Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I Paul Dennett, City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the
Council Constitution
do hereby:
 
·     
approve an exception to Contractual Standing Orders
as permitted within the City Council Constitution for the reason(s)
highlighted in the table below and the award of the Contract for a
new HR, Payroll
and Organisational Development software, as detailed in the table
below:
 

Detail required

Answers

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

Project
Genesis: the procurement of a new HR, Payroll and Organisational
Development software to MHR International UK’s iTrent HR and Payroll software.

Name of Successful
Contractor

MHR International UK Limited

Supplier Registration Number

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Type of organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Choose an item.

Status of Organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Choose an item.

Contract Value (£)

£1,598,913 full project

Contract Duration

months

Contract Start Date

28/10/2024

Contract End Date

14/01/2023

Optional Extension Period 1

63 months

Optional Extension Period 2

60 months

Who will approve each Extension
Period?

Procurement Board (extension >
£150k)

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Steve Fry
Samantha Betts

Lead Service Group

Resources and Transformation

Reason for CSO Exception: The goods / services /
works are only obtainable from one provider and there is no other
provider available to allow genuine competition

Tick if it applies

Reason for CSO Exception: The execution of works or
the supply of goods or services is controlled by a statutory
body

Tick if it applies

Reason for CSO Exception: Delivers Best Value to the
Council

Tick if it applies

Reason for CSO Exception: Special education, health
or social care contracts, if it is considered in the
Council’s best interests and to meet the Council’s
obligations under relevant legislation

Tick if it applies

Reason for CSO Exception: The execution of works or
the supply of goods and services is required so urgently as not to
permit compliance with the requirements of competition

Tick if it applies

Reason for CSO Exception: Security works where the
publication of documents or details in the tendering process could
prejudice the security of SCC and Salford residents

Tick if it applies

Reason for CSO Exception: Procurements made through,
or on behalf of, any consortium, local authority, statutory or
similar body, provided that tenders or quotations are invited and
contracts placed in accordance with national or EU
legislation.

Tick if it applies

Funding Source

Revenue Budget

Ethical Contractor (EC): Mayor’s Employment
Charter

 

EC: Committed to sign up to the Charter

EC: Accredited Living Wage Employer

 
 
The
reasons are:
The Council must replace its
legacy SAP HR, payroll, and finance system (also referred to as an
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system), which was implemented
in 2000. The technology platform which it operates on will no
longer be supported after 2027 and it is therefore reaching
‘end of life’ when it will no longer be supported by
SAP. The system itself has been heavily customised since 2000, to
fit the way the Council has operated since implementation, which
has resulted in upgrades and developments, provided by SAP, being
technically difficult and resource intensive to apply. Considering
this, we must move from the current SAP system to a
replacement before that time and it has therefore been decided to
procure new, more modern and fit for purpose systems prior to the
2027 backstop date. 
 
This report focuses on the HR
and Payroll request, the finance system will go through a separate
process.
 
Options
considered and rejected were:
In
January 2024, an open advert was placed on the Chest inviting
interested and suitably qualified companies to express an interest
in a Soft Market Testing exercise.
 
Sixty-four expressions of interest were received, and thirty
on-time responses were submitted. This included a range of
companies which offered either a full ERP or a best of breed
solution.
 
The
project evaluation team consisting of officers from the
Procurement, HR, OD, Payroll, Finance, Accounts Payable/Receivable
& DDaT (Digital, Data and
Technology) teams, who evaluated the responses.
 
Due
to the high number of responses received the decision was made to
focus on demonstrations from the software vendors, either
individually or as part of a partnership led delivery model. This
was to ensure no repetition or duplication of demonstrations, and
that the evaluation team were able to focus on the core
systems.
 
Eight companies were invited to attend half-day demonstration
sessions. Several officers from across the wider HR and
Organisational Development, Payroll, Finance, Procurement and
DDaT teams attended the
sessions.
 
Feedback was captured from each of the sessions from all
attendees. Five companies were then invited to attend individual
deep dive full day workshops to further explore their systems and
capabilities.
 
It
was evident from the demonstrations and the feedback from the
attendees, that for HR, Payroll and OD, the system from MHR,
iTrent, was deemed best in class in
comparison to other system demonstrations, when comparing the
breadth of functionality and end user interface and
experience.
 
MHR,
iTrent is a proven market leader, a
product which has been developed for local government, including
the complexities of a wide range of terms and conditions and
pension scheme administration along with a user friendly and
accessible self-service (interactive payslips, annual leave,
timesheets, mileage etc), manager dashboards (visible data and
insight), occupational health, safety, and wellbeing modules,
together with case management and is also fully mobile enabled. It
is used by over 180 Local Authorities and has been implemented
without issue across these organisations which led to 8 out of the
10 Greater Manchester Local Authorities creating and implementing
the framework.
 
Assessment of risk:
This is high risk programme,
with significant risks to the financial stewardship of the council,
along with a high
risk for the management of employee and payroll data. This risk
is mitigated by the resourcing of a dedicated project team, with a
robust governance process in place and internal audit involved from
the beginning.
 
The
source of funding is from the
revenue budget:
Agreement has been
reached to use elements of the Transformation Reserve to support
the project, with additional funding through the revenue account
details of which will be built into the Medium-Term Financial
Plan.
 
Legal advice obtained – Yes.
 
Financial advice obtained – Yes.
 
Procurement advice obtained – Yes.
 
HR advice obtained – Yes.
 
Climate change implications obtained – Yes.
 
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process:
·     
Approval to initiate a competitive process for a
replacement ERP system was granted at the Procurement Board meeting
on 26th June 2024, following a Lead Member pre-briefing on 11th
June 2024.
·     
Prior to presentation at the Procurement Board
(14th October 2024), this report has been approved by
CMT (4th September 2024) and LMB (10 September
2024).
·     
(if the documents disclose exempt or confidential
information, they should not be listed, but the following wording
shall be inserted : "(The relevant documents contain exempt or
confidential information and are not available for public
inspection)":-
 
Contact Officer:       
·     
Steve Fry, Director of Digital & Customer
Services Steven.Fry@salford.gov.uk
·     
Samantha Betts, Director of HR & Organisational
Development samantha.betts@salford.gov.uk
 
Please delete from the bullets
below any which are not relevant:
·     
The Lead Member has been consulted and is supportive
of the proposed contract.
·     
Scrutiny Committee to call-in the decision is
the
 
 

Signed:    Paul
Dennett       Dated:    14 October 2024.
           
      City
Mayor
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 14 October 2024
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 21 October 2024
unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.