DD2625 Renewal of Jaspersoft reporting licences for GLA Open Project System and Skills Gateway

1.1.    Open Project System (OPS) supports 50 grant-funding programmes, mostly related to the work of the Housing and Land (H&L) and Skills and Employment teams. However, it is also used by the Environment and Regeneration teams; and by H&L to manage land projects to allow project delivery to be monitored and reported on. 
1.2.    The current service is made up of a suite of products: the bespoke OPS product itself, which manages grants and allows partners to request and be awarded grants whilst supporting project management for internal project managers; the Skills Gateway, a bespoke learner records system that interfaces with OPS; and Jaspersoft, an off-the-shelf licensed reporting solution for both OPS and Skills Gateway. 
1.3.    Over £11bn of approved grant funding has flowed through OPS since its inception in 2016. Of this, over £5.5bn of grants have been paid via OPS. In addition to this, there is £2.1bn spend on internal land projects managed via OPS. 
1.4.    Jaspersoft has been used as the reporting solution for OPS and the Skills Gateway for the past five years, and is made up of two parts.
1.5.    The first of these is the JasperReports Server, a stand-alone and embeddable reporting tool. It provides reporting and analytics by interfacing with the OPS and Skills Gateway databases. 
1.6.    The second is Jaspersoft Studio, editing software for JasperReports. It helps users design and run report templates; build report queries; write complex expressions; and create custom visualisations. It integrates JasperReports Server to create powerful report-publishing workflows.
1.7.    The existing licence allows users across the GLA to access and report on data from both systems. It is considered to be of daily critical importance for business delivery.  
1.8.    The Jaspersoft products – JasperReports Server and Jasper Studio – are owned by the Cloud Software Group. The GLA proposes to procure the licences for the Jaspersoft products via a call-off from TfL’s Reseller 2 Framework (ICT12833), which commenced on 1 February 2020 and runs until 1 February 2024. The call-off contract will be procured competitively in accordance with the Reseller 2 Framework’s rules for mini-competitions. In light of this, the licences will be procured using a competitive tender process, managed by TfL Procurement and Commercial (via e-tendering), in compliance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.
 

2.1.    The current licence expires in April 2023, and new licences are required to ensure continuity of service. 
2.2.    An organisational review and transformation of grant, project and loans services across the GLA is currently under way. Given the scale of work involved, it is anticipated that this transformation will take a couple of years to deliver, and that it will be three to four years before we are ready to migrate data from current systems to any replacement solutions. 
2.3.    Meanwhile, we anticipate no change to the way OPS and the Skills Gateway will be used over the next couple of years. We therefore require a multi-year licence to ensure that there is no gap in current ways of working. 
2.4.    The current licence is a Jaspersoft licence, with an audit feature add-on for JasperReports Server and Jasper Studio. We require the same provision for the next two years.
2.5.    Once the licences have been procured, the current reporting provisions can continue with no change to users.
 

3.1.    As this is an extension of an existing service, this work does not change any aspects relating to equality or diversity.

Key risks and issues
4.1.    The key risks associated with this decision are as follows:

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities 
4.2.    An effective grant-management system supports the achievement of GLA priorities in the areas where teams use it. This helps ensure Londoners benefit from the outcomes and outputs delivered via grants awarded to partner organisations. 
4.3.    Having a reporting tool that allows extraction and analysis of the data relating to grant projects ensures scrutiny, analysis and measurement of KPIs. 
4.4.    GLA OPS’ implementation is consistent with several aims in the Digital and Technology Strategy and Programme 2019:
•    to support smart ways of working and agile development to deliver better-designed services
•    to make greater use of cloud-based services to support flexible working
•    to have infrastructure that is scalable, reliable and resilient, and has the capacity to cope with greater load
•    to prioritise the use of open-source systems (to reduce our costs, and to produce reusable and sustainable components)
•    to create services that: customers and citizens find useful and well designed; meets user needs; provides the information sought in the fastest possible time; and meets digital service standards.
Impact assessments and consultations
4.5.    There are no conflicts to declare from any of those involved in the drafting or clearance of this decision form.
 

5.1.    The request is for up to £105,000 revenue expenditure to renew the existing Jaspersoft licence for the GLA over the next two years. This is to continue the provision of the reporting for OPS and the Skills Gateway. The expenditure is expected to be split across year one (£50k) and year two (£55k).
5.2.    There is sufficient funding within the OPS revenue budget to cover this cost.
 

Power to undertake the requested decision
6.1.    The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decision requested of the director concerns the exercise of the Authority’s general powers; and falls within the Authority’s statutory power to do such things considered to further or that are facilitative of, or conducive or incidental to, the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development and improvement of the environment in Greater London. In formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:
•    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
•    consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
•    consult with appropriate bodies.
6.2.    In taking the decisions requested, the director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty – namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation) and persons who do not share it; and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Procurement
6.3.    As set out in paragraph 1.8, above, the GLA proposes to procure the Jaspersoft licences via a call-off from TfL’s Reseller 2 Framework. Furthermore, as the officers have stated, the call-off will be undertaken in accordance with the rules of the Reseller 2 Framework. The officers must ensure that a call-off contract is put in place between the Authority and the successful reseller, before the services commence.