Northern Ireland awards £17m finance, procurement and logistics deal

Northern Ireland's Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety has awarded a 10-year contract for finance, procurement and logistics systems to Advanced Business Solutions. The deal, worth £17.3m, is on behalf of the Health and Social Care Board. According to a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, the department hopes to standardise and streamline HR, procurement, and logistics processes across the organisation and its agencies. The notice says that the new systems will aim to increase efficiency; minimise the risk of system failure or resource unavailability; and improve the quality, timeliness and accessibility of financial, procurement and workforce management information available to health and social care managers. "The system solutions will allow process innovation, be adaptable and allow for leverage across multiple clients while ensuring that there is minimum disruption to service," it says. "The procurement of the new finance, procurement and logistics systems will optimise risk transfer associated with system management, availability and delivery and establish clear accountability arrangements." This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.