Leicestershire and Nottingham councils award shared services deal to Velos-IT

Leicestershire County Council (LCC) and Nottingham City Council (NCC) (pictured) have awarded Velos-IT a contract to implement cloud-based finance and HR shared services across the two local authorities.

An online award notice indicates that the lowest offer during the tender process was £7m, and the highest £20m, but it isn't clear how much will be paid to Velos-IT.

The notice reads: "The shared service will initially deliver functionality and services using the Oracle E-Business Suite.

"Over time, it is intended that the shared services will grow with the addition of other modules, services and other public bodies to maximise the benefits of a shared service."

The financial shared service will be based at NCC, while the HR service centre will be based at LCC.

The original tender indicated that the shared services would include finance, procurement, HR and payroll self-service modules.

The services will operate on an on-demand, pay-per-use basis.

The councils also indicate in the notice that they may exercise the right to get Velos-IT to integrate SAP's analytics offering, Business Objects, at some point during the life of the contract.

In addition to this, further organisations across the government sector may be added to the shared service throughout the contract.

The contract is initially likely to be for four years, with an annual extension option for up to a further four years.