Agenda item

Minutes:

The Committee gave consideration to a report presented by the Corporate Systems Development & ICT Manager, seeking to gain approval to spend up to £70,000 from reserves for the implementation costs of the Document Management System (DMS). She explained that the replacement DMS being considered was an extension of the functionality of the new OneCouncil Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to include a document management system, which would meet all current and future requirements. The capital programme 2021/22 included for the replacement of the current Idox Document Management System and the report requested the drawdown of £70k from ICT Reserve to fund the implementation of the OneCouncil document management system (DMS). In addition, it was prudent to allow a further £5,000 for additional consultancy days, if required, to be funded from General Fund balances.

 

There would be a slight increase in annual maintenance costs, of £900 per annum, which would be met within existing budgets, and there would be efficiency savings of approximately £44k a year, as the new DMS would not incur in house support and maintenance cost from the IT team (of which a small amount was in staff resources and the remainder were savings from not having an on-premise server with licences). This saving would only be realised when the server portfolio was refreshed and this server was removed from the network and therefore future costs would not be incurred. It was highlighted that the specification for the new DMS system had been developed in consultation with all services currently using the Idox DMS, which would be replaced.

 

A Member of the Committee enquired as to what consultancy would be required, in order to need the £5000 from general funds. He also questioned how it was possible to state that the system would meet ‘all future requirements’ and whether there was any cause for concern in that the system had not been tried in the UK up to this point.

 

In response to these questions, the Corporate Systems Development & ICT Manager explained that the £5000 was a contingency plan should there be any further consultancy work required on the system, however it was not anticipated that this would be required. The contract had been made to the specific requirements of the council and had integrated the ‘best bits’ of other systems as well as planning in the specifications of what was already in the pipeline for future ICT developments. She confirmed that the system had not been used in the UK previously, however, this gave additional scope for building the system to the exact requirements of the council. West Lindsey had previously been the first Local Authority in the country to use a certain system, that had proved successful and long-lasting and there were no concerns regarding being the first to go live on this occasion.

 

In response to a question regarding the use of reserves and general funds, it was explained that the £70k from reserves had been set aside specifically for this project, however the additional £5000 from general funds was as a contingency fund and may not be required.

 

With no further comments, the Chairman thanked Officers for the report, and, having been proposed and seconded, it was

 

RESOLVED that a capital budget and expenditure of up to £75,000 for the implementation of a replacement Document Management System, funded from the IT reserves £70,000 and General Fund Balance £5,000, be approved.

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