Listening to customers

Increasingly councils are recognising that the options for sourcing ICT resources and services are much wider than the traditional in-source/outsource solutions. Even a few years ago, outsourcing had developed from straightforward “break/fix” contracts for supporting the status quo, into strategic partnerships which were designed to achieve  a strategic/innovative approach to business improvement exploiting ICT. Some of these strategic partnerships worked well, but in many cases, councils struggled to break away from the traditional way of thinking of the client/contractor model, and hence found it difficult to engage meaningfully in a truly strategic partnership.

Brighton & Hove City Council had begun a business process analysis programme in Children's Services. In the context of the Council Plan for “a council the city deserves”, and the requirement for increased efficiency under the Value for Money agenda, the overall aim was for a systematic programme of improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of processes and information handling within children’s services.

Making processes fit for purpose in the council of the future is not easy, but we have developed a highly structured approach which ensures that we take account of all the factors:

We have the skills and the tools to help you achieve a website that delivers for your council - that is a website that gives real value in terms of the services it delivers to your customers and the savings it makes for the council. We cover all that is needed, summarised below:

The website is there to earn its keep - if you are going to spend an average of £50-£100k a year on keeping the website up to scratch (and if you're spending more, look very carefully at the costs), you need to be assured that you are achieving at least 5-10 times this in direct benefits and savings - in other words, the website should be saving you at least £1 million a year.

Most processes in councils have developed over the years for delivery by traditional means - by members of staff, using paper-based systems to deliver a service. These are inefficient and out-dated, error-prone, and not customer-friendly. They have no place in the council of the future.

For a step by step guide, click on the diagram to see more detail

Creating an effective website for your council is not easy - and certainly isn't something you can leave to the IT service, or to corporate communications section to deliver for you. Creating a website that delivers real value to the organisation, and real savings in cost takes a corporate effort and requires the following essential elements: