A council in West Sussex has developed a pioneering new framework that will allow 28 local authorities to purchase financial management software from a single supplier.
Arun District Council said the deal was part of a drive to ‘foster collaborative procurement and efficiencies’ and save time spent sourcing and evaluating potential suppliers.
District and borough councils across East and West Sussex and Surrey will be able to buy Advanced Business Solutions’ e5 system to make it easier for officers and members to access quality financial information. The new software is also expected to help streamline reporting and save money in the process.
Paul Symes, programme manager at Arun District Council, said: ‘We wanted to create a unique framework to reflect our ethos of working better together with neighbouring authorities and increase collaboration.
‘As there are only seven councils located within West Sussex, we wanted to extend our invitation to other authorities in nearby regions to use the framework to drive economies of scale.’
