Hillingdon Council Cabinet Member and Officer Decisions
Corporate Technology & Innovation 2025/26 - Symology Highways Solution with upgrade to Aurora Cloud
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Chief Officer Decision Notice Page 1 This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk Chief Officer Decision Notice For non-key decisions Notice is hereby given that the following Chief Officer Decision has been made, as delegated by the Cabinet/Cabinet Member or under their delegated authority in the Council’s Constitution. 1. NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION Title of decision Corporate Technology & Innovation 2025/26 - Symology Highways Solution with upgrade to Aurora Cloud - CR 2 Name and Title of Chief Officer(s) making the decision Matthew Wallbridge, Chief Operating Officer Directorate Corporate Services Reference No. 1411 Date of decision 28 April 2025 Relevant Ward N/A Details of Decision Taken Decision The Chief Officer agrees to: 1. Accept the single tender from Symology Limited via the YPO Framework for the provision of the Highways Aurora Cloud Solution to the London Borough of Hillingdon for a 1+1+1 - year period from 1 May 2025 and at the estimated value of £504,935 2. Agrees to the capital release request of £132k from the 2025/26 Corporate Innovation & Technology budget to fund the implementation, upgrade and migration of the Symology system to Aurora Cloud. Reason for decision The Council manages its Highways and Assets through the Insight Highways system, from Symology Limited to ensure that the required service levels are achieved and maintained. The main duties as a local authority are contained within the Highways Act 1980, with Section 41 of the Act imposing a duty to maintain highways maintainable at the public expense. In addition to the specific duties and powers contained in the legislation, the code stresses that the authority has a general duty of care to the community to maintain highways to a condition fit for purpose. Having an effective Highways case management solution is critical for complying with this. The Council’s current contract with Symology Limited for the Insight s Highways system expires 30 April 2025, with no opportunity to extend. Chief Officer Decision Notice Page 2 This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk This is an essential system to enable the Council to continue to deliver an efficient and effective highways service. The connection manager API from Insights that links the Council’s street works with the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Street Manager will be de- supported from 1 July 2025, so to ensure that Hillingdon Council does not lose the ability to link with the DfT Street Manager, the street works module must be migrated to Symology’s Aurora Solution before 30 June 2025. This new contract with Symology Limited will provide the hosted platforms, the software licences as well as the annual support and maintenance and the migration and upgrade to Aurora Cloud Solution. Hillingdon Council aims to be an efficient, well -run, digitally enabled council, working with partners to deliver services that improve the lives of all residents. Becoming a digital council fundamentally improves the resident, visitor, business, and staff experience through simpler, better services and tools. The strategy outlines steps to enhance service delivery to residents by utilising technology. The core ambition is to put residents first by enabling them to access services quickly and at their conve nience, while also delivering more efficient and effective processes for council staff. The Digital Strategy sets out five priorities: building services online by default to meet residents' expectations for seamless, device- accessible services; better data for informed decision- making to understand resident needs; moderni sing infrastructure and systems for reliable, integrated, cloud- based architecture; building digital capability and inclusion by upskilling employees and supporting residents' access to digital devices; and delivering a digital place by using technology to improve borough func tions amidst challenges like population growth, automation, congestion, and the climate crisis. Hillingdon's Digital Strategy supports the new contract with Symology Limited to deliver an improved highways solution enabling residents to self-serve by reporting potholes or damaged streetlights to help maintain a safe environment to live in. One of the main advantages is the proactive maintenance capability of the system. By supporting planned maintenance, the Aurora solution helps prevent issues before they escalate into major problems, ensuring safer roads and infrastructure for residents. The system's incident management features enable quick responses to issues such as potholes or damaged streetlights and real- time monitoring through dashboards and automated alerts also ensures that problems are more effectively identified and addressed by the council staff. Alternative options considered and rejected Option 1: Do nothing. This is not a viable option as the current Insight system will no longer connect with the Department for Transport (DfT) Street Manager API after 30 June 2025, so they recommend that migrations to the Aurora cloud solution take place sooner to ensure a seamless transition. Without renewing, the Council would be left without a corporate highways system. Officers do not recommend this. Chief Officer Decision Notice Page 3 This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk Option 2: Procure a new system. Whilst there are other suppliers of systems, the current contract with Symology Limited expires 3 0 April 2025 and a full tender exercise would take 12- 18 months to complete due to the complexity of the integrations with other third-party suppliers. Furthermore, the costs associated with a whole system change would be significant, from reviewing current processes and integrations, writing requirements, running the procurement process to final implementation impacting the highways services so this option is not recommended. Officers do not recommend this. Factors considered No Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) is required. This new contract supports the Digital Strategy approved by Cabinet (October 2024), which sets out a vision ‘closely aligned to service transformation and focused on leveraging technology to further enhance and streamline the Council’s business operations, alongside promoting self-service models internally and externally’. £5,270k is earmarked in the Council’s savings programme in relation to the overall investment of the Digital Strategy, rising to £5,670k by 2028/29. The vision for our Digital Strategy is ‘We will improve the way the council delivers services to residents by utilising technology. We will put residents first by enabling them to access the services they need quickly and at their own convenience, whilst also delivering more efficient and effective processes for council staff’. Report Author & Directorate Helen Vincent, Corporate Services Legal and Finance Comments Finance comments In the first year, the initial implementation, hosting and maintenance costs will be covered within the existing revenue and contracts budgets. Any additional expenditure in future years will be subject to a review of the overall revenue and capital budget for this service. Finance Officer name and Title Chris Malin Head of Finance – Corporate Services and Finance Legal Comments Legal Services confirms that there are no legal impediments to the Council approving the recommendation for a direct award contract via the YPO Framework. Legal Officer Name and Title Neena Sharma Deputy Principal Lawyer for the Contract, Property and Planning Team & Contract Lawyer 02.04.2025 Appendices / report attached List here any report / appendices / e.g. Symology Highways System & Migration to Aurora Cloud Chief Officer Decision Notice Page 4 This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk tender evaluations or other documentation to be included in support of this decision Exempt Classification That the appendices be declared as exempt from publication as it involves the disclosure of information in accordance with Section 100(A) and paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12 (A) to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), in that the report contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it. Cabinet Member & other Chief Officer consultation Name and Title of any other Chief Officer(s) you have consulted with and as per any delegation. Andy Goodwin, Acting s151 & Head of Strategic Finance Name and Title of the Cabinet Member you have consulted, and as per any delegation Cllr Martin Goddard, Cabinet Member for Finance and Transformation Any conflicts of interest declared by the Chief Officer making this decision and/or Cabinet Member who is consulted by the officer which relates to the decision - or if dispensation by the CEO was granted to them. N/A Authority for this decision Detail authority from Cabinet or under delegated authority in the Constitution / Cabinet 10 October 2024: London Borough of Hillingdon - Agenda for CABINET on Thursday, 10th October, 2024, 7.00 pm Cabinet agreed the Digital Strategy projects and expenditure and then delegated authority to the Chief Digital & Information Officer (now Chief Chief Officer Decision Notice Page 5 This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk Officer Scheme of Delegations Operating Officer) and Corporate Director of Finance (S151), in consultation with the Cabinet portfolio holder, to incur expenditure within this budget and make all necessary procurement decisions on the programmes and projects set out in the report, reporting decisions for transparency as required and to agree that any variations to specific projects within the programme for 2024/25 and 2025/26 be subject to i) being within the Strategy’s objectives, ii) being within the approved budget and associated aggregate savings for the financial year and iii) having the agreement of the Chief Digital & Information Officer and Corporate Director of Finance (S151), in consultation with the Cabinet portfolio holder. 2. APPROVAL Report author - complete the Notice above, and along with any supporting appendices or report send it to the Chief Officer to decide. Chief Officer making the decision - please review the draft decision notice above (section 1), amend if required, along with all information provided. Indicate above whether you have a conflict of interest or not. When you wish to approve this, please sign/date below indicating your approval, then follow next steps…. Formal approval by Chief Officer making the decision Signed Date 28/04/25 Chief Operating Officer