Technical specification and architecture

Ultimately, every local authority’s ambition to be efficient, effective and responsible requires an underpinning of appropriate, secure and resilient technologies. Getting the infrastructure right is essential to delivering quality services to customers, making best use of people and property resources, serving the green agenda and supporting the local development of the knowledge economy.

Making the right decisions requires a combination of specialist technical knowledge, business savvy, environmental and broad market awareness. Whether it’s a matter of linking Revs and Bens to document management systems, transactional websites, cabling requirements for new schools or supporting social work professionals on client visits, we can assist. Technologies and working practices are changing fast - both for authorities and their customers. Big decisions need to be made around how best to support team working, communicate with customers and make best use of expensive office space.

Socitm Consulting has the experience and understanding to advise your authority on what to buy (and what not to buy), when and how to buy it (and with whom), how to make best use of it and how to keep it secure and operational. We have particular expertise in advising on how best to source commodity technologies and support services.

How we can help:

• Developing ICT strategies that translate business priorities into working systems
• Integration and e-enablement – pulling customer service and back office systems together
• Ensuring systems are resilient, secure and safe to use
• Assessing and reducing the environmental impact of the ICT service
• Advising on new and emerging technologies – open source, thin client, virtualisation etc
• Networking the organisation and the community
• Smart specification and procurement to EU standards
• ICT contract negotiation, partnership reviews and options appraisals
• Implementation support and reviews
• Sourcing options appraisal and shared service development
• Aligning procurement strategies and advising on how to work with suppliers to integrate green strategies across the board
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Applications rationalisation planning.

Examples of recent project include: