Service Unit Financial Services / Sequential number 231
Project title Printing, Personalisation and Mailing of Annual Council Tax Bills / Project Manager Alan Fletcher
Background information
Budget
Date approved……Feb 2006…………… Amount…£25k per annum……… Spent to date…£0k…
Also include
· Action taken in an attempt to comply with Standing Orders including liaison with other authorities who have encountered similar issues.
· Procedures in place to ensure future compliance with Standing Orders.
· Nominated officer responsible for compiling evidence to support Best Value requirements for exceptions to competitive tendering.
By mid March 65,000 bills must be issued in order that Council Tax can start being collected on 1 April. The process involves an extremely tight timetable (cannot start until Council sets the Budget), requires extensive testing, data manipulation, multiple inserts etc.
The supplier has proved to be professional and reliable in producing a high risk, business critical service. The current position is that the price of this service is negotiated.
However, this has not fully complied with Standing Orders for the last 3 years but has been agreed with the previous service unit head on the basis that it was believed to be in the best interests of the authority based on risk and business criticality.
In order to ensure future compliance, this work will be put out to tender next year by including it in the Council’s overall requirement subject to the review of printing as described below or as part of the Unit’s requirement for specialist printing.
Proposal for approval
To continue with the existing supplier for one more year for the printing, personalisation and mailing of the annual Council Tax bills for 2007/08 and approve the past non compliance with standing orders and action taken to prevent a re-occurrence.
Reason(s) for not tendering
A review of the Council’s Print and Design Unit is being undertaken and may result in the Head of Legal and Democratic Services initiating an exercise to test the market’s response to supplying the Council’s printing needs. The outcome of this exercise should lead to a Corporate Printing Strategy being developed to give clear direction to all Service Units regarding their printing needs.
In view of this, rather than award a contract for a number of years for Council Tax bills in isolation, it would appear beneficial to await the outcome of this exercise to maximise the potential efficiencies and savings that could be achieved. To tender for one year only would be uneconomical due to the one off initial set up costs.
and exception sought ( See Standing Orders for full text )
Approval is sought to waive the requirement for competitive tendering under Standing Order 23 by applying the following exception referred to in Standing Order 24 summarised as follows:
/ a) Negotiated tender with existing contractor. Requires approval by the Executive.
b) Supply of goods/materials/services if:
/ (i) sold only at fixed price;
/ (ii) prices controlled by trade organisations or government order;
/ (iii) limited number of contractors but reasonable number of these invited to submit tenders;
/ (iv) set up by other organisations ( contracting procedures equivalent to Borough of Poole ).
/ c) Unforeseeable and required urgently. Requires agreement of Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Executive.
/ d) Repairs , supply of parts or updates for existing machinery, computers etc.
/ e) Original estimate less than £25,000. ( Quotation procedure followed. )
Approval
Head of Service Unit…………………………………………………………..…………Date………….………...
Head of Financial Services……………………………………………………………..Date……….………………
Chairman (only under 24a and 24c )……………………………………………….…Date……………………….
Vice-Chairman (only under 24a and 24c )………………………. ……………..…...Date…………………….
MHWordApprovalFormExceptionCompTend
Annual Billing
Our existing supplier, Computastat, is an independent bureau and therefore does not have any financial ties with production sites. They work closely with trade suppliers who are monitored on price, service and quality, utilising their strict quality procedures. Their long term working relationship with selected production sites ensures they can deliver best value products and service.
In addition, we know from experience that Computastat will expertly manage the project. We also know that they always meet our deadlines by strictly policing schedules i.e. will do all the chasing. All in all this ensures we hit the critical mailing date. What cannot be underestimated from a cost point of view is the freeing up of Officer time at a crucial time of year. As a parallel the Council Tax leaflet (simple A4 sheet) requires continuous checking and chasing by the Lead Officer right up to the point of dispatch.
The Annual printing process involves;
1. Copy for artwork.
2. Proof of bill/leaflet artwork to Council.
3. Final approval of artwork
4. Test of Giros completed
5. Test Data
6. White proofs (test data)
7. White proofs
8. Approval of white proofs
9. Leaflets required
10. Live data
11. Live data proofs
12. Approval of live data
13. Mail Date
14. Spoils regenerated
15. Proof of posting (postal dockets)
Items 1-3, Computastat already hold the proofs of our bills. This is a huge document with lots of text, phone numbers, web addresses etc. Set up costs are expensive and just proofing this document alone is a huge exercise. (Each proof being an additional cost as well)
Item 4 – The payment slips are sent away for APACs approval.
Item 5. Computastat already hold the programs that deal with our data manipulation, sorting etc. This allows us to reduce our costs by switching bill types to make savings. Writing bespoke IT programs is costly. The integrity of any new programs would involve rigorous testing and Officer time.
Item 10. Computastat have proved that once they have the Live data the whole process is dealt with by them. They personalise and produce our bills, return requested bills, provide certificates of mailing etc.
Instabills
The Instabill is a patented product to Computastat. It contains the bill, 10 giros, direct debit instruction and explanatory notes. There is no matching of sheets involved as it is kept as 1 sheet of paper through every process. In view of this it is the only process that guarantees a 100% matching. A personalised Instabill costs £0.40 each.
The main alternative to using Instabill is to produce a payment booklet containing 10 Giro slips, a back and front cover. This in itself would require a separate printing project with all of the associated costs. If the payment book was then matched with the bill it is estimated that it would cost approximately £2,500 more.
Another alternative is swipe cards. However swipe cards are not accepted at banks, only Post Offices and Pay Points. The cost of initially producing the card works out at around £0.40 a card and there is also a charge that we would have to bear of approximately £0.40 per transaction. This could cost up to £80,000 if all 20,000 paid this way.
By using the Instabill a 100% matching of payment slips to each taxpayer is guaranteed. If a payment book was used then it is critical that the bill and payment book matched in the envelope. The alternative is separate posting which means additional costs.
Cost savings of bulk buying of print are passed on as well as this process is used by other Councils and the benefit of bulk buying is passed on in our price.
Should a disaster occur during the billing process Computastat have in place processes by which they will immediately reproduce all damaged base stock and recommence mailing within twenty four hours at an alternative mailing site.