Hampshire County Council moves to offer UK-wide shared services platform

Hampshire County Council has declared intent to offer a UK-wide shared services platform, via a new partnership with supplier UNIT 4.

The deal could create considerable economies of scale for UK public sector via a truly cost effective platform for public sector shared IT services on a flexible and scalable, hosted services platform, claim the duo.

The emphasis is on back office as a way to help other public sector bodies reduce costs and reform service delivery, with the Hants acting as hosted service provider and the supplier support and functional expertise for finance, procurement, asset management, HR and payroll functionality. 

"These shared services will be available to other public sector organisations across the UK and will generate worthwhile economies of scale to all participating organisations and - equally important - will provide a more assured and quality-based mechanism and environment in which to undertake new initiatives," said Hampshire's 'IT Champion', Councillor Keith Evans.

"The agreement provides us with access to a cost effective ERP solution that can address the urgent needs of our potential customers today and provides a robust and scalable platform that can support any future expansion," he added.

A number of organisations have already expressed an interest in the provision of shared services through this partnership and are involved in advanced negotiations with Hampshire and UNIT4, though as yet no details are being provided.