Hertfordshire selects Serco as preferred bidder

Hertfordshire CC said that it had selected Serco over Vertex as its preferred bidder for the deal, which covers HR, payroll, occupational health, finance, IT, facilities management and customer contact services. Once signed, the contract will replace the council's existing core IT deals when they come to an end between April 2011 and November 2011. "This procurement process is one of many projects underway that will contribute to the savings we must make over the next three years. In total, this new contract will save us at least £20m during its lifetime and we are expecting even more savings," said deputy leader David Lloyd. Hertfordshire plans to open up the deal to district and borough councils and the police authority in the area "as a further way of saving taxpayers' money". "By sharing services such as IT, payroll, HR and call centres there are many opportunities to get the most out of our resources and build on existing successful partnerships with other public sector organisations," Lloyd added. A spokesperson for the council told GC News that as the procurement is still at the preferred bidder stage the value of the deal is still to be determined. "This will probably happen in mid-November and we will be able to release the value of the contract then. We do know that the contract will be worth several millions of pounds over the next eight years," she added. The council also confirmed that customer services will still be locally based, using Hertfordshire CC's offices.