Cost of new council IT system TRIPLES to £1.8million

The council is currently introducing the system, known as Civica CX, to increase efficiency and improve security.

But costs have tripled since the project was approved.

The initial budget was £600,000 which then doubled to £1.2 million in March this year.

Introducing the new system is part of a shake-up within the council’s housing department which has involved staff changes and a new interim head of housing, Moh Hussein.

Mr Hussein – who has experience introducing the software elsewhere – reviewed the project which saw it put on hold for four months.

He is now requesting further funds which would bring the cost of the project to £1.82 million – triple the initial estimate.

If approved by the council, the extra money would be used to fund new staff and technical support.

Gaps in resources and staffing were identified as key issues, as well as an attempt to complete the project in around 16 months when it took other councils up to five years – none had achieved it in the same timeframe as Arun.

Now the system – which hopes to reduce paperwork and give customers access to self service – might be up and running six months later than expected.

The increasing costs and missed deadlines are due to be discussed by the council’s Housing and Wellbeing Committee on Thursday (21 July).

During the last meeting in March, members said ‘lessons must be learned’ from the project.