The London Borough of Lewisham has decided to stick with its payroll and human resources software supplier, Northgate Arinso, for two more years.

The council has extended the current partnership without a tender with the aim of covering the two-year period to the launch of the shared ICT services with the London Borough of Brent. The value of this two-year partnership is £374,000.

The council admitted that the possibility of changing supplier at this stage “would require a significant period of testing and parallel running systems”. Therefore, it would neither be advantageous nor cost effective to change supplier before the new shared service goes live.

The new shared service will enable the council to bring the ICT services in house as well as great savings – estimated in £1m year – and technology infrastructure improvements, currently provided by Capita.

Many other councils in London have already agreed to share their services, including Newham with Havering, Islington and Camden, and Kingston with Sutton.

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