Decision details

ITSM Replacement Project

Decision Maker: Director of Finance

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

To fund a capital cost of £80K and an annual uplift of £9.6K to replace the Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) system that is used by Unity IT and the Oldham Council Agresso team to manage IT and Finance services respectively to Oldham Council and partners.

Decision:

RESOLVED - That: Replace the ITSM system with the SysAid ITSM solution.

Reasons for the decision:

Option 1 - Option One - Do nothing.
This will result in the Oldham estate retaining an IT solution that is already in breach of the PSN standards and most likely result in Oldham Council failing to gain PSN accreditation. It would be leaving a critically vulnerable system in place with no remediation strategy, and the supplier also cannot offer support for the system anymore. The IT service offering will also suffer due to the inadequacies of the current system.
Option 2 - Option Two - Replace the ITSM system with the SysAid ITSM solution.
Make an investment of £79,870 to cover the implementation costs of IT resource effort to implement SysAid. There is also an annual uplift cost of £9,638 over the incumbent system to fund the SysAid system itself and includes an uplift of £2,673 per annum for the Agresso Helpdesk. This is a slight increase on the existing system which is included in the Core IT Fee. The contract with SysAid will start with an initial term of three years and will be subject to change after the initial period.
The implementation of SysAid will eliminate critical PSN vulnerabilities on the Oldham IT estate and will receive regular product updates to keep the system up to date. The SysAid solution has been deemed to be the most cost-effective solution currently available in the industry for the needs of Unity Partnership and Oldham Council.
In addition to the security improvements, the new solution will enable IT to have increased operational delivery capabilities than what was possible with ResolvelT allowing for enhanced focus on delivery outcomes to the end-user community. There is potential for a more advanced self-service capability than what is currently available within ResolvelT.
The system has Cloud "Software as a Service" (SaaS) hosting to allow greater accessibility and remove any reliance on local hosting at the Civic Centre.

Alternative options considered:

Option 1

Other reasons / organisations consulted

Discussions have been undertaken primarily within Unity IT as well as with the Council Information Management team to look at potential solutions for the remediation of the problems experienced with the ResolvelT system.
Unity IT has completed a market assessment of ITSM toolsets. This was conducted to explore what ITSM solutions are available and to compare the benefits/disadvantages of each solution over one another. The primary focus was on identifying the most appropriate solution with the toolset that would enable Unity Partnership and Oldham Council to make business efficiency savings.
Following a period of market assessment, including the review of Allied Digital's latest ITSM offering, it was agreed as a key architectural decision that the most suitable solution would be the Cloud Saas solution offered by SysAid. The solution provided by SysAid provides all the essential and desired functionality of a modern SaaS-based ITSM solution whilst maintaining an annual price point similar to the incumbent solution (£40 - 55k per annum) and far below that of the market leaders, ServiceNow and BMC Remedy (£100 - 120k per annum).

Contact: Anne Ryans, Director of Finance Email: anne.ryans@oldham.gov.uk 0161 770 4902.

Publication date: 21/01/2022

Date of decision: 11/01/2022

Accompanying Documents: