The Executive Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report seeking spending approval and authority to award a five-year contract with a possible two-year extension for software licences, support and maintenance and hosting of the Northgate NPS Housing IT system. 

The report explained that the Housing Service required an IT system which could deliver services in an efficient and effective way; that enabled customers to self-serve as much as possible; and allowed staff to mobile work and work remotely.  There were a limited number of Housing Systems in the market and the NCC Group had been commissioned to perform a soft market test of the available systems.  The resulting report from NCC was appended to the report along with an Equality Impact Assessment and a Data Impact Assessment. 

The report recommended procuring Northgate’s NPS Housing as the replacement cloud IT system for the current Ohms system, which was no longer fit for purpose.  The procurement of the upgraded software would support the Council’s ICT and Digital Strategy, promoting better access for customers to digital and online service delivery and was in line with the future operating model of the Council. This proposal had been signed off by the Digital Futures Board and was aligned to the Council’s cloud IT strategy.  Since the current Ohms system was owned by Northgate, the NPS Housing System implementation would be treated as an upgrade by Northgate which would significantly reduce the implementation time and cost, compared with procuring an alternative system.

Resolved –

(1)      That the Assistant Director of Housing & Communities and the Chief Digital Information Officer in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Housing to be authorised to approve the award of a contract to Northgate Public Services Housing (UK) Limited for a period of five years from the commencement date for the provision of an upgraded cloud Northgate Housing system delivered as SaaS (software as a service);

(2)      That spend approval of £1,137,640 over 5 years to procure the upgraded cloud Northgate Housing system be authorised.