To receive and consider the report of the Director of Customer and Digital.

1.    To approve the contract award procedure for a number of joint procurements with South Ribble Council outlined at Appendix 1 for software, hardware and support services.

2.    To approve carrying out appropriate tender exercises via the councils’ e-procurement portal (The Chest) or alternatively the use of existing procurement frameworks such as Crown Commercial Services or similar.

3.    To approve the evaluation criteria of 80% cost and 20% quality.

4.    To waive the requirement to use the Social Value Portal.

5.    That the decision to award is delegated to the Executive Member of Resources.

Councillor Peter Wilson, Executive Member (Resources), presented the confidential report of the Director of Customer and Digital which informs Members of the proposed shared procurement for ICT hardware, software and support and seeks agreement to the sharing of costs and assessment criteria.

Decision:

1.    To approve the contract award procedure for a number of joint procurements with South Ribble Council outlined at Appendix 1 for software, hardware and support services.

2.    To approve carrying out appropriate tender exercises via the councils’ e-procurement portal (The Chest) or alternatively the use of existing procurement frameworks such as Crown Commercial Services or similar.

3.    To approve the evaluation criteria of 80% cost and 20% quality.

4.    To waive the requirement to use the Social Value Portal.

5.    That the decision to award is delegated to the Executive Member of Resources.

Reasons for recommendation(s):

By jointly procuring these contracts it ensures alignment of software and hardware across both Authorities supporting Shared Services.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

Each Council could procure software independently, but this would make it very difficult to align software or services in future.