Middlesbrough Council to change channel with support from Amor Group

Middlesbrough Council has appointed Amor Group to provide support for its five year ICT strategy. Amor has been challenged to help drive down costs and increase efficiency whilst maintaining service levels for Middlesbrough citizens through a redesign of the council’s application architecture. The programme commenced in May and will run through until March 2014.

The largest single consultancy contract that Amor Group has secured to date, the contract is part of Middlesbrough Council’s ‘Change Programme’ which aims to deliver £75m of savings over a five year period. The ICT element is focussed on the development and delivery of technology that supports this business aim.

Iain Cherry, Government Business Unit Director, Amor Group said: “We are working in partnership with Middlesbrough Council to adapt its core and line of business applications in order to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. This will aid the council in the delivery of cost and spending reduction targets that are necessary due to current budget constraints.

“The council has ear-marked savings to come through the delivery of core applications which includes a channel shift to providing services online. This is a great opportunity for Amor Group to support local government and we look forward to working with the council throughout 2013 and beyond.”
In order to provide support to the council, Amor Group will conduct a comprehensive options appraisal and business requirements assessment. This will allow Middlesbrough Council to ensure its business applications are being managed effectively. Amor will also develop an architecture to manage future developments and additions to the local authority’s ICT application portfolio.

Through this new structure and support from Amor Group, the council will benefit from new, consolidated and integrated data and technologies exploiting developments in ICT relevant to the public sector – which will ultimately benefit the people of Middlesbrough.

Steve Fletcher, Corporate Programme Manager at Middlesbrough Council said, “In the face of unprecedented funding cuts, the Council is seeking to transform itself to a much more efficient organisation, with services built around resident and community needs. ICT underpins much of the Council's core business, enabling transformation of services, and as such is a key thread to the Change Programme. Procuring Amor to undertake an applications review is one of the first steps in a significant ICT programme which will see the Council optimise technology across its services, becoming digital by default.

“The support from Amor Group will go a long way to helping us achieve this aim.”