News

What if there were a one-stop shop for web improvement?

What if? Well now there is, and it's called Socitm.

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Brochure - Web improvement services.pdf	1.07 MB

Four Essex councils in joint procurement deal

Four Essex councils have signed a shared service agreement with Capita which they claim will save £7m over the next five years, and cut their ICT costs by more than 45%.

Braintree, Castle Point, Colchester and Rochford councils will pay the company £8m to provide shared ICT support services. These will include a mix of service, asset, security and network infrastructure management, desktop support, server and data storage and consultancy.

Chris Siddall, cabinet member for efficiency and resources at Braintree council, said: "We believe our innovative approach will be keenly studied by other UK councils, all of whom are under intense pressure to make substantial cost savings whilst maintaining vital services to local people."

The councils successfully bid for £96,000 from Improvement East, a partnership of authorities in the east of England which provides support for improvement projects, to pay for the specialist legal and IT advice required to set up the joint deal.

Socitm Consulting supported the councils in the procurement, by providing specialist advice and support.

Doug Maclean, Managing Consultant for Socitm Consulting commented, "This is another example of us supporting a group of councils in a joint outsourcing agreement which releases substantial savings for the councils concerned". The first such joint approach was between Lichfield District Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.

Socitm Consulting offers a complete support service for outsourcing - combining procurement advice and support, technical requirements specification, and legal services.

On-line self assessment for the Council of the Future

Whenever we talk to councils about the Council of the Future, the first thing they want to know is "where are we?", "how far down the road are we?" and "how far do we still have to go?".

Well, to assist councils with these questions we have been working with a few councils and our benchmarking colleagues to put together an on-line self assessment tool. This is a questionnaire which, when completed, lets you know where your council's strengths and weaknesses are, and how far down the road to the future your council is.

It is entirely free to use - but you do have to register on the self assessment system first - this is partly to ensure you are a legitimate user (with a council e-mail address) and to enable you to save your part-completed results so that you can take time to complete the assessment fully.

Self assessment for the Council of the Future (14/3/2010)

Since we launched the Council of the Future in October (was it really only six months ago?) we have been speaking to over 150 councils up and down the country about their progress towards this vision - of councils that spend less, but achieve more. Two of the key points to come out of these discussions are (a) "how can we tell how far we are from the Council of the Future?" and (b) "how can we get the message across more clearly to the Chief Executive, Council Leader and the whole of the corporate management team?"

Well, we're tackling both. In the next week we will be launching our self-assessment questionnaire on this website - a simple questionnaire which, once completed, gives you a report on how far down the Council of the Future route you have travelled, and where your strong and weak points lie. Councils which have used it in its test form have commented that it is a valuable means of identifying where they need to focus their efforts.

We are also going to be launching a new version of the Council of the Future framework at the Socitm conference in April - a framework more eaimed at Chief Executives and not-IT people.

So watch this space for thenext stage of the Council of the Future.

Save costs and improve customer services (18/12/2009)

Most councils can save at least 20% of their annual revenue costs and still improve the services they deliver to the public. This is a message given by our Managing Consultant, Doug Maclean, to the regional meetings of Socitm and to an increasing number of council senior management teams. "Councils have known for a long time that there are massive savings to be made, but for various reasons find it difficult to achieve them. Now Socitm Consulting has come up with an easy-to-use framework for councils to use - just follow the steps, and the savings are there to be claimed." The framework developed by Consulting isn't just a theoretical model - it is based on considerable evidence drawn from around the country about the savings that councils are actually making, as a result of following the framework. And the savings apply to councils of all sizes - though smaller councils will find it easier to achieve the savings than the larger ones.

Details of the approach are given in our section on the Council of the Future. If you would like to hear more about it, contact our Managing Consultant Doug Maclean for details of how the framework can apply to your council.

Greener approach to education ICT (7/12/2009)

A green ICT strategy needs an overall sustainability agenda, says Terry Street, green ICT procurement product manager, Socitm Consulting.

All over the country, new schools are being built under the Building Schools for the Future initiative. Several of my colleagues advise LEAs on their BSF programmes, and they frequently comment on the irony that new schools typically have extensive air conditioning, necessary in part to carry away the heat generated by all the new computer equipment.

Self-assessment for the Council of the Future coming soon (22/11/2009)

A self-assessment benchmarking questionnaire will shortly be launched on this website to enable councils to assess how far down the road to the Council of the Future^TM they have reached, and what areas they need to tackle next.

Our Council of the Future^TMis proving so popular that are struggling to keep up with demand for information about it. Although much of what it says is already well-known, it brings the vision of what the Council of the Future will look like together with the roadmap for how to get there - something that councils are finding very useful.

One of the most frequently asked questions from senior staff in councils, when they see our Council of the Future "jigsaw", is "Where are we on the map?" So to make it easier for people to make that assessment, we have developed a self assessment tool, which is currently being tested with councils, and which will shortly be put live on the website.

Best year ever for Socitm Consulting at the annual conference (01/11/2009)

Socitm Consulting had its best year ever at the annual Socitm Conference in Edinburgh. With the highest foot-fall on the Consulting stand of any previous conference, there was always a crowd of people around our various offerings. And this year we had more than ever on display - from our Council of the Future "jigsaw", to our material on the professionalism in IT agenda and the Aspire product, not forgetting our many briefings and learning opportunities.

Socitm consultants wondering how to become the Council of the Future Of course anyone who was at the conference will hardly forget our t-shirts - proclaiming "The Council of the Future" on the front, and "Ask me how to get there" on the back. Such was the demand for these highly prized items that we ran out of supplies by the second day.

Staffing the Consulting stand this year were Doug Maclean (Consulting Manager), Roland Waterhouse (Benchmarking manager), Mark Wheatley (Learning manager), Vikki Wide (Professionalism lead), Mary Wintershausen (Professionalsm consultant), Reynold Leming (information management consultant), Christine Westlake (Professionalism consultant), Chris Morton (Sales manager and Council of the Future consultant), and Di Priday (Marketing consultant).

Socitm Consulting works on Council of the Future

Socitm works on Council of the Future

The public sector IT professionals' organisation has launched a project aimed at increasing its members' influence over the future shape of public services

GC News

Kable, Tuesday 13 October 2009 00.05 BST

It unveiled its Council of the Future project at its annual conference in Edinburgh on 11 October. The project is aimed at providing the IT professional's perspective on how local authorities should develop, going beyond information systems to include a wide range of business issues. In his opening address to the conference, Socitm president Steve Palmer encouraged members to provide their opinions, and made clear it is not simply for local authorities.

"We need widespread input and feedback, particularly from our growing numbers of members from housing, third sector, fire and police services to develop the broader tomorrow's public services vision and blueprint," he said.

Key features of the Council of the Future are that it will have fewer and smaller buildings than at present, will directly employ fewer staff, make greater use of lean systems, make smarter use of its staff and records, and manage information as a key asset.

Its development involves looking at traditional ICT issues such as mobile working, electronic document and record management, internet services and business applications, along with broader business issues such as key performance indicators, enterprise resource planning, lean systems and the commissioning and managing of services.

Doug McLean of Socitm Consulting, which is leading the project, said that it could help to produce savings of over 20% rather than the 3-5% the public sector has aimed since the publication of the Gershon Review in 2004.

The biggest savings, of up to 90%, could be achieved in transaction costs, along with up to 50% in central office costs, 10-20% in central staff costs (in areas such as HR and finance), and 5-20% in key service costs.

Socitm has also launched a new mentoring scheme aimed at helping public sector ICT staff reach their potential and exert more influence in their organisations. It is running a pilot of the scheme over the next six months, and after an evaluation plans to launch it in full next summer.

"Our scheme will give a choice of mentors and can play a key role in helping colleagues at all levels develop their skills, competence and confidence to meet the challenges of the day job," Palmer said. "The mentoring pilot, if successful, will be rolled out on a wider basis to support what is an acknowledgement by all that highly skilled ICT professionals will be a cornerstone of our successful transformation, regardless of which sector we are from.

Palmer added that the ICT community should begin to take a more assertive role.

"It is time for the ICT profession in the public sector to show it can lead," he said. "I listened intently a few years ago to colleagues who suggested that ICT leaders need to be at the top table as we moved towards the radical transformation we need.

"That is exactly where we need to be but we earn, not ask for, the right to be there. If we are to serve our citizens properly we need to successfully embrace their propensity to publish ideas, suggest ideas for service improvements and issue challenge to our own and wider organisations. If we listen and engage we can successfully foster a culture of innovation, engagement and creativity."

Speakers available for Socitm Regional meetings

Socitm Consulting has compiled a list of speakers and potential topics as an aid to Socitm Regional secretaries to find suitable agenda material for their regional meetings.

Download the attachment below (in Word format) for details

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10360 Socitm Consulting presentation topics and speakers v3.doc	1.32 MB

The direction of social care systems - white paper

This document has been produced by Socitm Consulting to provide an insight into the evolving requirements for social services information systems and information sharing between health and social care.

It highlights the direction that such systems will need to travel over the next 2-5 years to support the growing vision of a modern and transformed social care service.

Socitm Consulting remains independent of all commercial system vendors, yet has a comprehensive view of all the major systems available. This document, therefore, focuses on the generic requirements for the future, rather than look at any specific software system. Social care is now more than ever under pressure to transform how it delivers its services – both in Children’s Services and Adult and Community care.

Key national agendas, such as the move towards greater personalisation in adult care, closer working between health and social care, and increased focus on safeguarding are collectively defining the vision of what is espected. A vision that also demands major changes for the information systems that support these services. In reviewing requirements the document focuses on the key national programmes introduced in England for the 152 local authorities with social services responsibilities, although it is recognised that there are similar pressures across the UK.

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7263 SCICTWP 1.1.pdf	173.15 KB

The Council of the Future - new publication

Socitm Consulting’s latest publication – The Council of the Future - explains how local authorities can use the downturn as an opportunity to make real progress. Rather than being wholly negative, the current economic challenges enable every local authority to move more rapidly towards its likely future shape - a more agile (and virtual) organisation which makes maximum use of technology and information to respond effectively to customer needs. To order your hard copy of the publication, please send your name and address details to info@socitmconsulting.co.uk.

How good is your website?

Many people assess how good their website is on the basis of how it looks, how easy it is to use, the quality of the "customer journey", the number of hits, the number of transactions...... the list is a long one. But fundamentally, there is only one basis for assessment - does it do the job it was intended to do? This raises the question of what a council website is intended to do, and many councils are less than clear on the subject. Those that have a well-defined web strategy tend to be clearer - and usually the website is there to do three things:

enable effective interaction with local groups and communities - for engagement, for feedback, participation in the local democracy, and increasingly for participation in, and to facilitate, the Big Society
provide access to information that customers want and need
deliver services 24x7 on a self-service basis, services that would otherwise require the involvement of customer facing staff (or might not be availabe outside office hours at all)

Ultimately, it's about reducing cost, increasing customer service and satisfaction, and reaching out to the community and to the groups within it.

We are currently developing a self-assessment tool for you to test the effectiveness of your website - and by website we don't just mean the physical website but the entire web presence of your council. This will become available shortly to sit alongisde our self assessment tool for the Council of the Future.

Also available - how secure is your website - we can offer free testing of the security of your website and of your internal networks. Just contact us for emore details.