Leicester City Council has launched a tender to find a replacement for its decade old customer relationship management system.

The authority is inviting tenders for a single contractor to provide the CRM system, along with support, maintenance and development of the system.

The council announced its plans to replace its current LACRM system in March 2011, but appears to have dropped its original intention only to consider a Microsoft system.

The tender notice said: “This CRM is more than 10 years old and is no longer being developed and is fairly old technology. It does not lend itself to the Councils aspirations to reduce costs and improve customer access, including by integrating with back office systems and allowing customers to log and view their own enquiries.”

Improvements to customer experience, including more ability to self-serve, along with efficiency targets, are being targeted by the council.

In addition, the council wants to move towards a single customer record and implement processes for efficiently updating this information.

The contract would last for an initial term of four years with the option to extend for a further six  years in two year tranches.

It is expected to go live in October.