Sandwell Council are looking to direct award a contract to Oracle Corporation UK Limited for the continued provision of the Council's Oracle Fusion Cloud Services for a two-year period from 31 October 2026 to 30 October 2028. Oracle Fusion is the Council's business-critical Enterprise Resource Planning system supporting Finance, Human Resources, Payroll and Procurement. Following commercial negotiations, a renewal cost for 2 years has been secured, including additional analytics functionality and licence volumes reflecting current business need.

Procurement Act 2023

Direct award Oracle Fusion was approved as the Council's Enterprise Resource Planning system in October 2019, appointing Oracle Corporation UK Limited for an initial 5-year term with an option to extend for a further 2 years. The system went live in October 2024, following a Council-wide transformation programme, and now underpins Finance, HR, Payroll and Procurement across the organisation. Oracle Fusion is the platform through which the Council manages its financial resources, workforce and procurement activity, and its continued operation supports the delivery of all Corporate Plan priorities by ensuring corporate resources are managed efficiently, effectively, and transparently. The Council's own Programme Completion Report identified ninety benefits mapped to the Council's strategic priorities following go-live, including improved budget monitoring, automated approvals, and significant productivity gains for staff. The renewal protects the Council's investment in Oracle Fusion and ensures continued access to systems that are essential to the effective management of financial, workforce and procurement functions. (a) due to a particular supplier having intellectual property rights or other exclusive rights, only that supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and (b) there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works.