Wokingham District Council is saving £400,000 per year using an ebusiness system which controls its finance, human resources and procurement operations.

The savings have helped to reduce the council's need to make cuts to frontline services or increase tax to deal with an overspend of £1.5m that came to light in 2002-3.

Adopted in early 2005, the system allowed Wokingham to make business process changes and is part of a wider project to transform the council's financial management.

It became clear that in order to overcome the huge financial challenges facing the council, a major re-think of its systems was needed, says Wokingham corporate head of finance, Graham Ebers.

'This new highly integrated approach, based on Oracle technology, has not only driven massive efficiencies across our organisation but has also significantly strengthened the council’s financial management,' he said.

'This has been a benefit to both our employees and citizens.'

The HR part of the system provides employees with electronic payslips, allows them to maintain their own personal details online and organise training, saving time and reducing administrative errors.

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Further Reading:

• North-East councils sign shared services deal
• Shared services plan cuts county’s running costs
• Bulk purchasing means big savings for London councils