South | Socitm Consulting

Business process improvement - children's services

Client name:

Brighton and Hove Council

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.

Corporate intranet specifications

Client name:

Tendring District Council

Tendring District Council has comprehensive specifications for updating its corporate intranet thanks to expert support from Socitm Consulting. The Council wanted to update its intranet in line with best practice, to improve communications across the authority and facilitate more effective ways of working.

Interim web strategy development

Client name:

Surrey Heath Borough Council

Surrey Heath Borough Council now has a comprehensive web development strategy following interim strategic support from Socitm Consulting. As a result of our interim management expertise, the Council was able to align its web strategy with local authority best practice and significantly improve the effectiveness of online customer service delivery.

Planning ICT review

Client name:

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council now has a clear road map for updating and integrating its Planning ICT systems following an in-depth review by Socitm Consulting. With our expertise in implementation and review of ICT systems for Planning, we assisted the Council in developing an integrated strategy for its Planning systems and processes that reflects best practice, is forward thinking and will deliver improved customer services now and in the future.

Audit of PC disposal procedures

Client name:

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council now has a comprehensive strategy for securing information and securely disposing of ICT hardware in an environmentally sustainable way following a review by Socitm Consulting. With our expertise in integrating information and hardware lifecycle management, we were able to assist the Council in ensuring both data and equipment are managed securely and ethically across the organisation.

Website review

Client name:

Southampton City Council

The Council had redesigned their website but wanted to ensure that it was conforming to best practice and could achieve transactional status.

Managed service contract options review

Client name:

Salisbury District Council

The project issues
Salisbury District Council’s (SDC) support contract with BIC for managed ICT services was due to terminate in April 2006 and there was a need to consider the options and issues to be addressed. The IT department is now responsible for SDC’s E-government and Priority Outcomes so had scarce resources for this review and any recommendations. We were commissioned to examine the options and issues and prepare recommendations to be presented to Cabinet.

Devolved-centralised review and BV critical friend

Client name:

Portsmouth City Council

The project issues
Portsmouth City Council is in the process of implementing a new council-wide organisational structure, 'Moving Towards Excellence'. PCC is moving from a large number of individual departments to Strategic Directorates – four covering front line services, one covering all resources and one to address overall strategy and 'hot' cross-service strategic and change management priorities.

Business Case

Client name:

Oxfordshire Gateway

The project issues
The Oxfordshire Gateway portal (“the Gateway”) had been developed in 2004 on behalf of the six local authorities in Oxfordshire, using ODPM eGovernment partnership funding. The hosting and support contract with the technology supplier was due to expire in early 2007, and it was decided to take this opportunity to engage external consultancy to review the current services and to produce a business case for the future direction on the Gateway.

e-procurement strategy

Client name:

Oxford City Council

The project issues
The council had documented most of its procurement strategy and had generated a number of reports /documents that reflected its intentions for e-procurement. The problem was that they were running out of time and needed to pull everything together to present to directors and members.

A Socitm consultant working as an Interim Manager with Oxford City Council recommended that they involve experienced consultants from Socitm Consulting.