Devon County Council has agreed a contract with OutSystems for the provision of a ‘low code’ digital platform on which to develop new services.
They have come to a three-year arrangement – with the option for a series of extensions to take it to 10 years – valued at £750,000 for the supply of a development platform on which new services can be configured by staff rather than relying on complex coding.
The council’s procurement notice says it will permit much faster delivery of services by a wider range of staff and enable the integration of legacy and third party systems.
“This will allow us to not only deliver better services in the way that users want them, but to deliver strategic benefits such as more efficient delivery of services, reduced demand, better data on processes and the opportunity to innovate,” it says.
A similar approach has been taken by the London Borough of Hackney, whose in-house team has been using the OutSystems platform to develop services.
It reflects a trend that has also seen Adur and Worthing Councils develop their own low code platform to enable more staff to develop digital services, and with the possibility of making it available to other local authorities.
Other councils have been turning to more widely known proprietary platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Salesforce to configure their functions to local services rather than choosing more bespoke systems.
Image from iStock, mipan
