026/2013 – NSPIS Replacement Options – 27 March 2013

Executive Summary and recommendation:

An options paper was submitted to the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) on 5th November 2012 (see Appendix 1), when the recommended option, to replace the existing HR and Duties system (NSPIS), was agreed in principle.

The recommended option in that paper specifically stated that the NSPIS system to be upgraded to Origin as quickly as possible. It was recommended that this be progressed through the existing NSPIS Licence agreement, and that consultancy be purchased from Capita, under the SPRINT II framework, to implement the HR process model already successfully implemented by Staffordshire Police.

This approach will allow NYP to:

• Reduce the immediate risk to the organisation of continuing to use a system that is aging, and no longer fit for purpose.
• Avoid additional customisation costs and time by adapting business processes to fit the application, rather than customising the application to fit current processes, and to reuse work completed by another Police force.

This decision report recommends that NYP completes a proof of concept stage to ensure the selected option is fit for purpose and to enable the full implementation costs, timescales and resources to be more accurately defined. It is intended that a second decision notice will be submitted on completion of the proof of concept stage. This will enable NYP to:

• Assess the gap between Staffordshire Police processes and existing NYP processes.
• Fully test the solution before a formal contract is entered into and full implementation commences.
• Explore the future possibility of a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution being developed, to include Payroll and Finance modules.

A decision is therefore sought to authorise the work for the proof of concept stage to be commissioned to Capita, which is likely to incur costs in the region of £101,800 as detailed in Part 2, section 6.6 of this report.

Police and Crime Commissioner decision: approved

Signature Date 27 March 2013
Title Police & Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire

Part 1 – Unrestricted facts and advice to the PCC

Introduction and background

1. 1. The NSPIS HR system that NYP currently operate is no longer supported nationally by Capita as the product has been updated to Origin. As a result a significant number of forces have moved to upgrade their NSPIS system to Origin. Currently there are over 30 UK forces using Capita products to manage their HR and/or Duties processes. 24 UK forces are using the Origin product.
   2. NSPIS is no longer subject to development by Capita and North Yorkshire Police (NYP) have extended support contracts with Capita (previously Cedar) to ensure support is available should the system require it. NYP do not have the expertise or capacity in house to be able to provide support to the system even if the source codes retained by Capita were made available.
   3. The support contract currently costs NYP £81,300 per annum which includes a payment to the uplift fund that benefits the development of the Origin product rather than the NSPIS system. NYP is obliged to give Capita 12 months notice period for cancellation of the support contract should an alternative product to Origin be selected.
   4. In addition, although NSPIS is thought to be fit for ‘purpose’ and is functional on a basic level, there are many frustrations expressed by its users within NYP. Navigation within the application can be difficult, especially for novice or occasional users. Reliability is an issue with some application crashes occurring. Data links working incorrectly have also been an issue. Combined these issues have generated inaccurate data and resulted in a lack of faith in the system – meaning that some users have resorted to managing some data in spreadsheets outside of NSPIS. These cultural issues around the existing system have been taken into consideration when looking at current alternatives.
   5. The brief for the options paper was to focus on a timely, cost effective route to market for the replacement of the NSPIS HR & Duty Management application (including Training Admin), and to explore the future possibility of a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning solution being developed. This longer term solution identifies the points at which it is appropriate to consider whether modules such as Payroll and Finance with self-service functionality would be appropriate for inclusion in a wider project. The team were also asked to consider collaboration with neighbouring forces and other public sector organisations.
   6. It is not possible to provide any definitive costs for the options at the present time as NYP are not in a position to commence procurement activities. However, advice has been sought from our regional procurement team and proposals are in line with this and indicative costs of the recommended option are provided below.
   7. Cost will be incurred as part of the delivery of the proof of concept stage. It is likely that these costs will be incurred at the end of stage or included in the full implementation costs, should it be decided to award the implementation contract to Capita. A decision is required to authorise the proof of concept stage, which is likely to incur costs in the region of £101,800 as detailed in Part 2, section 6.6 of this report. If it is anticipated at any point that the proof of concept costs are likely to be outside the 10% tolerance, an exception report will be submitted to the PCC as per the agreed process.
2. Matters for consideration
   1. The description of options, benefits, disadvantages and risks are described in Appendix 2 – Options.
   2. Currently NYP is managing its HR, Training Admin and Duty Management functions using NSPIS software which receives limited support from Capita. This runs on hardware which is no longer supported as it is out of warranty and parts are no longer available.
   3. The immediate priority is to reduce the risk to the organisation of continuing to use an ageing system. It is recommended that this is achieved by upgrading to Origin as quickly as possible as a replacement HR, Training Admin and Duty Management system. It is further recommended that scripts, workflows and processes that have been successfully implemented by Staffordshire Police are adopted as part of the upgrade.
   4. It is recommended that implementation is phased. Phase 1 will start with a proof of concept stage which will enable NYP to:
      • Assess the gap between Staffordshire Police processes and current NYP processes
      • Learn about Origin through Conference Room Piloting and develop a robust business case and project plan for implementation (which will be subject of a further decision notice)
      • Fully test the solution before a formal contract is entered into.
      • Explore the future possibility of a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution being developed, to include Payroll and Finance modules.
   5. Consultation has taken place with all stakeholder departments in relation to resources required for the initial phase, although we are unable to quantify this until consultation has taken place with the supplier. Therefore, some resources may be able to complete the work within their daily duties, but others may require backfill:Futures:
      • Project Manager
      • Business Analyst
      • Change Analyst

      ISD:

      • Technical Business Analyst
      • Principal Database Administrator (DBA)
      • System Support Engineer
      • Service Level & Continuity Mgt

      HR & Training Services:

      • NSPIS Systems and Performance Administrator (backfill required)
      • Force Personnel and Training Evaluator
      • Trainer
      • Operational Service Delivery Coordinator

      Tasking & Logistics:

      • Duties Inspector
      • Duties Team Leader
      • Duties Officers (backfill required)
      • Police Constable (seconded)
   6. Later phases will offer the option to consider the benefits of adoption of a full ERP at the points when the existing Payroll and Finance systems are due for renewal (approximate timescales in Appendix 3). It will also be possible to consider shared hosting, shared service provision or outsourcing with partners either within the policing environment or with non policing partners such as NYCC.
   7. Details of business continuity arrangements and risk can be found in part 2 of the decision notice.
3. Other options considered, if any
   1. The following options have been investigated and rejected, details of which can be found in Appendix 2:
      • Upgrade from NSPIS to Origin via Maintenance contract, purchase implementation and customisation consultancy in order to customise Origin to NYP defined processes and workflows.
      • Conduct a Mini Competition / Full Tender Exercise to attempt to purchase a system other than Origin, bearing in mind that Capita would most likely submit a tender anyway.
      • Do nothing. The do nothing option is not applicable as a replacement system for NSPIS HR must be in place, as the support contract for NSPIS expires in March 2013 and the hardware that NSPIS is deployed on is out of warranty.
4. Contribution to Police and Crime Plan outcomes
   • Effectiveness and efficiency of the business – being able to deploy officers with the right skills as efficiently and as effectively as possible
   • Providing value for money – having a system that requires little or no manual work arounds and manages the establishment of the force effectively
   • Working practices that maximise efficiency and minimise bureaucracy – as above
   • Compliance with legislation and policy – Origin is Winsor compliant and benefits from the development fund as and when legislation or requirements change
   • Resilience of systems and contribution to business continuity
5. Consultations carried out
   1. As Staffordshire Police have developed a fully integrated ERP based on Origin products over the last 3 years the NYP project team visited the force. They reported that they had received excellent Project Management when Capita were on site but that at times continuity of technical resources was an issue. This highlights the need for professional, experienced, pro-active project management from NYP to deliver a successful implementation.
   2. Notes from the visit can be made available.
   3. Wiltshire Police carried out a benchmarking exercise during the writing of the options paper of UK Police Force HR system usage. The results didn’t show any viable ERP solutions other than the use of Origin. Cheshire Police have a Regional collaboration with Northants and are implementing an ERP suite from Oracle, integrated into Crown Duty Management. The technology is hosted by Capgemini and sharing reduces costs as numbers grow. Cheshire and Northants are establishing a Shared Service Centre in Cheshire for transactional work for HR, Finance, Procurement and Payroll with scope to develop more. However, the ‘vanilla’ Oracle option has already been discounted by NYP, and it is something that South Yorkshire Police are moving away from to take up the Origin ERP in collaboration with Humberside Police.
6. Financial Implications/Value for money
   1. At this time Regional Procurement have advised NYP that we should not be talking to suppliers about potential costs, however experience indicates that option 3 is likely to be the most expensive option as it will incur an additional cost to NYP of approximately £50k to conduct a tender exercise.
   2. Out of the Origin options (1 & 2), option 1 is likely to cost significantly less as customisations is likely to be kept to a minimum. A planning guide-line is £1050 per day for Origin Technical consultants, so a bespoke, customised solution could easily be twice the cost of adopting a model already deployed to another force.
   3. Neither option 1 or 2 would involve any licensing costs, as they are upgrades to an existing system.
   4. All options will incur hardware costs to provide a replacement server for the application to run on. It is proposed that this is specified as part of the proof of concept, and future proofed should the force decide to develop an ERP solution at a later date.
7. Legal Implications
   1. The report outlines the professional procurement advice received upon which the Director of Legal & Compliance has placed equal reliance.
   2. Regular updates have been provided separately in relation to the potential interplay with a related dispute resolution matter. That is not reproduced here. That matter constitutes no barrier to the decision sought.
   3. There appear to be no other substantive legal compliance issues at play. Accordingly, having read this report and having considered such information as has been provided at the time of being asked to express this view (20 December 2012) the Director of Legal & Compliance Services is satisfied that this report does not ask the PCC’s delegate to make a decision which would (or would be likely to) give rise to a contravention of the law.
8. Equality Implications
   1. There are no negative diversity or equality impacts as a result of this proposal. The introduction of a new system will result in the force being able to provide management information in relation to the equality and diversity agenda that ensure that the priorities of the force are responding to the most pressing and important issues.
   2. During the Proof of Concept phase, equality and diversity issues will be considered further alongside the completion of a full equality analysis.
9. Appendices
   1. Contained within Part 2 (exempt from publication)