Shropshire Council Software Purchases and Digital Transformation Initiatives

Discover the latest software purchases and digital transformation initiatives being undertaken by Shropshire Council and its business and technology executives. Each quarter our research team identifies on-prem and cloud applications that are being used by the 6500 Shropshire Council employees from the public (Press Releases, Customer References, Testimonials, Case Studies and Success Stories) and proprietary sources.

During our research, we have identified that Shropshire Council has purchased the following applications: Unit4 Business World On! for ERP Financial in 2016, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for CRM in 2017, Unit4 Business World for ERP Financial in 2017 and the related IT decision-makers and key stakeholders.

Our database provides customer insight and contextual information on which enterprise applications and software systems Shropshire Council is running and its propensity to invest more and deepen its relationship with UNIT4 , Microsoft , Cloudflare or identify new suppliers as part of their overall Digital and IT transformation projects to stay competitive, fend off threats from disruptive forces, or comply with internal mandates to improve overall enterprise efficiency.

We have been analyzing Shropshire Council revenues, which have grown to $739.0 million in 2021, plus its IT budget and roadmap, cloud software purchases, aggregating massive amounts of data points that form the basis of our forecast assumptions for Shropshire Council intention to invest in emerging technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Blockchain, Autonomous Database or in cloud-based ERP, HCM, CRM, EPM, Procurement or Treasury applications.

About the Customer

Shropshire Council was formed in April 2009, when the new unitary council replaced the former Shropshire County Council, and five district and borough councils and employs more than 12,000. 

Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire in England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined.

Scope and Challenges

There are currently 200 applications and over 600 databases in use across the Council. This “Best of Breed” approach causes problems for the quality of services delivered, integration of technology and the maintenance and quality of data. Of these 200 applications, approximately fifty applications are supporting corporate processes such as the multiple CRM systems, Management Information / Business Intelligence (BI), finance, procurement, HR, payroll etc..

The vision is to rationalize the current application portfolio, build a data warehouse and install a consolidated corporate system known as an Enterprise Reporting and Planning (ERP) solution. This ERP IT solution would integrate the Council’s CRM system, HR, and finance systems and include full performance reporting and business intelligence capability to the Council. This will be delivered through the rationalization of the application (200+) and database (600+) portfolio as appropriate.

Outcome and Implications

To implement the recommended approach for Business Transformation and Technology there is a requirement to fund one-off expenditure over a five year period at a total cost of £21.324m. This is forecast to be spread over the period of five years as follows:

* Year 0 £12.905m

* Year 1 £6.3m

* Year 2 £1.499m

* Year 3 £0.460m

* Year 5 £0.160m

The ERP contract has been awarded to Methods Business & Digital Technology Ltd. who are a delivery partner of Unit4 supplying their market leading solution Unit4 Business World On!. Unit4 is a globally successful company working with 310 Public Sector and Not for Profit companies in the UKI including 63 Local Authorities.

The project is currently nearing the end of the first stage which is Design. This is a 3 stage approach based on a Local Government Value Accelerator (LGVA) template. In short, this means the software already comes with a standard public sector solution based on best practice. Stage 1 is to review the template, stage 2 is to make tweaks to the template based on Shropshire’s specific requirements and the final stage is to sign off the documented design. The Design Gateway was signed off in February 2018.

Quotes

“The D365 Assets Workshop is an opportunity for public sector bodies who use Dynamics 365 to get the most out of the tool,” says Andrew Boxall, technology and communications service manager at Shropshire Council and SRO for its D365 implementation.

“Shropshire Council embarked on our D365 adoption with Hitachi Solutions in early 2018 and we want to share some of the lessons learned and even the work. This is a genuine offer of help and support but more than that, this is an opportunity for some true country-wide collaboration, with the potential to develop Dynamics 365 by harnessing our combined assets, in terms of finances and people power.”