Contact: Jos Creese, Head of IT, 01962 847436, ([email protected])

1 Summary

1.1 The following decision is sought:

That approval be given to enter into an enterprise license agreement for infrastructure software with the vendor identified in the exempt supporting report and that this should be done on a single tender basis through the Office of Government Commerce's "Catalist" arrangements.

2 Reason

2.1 The County Council faces a number of business requirements that will be addressed by the proposed infrastructure software. In particular:

· the integration of the Contact Centre with Departmental systems,

· refurbishment of Ashburton Court and associated changes in working practices,

· developments in Children's Services and Adult Services (managing the flows of data between disparate systems, and facilitating easier access to data by business users),

· improving information management and business intelligence,

· improving service resilience and business continuity.

2.2 Some of these are statutory requirements, others are critical from the perspective of organisational performance and efficiency, and the management of corporate risk.

2.3 These and other requirements are set out in the `Transforming Through Technology' Strategy, which aligns technology directions to the Corporate Strategy and the developing Corporate Business Plan.

3 Other Options considered and rejected:

3.1 Other options were considered and the reasons for their rejection are outlined in the accompanying exempt report.

4 Conflicts of Interest declared by the decision maker or other Executive Member consulted

None

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee -

None

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

n/a

Approved by ................................ Date: 31 October 2006

Councillor T K Thornber, CBE

Executive Member for Policy and Resources