09 April 2014

Bristol, UK, April 09, 2014 -International services and outsourcing provider Serco has purchased the UNIT4 Agresso Local Government ERP Platform to underpin business services at Lincolnshire County Council. 

The software will be used in delivering a range of support services, including finance, human resources, payroll, recruitment, invoice processing and income management.

"The new system will give us the flexibility we need to improve efficiency and reduce costs," said Judith Hetherington Smith, Chief Information and Commissioning Officer at Lincolnshire County Council.

"It will cut back on administration and improve collaboration between departments, while its real-time reporting will mean strategic decisions can be made using the very latest information.

"The end result will be more streamlined and effective processes, bringing taxpayers much better value for money."

The deal forms part of a larger contract, awarded to Serco, to deliver support and customer services to the council, bringing savings of more than £14m over five years.

Sean Hanson, Regional Director at Serco, added: "We're very excited about this partnership and the benefits we believe it will deliver to the council and local communities across Lincolnshire.

"By introducing new technology and ways of working, we'll help improve services and drive efficiencies for the authority.

"However, the most important thing is a smooth transition, with no drop in service for citizens and council staff, something that we'll be working on over the next year."

UNIT4 is already the number one provider of back office systems in local government, and this announcement builds upon that existing momentum.

"This is our first project working with Serco and we're delighted to be working with both them and Lincolnshire County Council," said Anwen Robinson, Managing Director of UNIT4 Business Software Ltd.

"This deal is indicative of the swing in momentum in the public sector ERP market over the last 24 months away from 'big ERP' to technology vendors that offer greater technical and commercial flexibility."

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About UNIT4

UNIT4 is a global cloud-focused business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic public sector and commercial services organisations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively. The Group incorporates a number of the world's leading change embracing software brands including Agresso, our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized and large services intensive organisations; Coda, our best-of-class financial management software; and FinancialForce.com, the cloud applications company formed with investment from salesforce.com.

In the UK we focus strongly on the public sector, where we are the leading provider of ERP systems to local government and post-16 education organisations, as well as having a considerable presence in the emergency services and health sectors. We also focus strongly on professional services organisations and a range of commercial sectors including Financial Services, Retail and Media and Publishing. Overall we aim to be the UK's foremost business software company, providing solutions that transform the delivery of public services and comprehensively support commercial organisations in their ability to adapt and prosper in rapidly changing environments.

With operations in 26 countries worldwide, revenue of €490.5 million was realised in 2013. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands and has over 4,000 employees. For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at www.unit4software.co.uk page 

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