Essex County Council selects Fujitsu for £16.6m IT transformation project

Fujitsu will implement Oracle's E-Business Suite, Hyperion, OBIEE and Taleo

Essex County Council has signed a £16.6m contract with IT services provider Fujitsu, as it looks to transform its corporate systems estate.

The project is part of the council's strategy to save £235m over the next three years in the face of government funding reductions, increased demand for services and rising prices. The council also hopes to become more efficient and offer new public services.

Fujitsu claimed that it will implement an ERP environment that will also enable the council's legacy applications to work with better functionality.

The five-year contract, which can be extended by a maximum of two years, will see Fujitsu implement Oracle's E-Business Suite, Hyperion, OBIEE and Taleo, and integrate the managed service offering with existing applications.

According to Fujitsu, the new back-office IT structure will enable the council to gain extra system capacity, for which it would offer shared services to schools, libraries and other publicly funded institutions outside the boundaries of Essex, helping the local authority to generate extra revenue in the future.

Councillor Derrick Louis, Essex County Council's cabinet member for corporate services and transformation, said that awarding the contract was the culmination of two years' hard work to replace more than 30 "old and disjointed IT systems".

"These new, highly efficient systems, which we aim to have up and running within the next financial year, will remove frustrating and unnecessary administration, duplication and repetition," he said.

"Not only will there be significant savings over the coming years, this investment shows our commitment to making lasting changes to the way we deliver top quality services for the benefit of our residents and businesses.

"For example, it will soon be much easier for companies to do business with us as we streamline our online financial processes."

The contract, awarded after a procurement process, is part of the council's 'Transforming Corporate Systems' initiative.