30 Oct 1996
The future of the mainframe at one of ICL's largest local government sites is under review following London Borough of Camden's move to a distributed financial management system.
Camden has signed a #1m contract for QSP's financial management system following an 18-month evaluation carried out with the help of an IT consultancy.
The software will run on a Sun E4000 server, and replace ageing packaged solutions which currently run on the ICL mainframe.
Gateshead-based QSP beat off a joint ICL/Oracle bid to win the contract, which will be implemented in two phases. The first, to include general ledger, purchase order processing and purchase ledger, is scheduled to go live in April next year. The second, which encompasses sales ledger and invoicing modules, will go live in April 1998.
A Camden spokesman said the existing financial system was isolated from feeder systems on which it relied for data integrity. 'The ongoing maintenance and running costs of existing corporate (mainframe) systems gives rise to further pressure on their longevity and viability,' he added.
The spokesman went on to say that 'the future of the mainframe is under review'.
Camden bought in specialist IT consultancy to assist on the commercial aspects of the deal in a contract whose value the spokesman said 'exceeded the tender thresholds' - currently around u140,000.
Third-party consultancy Suppliers & Buyers helped Camden's evaluation team 'identify and address grey areas, pitfalls and hidden costs', the spokesman commented.
Out of 10 suppliers which supplied proposals, the shortlist was whittled down to just two - QSP and the ICL/Oracle bid. The Camden spokesman said: 'QSP appeared to have greater control over product development and the flexibility to write the required changes into their product.'
IBM mainframe site Coventry City Council has become the first local authority to contract for the ICL/Oracle Financials solution in a deal worth up to #500,000. The ICL and Oracle agreement was announced last May.
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