East Sussex and Surrey county councils issue £60m shared services tender

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and Surrey County Council (SCC) have issued a joint tender worth up to £60m for the development of existing SAP systems.

The tender, found in the Official Journal of the European Union, states that the councils have recently agreed the principles of working together to support a wider savings agenda.

The contract, which is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), is a four-year deal that is divided into lots. Tenders can be submitted for one or more lots.

The first lot is the SAP managed service contract worth up to £40m. Due to the size of the contract, interested parties must have an annual turnover of at least £10m.

Interested parties for lot one must demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the specific SAP modules used by the authorities and knowledge of the accompanying databases and operating systems.

Applicants must also be able to show an understanding of the management toolset built into the SAP product set and demonstrate a willingness to work with the authorities where requested to transfer knowledge on any specialist areas.

Lot two is the SAP framework of niche providers for development services. The lot, worth up to £20m, requires interested parties to be able to offer development services with strong expertise in areas such as reporting, integration, architecture, mobility, security and payroll.

The tender follows work by SCC and ESCC to lead a group of seven councils in forming a consortium dubbed SE7, to share services in a bid to save millions of pounds.