Worcestershire County Council selects TechnologyOne for financials

Worcestershire County Council has partnered with AIX-listed TechnologyOne to replace its financial system with the company’s OneCouncil SaaS-based solution for financials, supply chain management, and enterprise cash reporting.

As with the Runnymede Council deal we reported on last month, TechnologyOne will implement OneCouncil under its “SaaS+” model (which combines SaaS provision with implementation, running, support and upgrades into a package designed to migrate risk from client to supplier – see TechnologyOne: Connected systems for seamless digital experiences). The Worcestershire contract, issued under the G-Cloud 14 framework, will see the council pay £255k per year for OneCouncil (plus a one-off cost of £11.5k).

The council’s decision to replace its existing OneAdvanced e5 system was approved by its Commercial Board in December, with a decision note that suggested TechnologyOne won the day on a combination of three main points: price (the cost of delivery was “within the financial envelope of what the council [was] paying for its current system, but with greater additional functionality”); flexibility (the council welcomed that modules could be switched on at a later date, without the need for additional procurement); and implementation risk (Worcestershire’s evaluation panel felt that OneCouncil being both developed and installed by TechnologyOne directly, not by third parties, would “lead to a less complicated environment” should issues occur during the process).

OneCouncil is part of a digital transformation drive by council to streamline processes, look for inefficiencies, and also leverage real-time data to help improve strategic decision-making.

Worcestershire narrowly escaped having to issue a Section 114 notice – effectively declaring itself “bankrupt” – earlier this year, thanks to last-minute additional funding from the government’s Exceptional Financial Support programme (which enabled it to avoid a £33.6m shortfall in the 2025/26 financial year). However, the council has been at pains to point out that, in its case, the dire financial straits it found itself in were due principally to rising costs for social care and related services – not the sort of IT debacle that’s plagued other authorities (Worcestershire’s IT budget was actually forecast to underspend in 2024/25, according to mid-year reporting).

Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 09:34

Tags: contract   SaaS+   financial system