Shire counties | Socitm Consulting

Website improvements

Client name:

Lancashire County Council

Date published:

Mon, 11/01/2010

Lead consultant:

Andy Grant

Lancashire County Council's (LCC) web presences are key parts of both the Customer Access Strategy and the Business Improvement Programme. The council acknowledged that web presences have the potential to deliver significant savings in the way the council does business with its customers.

LCC recognized that their web presence was in need of revision in order to introduce a stable platform and solid information architecture. This was needed to maximize their return on investment and provide a base for continuous improvement in customer service. They decided to divide the project into several stages and requested the help of Soctim Consulting in conjunction with Socitm Insight, to help them do this.

Interim Systems Centre Manager

Client name:

Warwickshire County Council

Warwickshire County Council maintained effective management of its Systems Centre through a major departmental restructure thanks to expert interim management support from Socitm Consulting. As a result of our management expertise, the Council was able to maintain continuity in staff management and business processes during a complex transitional period.

Procurement of Highways Schemes system

Client name:

Somerset County Council

Somerset County Council has procured a system to manage its Highways Scheme in house, with the assistance of expert procurement support from Socitm Consulting.

HR / Payroll procurement support

Client name:

Somerset County Council

The project issues
Following more than one aborted project to move from their traditional mainframe payroll system, the authority was anxious to ensure that they achieved the desired result.

The existing mainframe system had a definite final date due to an ending lease and the age of the system.

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.

Shared services helpdesk implementation

Client name:

Lancashire County Council

Lancashire County Council has a new strategy and action plan for implementing a shared services helpdesk, following a review by Socitm Consulting. Our advice on shared services helpdesk best practice guidelines and how to implement them gave the Council a clear action plan for developing customer service on a shared services basis.

Data Protection and confidentiality review

Client name:

Hampshire County Council

Hampshire County Council’s Children’s Services department now has a set of procedures and processes in place to ensure its data protection and confidentiality management are fully in line with the Data Protection Act following an expert review by Socitm Consulting. By undertaking a comprehensive risk assessment of its data protection processes, we were able to provide a key set of recommendations for ensuring robust data protection compliance across the department, balanced with effective management of the information sharing regime required to support the Every Child Matters agenda.

West Yorkshire Child Protection System (WYCPS)

Client name:

FAME Project

The project issues
FAME (Framework for Multi-Agency Environments) is an ODPM National Project which aims to help local authorities share and integrate information across traditional systems and services in order to provide better customer service, particularly single point access to multiple services.

Cumbria County Council - Website standards review

Client name:

Cumbria County Council

Lead consultant:

Andy Grant

Cumbria County Council has improved the usability and accessibility of its website thanks to expert assistance from Socitm Consulting. Using our extensive knowledge of best practice in local government website development, Socitm Consulting made recommendations on how the Council could improve its website to most effectively support the online delivery of customer services.

Recruitment assistance

Client name:

Bedfordshire County Council

The project issues
The Improvement and Development Agency secured funding from the ODPM for capacity support to Bedfordshire's e government programme, including recruitment of an e-government Programme Delivery Manager and recruitment of a consultant to liaise between the County Council and Bedfordshire's e-government Consortium.

They wanted to ensure the two positions were recruited to provide the extra support to the Council but without putting any greater pressure on the existing staff.