Lancashire councils share finance system

They are planning to use Civica Financials software, initially as a shared service for general ledger administration and reporting. South Ribble's deputy chief executive Mike Nuttall told GC News that the two councils set up a partnership to handle the financial management in January 2009. "We've got the shared service between us," he said. "With the squeeze on public spending we were trying to get ahead of the game." It was run by a committee of staff from both councils, but South Ribble continued to use its PowerSolve software while Chorley used Financials. "There was a lot to be gained from harmonising systems and processes, and we've been working with Civica to put in place best practice," he said, adding that the councils had also received support from the local regional efficiency and improvement partnership. The councils are now to begin using a new version of Financials to harmonise several functions. Nuttall said they hope to fully align their systems by early 2011 in order to use them from the beginning of the 2011-12 financial year. "Implementing Civica Financials was seen as the next stage of developing our partnership, and has helped us capitalise on previous investment in systems by driving cost efficiencies, while harmonising functions including general ledger administration, reporting and purchasing across all the different departments," he said. He added that the councils have already saved about £200,000 by coming together. The investment in the new software amounted to £86,000. "Others are looking at what we are doing, some of them from outside Lancashire," he said. "We would probably be able to host an IT solution and service."