Croydon Council yesterday extended its outsourcing contract with IT services giant Capgemini in a deal worth £83m over five years.

The Council is outsourcing its entire internal IT operations, including 4,000 desktop PCs and key finance, procurement and customer service applications, and consolidating IT departments located in several different offices across the borough.

Nathan Elvery, director of Finance and Resources at Croydon Council, estimates the contract will deliver cost savings of approximately £1m per year, as well as improved operational efficiencies and service performance.

“We would have been happy being able to deliver a better level of services but mainly for the same price, but we have been able to achieve significant levels of financial efficiencies alongside service improvements,” he said.

Capgemini has also upgraded the Council’s IT systems, and improved data integrity and disaster recovery within the terms of the contract, which was funded through the private finance initiative (PFI).

Despite the scale of the outsourcing contract, no redundancies were necessary. Some staff were transferred to Capgemini to help maintain understanding of the way the Council does business, whilst others were given roles on the client side of Croydon Council’s organisation, said Elvery.