Conwy Council invests in the cloud to run services

Conwy County Borough Council is digitally transforming its business management and finance systems, which are used by thousands of employees, after awarding a contract to enterprise SaaS provider software company TechnologyOne.

The Welsh unitary authority, which employs over 4,400 people and provides 118,000 residents with services ranging from education, leisure facilities, social services, waste management and highways maintenance, will replace on-site legacy systems that date back many years and switch to new state-of-the-art OneCouncil Software as a Service (SaaS).

The move to the new software will help the council improve real-time financial decision making and business reporting.

TechnologyOne’s SaaS technology will provide hundreds of managers and council executives with fully integrated, modern financial and business management tools, including general ledger, accounts payable, purchase to pay, expense management, procurement and financial reporting. The new system also includes additional modules for budget forecasting and asset management, which are currently managed on spreadsheets.

The SaaS platform will also bring greater business resilience, as it will be accessible for employees at any time, using any device, wherever they are, through an intuitive online portal. The council also expects to reduce in-house IT support costs, as maintenance, data storage and software upgrades will all be carried out remotely, in the cloud, by TechnologyOne.

Sandra Forrest, Head of Accountancy and Exchequer at Conwy County Borough Council said: “We can’t wait to start using TechnologyOne’s modern, intuitive, cost-effective finance system. It’ll give us access to better management information and aid decision making. As employees can access it while they’re out and about, we’ll also see a lot of time savings, with teams being able to order new goods and sign-off their team’s expenses on the move.”

The deal marks TechnologyOne’s first council contract in Wales. Last year, North Wales Fire & Rescue Service also switched to the Australian SaaS provider.

TechnologyOne Chief Executive Ed Chung said more and more UK councils were switching to SaaS following the events of the past two years to increase productivity, improve business resilience and strengthen cybersecurity.

“Many councils like Conwy are looking to emerge more resilient from the pandemic and SaaS can help them achieve this. We’re delighted to be partnering with our first Welsh council to help them digitally transform,” he said.