Six London borough councils have selected Capgemini to implement, host and manage a new shared instance of Oracle’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

The implementation will be based on Capgemini’s tGov "delivery portfolio", a set of standardised, Oracle-based software and business process components designed for use in local government.

The six boroughs – Lambeth, Lewisham, Barking & Dagenham, Brent, Croydon and Havering – already use Oracle’s ERP software, and will upgrade to the latest release, R12, as part of the new deal.

The implementation is expected to take 13 months, after which a second wave of boroughs will be able to use the shared instance, known as ‘One Oracle’.

The four-year deal is the first contract to be signed as a result of Programme Athena, an initiative to encourage shared use of software between London councils.

According to Athena programme manager Nadira Hussein, Capgemini was selected after an 18 month procurement process on the grounds of cost effectiveness and the fact that the ‘vanilla’ tGov offering met many of the councils’ requirements without the need for customisation. "We want to move away from customisation," she told Information Age.

The cost benefits are expected to derive from shared hosting, reduced procurement costs and the standardisation of business processes across boroughs, Hussein said.

Programme Athena is also working on ‘One SAP’, for those boroughs that use SAP software, as well as ‘One Agresso’ and ‘One CedAr’.