Benchmarking analysis and improvement plan

The project issues
Torfaen CBC has taken part in Socitm benchmarking of their ICT service for a number of years. They are also in the middle of a council re-organisation and further changes are being made to the ICT service.

As a result the Head of ICT (Farooq Dastgir) asked Socitm Consulting to review their benchmarking findings, to explain the significance of the benchmarking results to ICT managers and to identify potential service improvements which would focus on strategic, client-facing issues, building upon many excellent results in order to take the service to the next level of strategic delivery.

The Socitm Consulting solution
Socitm Consulting reviewed all ICT benchmarking reports for the council and identified those councils in England and Wales who are achieving a high performance in areas in which Torfaen wish to improve.

In particular the study reported on:

• Torfaen CBC ICT benchmarking results, what these are and how the processes worked
• The council’s results on the Socitm KPIs, which were discussed and explained to managers
• Results from User Satisfaction studies
• Impact of the above studies on ‘radar charts’ prepared for all Welsh councils
• A comprehensive explanation of how all these integrated together.

The study identified strategic tasks that the ICT service needed to focus on in order to raise its game. Recommendations included:

• How to improve the management of information on ICT services so that it was automatically delivered and accurate
• Support of client led groups to direct ICT strategy and use of Resource plans to identify the ICT service’s ability to deliver and help the council prioritise projects
• Methods to improve project management and in particular how to improve handover of projects to clients
• User satisfaction and Staff communications. Examples were given from councils successful in achieving high client satisfaction and award of Charter mark recognition
• Whilst the council invests significantly in ICT training recommendations were made to improve its focus
• The council needed to improve performance on its website and a number of recommendations were made in this respect

Wherever possible the recommendations were underpinned by specific reference to other organisations who were achieving excellence in the above areas

Benefits to the client
Torfaen’s ICT service obtained an in-depth and expert analysis of their comparative performance, together with positive and realistic input to their improvement plan which will enable them to improve further their services to customers. The whole project focussed ultimately on providing positive strategic recommendations which provided named contacts for the council to meet with in order to improve further its ICT performance.

Project identification
Client organisation: Torfaen CBC
Client contact: miriam.powell@torfaen.gov.uk
Lead consultant: roland.waterhouse@socitm.gov.uk
Project no: 5740