Contact: Jos Creese ([email protected]), ext. 7436

1 Summary

1.1 The main County Council hardware maintenance contract covers all central hardware housed in the computer suite and all desk top equipment supplied by IT Services. The current contract is with Synstar.

1.2.1 When the contract was originally tendered in 2000/2001the advertisement under EU procurement rules provided scope to extend the contract. The current contract expires on the 31 March 2004 and it is proposed that we extend to 30 April 2005.

1.3 This item supports all the Aims of the Corporate Strategy.

The following decision is sought:

1.4 That the negotiated procedure be used to extend the existing maintenance contract with Synstar for a further 13 months at a cost of £520,000 per annum.

2 Reason(s)

2.1 The mainframe decommissioning plan requires one mainframe and all the mainframe peripheral equipment to be kept until April 2005. This equipment will need maintenance cover during this period. Much of this equipment is very old, parts are difficult to obtain and having to retender for a further year is very likely to result in a substantial cost increase because of the age of the equipment.

2.2 In practice, costs have not increased throughout the contract period with Synstar and no increase is proposed if the existing contract with Synstar is extended for a further year.

2.3 The quality of service that Synstar has provided throughout the contract has been extremely good. All service levels have been met or bettered. Customer satisfaction has been high and because of Synstar's keenness to work with the County Council in a partner relationship, problems experienced in other contracts of this type have been avoided, reducing management overheads. The decision will assist the Council in the achievements of its corporate aims.

2.4 For these reasons extension is recommended both in terms of practicality and of representing best value for the Council.

3 Other options considered and rejected

3.1 It would be possible to retender, but this is likely to reduce quality, increase cost and may prove impractical.

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker or other Executive member consulted.

4.1 Not applicable.

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

5.1 Not applicable.

6 Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent

6.1 Not applicable.

Approved by: Date:

Councillor T.K. Thornber, C.B.E.