Keywords: shared services, finance shared services, Oracle, Capgemini, London council, government

Six London councils begin shared services transformation

Anna Bowsher | News | 2 August 2012

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Six London councils are to implement shared services by the end of July 2013, using software from Oracle, with the expectation of saving £18m over four years.

The London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Brent, Lambeth, Lewisham, Havering, and Croydon will all be implementing the same version of Oracle Release 12 (R12) and expect to make significant cost savings, as well as improving council services for a combined population of 1.6m people.

Under the initiative, HR, finance, payroll, pensions and procurement functions will be aligned and the six boroughs will benefit from shared costs, consistent best practice and from sharing knowledge across the group.

Lambeth Council has led the procurement exercise, with outsourcer Capgemini tasked with the implementation. Capgemini will deploy its t-Gov (Transform Government) transformation methodology, which involves standardising the councils’ systems on Oracle’s R12 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software suite.

Mike Suarez, executive director of finance and resources at Lambeth council, said: “All councils share common support functions, like HR, finance and procurement, but we have our own ways of doing them. If we can use the same system, we will streamline our processes and save money without cutting costs.”

It is expected that further councils will piggyback on the deal once the systems are in place.