Four companies get share of Scotland Excel contract with commitment to provide community benefit
Scottish public authorities have been given the option of buying customer service software through a framework contract agreed by the national procurement body Scotland Excel.
Four companies have won the right for their solutions to be called off from the framework – Civica UK, Firmstep, Kana Software Ireland and Netcall Telecom – in a deal predicted to be worth £15 million.
As part of the deal they have each made a commitment to providing community benefits, including ICT apprenticeships, school talks about IT careers and support for childrens’ coding clubs.
The contract will last for three years with the option to extend for one more, and supersedes the organisation’s CRM system framework. It gives potential buyers, including all of Scotland’s local authorities and regional NHS organisations, the ability to draw on its common terms and conditions in calling off any deals.
It covers cloud and in-house systems and the terms include those for installation and maintenance.
Scotland Excel said the available systems should: enable the authorities to log, process and respond to customer request; provide online self-service facilities for customers; include reporting tools; and share information to cut duplication.
Councils' focus
Julie Welsh, director of Scotland Excel, said: “Scotland’s councils are becoming more and more customer focused and have worked closely with us to shape this new framework.
“The new contract makes sure councils can easily source user-friendly, high quality software that lets the public communicate with them, and which allows the local authority to efficiently and effectively deal with their requests. This is all about best value, high quality and innovative software, and the choice for each council to consider the best solution for their requirements.”
Scotland Excel has a similar framework in place for online school payments.
Image from Dutch central government, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication through Wikimedia
