AGENDA ITEM NO 26
REPORT NO 638/10
ANGUS COUNCIL
CORPORATE SERVICES COMMITTEE – 2nd September 2010
RESOURCELINK PAYROLL APPLICATION UPGRADE
REPORT BY DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE SERVICES
ABSTRACT
The report outlines the decisions taken by the Head of Information Technology under delegated
authority regarding procurements related to the ResourceLink Payroll Application upgrade and
recommends that the Committee homologate the decisions.
1. RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Committee
(i) Note the contents of the report; and
(ii) Homologate the decisions taken by the Head of Information Technology under
delegated authority.
2. BACKGROUND
NorthgateArinso as the vendor of the ResourceLink Payroll application has announced that all
users require to migrate to the new “Aurora” version as support for the current “Enterprise”
version will be withdrawn during late Summer 2010. In addition, it has been recognised that
the current hardware does not meet the revised requirements necessary to support the new
version. An allocation of £50,000 was set aside in the IT Renewal & Repair Fund for the
estimated costs of the ResourceLink upgrade; Strategic Policy Committee report 95/10 refers.
Following the announcement by NorthgateArinso a number of technical solutions have been
identified for a hardware infrastructure that satisfies the requirements of ResourceLink
“Aurora” and these solutions have been evaluated. Following the evaluation exercise the
preferred solution is a combination of Microsoft Windows for the operating system and SQL
Server as the Database Management system. A revised budget has been prepared for the
items required to complete the upgrade of ResourceLink to “Aurora”. The estimated costs are
detailed in the following tabulation.
Item Estimated Costs
Servers £8,096.00
Microsoft Product licences £5,473.80
CommVault backup software licences £2,019.00
Services from the application vendor £21,045.00
Total £36,633.80
3 PROPOSAL
The Head of Information Technology has identified that best value can be achieved by
utilising existing procurement arrangements for the Servers, Microsoft Product licences and
CommVault backup software licences. In addition procuring the services of NorthgateArinso
as the application vendor provides best value to perform the upgrade and provide on-going
support for the application.
It is proposed that the required servers be procured through OGC Buying Solutions, the
Win?dows Operating System and SQL Server Database Management System licences be
procured under the existing Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and the CommVault backup
software licences be procured from NVT as the CommVault reseller currently commissioned
to provide CommVault support for Angus Council.
4. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
The procurement costs related to upgrading ResourceLink to “Aurora” can be contained within
the £50,000 sum allocated within the IT Renewals & Repairs budget. Recurring costs can be
contained within existing Finance division revenue budgets.
5. HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS
There are no Human Rights implications arising from this report.
6. EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
The issues contained in the report fall within an exempt category.
7. CONSULTATION
The Chief Executive, Head of Finance and Head of Law and Administration have been
consulted in the preparation of this report
8. CONCLUSION
The upgrade of the Resourcelink application to the new “Aurora” is essential to sustain the
payroll service, and the proposals in this report represent best value to the council.
Colin McMahon
DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE SERVICES
NOTE: No background papers, as defined by Section 50D of the Local Government (Scotland) Act
1973 (other than any containing confidential or exempt information) were relied on to a
material extent in preparing the above report.
Information Technology/NSM/MW