
 

2. 
Alternate options were considered based on the following key
criteria:

 

· 
Risk

· 
Cost

· 
Timescales

· 
Complexity
 
3. 
Key identified risks that the technology split
approach looked to mitigate were:

 

· 
Multiple suppliers working to migrate services off
the same shared complex legacy infrastructure, causing business
disruption and significant governance and coordination
overhead.

· 
Multiple split projects and workstreams progressed without adequate dependency
planning and sequencing, causing delays and issues.

· 
Increased timescales and cost for both councils due
to uncoordinated split planning and delivery.
· 
Poorly delivered projects and solutions, impacting
on delivery of Council priorities.
 

4. 
Those options which did not split from the shared
infrastructure first, before splitting the oneSource support
organisation, generally were much higher risk, had a higher overall
cost and had much longer timeframes for the Council to deliver on
its corporate and strategic priorities.

 

5. 
On analysis of the options that were developed,
these options were narrowed down based on the following agreed
requirements:
 

· 
To not invest in and try to split current legacy
infrastructure but rather migrate to new cloud services and
infrastructure for each council.

· 
To source external partner support for the split,
implement and migrate activities.
 

6. 
The shortlisted options were then further refined
and the final recommended approach for the Council forms part of
this Cabinet report proposal and its recommended decision to
progress with procuring a partner to support these technology split activities.
 
b) 
IT Services Split
 

1. 
Three alternatives were outlined in the
‘Newham Future IT Services Delivery Model’ business
case:
 
· 
All IT services are managed by a partner
· 
All IT services are managed by the
Council
· 
Do nothing (continue with current oneSource IT
shared service model)
 
2. 
All options were evaluated based on the following key criteria:
 
· 
Risks
· 
Cost implications
· 
Quality
· 
Control
 
3. 
Access to expertise
 
· 
The recommendation within the business case is a ‘Hybrid
(Council + partner) IT managed services model’, as this will
best meet Newham priorities and requirements. This forms part of
this Cabinet report proposal and its recommended decision to
progress with procuring a partner to manage specific IT services
for Newham.