CCCC16A40 - Provision of Finance Systems Future Strategy Workshops

The MoD has a significant Oracle footprint e.g. throughout Finance, Military and Civilian Personnel systems. This has been implemented organically over a number of years through a series of incremental, mainly stand alone, projects. This has led to a footprint that is segmented over several sets of hardware, which means that business process flows are inherently dependent upon a large amount of interfaces which impact the smooth flow of data through the system and add unnecessary complexity.

The approach taken to date meets business requirements, though as the eBusiness Suite (eBS) is spread across disparate servers there has been limited ability to utilise the Commercial off the Shelf (CotS) workflow through the integration of eBS. The net result of the current deployed architecture is that there are inefficiencies in the use of applications and therefore in business process.

The release 2 of Contracting Purchasing and Finance (CP&F) on 20th October 2016 will span the Finance and Procurement applications estate. This will create opportunities, both to improve Business Process flows through CotS workflow and also System Data flows through CotS integration. Please note that HR and Payroll will remain on their own hardware and continue to provide finance related transactions (e.g. accounting impact of staff costs) to the DFMS.

The Planning, Budget and Forecasting (PB&F) process is mainly supported by Enterprise Planning, COGNOS functionality. The PB&F application is large and complex, and there are many “off-system” processes (e.g. Excel), that support the application. In addition the business process that PB&F supports is complex with many hand-offs between Head Office, and other MoD Departments. This in turn compounds the issues created by an over complex application. Director General Finance has established a Finance Transformation Programme to review the existing finance business processes and identify improvements. The Financial Management Strategy aligns to industry best practise that the Department should seek to continually improve the finance systems in incremental steps to deliver the improvements in the business process flows.

Additional information: How to apply Instructions to Potential Providers:

Potential Providers must first be registered on the Crown Commercial Service e-Sourcing Suite in order to respond to the Procurement. If you have not yet registered on the e-Sourcing Suite, this can be done online at https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk by following the link ‘Register for CCS e-Sourcing’.

Please note that, to register, you must have a valid DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering, who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so at the Invitation to Tender stage. Potential Providers should note that it could take up to 10 working days to obtain a DUNS number. Full instructions for registration and use of the system can be found at: http://gps.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/i-am-supplier/respond-tender

Once you have registered on the e-Sourcing Suite, you will need to express your interest by emailing ExpressionOfInterest@Crowncommercial.gov.uk The dead line for expressing an interest in the Request for Information event is 11am on Thursday 25th August 2016.

Your email must clearly state: - name/reference of this procurement - the name of the registered supplier; and - the name and contact details

Crown Commercial Service will then process your registration and assign your organisation to the opportunity. The registered user will receive a notification email to alert them once this has been done.

It is advised however that Potential Providers register as soon as practically possible in order to receive the Invitation to Tender and have a sufficient amount of time to respond. Crown Commercial Service is not able to offer any extensions to the advertised procurement timetable.

For technical assistance on use of the e-Sourcing Suite please contact the Helpdesk: Freephone: 0345 010 3503 Email: supplier@Crowncommercial.gov.uk