Case Study: Joint Council ERP Project

Our team of ERP specialists were appointed to advise two councils on their joint procurement of an ERP System.¹

This project was part of a larger programme within the councils, its key objectives being to simplify processes/procedures, speed up workflows to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

The councils jointly procured a single supplier framework agreement for the provision of a cloud-based SaaS, consolidated ERP solution across both councils’ finance, procurement, debtors, HR and payroll operations for approximately 6,000 users. Each council then had its own call off contract with the supplier.

Our Team’s Input

We were appointed at the outset of the project and the procurement was commenced and successfully concluded within 11 months.

We:

• advised on all legal, procurement and commercial aspects including drafting all the procurement documents (Prior Information Notice, SQ, Invitation to Submit Outline Solutions, Call for Final Tenders, feedback and standstill letters)
• drafted the framework and call-off contracts (based on the CCS Model Services Contract) and an inter-authority agreement, primarily to govern the conduct of the implementation phase
• attended all the commercial and legal dialogue meetings with the bidders, led the legal negotiations, dealt with all drafting revisions and conducted the legal evaluation in conjunction with the lead in-house solicitor
• ran evaluation training for the councils’ evaluation teams, many of whom had never been involved in a tender evaluation
• prepared the inter-authority agreement which sets out how the councils work together and share responsibilities after the contracts are awarded

How our Team Adds Value

Our team has extensive knowledge of public sector ERP Projects which we bring to every ERP Project we work on. We want to be a valued member of your team and we believe added value can be brought not only from our previous experience but also from the way in which we work with you.  Some examples of the way we added value on this case study are:

• We worked as ‘one team’, seeing ourselves as an extension of the councils’ own internal teams, demonstrating a friendly, professional and approachable manner at all times
• We provided additional bespoke drafting for an agile delivery approach by way of variation, for those aspects where requirements were difficult to specify at the start.  This additional drafting was required to avoid the risk that if the client had retained the template Model Services Contract approach to implementation (based on waterfall delivery) the parties could have been forced into conflict if milestones were missed which would have diverted focus
• During dialogue we used detailed agendas and issues lists to drive the commercial discussions, ensure equal treatment across bidders and provide a record of dialogue discussions, acting as the client’s legal ‘eyes and ears’ throughout
• From our industry knowledge we understand where the main ERP providers ‘redlines’ are and we were therefore able to use this industry knowledge to negotiate enhanced service credits and KPIs with the software vendor for our client
• We ensured maximum flexibility in the contract by specifying a number of highly likely ‘change scenarios’ which, as a result of our negotiations, did not require the purchase of additional licences, providing bankable financial value to the client

Achieving results

Our team’s input led to the councils’ award of the framework agreement and call-off contracts, on time and within budget (and without complaint or challenge).

At project close, the Programme Director commented: “It was a pleasure working with Julia, Charlotte, and the team. We achieved an excellent contract result, which became a complete team effort supporting each other with the tactical negotiations, not only with the prime contractor but one of their lead sub-contractors. I would have no hesitation recommending Julia and the team to other prospective clients.”

¹Using the competitive dialogue procedure under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, as amended