Issue - meetings

Purpose of report

To award a new contract for the HR and Payroll system.

Decision

Cabinet awarded a five-year contract to Midland HR (MHR) via Softcat at an annual cost of £67,770.97 for the provision of the iTrent HR and Payroll system.

Alternative options considered and rejected

One alternative considered was to tender for new potential bidders. This could have resulted in implementing a new HR and Payroll system that did not integrate with existing systems such as the Recruitment or Learning system as detailed in the report. There would also be significant additional training costs, and potential costs of migrating to another system again after Local Government Re-organisation. Furthermore, there was insufficient time to procure a new system, before the end of the current contract, which would result in increased costs for the Council.

The Council could have done nothing. This would have meant the contract with MHR would expire, leaving the Council at risk of having no HR/Payroll system, losing employee records and details and resulting in employees not being paid.

Reasons for the decision

The current three year contract with MHR via SoftCat was due to expire at the end of July 2025. There had also been a contract with MHR for a five year terms which had commenced in 2017. The MHR ‘iTrent’ platform was industry leading and was used by a number of neighbouring authorities.

The iTrent system also supplies modules for recruitment and learning, fully integrated with the new learning management system. The annual cost of the new contract had increased slightly since the previous contract with the supplier, mainly due to inflation and updated modules of benefit to the Council.

Two pricing options have been considered; the 5-year contract provided better value for money and the stability of a longer contract period.

The Council needed to continue to use its current HR/Payroll system for employee details and payment information. The 5-year contract was more cost effective, provided stability, and brought multiple contracts under one term.

Local Government Re-organisation had been a key consideration, but on the basis of cost, and the lower risk due to neighbouring authorities using the same system, a 5-year contract was the preferred option.