Rochford District Council (RDC) faced important decisions regarding future options for its outsourced ICT service. The contract was awarded for 10 years and they were approaching the option for an extension for up to two more years. Since the award of the contract in 2001 the charges had significantly increased fuelled by indexation and contracted changes. Options to be considered included the two-year extension, re-letting the contract, or bringing the service in-house. In particular, the Council was concerned the option it chose supported the financial savings it needed to achieve over the forthcoming years. Equally it wished to remain flexible in order to take advantage of any shared services opportunities. It was necessary to ensure a timely decision was made on the extension in order to allow enough time for a procurement project to re-let the contract.

Suffolk Coastal District Council has implemented the most cost-effective, reliable and flexible option for maintaining and developing its ICT Services following an outsourcing options appraisal by Socitm Consulting. By advising the Council on the future of its ICT Service following the expiry of its existing outsourced contract, Socitm Consulting helped the Council to select the most effective option for supporting its key strategic priorities of efficiency, maintenance of service quality and obligations to county-level shared services.

Central Bedfordshire Council seek help from Socitm Consulting to improve their Web Site for users and staff and in turn be reviewed by Socitm Insight as part of its annual Better Connected survey.       

The project issues
Development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) at Thurrock Council has historically been technology-led with no corporate strategy linked to key Council objectives and goals. From 2002 GIS grew ‘organically’ with little or no senior or middle management support and, once key individuals left the Council, developments, management and projects were not progressed. In particular there was no integrated or co-ordinated approach to GIS and LLPG within and between departments and key business systems were not spatially enabled and so not being utilised to their maximum potential.

The project issues

The project issues
The Improvement and Development Agency secured funding from the ODPM for capacity support to South Bedfordshire's e government programme, including recruitment of an e-government Programme Manager, a Knowledge Manager and an Intranet development officer. Additional recruitment assistance was given in the appointment of an interim Head of IT.

During initial investigations it was apparent that additional help with e-government issues would assist the Council in their implementation.

The project issues
Following a change of control, King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council decided to carry out a strategic review of ICT performance, with particular reference to the e-government agenda. It was felt that ICT performance could be improved and moves towards e-government handled more rapidly, but both aims would need to be achieved without impact on Council Tax levels.