Norwich City Council has signed a five year deal with Advanced to kick-start the digital transformation of its financial and HR operations. The Crown Commercial Service agreement will see the district council implement an on-premise solution to automate and integrate its core digital processes, which will improve working practices for its staff and deliver more efficient services for its 137,000 residents.

The solution includes Advanced’s government-approved financial management software, used by 24% of UK local authorities, and integrated HR management solution from MHR, used by 32% of UK local authorities. Managed by local government shared services partner LGSS, the integrated Advanced solution will replace ageing and disparate systems unable to keep up with the council’s maturing digital strategy.

Anton Bull, director of business services at Norwich City Council, said: “Replacing our finance and HR systems is a vital part of our journey to a ‘digital by default’ model. The solution offered by Advanced will increase efficiency and improve our services; consolidating the operations at the heart of our council, giving us better access to real-time information and improving connections across the organisation.”

The financial management modules, which will go live later this year, will initially be used by 25 key finance users, 50 self-service budget holders and up to 200 self-services purchasing users, and will annually process over 30,000 digital finance documents. As well as councillors and casual staff, the HR modules will be accessible to the council’s 650 self-service employees – providing them with opportunities to develop their wider digital skills and potential to become digital champions – and will go live in 2019. Both systems are intuitive and therefore reduce the training burden. Advanced will train Norwich City Council and will provide users with workshops, e-learning, refreshers and helpdesk support. 

Nick Wilson, MD – Public Sector, Health and Care – Advanced, said: “All councils have an incredible opportunity to embrace technologies including automation to help them transform services by becoming more agile and efficient. Modernising its internal financial and HR processes will ensure Norwich City Council is well prepared for the growing digital demands of the general public.”