In a contract worth around £4 million over five years, Northgate will provide a central management, hosting and support service for six key business applications. Northgate already provides the council with its revenues, benefits and housing applications, and will now take over the hosting and support for these applications, together with the hosting of the council's finance, social care and planning systems.

Northgate will also take ownership of, upgrade and maintain the council's technology assets for these applications over the term of the contract. Flexibility and change management issues are also built into the agreement, enabling the council to proactively manage its requirements rather than simply respond to events.

Councillor Jonathan Bianco, Cabinet Member for Finance & Business Services at London Borough of Hillingdon, said:
'The council wished to create greater capacity to concentrate on service delivery with the successful supplier understanding our priorities and sharing our goals. Northgate demonstrated an understanding of the council's vision and their depth of technology expertise.'

The services provided to Hillingdon include: technology refresh and provision of new hardware within a secure datacentre environment; resilient and secure data communication links; continuous server monitoring; printing services for the Finance, Revenues and Benefits applications; license management services; change management processes and a 24/7 Service Desk.

Hillingdon, situated to the west of London, is the second largest London borough, covering a total area of about 42 square miles and with a population of more than 240,000. Hillingdon is home to Heathrow, the world's busiest airport, which caters for more than 60 million passengers a year. The council employs approximately 6,500 people, including schools' staff.

Related links to this article:
London Borough of Hillingdon [1]

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Attend the e-Government National Conference: Learn what Local Authorities plan to do with Shared Services in 07-08
Results of the Local Authority National Survey are being unveiled at the e-Government National Conference [2] on 17th January at the Savoy Hotel in London. This, the largest 2006 survey of UK Local Authority CEOs, heads of service and Councillors detailed their plans for investment in shared services to deliver the vision in the Local Government White Paper. Tickets are just £160 (includes Savoy lunch). Book at this link. [3]

On the evening of 17th January, winners from among 89 finalists in 11 categories will be announced in the e-Government National Awards 2006 [4]. The Awards recognise and praise the best strategies, achievements, teams and individuals in UK e-Government.

Platinum sponsor is KPMG [5], and also a sponsor are SunGard [6] and O2 [7].

The Awards are supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit [8], the Office of Government Commerce [9], the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) [10], and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers) [11].