Financial Systems

Today there was a significant meeting of the Project Board that has overseen the procurement process for a new finance business system. This process has taken about seven months as a result of the EU procurement process that we are required to follow and for the first time has employed the consultation approach after a Pre-Qualification Process. It has been an extremely thorough process, based on an extensive business process review prior to tender. There will be a short period now while all interested parties are informed of the outcomes and the reasons for those conclusions. Beyond the analysis we focused on risks that had been identified during the process and mitigating factors. There will be an internal communication on the outcome - we appear to be ready to being the contract process leading to implementation for August 2010.