Report by Chief Executive of Scotland Excel.
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There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive of Scotland Excel relative to work undertaken by Scotland Excel, supported by the Scottish Local Government Digital Office (SLGDO), with ICT and Digital Transformation leads from Councils, to develop and populate an asset management register to identify collaborative contracting opportunities.
The report intimated that councils in Scotland used multiple ICT software systems to support service delivery across all services and that the acquisition, support and maintenance of these systems were a significant budgetary commitment. In partnership with SLGDO, Scotland Excel identified that councils would benefit from a Scotland-wide analysis of existing ICT systems and associated contracts which would lead to the identification of short, medium and longer-term opportunities for collaborative procurement, contract management, community benefits and financial efficiencies.
The request for information from councils identified that the requested information was not easily accessed and that software assets were not recorded uniformly, and in some instances, not recorded at all. This presented a further opportunity to create an asset management platform that all councils could use to record key software asset information which would deliver a range of benefits.
The report detailed the progress to date and the short, medium and longer-terms benefits of the system.
A briefing note had been created to support the re-launch of the latest version of STAMP for distribution to council Chief Executives via SOLACE, heads of procurement via Scotland Excel and Heads of IT and Transformation via SLGDO. To assist councils in reaching the full potential of this system, Scotland Excel would participate in one-to-one meetings with individual local authorities and offer advice, support and assistance on implementation and usage.
The information recorded in STAMP would inform a timeline of collaborative procurement opportunities by service sector and spend and would allow councils to be grouped by contract status and terms. Although currently incomplete, the available data would be used to develop initial contracting opportunities which could be expanded as additional information was made available. The submission level of all councils was appended to the report.
An enhanced user intelligence group, including subject-matter experts from ICT, procurement and service management would be created to consider the business merits of identified ICT collaborative opportunities and the Scottish Local Government Digital Assurance Board would ensure these procurements were aligned to and supported the wider digital transformation policies agreed by the Scottish Government.
DECIDED: That the current position of the ongoing work in relation to the gathering of ICT systems details and contract information from all Scottish councils be noted.