The council has chosen outsourcer Capgemini as a preferred bidder to implement the Oracle ERP system across the council, with contract negotiations ongoing.

The £7 million fixed price contract will be delivered over the next 15 months, and includes implementing "hundreds of industry leading best practice business processes", said the council.

The council said the cost of the ERP system will be "offset" by £20 million in savings that will be generated by the system over the next five years, and the "potential" to generate income by taking on finance and human resources services for other public sector organisations.

The new business system is being deployed to streamline internal services at Cornwall such as finance, purchasing and human resources. The system will replace largely paper-based processes that Cornwall Council inherited from the old county and district councils.

It will provide a single integrated online system that will cut duplication, bureaucracy and costs, said the council. At the same time, the authority said it will introduce new and more efficient industry standard business processes to further streamline operations.