Saving money in supporting your applications

All councils use application software to help them to operate efficiently. Finance systems help the council to manage its financial resources, plan budgets and control its spend within the budget limits. HR systems help to manage staffing and payroll information and in some cases to manage the HR resource to enable career development, ensure continuity planning, and manage skills in relation to need.

For many councils the number of systems in use can reach into the hundreds – not all of which are necessarily known to the ICT service – individual services purchase small-scale systems without reference to ICT, or may develop systems using everyday tools such as Excel and Access. All of these systems carry information, require maintenance and support (whether acknowledged formally or not), and carry out functions which in many cases are already provided in other systems. In short, there is massive duplication between systems – duplication of data, of function, and of effort needed to support.

As examples, some systems for environmental health management include customer relationship management functionality – duplicating what may already be handled by the council’s main CRM system. Similarly, an adult social care case management system works in some respects like a CRMS, to the extent that there are some instances of CRMSs being used in place of case management systems. Some social care systems include functionality for electronic document and records management (EDRMS), replicating the functionality of the council’s main EDRMS system.

So what is a council to do?

First, we can help to identify the extent of the duplication, by means of a systematic audit of the applications in use. This not only identifies the full range of applications, but also assesses their alignment to the corporate business strategy and to the corporate technical standards – the business and technical fit. It also assesses the degree of overlap – of functionality and data content – which together with the goodness of fit, helps to identify systems that can be dispensed with, without loss of value. The net result is:

• A reduced number of separate applications
• A reduced spend on software licence fees, and support costs (internal and external)
• Reduced duplication of data across systems – and hence less likelihood of data ambiguity or error
• Confidence that the remaining application estate is fit for purpose and aligned to the corporate need.
• Maximising the value of the existing application components
• Best value of future procurement decisions by applying architecture principles

Going forward, our application architecture approach looks at the strategic needs of the council, and pieces together a combination of applications which meet the corporate and service needs with a minimum of overlap – often using generic systems to provide the functions needed for individual services. This combined with our information architecture and process architecture helps to ensure that:

• Processes are consistent and shared across individual services – booking a facility is the same process regardless of whether it is a committee room, a squash court, or a piece of industrial plant
• Information is not replicated across multiple systems; systems and data content are separated so that information is held once and shared by the systems that process is
• Applications do not replicate their functions
• Inhouse skills are concentrated on strategic systems
• And as a result the costs to the council are reduced and value is significantly increased.

For more information contact us at info@socitmconsulting.co.uk
 

Tweeting your way to savings - a strategy for social networking

Are you clear about how social networking can deliver value and reduce cost for your organisation? If not, you may not be benefiting to the full.

Having a customer service strategy is something that most customer-facing organisations accept as a necessity - but how far does it go in terms of specifically identifying the role of the web, the role of social networking, and taking account of access from smartphones? Currently few councils address these issues either in their strategies or in the practical reality of their websites.

In the near future, it is predicted that over 50% of all web access will be from mobile devices (instead of from desktop or laptop PCs) - yet few public service websites currently cater for these smaller, more portable devices. It's not difficult to remedy - most modern content management systems for websites can be configured to present existing content differently according to the browser being used to access it - but it does need to be planned and to be part of your customer service strategy (how do the characteristics of the smartphone users differ from the home and desktop PC user?).

Using social networking too is worthy of careful consideration. If it is part of your corporate vision to engage more with citizens, to be more proactive in contacting and communicating with specific groups within the community (young people, older adults, people with disability......), to engage groups within the community in meaningful consultation, then social networking has a strong role to play. It needs to be built into your customer service strategy, so that social networking is used appropriately and productively - delivering better service for the citizen and saving cost for the council.

Socitm Consulting can help - we have helped many councils to develop web strategies, which include social networking and mobile access. It's not expensive either - although each organisation has its own individual requirements, in the public sector, the main thrust of one web strategy is broadly similar to others - so we can help you without re-inventing the wheel each time. If you need a web strategy, built on the experience of others, get in touch and see how we can help you.

What to do if the private sector grabs your best technical people?

According to the Reed IT Job Index, IT job opportunities jumped by 23 percent year-on-year in December. It's safe to assume that most of these are in the private sector. So what can you do if some of your best people are tempted away to the bright lights (and high salaries) of the commercial world?

I suggest you give Socitm People a call. We're a new service which builds on Socitm Consulting's long track record in providing interim managers (particularly Heads of IT), project managers and technical people who understand local public services and have the right skills. Examples of what we can provide include:

• a senior interim manager to refocus your ICT service
• a temporary replacement for a technical specialist
• a project manager to complete a specific programme
• cover for long-term sickness or maternity/paternity leave

Our service is simple to use, cost-effective and totally focused on local public service providers. If you would like to discuss your requirements in confidence, please reply to this email with your contact details or call me on 0845 241 2775.

Channel shift – are you reaping the benefits?

Cost or Benefit - is your ICT service up to the job?

Many IT services have undergone major cuts and restructuring in recent months, often resulting in the loss of some of the best people, and of the source of much of the detailed knowledge that helps to make the ICT service perform.

Councils are increasingly asking if what remains is fit for purpose both for the present and for the new ways of working that will be demanded in the future. Councils are asking for "fitness for purpose reviews", "maturity reviews", "viability assessments" - but whatever you call them, they are fundamentally a question of whether the ICT service is equipped and able to provide what the council needs.

With most councils now looking to ICT as a major underpinning component of their plans for change (particularly looking for more integrated information management, alignment of applications with corporate objectives, channel shift and self-service on the web, and mobile, home and flexible working) being sure that the ICT service is up to the job becomes increasingly important.

Socitm Consulting offers a range of ICT fitness for purpose assessments, which give you the assurance that your ICT service has the capability and capacity to meet your needs - and if the ICT service is lacking in some areas, we will provide recommendations for filling the gaps.

We use a combination of interviews with key senior managers, physical reviews of the ICT systems and desk-based research to develop a detailed assessment of the IT service across nine key areas: technical infrastructure, applications and their alignment to corporate and service need, service quality, team structure, skills base, strategy, capacity to innovate, management and governance.

This is presented at a workshop for senior managers enabling them to recognise current strengths and weaknesses of the IT service and its direction-of-travel. We then produce a report that presents the outcomes of this assessment in non-technical language. As well as summarising the current position, the report identifies where improvements are required and a high-level strategic approach for delivering them.

For more information on how an IT service assessment can help your organisation, please call us on 0845 450 0904, email info@socitmconsulting.co.uk or use our online enquiry form.

Save costs on procurement - an easier way to buy applications

If you are likely to buy business application software in the next year or two, you may find that the process has become easier. OGC Buying solutions have set up the Local Government Software Application Solutions framework (ref RM9865), in which 39 suppliers have been appointed, ranging from multi-nationals to SME organisations.

There are nine lots covering

• Revenues, benefits and finance
• Performance management, planning and decision making
• Social care
• Libraries, museums and leisure
• Electoral services
• Social housing
• Waste and environmental health
• Highways and transport
• Planning

The framework became effective from 27/07/2011 and expires two years from then.

It is accessible to Local Government bodies, such as local authorities, and to many other organisations that deliver any of the services to a local authority. But it is wider than the name suggests as the list is open to health, police, social landlords etc, and covers the whole of the UK. It will be managed jointly by the Government Procurement Service and Pro5, and is expected to bring greater savings through collaboration across the UK public sector. They are looking for opportunities to actively work with customers to aggregate demand to drive the best possible prices.

Like most frameworks, it can be used either to provide  a basis for a mini-competition, or in some circumstances to pick a singler provider. The latter applies if you can determine that the requirement can be met from the information available in the catalogue, all the terms can be used without change, and the provider offers the most economically advantageous solution based on “total lifecycle cost” and “service wrap”.

If you want help and advice on using this option and how it compares to other procurement options contact us on info@socitmconsulting.co.uk or 0845 450 0904.

Planting the Flag: Innovative ICT strategy, why and how

Why is innovation now a critical element in ICT strategy for local public services? How can your organisation become more innovative in its use of ICT? In our third 'Planting the Flag' communication we focus on why innovation is vital to local public service transformation through technology, and how Socitm Consulting's skilled professionals can help deliver the unprecedented levels of savings now required.

An innovative ICT strategy is now vital for three reasons:

• The funding crisis means that increased use of automation and customer self-service are urgent, but current ICT strategies centre on core applications which are slow to change. You need to find other routes to maximise internal efficiencies and engage the community
• Expectations are rising. The public see innovative use of ICT everywhere in their daily lives, from smartphone apps to retail technology, while the government expects local public service providers to work together in new and radical ways
• The heaviest service users are least likely to have a computer for internet access (though many may have smartphones) and to be prepared or capable of engaging with service providers in new ways. Effective digital inclusion initiatives are vital to success and require an innovative approach to ensure the excluded get included

Socitm Consulting can help you put innovation and customer focus at the heart of your ICT strategy. We understand how local services currently work and how they need to change. We understand the new technologies and trends and how to implement them effectively online. We have a firm grasp of why digital inclusion matters and how it can be addressed. And we are the acknowledged experts in ICT strategy development and review for local public services.

Whether it's personalisation of social care and services, better use of online facilities, reuse of public sector information or ensuring that all target groups are included, Socitm Consulting is uniquely well-placed to help drive your strategy forward and ensure effective implementation. Call me now or reply to this email if you would like to discuss how to make this happen.

Planting the Flag - redesigning local public services to serve the local public better

Last week in our first "Planting the Flag" briefing we examined why strategic collaboration is now central to ICT strategy for local public services and how you and your colleagues can best approach it. This week we look at Redesigning Services to Simplify, Standardise and Automate. What are the key elements to this?

• Collaborative delivery. Current practice is inconsistent, wasteful and not in the customers' interests. Government expects - and most customers want - local public services to be coherent and delivered seamlessly across the many agencies responsible, but current processes are usually tied to one organisation and frequently to one silo within that organisation. The heaviest users of services are often in contact with the most agencies, but there is little collaboration between them. In headline cases this results in high-profile tragedies but in millions of unpublicised cases there is duplication and inconsistency, wasting taxpayers' money and customers' time. Services must be redesigned to serve the individual customer better by coordinating the efforts of the multiple organisations working for them. Have you started talking to local partners yet, or even having 'talks about talks'? Remember, too that the penetration of smartphone technology into these low-income groups is much higher than you may realise.
• Lean thinking. Current services are flabby, expensive and inefficient. Most local public services, especially those delivered by councils, have developed organically over a long period, gathering layer upon layer of complexity thanks to organisational changes, managerialism, new computer systems and the demands of legislation and 'best practice'. Automation and simplification can reduce current resource requirements by two thirds to produce a cheaper and better solution. How many of your services would look very different - and work better and more cheaply - if they were redesigned with the modern world in mind?
• 'Digital by design.' Current practice is not designed for digital delivery. Most service delivery processes pre-date the digital age and when 'computerised' frequently fail to exploit digital technology fully. More than two thirds of UK households use broadband internet in their daily lives, and are increasingly accustomed to self-service and slick, innovative online services. Within two years, it is predicted that access to the internet through smartphones will overtake access from a PC or laptop - are you ready for that? Even the many services that cannot be actually delivered online could still work better for the customer and service providers if information was better managed and maximum use made of automation. A diminishing minority will not or cannot use online facilities, but that's no reason why your website should not be saving you a lot of money by pleasing the majority who can and do.
• Customer first. Current services are fragmented, poorly designed and built more to suit the organisation than the customer. Getting the public onside is vital if local public services are to survive. What plans does your organisation have to redesign services around customer needs, using customer insight techniques to examine customer behaviour and consult with partners and customer themselves, in order to ensure you deliver what customers want in the way they want?

Financial realities and a rapidly changing world demand the redesign of local service delivery on collaborative principles, using lean techniques and information technology to deliver what the customer wants rather than what delivery organisations are used to providing. We are keen to advise on and facilitate this process. Please contact me if you would to discuss how best we can assist you.

Planting the Flag - strategic collaboration in local public service delivery

This is the first of a series of mailshots on the recently published "Planting the Flag"- an ICT strategy for local public services produced by Socitm for the Local CIO Council.

Planting the Flag identifies three core principles - Collaboration, Redesign, Innovation. Today's focus is on collaboration and how your organisation can best approach it.

Strategic collaboration in local public service delivery is vital for two reasons: it's less expensive, and it delivers better results for the local community. If local providers - councils, government organisations, housing organisations, emergency services, health and the voluntary sector - can collaborate, share and re-use assets, outcomes will improve and costs will fall. Integrating back and front office staff across partner organisations, sharing front offices and web infrastructure, streamlining governance and pooling budgets are just some examples of how collaboration can reduce duplication, improve coordination and cut costs.

Piecemeal initiatives at departmental or organisational level are not the way to achieve this; the risks of failure are considerable and the potential benefits limited. A strategic approach is needed with leadership and clarity of purpose coming from the very top. So what are the key elements in developing this strategic approach?

• Firstly, CEOs, directors and elected members (in the case of councils) have to develop and agree with partner organisations a joint vision of how collaboration will change the shape of local public service delivery, and set clear targets for benefits and savings. Without this clarity of vision and target setting, the whole initiative is doomed to failure.
• The vision has to be communicated and shared within the organisation, across all organisations involved in local service delivery and - crucially - with the ultimate beneficiaries, the public. The views of service users are of particular importance as collaboration should centre on understanding their needs holistically and meeting their needs collaboratively.
• Within each organisation, it is essential for the CFO to put in place the financial performance measures and processes to realise savings and benefits from business change. All too often transformation projects have lacked these and it has proved impossible to measure success or even prove it has been achieved.
• The role of the CIO or equivalent is of critical importance. More collaborative, more efficient and more effective working between local public service providers depends on better use of information and information technology. CIOs understand what technology can do and are skilled in programme and risk management. Whether it's enabling workforces and other assets to be shared, redesigning services to be simpler, standardised and automated, or using innovative technology to empower citizens and communities, the CIO's input is central to the strategic vision and to its tactical implementation.
  

With financial pressures on local public service providers never greater, it's all too tempting to rush into shared service initiatives in pursuit of short-term gains. This will not work. A more strategic approach which starts from a clear vision, is driven by customer needs, has performance management built in and which puts information technology at its core will deliver the local public services of the future more effectively and more cheaply.

We can assist with partnership development, vision setting, strategic planning, shared services, legal frameworks, operating models, community needs analysis and information and ICT strategy. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this and how it might be applied to your community I'd be pleased to hear from you.

Open Source - what's holding you back?

Has the time come for local authorities to adopt Open Source products more widely and thereby save megabucks on software licensing? Open Source is now well established and offers the benefits of sound core products that are free to use and supported by a large community of developers worldwide. The Cabinet Office supports its use and advises that all public sector procurement for IT systems should specifically encourage the offering of Open Source products. Many councils are already using specialist Open Source products – Apache web servers, for example – and a number are looking to migrate to Open Source content management systems which now offer superior functionality to proprietary solutions as well as zero licensing costs.
 
The really big savings, however, are in Open Source office suites. These have been around a long time – as Open Office, Star Office, and in cloud-based form as Google Docs, Zoho’s office suite, and others. Not all of them are good - so you need to be selective – but the potential benefits are enormous. Some councils have as many as 2000 office software users – cutting over to Open Source could mean an significant annual saving per desktop. Larger councils are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on Microsoft which could be better spent elsewhere or not spent at all, and smaller councils even more proportionally.
 
But at the moment there is an obstacle to councils cutting over to Open Source office suites: core applications such as the council’s financial system do not necessary integrate correctly with Open Source products. One possible workaround being considered by some councils is to provide Open Source office suites to the 80-95% of staff who don’t need to interface directly with those applications, and give MS Office only to those who need it, but supporting two separate office suites is far from ideal and reduces the potential savings. The solution to this - the one thing that would drive this forward to everyone’s benefit - would be the adoption across the public sector of the Open Document Format (ODF). If this were to be adopted by all software suppliers, interfacing difficulties with open source office suites would be a thing of the past. It would also facilitate the wider information sharing and interworking between local public service providers anticipated by the government’s Big Society initiative and in Socitm’s ‘Planting the Flag’ strategy for ICT-enabled local public services.
 
Maybe Socitm can help – by finding out how Socitm members and their organisations feel about Open Source and what their forward plans for it are, and by using its influence to encourage further the adoption of open standards, and ODF in particular, for public sector ICT. So, what are your views on the use of Open Source products on the desktop? Does your council currently use them or does it have plans to do so? How much would you save by adopting an Open Source CMS as a first step? How big an issue are integration problems? Would it help if government mandated the use of ODF by software suppliers, or at least strongly encouraged it?
 
Please let me have your views by email or phone on any or all of these questions and your suggestions as to how best Socitm can support you and your colleagues in this area. I look forward to hearing from you.

Websites that Deliver

Are you spending more than you need to on your website, both in initial and running costs? Does your website deliver the savings expected, and do customers comment on how great it is? For many councils, the website is not paying its way and is an expensive resource that the council can ill afford. Any website should be a net benefit to the organisation it serves - and for councils that means it delivers financial savings while maintaining or even raising customer satisfaction.

There is a solution. Our experience of working with councils up and down the country to review their websites through 'Better Connected', and to support them in improving their web presence or to set it in a strategic context means that we have an unparalleled understanding of what makes a good council website. We've encapsulated that knowledge in our "How to Build the Perfect Website" workshops, and in our "Website-in-a-Box" service. It offers councils of all sizes a rapid and surprisingly inexpensive way forward. It is based on years of working with local authority websites to provide information architectures and designs which are known to be effective and to meet customer needs, the functionality needed to support customer transactions, and proven technology. Together these can transform your online presence in as little as three months, yielding rapid payback in terms of savings and customer satisfaction. The key features are:

• Based on an unparalleled understanding of the local authority web requirements, and of what makes a good website
• Takes customer feedback into account - so what you get is a website that is known to deliver what customers want
• Methodology driven - a systematic approach to provide the right information architecture, design and functionality to meet your requirements
• Designed for you - we don't believe that one size fits all, so your website is structured around the needs of people in your community
• Uses an Open Source Content Management System - which means zero licence fees, a minimal learning curve for web authors and a huge resource library of functionality
• Suitable for both website and intranet, so easy migration of your existing information base with minimal or zero need for bespoke programming
• Supports key customer journeys in an intuitive way and meets the latest accessibility standards
• CRM functionality built in
• Keeps pace with new and emerging technologies (e.g. Web 2, smart devices) and compatible with Socitm Insight's 'Better Connected' standards
• Project management of the implementation and migration by highly experienced consultants with a proven track record in helping UK local authorities to improve their online presence
• Extremely cost-effective all-in package - system installation, design, content migration, integration, training, hosting, on-going support, user group

Why not give me a quick call to discuss how Socitm Consulting's website-in-a-box could make a big impact to your cost base and customer impact in a very short timescale? We look forward to hearing from you.

A checklist for successful shared services

Shared services are probably the most likely way that local authorities can meet the budget challenge, but are very difficult to implement. An informal approach can sometimes yield quick dividends, at the risk of getting very messy if things go wrong. Success in sharing services is more often a lengthy and complex process. The following list of key success factors reflects our experience of numerous shared service assignments for our clients and may be useful both as an aide memoire and to highlight the areas where you may need some external support:

• Visioning/objective setting - having clarity about what the shared services are to achieve
• Options analysis including options for legal frameworks, commercial options, IT, service delivery, benefits potential - this is where our multidisciplinary shared service team of lawyers, procurement specialists, IT specialists, process improvement specialists and benefits realisation specialists comes into its own
• Business case development - making out the business case to support the shared service - but don't spend too long on it - the benefits are often self evident, and we have a large source of data to support the types of circumstance where shared services can be justified
• IT strategy, infrastructure planning - designing ICT to suit a shared service poses different challenges from the normal
• Basic "get you started" IT strategy - the basics to get a new organisation up and running with basic IT, financial, HR, business management systems
• Legal frameworks - defining them and evaluating the options
• Procurement frameworks - defining the options and advising on pros and cons
• Licence management - how to rationalise current applications without it costing a fortune
• Partnership development - often the weakest point, how to create stronger and more resilient partnerships that work
• Governance models for the shared service
• Service optimisation
• Project and programme management - getting it done
• Procurement support
• Benefits realisation
• Transition planning and management
• Service level planning and preparation of SLAs
• Contract drafting and finalisation
• Support to client contract managers - getting the best out of the shared services
• Support to the shared service managers - working in a service level focused environment
• Conciliation service - when things go wrong - including, in extreme cases, a euthanasia service to kill it off as painlessly as possible

Have you covered everything in the list? If not, drop me an e-mail to see how we can help. If you have, then still drop us an e-mail - we like to pick up on good success stories.

Share your ICT specialists with other councils and save money

Do you have specialist ICT staff whose key skills are needed only for part of the time? Say, an Oracle DBA who spends as much time doing miscellaneous support as the job they're really paid to do?

Might you be interested in recovering some of the salary costs by making that person available for work in other councils? If so, we'd like to hear from you. We've had a strong response to recent mailshots introducing our People as a Service initiative, mainly from councils that would like to use ICT specialists with local government credentials but cannot afford an FTE.

The way People as a Service works is that if, say, you have an ICT specialist whose special skills you use for only 50% of the time, we would seek to place them for the remainder with a nearby council (or councils) with a need for that resource and we would pay you for their salary during the time they are seconded. You save money while maintaining service quality, the specialist gets wider experience and spends less time doing uncongenial work, and councils which could not afford suitable specialists can now do so.

People as a Service is a shared services initiative which could really help councils to maintain or even improve service quality while saving money. If you feel there may be scope for your authority to get involved, either by sharing one or more of your people with other authorities, or by timesharing specialists from other authorities, or both, please reply to this email or call me on 0845 450 0904. I look forward to hearing from you.

People as a Service - cutting costs and reducing risk

The pressure on ICT services to deliver more for less is unrelenting, and people with specialist skills are a major cost element. If you could share specialist personnel with other local authorities you could make substantial savings without sacrificing quality of service.

In this context, it's no surprise that our 'People as a Service' proposal attracted so much attention at the recent Socitm conference. Even larger councils sometimes struggle to justify retaining full-time specialists, and smaller councils much more so. 'People as a Service' would enable you to share the costs of your most expensive people with other authorities, or to procure, say, a security manager working to an agreed service level agreement for just four days a month. That one resource might be shared across perhaps half a dozen different organisations, all of them saving money but enjoying continuity and guaranteed quality of service.

The key point about this is we would be taking on the risk and organising the efficient sharing of skilled professionals; you would save on headcount without compromising service delivery and without having to organise complex vetting, sharing and billing arrangements. It was this last point which aroused so much interest at the Socitm conference, because some authorities and regional groups have already started exploring similar ideas but have run up against the challenge of who's got time to organise it all.

We're keen to initiate a dialogue about the proposed service and explore the ideas and resources that could be brought to bear. If you would like to contribute to the debate or if you feel there may be scope for your authority to make savings in this way, either by sharing one or more of your people with other authorities, or by timesharing specialists from other authorities, please reply to this email or call me on 0845 450 0904. I would be pleased to discuss your requirements and how they might be met via a sharing arrangement with other authorities we're already talking to.

Channel shift in a box - see it at the Socitm Conference

Channel shift is a key focus of Wednesday’s Socitm Spring Conference. But if services are to be ‘digital by default’, then council websites really have to start delivering for customers. The trouble is - most don’t at the moment, and are based on architectures and technologies that make maintenance laborious and redevelopment prohibitively expensive.

We at Socitm Consulting have a solution that may sound too good to be true, but isn’t. We’ve taken the best practice identified by our years of research into council websites and developed a complete approach to channel migration which will deliver the channel shift you need to make significant savings in the council budget. A key element of this is our ‘website-in-a-box’ – a standard, configurable website suitable for most local authorities and which contains all the functionality needed to deliver the most frequently used online council services. Importantly, it can be implemented rapidly and cheaply, and requires minimal on-going support.

Based on open source technology, our ‘website-in-a-box’ incorporates an information architecture designed specifically for councils. Following best practice, it focuses on providing intuitive customer journeys through the most frequent customer tasks plus a sensible search facility. Distilling the experience of ten years of Better Connected surveys, and using the combined expertise of Socitm Insight researchers and Socitm Consulting web strategists/developers, it will enable your authority to make channel shift and its associated cost-savings a reality – fast, and at low cost.

We are not offering ‘smoke and mirrors’ but a pragmatic solution to getting customers online whilst at the same time reducing internal costs. For example, even for a large metropolitan council, technical support for the website need involve no more than one person, and content management just one or two; small district councils will require only a fraction of a person to do the job.

Getting the website right for channel shift is probably the most important challenge you face, and we can show you a uniquely fast and cost-effective way of achieving it. I look forward to seeing you at the conference, but if you’d like to discuss any aspect of this over the phone, please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2774.

Sharing specialist ICT staff - a new way to cut costs

This year's Socitm Spring Conference takes place against a background of continuing austerity for the ICT departments that support local public services. How can you deliver more for less without compromising quality?

We have an interesting proposition we'd like to discuss with you on the Socitm stand. Through our Socitm People service we have a number of highly qualified ICT specialists - DBAs, enterprise architects, ICT strategy developers, security managers and the like - all with public sector experience. Until recently, larger councils may have been able to have full-time staff filling such roles, though often their specialist skills are only needed for some of the time. Meanwhile smaller organisations unable to afford the in-house option have had to pay over the odds for temporary staff of varying quality.

We believe that Socitm People can help ICT departments of all sizes save money by sharing specialist ICT staff. By subscribing to our service you could get, say, a security manager working to an agreed service level agreement for just four days a month. That same resource might be shared across perhaps half a dozen different organisations, all of them saving money but enjoying continuity (you would have the same person allocated to you throughout) and guaranteed quality of service.

These are interesting times (in the Chinese sense) and there is much else to discuss in terms of adapting the ICT service to a fast-changing environment, but sharing specialist staff in this way ticks a number of boxes - it delivers more from less, it gives councils access to the specialist services they need, and it delivers specific outcomes. If you'd like to fix a time for a one to one conversation about this please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770. Otherwise, let's meet at the conference (Royal College of Surgeons, London, Wednesday 11 May).

Better websites: sharing content, applications and resources

 One impact of the budgetary crisis is that more and more organisations are realising the importance of self-service. Another impact is that most now see shared services as a solution to reducing costs. However, very few seem to put the two together.

The latest Socitm briefing (attached) suggests that many local public service websites are stagnating and failing to deliver the channel shift required of them. Sharing content, applications and resources with other websites – local, from elsewhere in the country, and national – could make your website much more worthwhile from the customer viewpoint. More customers would then use self-service channels, reducing your transaction costs, and you could also save money on web development.

Possible options include using widgets from Local Directgov, syndicated content from NHS Choices, shared applications for online consultation and possibly shared website personnel with another authority. My own view is that a move towards the new generation open-source content management systems would greatly help local authorities to share website improvements as well as save money on licensing and support costs.

Please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770 if you would like to discuss how to move your authority’s web presence forward.

Is your EDRMS delivering the savings you need?

Most local authorities have implemented Electronic Document and Records Management systems (EDRMS) on a departmental basis, but few are achieving the real benefits that EDRMS can bring.

We find that many authorities are missing out on simple, quick wins which could produce immediate cost savings and efficiency improvements:

• Using templates to generate outgoing documents, eliminating individual drafting and typing. The customer gets a more rapid and consistent response, the council saves time and money and the resulting document is automatically stored and accessible for future reference
• Integrating back office systems (such as Revs and Bens) so documents such as council tax bills and benefits notification letters are automatically put into the EDRMS. This makes them available to front line customer service staff who can then answer customer queries without having to involve back office staff
• Eliminating inefficiencies in business processes, particularly in the supervisory management layer. By substituting basic EDRMS functions for some stages and reordering others, you can make real efficiency savings and pave the way for more cost-effective management workflows

Socitm consultants can help you achieve quick EDRMS wins, manage the supplier relationship better and use business analysis techniques more effectively. They will act as a 'critical friend' - delivering unclouded, impartial advice to drive business improvement and cost savings. If you would like to arrange an exploratory meeting to discuss the possibilities, please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2774.

Is your post-cuts IT service fit for purpose?

Your IT service has probably experienced serious cuts recently - which can produce unpredictable, and unplanned, results. Is what remains a viable unit in terms of capacity and capability, and can it deliver on corporate objectives?

Socitm Consulting can give you a rapid, independent and expert view of where your ICT service stands and what changes if any are required to make it fit for purpose. Our fixed-price IT service viability assessment gives you the answers you need to questions like:

• Does your IT service have the capability and capacity to do what's expected of it?
• Does it know what's expected of it? And does it still have the business analysis skills needed to turn corporate strategy into effective change programmes?
• Is the current technical infrastructure adequate to support corporate strategy?
• Is the IT service providing value for money compared with peer organisations?
• What risks are associated with the current skills mix and team structure?
• What can you do about it?

A poorly functioning IT service represents a serious strategic and reputational risk to your organisation. It will inhibit future modernisation and cost savings and may lack the resilience required of vital public services. If you would like to feel confident about the strengths, weaknesses and direction of travel of your IT service, please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770 to discuss how we can help.

Social care systems - review, renew, share or replace?

The new government's priorities and funding levels are decided. Many social care departments will now want to review how well their information systems support the new agendas and whether they still deliver value for money.

Some questions that need answering:

• Are any of your systems coming up for renewal in the near future? And if so, would you vote to stick with it, check whether there are better alternatives or renegotiate the contract?
• Do your current systems fit today's requirements, or could they be made to fit? Or is one or more so heavily slanted towards yesterday's requirements that it's past its sell-by date?
• Are there opportunities for consolidation - a single case management system for both Adults and Children, or integrated case management and finance?
• What about shared services? Three London boroughs are looking to share social care systems - should you be talking to neighbouring authorities?
• What options are there for reducing costs? Are you paying for more seats than you need? Are you getting the support you're paying for? Are you being charged programmer rates every time you need a modified report?

My colleagues and I at Socitm Consulting have carried out many systems reviews for social care departments and advised on procurement and information strategies. I'd be happy to discuss any concerns you may have about systems and whether we may be able to assist you in resolving them. Just reply to this email or call me on 0845 450 2317.

Transparency: seeing it through

The internet makes it possible to publish information - officially or unofficially - with unprecedented ease and cheapness. At the same time, government at all levels faces a credibility gap which many believe can only be bridged by greater transparency.

The latest Socitm briefing (attached) outlines how councils can benefit from a positive response to transparency. Given the pressures in other areas, the temptation is to respond in a minimal fashion to the requirement to publish online all £500+ financial transactions. Taking the pioneering work done by The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead as its starting point, the briefing explains how councils can use transparency to change corporate culture, by focusing staff attention on obtaining demonstrable value for money. Transparency will also help elected members reach better decisions, promote public understanding of the policy framework that conditions how the council works, and improve customer service by enabling third parties to develop apps based around council data.

Transparency is not - as many believe - totally straightforward from an information and technology viewpoint. Councils with well-organised information assets and first-class information presentation skills will be fine - the rest, perhaps the majority, may struggle. Please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770 if you would like to discuss the challenges your organisation faces in addressing this issue.

Making your website as effective as it should be

Websites are not cheap to set up and maintain. They also say an awful lot about your organisation. Some housing websites are brilliant, and some are... not. Appearances can be deceptive, but a few simple questions can probably indicate which group your website falls into:

• How much marketing analysis have you done around it? Do you have a good feeling for who does and doesn't use it - and why? A surprising number of websites reflect their creators' best guesses rather than feedback from consultation and active monitoring of usage
• What does it offer current tenants, and what does it offer prospective tenants? Is it fully transactional, or simply 'brochureware', or somewhere in between?
• How about other stakeholders? Does your website embody the transparency and accountability expected of Housing Organisations today?
• Who in your organisation actually drives the website in terms of governance, direction and maintenance? What control is there over strategy, content and return on investment?

If your answers to these questions suggest you might benefit from an expert, independent view of your website, we would be pleased to provide it. Over the last 13 years, Socitm's Better Connected annual survey of public service websites has become the de facto standard for best practice, and our consultants work to an efficient and proven methodology. We can identify areas for improvement in content and functionality, advise on whether you are paying over the odds for technology and hosting, and help you align your website with best practice in business strategy, governance and transparency.

If you are interested in making your website an effective business tool as well as a vehicle for transparent corporate accountability, producing a worthwhile return on your investment, please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770. An expert review including a results workshop at your offices could cost as little as £ 1500.

Make, buy... or do without?

In a rapidly changing fiscal and technological landscape, what represents good value for money is also changing. No procurement contract lasts forever, and you can save your authority big money and align it with best practice by reviewing your IT-related contracts with the help of experts.

Nobody understands local authority IT better than Socitm. Our consultants can help you achieve greater value for money by examining issues such as:

• In house or outsource? In areas such as desktop support, printing and security, the balance is constantly shifting on a service by service basis. We can examine your service portfolio and advise whether you would do better to outsource, bring back in house or do without entirely
• Software licensing and support. We can review your contracts and identify options for savings by eliminating redundant applications, reducing user counts and validating supplier support charges
• Website, intranet and content management. Many authorities are spending well over the odds, and inertia often means no one challenges this. We can help you change that
• Infrastructure and consumables. Basic hardware (servers, networks etc) and consumables are commodity items nowadays. Are you getting commodity pricing?
• Shared services. We may be able to uncover and help you exploit opportunities for sharing IT facilities with other councils or local public service providers

I would be pleased to discuss these options with you. Please call me on 0845 450 2317 or reply to this email if you would like to arrange this.

Cost saving strategies for your IT service

As IT professionals we all know that investment in IT is essential to making local public services affordable, but the immediate challenge is to run a tight ship.

Socitm Consulting can help you deliver savings on your IT service now and into the future. We can provide the impetus and specialist skills and knowledge to drive down costs in areas such as:

• Reducing desktop costs per user. Standardising the desktop, moving to thin client and potentially outsourcing both support and hosting (via the cloud) can achieve significant savings
• Applications software licensing and support. Have you got these costs as low as they can go? We can review your applications portfolio and identify options for savings by eliminating redundant apps, reducing user counts and validating supplier support charges, as well as contributing to future applications strategy
• Using cheaper storage methods for infrequently accessed data. Most of the data you're obliged to store is rarely used, so you can reserve expensive, high-performance storage for the important stuff and use slower and cheaper - but equally resilient and secure - hardware for the rest
• Managing procurement better. Whether it's infrastructure, applications, support or consumables, we can determine whether your suppliers are providing the service levels expected and pricing that is market-competitive

A short meeting will give you a clear picture of what we can jointly achieve. Call me on 0845 241 2774 or reply to this email if you would like to fix one up.

Is your BSF ICT supplier delivering?

Whatever the prospects for further BSF-style projects, the reality of the situation is that many schools are now locked into long-term relationships with ICT suppliers.

Often, the people who carried out the specification and procurement of those contracts, and who were expected to monitor delivery, have moved on. How can you ensure that BSF schools and their suppliers work harmoniously and effectively in delivering the educational benefits expected?

Socitm Consulting can help ensure you are getting value for money. We have a pool of expert consultants who understand the desired outcomes of BSF and who are experienced in managing ICT supplier relationships. Our people can assess how well the relationship with your BSF ICT supplier is working and can advise how to improve it or keep it on track.

If you would like to discuss this in confidence, please reply to this email or call me on one of the numbers below.

Web savings from open source and external hosting

Getting more people to use your website should be - and probably is - at the very heart of your strategy for reducing cost. Customers accessing online services and staff accessing online information will enable your authority to deliver better services at lower cost. But how can you justify spending more money on improving the website when it's already costing a lot in CMS licensing costs, hosting and support?

We are confident we can help your authority to achieve major savings in the following areas:

• Shifting to an open source content management system. Open source CMS solutions (as used by the White House, as well as several UK local authorities) are a proven way to build complex and powerful websites with a minimum of coding and with minimum demand for support. There's a huge library of proven open source modules available for re-use, and huge advantages in having no licensing costs and avoiding proprietary lock-in
• Taking a hard look at how much web hosting is costing your authority. Too many councils are paying over the odds for website hosting and registration, either because they're trying to do too much in-house or because their ISP is adding a massive premium over normal commercial rates
• Possibly, reviewing your use of under-used Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and considering achieving the required outcomes through add-on modules to the CMS, thereby reducing cost further and getting a more effective solution

Working as we do in close association with Socitm Insight, we have a very clear understanding of what it takes to produce an excellent local authority website. We also have extensive practical experience of project managing and even carrying out complete website transformation programmes for local authorities. This is a crucial area for improvement and we are extremely well-placed to assist. Reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2774 if you would like to discuss exactly how.

Grasping the nettle - how to achieve value from radical transformation

Everyone knows that local public service providers, councils in particular, need to change radically.

Many public sector bodies have therefore undertaken or are about to undertake major transformation programmes, but such programmes often fail or under-deliver as organisations struggle with issues of leadership, capacity and methodology.

The latest Socitm briefing (attached) outlines a new methodology developed by Birmingham City Council and used by them successfully to deliver £60m of recurring annual efficiency savings. CHAMPS2 is a highly effective business process improvement method which focuses on outcomes - such as business case implementation, benefits realisation, post project 'embedding' activities and culture change - rather than inputs.

The alternative to running a successful transformation programme is 'slash and burn', which at least has the merit of producing predictable and measurable results, even if the results are drastic cuts to services and continuing inefficiencies in delivering those that remain. I strongly recommend you and your colleagues examine the case for CHAMPS2, and I would be pleased to discuss how you might achieve buy-in for its adoption by your organisation. Please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770.

Procurement drivers - and how not to be driven by them

In the current financial climate, procurement professionals can save the organisation a lot of money by suggesting better ways of buying things and better things to buy (or not buy). Some examples include:

• Framework agreements. Can you avoid the expense of drafting an OJEU notice or producing an ITT by exploiting an existing buying consortium or framework agreement? Not only do these offer lower prices, they can also shorten the whole buying process and deliver benefits sooner. But even within a framework you may need to run a mini-competition, and some key suppliers may not be participants in the framework. Each case needs to be decided on its merits - we can advise on a case by case basis
• Contract renewals. Many organisations get stuck with sub-optimal solutions, particularly in the ICT area, because contract end dates suddenly loom and renewal or extension is the easiest option in the timescale. Do you have a clear picture of which technology contracts are nearing the end of their term and would - ideally - be replaced? We help organisations survey their technology portfolios and assess what will need replacing or renewing and when
• Make or buy? Do in-house technology services such as the help desk, website hosting, data centres , database support specialists and so on still offer real value for money? This isn't about full outsourcing but about spot decisions to cut the bottom line. We can exploit our unique information and experience base to help you reach the right decision, including looking at open source options as alternatives
• Estates strategy. Could your organisation save shedloads of money by vacating a Victorian building or 1960s office block and exploiting home and mobile working and hot-desking? It may well mean moving to an externally hosted IT solution - we can advise on how to make the transition and likely cost-benefits
• Shared services. Might sharing the hosting and support of a common application system with other neighbouring organisations save money and improve resilience? It could well do, provided we help you to avoid the pitfalls

If any of the above rings a bell, I'd be pleased to have an informal discussion about areas of concern. Just reply to this email or call me on 0845 450 2317.

A Message for Chief Executives

I don't need to tell you that this year will be difficult for local authorities. Achieving the necessary savings while maintaining services to an acceptable standard will be a challenge, but there is considerable evidence emerging that it can be done. The key is to focus on how the council can be smarter about how it delivers its services and manages its own resources.

The key areas to focus on are:

• Self-service - enabling your citizens to serve themselves - to access the information they need, or get the services they want - achieves substantial savings by greatly reducing the number of staff needed in your contact centre or in other customer-facing roles. Getting the council website right is fundamental to this, and councils are finding that every £ spent on the web (if spent on the right things) achieves between £5 and £10 in savings
• Smarter working - mobile, flexible and home working can reduce the office footprint (typically reducing office space requirements by up 30%, achieving savings by making staff more productive and efficient, and making significant inroads into the costs of the larger services - typically 20-25% savings without loss of service)
• Managing information better - managing information electronically can reduce the office footprint further (by another 20%) and further enhance the savings from mobile, flexible and home working
• Shared services - can achieve further savings (5-10% by sharing back office functions, more by sharing front office functions)
• Lean systems and business process improvement - radical change in how the council does things can bring about further savings. Being innovative, outcome-focused and - above all - customer-focused is key.

Overall savings of 20-30% are achievable without loss of service (and in some cases an improvement in service). And most importantly, if sequenced appropriately, the savings can be achieved in a phased way without the need for a major investment of funds. Want to know how? Let us discuss with you how your council can achieve this - just reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770.

Does your website earn its keep?

Most council websites underperform. They cost the council more money than they save. They're hard to use, even for council staff, let alone ordinary citizens. They don't integrate cleanly with back-end systems. They lag behind commercial sites in using the latest technologies.

We can help you turn the situation round quickly and cost-effectively, so as to:

• Save money through channel shift. Even the smaller district councils handle over 1 million customer transactions a year. Shifting just ten per cent of these to the web could achieve savings of over £200,000 a year
• Achieve efficiency by putting the web at the heart of your business. Don't duplicate information and services between the web and the intranet, or CRM. Make the website the key service and information delivery channel for back-office staff, citizens, local businesses, and for all customer-facing staff in contact centres and one-stop shops
• Reach more people by designing your web content to be accessible from smartphones or through apps, and use social networking to target specific hard-to-reach groups and make the council more easily contactable
• Reduce the costs of your website by using an open source CMS, dispensing with expensive and underused CRM systems, or redesigning business processes using online technologies. Your website could cost much less and do a lot more

Getting your website right is the single best investment a council can make - the benefits from every £ spent are considerable, and can be realised in a short timescale. In the current climate, it has to be on your list of priority actions.

We can analyse where you stand at present, help you devise an effective forward strategy and project manage or carry out the redevelopment of your entire website. Our service is expert, highly pragmatic and cost-effective, with the option for you to pay only when you make the savings we promise. If you would like to discuss how your council can make its website earn its keep, just reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770.

Getting IT right in 2011

Socitm's latest IT Trends survey, published last week, shows how well local public service providers' IT people have responded to the challenges of the downturn, delivering more services at lower cost than a year ago.

Over the next 12 months, Socitm Consulting will be outlining how you and your colleagues can build on these foundations. Key areas include:

• Focusing on the web. If your council is not already doing so, it can generate really substantial savings from the web - not just via the website itself but from social networking, smartphone apps, and making the website central to the interaction between the council and its citizens; using these to enable and encourage self-service achieves major savings
• Driving down costs. Renegotiation, rationalisation, refocusing - or just keeping suppliers on their toes - can generate major savings. Is the total cost of ownership of the desktop as low as it could be?
• Exploiting cloud services and shared services. You need to be planning the migration now from in-house, capital-intensive and inflexible IT infrastructures, which may also lack resilience, and looking at how working with partners can reduce costs further
• Rebuilding your team. The changes ahead entail a very different IT service, with a very different skills mix

Whether you need support in redeveloping your website, your IT or your information strategy, dealing with suppliers, assessing your team's professional skills (and don't forget, we can also provide interims for hard-to-fill technical vacancies), or working with partner organisations, Socitm Consulting is uniquely well-qualified to help. Call me on 0845 241 2770 or reply to this email if you would like to discuss this.

How to deliver more social care for less money

Adults' and Children's services face similar budgetary constraints to other local services, and need to make significant savings in back office and non statutory services. The challenge is how to deliver more and better services for less money, and the answer remains - combining management skill and technology to design and implement more effective processes which focus on outcomes not box-ticking. Whether it's personalisation for Adults or a more practice-focused approach to IT for Children's Services, social care processes need to be reworked to minimise waste and make best use of systems, while maximising time spent with vulnerable children and adults.

Socitm Consulting can help in a number of ways:

• Independent and objective reviews of your current processes and information flows, with particular reference to the Munro review. We can suggest quick wins and longer term improvements to how you deliver services, with less emphasis on form-filling and more on inter-agency cooperation
• Assessment of how fit for purpose your ICT systems are, both for existing and upcoming initiatives. We can advise on whether your systems fit, or could be made to fit, and can support you in contract renegotiation or procurement processes where they don't
• Clarification of connectivity issues around GCSX and N3 networks for inter-agency working with the NHS and other local service providers, and advice on wider communication with citizens across a range of channels

Our consultants understand the pressures on you, your colleagues and your organisation, and will recommend achievable changes that make financial and professional sense. I'd be pleased to talk through our track record with social care providers and discuss how we may be able to help. Just reply to this email or call me on 0845 450 2317.

IT strategy re-think: heading into the cloud

Moving to cloud computing is central to delivering better public services more cheaply. Only IT-enabled automation and increased efficiency can keep public services affordable, and only a move to the cloud can make investment in public sector IT justifiable and affordable.

The latest Socitm briefing (attached) outlines some of the main issues around moving to a cloud computing model, including:

• Key benefits of moving to the cloud
• What the real security challenges are, and how to handle them
• Understanding the supplier perspective
• The impact of PSN and AGS
• Practical steps towards developing a cloud strategy

If you would like to discuss how your organisation might best approach cloud computing, please reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770.

Can you link business and IT strategies better in 2011?

As a provider of social housing you'll know only too well that these are tough times. The key challenge is to deliver outstanding customer service with a smarter, leaner organisation.

Having a business strategy that makes best use of technology, and an ICT service that makes best use of the budget available, are two major ways in which you can meet this challenge. Socitm Consulting can help you achieve this, and we'll be suggesting some concrete ways forward in future communications. But before we go into detail there are a couple of key questions to consider:

• Do you see your ICT service as a key driver in delivering greater efficiency and better customer service?
• Is it achieving this at the moment?

To answer both these questions positively requires you to have an explicit strategy in place which recognises ICT as a tool for achieving business aims, together with governance and performance management mechanisms which ensure structured engagement between the ICT function and the rest of the business.

If you are at all unsure about how well your organisation is handling this, I'd be pleased to talk through our track record and discuss how we may be able to help you. Just reply to this email or call me on 0845 241 2770.

Mailshots sent in 2010

How good is your ICT service?

Does your ICT service deliver value for money? Does it enable and support change in the organisation? Is it efficiently run? Is it pro-active in seeking out the most appropriate technical solutions to meet business needs? And how can you tell?

• Overview review (the quickest and least expensive)

• Standard review (the level that most councils require)

• Fitness for purpose review (the most detailed review that really gets down to the detail of whether your ICT is a cost or a long term benefit)

Overview review

 Socitm Consultants will interview a small group (8 or less) senior managers at Director and HoS level and will undertake desk-based research as well. From this we will develop a high-level assessment of the ICT service’s strengths and weakness across four key areas:

• fitness-for-purpose of the technical infrastructure
• capacity and capability of the IT staff
• the extent to which there is an IT strategy that clearly underpins the Council’s wider corporate plan and objectives
• The extent to which the ICT service enables and supported change in the organisation

We will feed the outcomes of this assessment to a workshop among the senior managers. In the workshop we will assist the Council to come to terms with current strengths and weaknesses and the direction-of-travel. This will position the Council to reach conclusions, frame recommendations, and take them forward with confidence.

We will produce a report that presents the outcomes of this assessment in a non-technical language. As well as summarising where the Council is now, the report will identify where improvements are required and a high-level strategic approach for delivering them.

Standard review

This takes the form of an itial review followed by an analysis of the way forward. The initial review consists of:

• Interviews with key stakeholders in the council at senior management level (the view of what’s good and bad about the current IT)
• Interviews with the ICT staff
• Review of the ICT service and infrastructure, covering:
• Governance and management
• Structure and skills
• Infrastructure
• ICT service, service desk
• Standards and procedures
• Applications
• Security
• Documentation
• Alignment with corporate plans
• Review of current documentation
• ICT strategy
• Customer service strategy (if available)
• Corporate plan
• Any information provided to staff on the planned changes
• Any performance information for ICT – user satisfaction surveys, unit costs, performance against SLAs or equivalent etc
• Web strategy
• Comms strategy
• Information management strategy (if available)

In parallel with this we formulate with you a set of potential views of the council for the future – trying to anticipate what will come out of any current deliberations or what is already in place as a programme of work.

These give us a picture of the ICT requirements for the future, and of the current ICT service. We map these against each other to highlight gaps, and build a strategic approach for filling them, in a way that minimises the investment needed, maximises the benefit, and minimises the disruption.

Fitness for purpose review

Our fitness for purpose assessment review comprises a number of strands:

• The strategic framework – the direction of travel of the Council, its aspirations for change, the vision of what the council will look like to the outside world in 2-5 years time (as a backdrop to what follows);
• The scope of the ICT service – where does it sit in the organisation, what are its functions – is it technical/operational, strategic, does it embrace information management as well as the technology, does it embrace customer service; how does this relate to best practice;
• Management and governance – how the service is managed and what governance is in place; skills profile of the management team for ICT; robustness of the governance arrangements;
• Organisational structure and skills – how is the ICT service structured organisationally and how does this compare to best practice; are there gaps and how can they be filled; what is the skill base of the ICT staff, how is this maintained and developed; how is it measured; are there skills missing and what can be done to fill the shortfall;
• Customer satisfaction – how satisfied is the council with the work of the ICT service – at an operational level (via customer satisfaction surveys) and at a business/strategic level; is it seen as a cost or a benefit to the organisation; is it an integral part of any plans for transformational change;
• Pro-activeness – how proactive is the service in promoting new technologies that will support the business; how are these ideas tested and taken forward; is the service seen as a fruitful source of ideas, or a reluctant responder to suggestions from the business;
• Applications – are they fit for purpose individually and how do they fit together to meet the overall business and corporate needs; to what extent are the applications driven by the information management strategy – how does the architecture relate to the business needs (are techniques such as Service Oriented Architecture already in use?); what overlaps in functionality and information content exist; how can these be reduced;
• Network and communications infrastructure – how well does the infrastructure meet the needs of the council today, and how easily can it be developed to meet the needs of tomorrow; what are the unit costs of the current infrastructure and how do these compare with other organisations; is the infrastructure the result of piecemeal development or an underlying strategy; how does it compare with the recognised best technical practice (eg are the most appropriate infrastructure management tools being used, how good is the value for money;
• Desktop infrastructure – how well is the desktop infrastructure managed; how does the cost per desktop compare with other organisations (a key measure of how well managed it is); balance of thin/thick client, desktop virtualisation, readiness for cloud computing;
• Overall fit – taking account of all the above, how well does the ICT service fit the future needs of the Council? 

The review is normally carried out by a small team of consultants to assess the current ICT service and to report back to senior management on the ICT service’s capacity, capability and maturity.

If the Council wishes, this work can be developed later at a more detailed level using Socitm Consulting’s range of trusted and expert services such as:

• Socitm benchmarking for a detailed analysis of the Council’s KPIs for IT;
• Socitm SFIA/Aspire services to provide a structured assessment of the Council’s IT staff and its mix if skills and aptitudes;
• Socitm’s Better Connected assessments of the Council’s website and associated communications technology -- and the extent to which it is being used successfully as a channel for customers;
• Stakeholder engagement leading to a detailed and innovative IT strategy;
• Assessment of technical options for developing the IT infrastructure examining options such as outsource delivery, the Cloud, and the use of mobile and smart technologies;
• Toolkits for customer satisfaction surveys and other baseline information.

For more information, contact Di Priday or Doug Maclean info@socitmconsulting.co,uk

Mailshots sent in 2009