Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Cabinet Member for Corporate Development and Transformation.

That authority be delegated to the Executive Director of Place, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Development and Transformation, to commence the procurement of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, with the approval of contract award to be subject to a future report to Cabinet (estimated May/June 2025 with Full Business Case)

Reason for the decision

Dorset Council’s ways of working and financial sustainability required core business processes, across our HR, finance and procurement functions, that were transformed to improve the user and customer experience; to improve the quality and availability of rich data and insights to inform strategic planning and operational delivery; and to take advantage of the opportunity to adopt automation and artificial intelligence to streamline processes to make them more agile and less costly to operate.

In addition, the incumbent SAP solution would become ‘end of life’ in December 2027, meaning the product would no longer receive functionality or security updates.

Cllr B Wilson, the Cabinet Member for Corporate Development and Transformation updated Cabinet on the enterprise resource planning replacement programme (ERP).  The ERP was the core system used by the Council for finance, human resources, payroll and procurement and the project was an integral part of the broader Our Future Council (OFC) transformation programme.

He further advised that the current system had been in place since 2009, and this would become “end of life” in December 2027.  This meant that the product would no longer receive functionality or security updates and would pose an unacceptable level of future cyber risk. There were four options for consideration set out in the paper and the Cabinet Member recommended to Cabinet the option to replace the current system with a new ERP system that would align with the transformation programme.

The Cabinet Member, Executive Director for Corporate Development and Hed of ICT Operations responded to questions on operating costs, risk, impact on the organisation and the life cycle of any new product procured by the Council.

Members recognised the risk in introducing a new solution, but the risk of doing nothing was greater in terms of cyber protection.

It was proposed by Cllr B Wilson seconded by Cllr J Andrews

Decision

That authority be delegated to the Executive Director of Place, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Development and Transformation, to commence the procurement of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, with the approval of contract award to be subject to a future report to Cabinet (estimated May/June 2025 with Full Business Case)

Reason for the decision

Dorset Council’s ways of working and financial sustainability required core business processes, across our HR, finance and procurement functions, that were transformed to improve the user and customer experience; to improve the quality and availability of rich data and insights to inform strategic planning and operational delivery; and to take advantage of the opportunity to adopt automation and artificial intelligence to streamline processes to make them more agile and less costly to operate.

In addition, the incumbent SAP solution would become ‘end of life’ in December 2027, meaning the product would no longer receive functionality or security updates.