Rochford District Council has renewed its contract with SunGard Public Sector for the provision of IT services for an additional two years, resulting in a saving of over £175,000 a year.

Rochford District Council’s Head of Information and Customer Services Sarah Fowler said “At a time of increasing pressure on budgets, this is a significant saving as it also avoids a costly and lengthy procurement process. SunGard are keen to extend their partnership with the Council and are committed to maintaining and improving their service”.

Budget savings are a key concern for the Council and during 2008/09 it delivered savings of £425,600, which included £78,000 from improvements in recovering overpayments of benefits, £27,000 from reducing the costs of repairs and maintenance, £25,000 from advertising vacancies internally, in local papers and the job centre and £7,000 from utilising different ways of delivering training.

Rochford District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Service Development/Improvement & Performance Management, Councillor Mrs Mavis Webster, said: “The Council is constantly assessing its ways of working to ensure it works as efficiently as possible, thus ensuring the services provided to residents are constantly improved“.

SunGard has been contracted to the Council for 10 years and has a good understanding of the Council’s business. SunGard provide a high quality IT service that enables the Council to work more efficiently to deliver services to the residents of the District.

SunGard’s Head of ICT Outsourcing, Scott Paton, said, “We are really pleased to be continuing our work with the Council as we have developed a good working partnership over the years, assisting in the improvement of ICT services to support the Council’s objectives, leading to improved citizens access to services delivered by Rochford District Council”.