Southend-on-Sea Borough Council selects Series4000 from Real Asset Management

The unitary authority which owns and leases approximately £800 million worth of fixed assets selects RAM’s Series4000 to centralise the fixed asset register, ensure SORP 2007 compliance and improve CPA score

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, a unitary authority which provides social services, education and leisure facilities to residents of Southend, has selected Real Asset Management’s (RAM) Series4000 software to improve its management of over £800 million worth of fixed assets.  The purchase, including Asset4000, Project4000 and the Asset Update Utility, is valued at £25,000 and includes installation, configuration, training and data conversion. Series4000 will assist the Council extensively with compliance to the SORP 2007 requirements by providing a centralised asset register, streamlining business processes and enabling staff to work more efficiently. Swifter, more efficient year-end audits will also help improve the council’s Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) score.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s fixed assets are extremely varied, including 2,000 houses, 4,000 flats, shops, car parks, schools, community centres and libraries.  Prior to purchasing RAM’s Series4000 solution, the Council was recording all of its assets on separate spreadsheets at the end of each year.  Following the Council’s decision to upgrade its capital accounting system, Series4000 has provided a centralised and fully automated means of accurately storing and managing all fixed asset data, increasing efficiencies and reducing running costs.

Series4000 significantly reduces user intervention, a feature which was vital for Southend-on-Sea Borough Council.  Marc Albano, Group Manager for Financial Planning and Capital at the Council explains, “We are constantly looking for new ways in which to increase the effectiveness of staff and quality of work. RAM’s software allows us to monitor, manage and track all of our fixed assets incredibly accurately at detailed component level and with minimal manual input, which in turn ensures that we comply with SORP 2007.”

RAM’s Series4000 is specifically designed to assist with SORP 2007 compliance and proved superior after rigorous comparison with a number of other products. RAM’s excellent reputation among public sector organisations also went a long way to influence Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s decision to implement Series4000.

Marc  comments, “Local authorities are a very close community so it is very easy to find out which software solutions perform best in the local government market.  When talking to our peers, RAM received really positive feedback, so this definitely helped when it came to choosing the software.”

Looking ahead, Southend-on-Sea will be using RAM’s software to ensure that they comply with the new IFRS, which comes into effect for public sector organisations in 2010.  Marc concludes, “IFRS is the burning issue for the next 18 months and we have every confidence that RAM’s Series4000 solution will be equally as effective in terms of helping us to comply then as it is for us now with SORP 2007.”

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