North Herts Disctrict Council (NHDC) embarked upon a major change management programme to use technology to improve access channels for customers and to put in place a platform that would allow the council to change the way it operated to generate savings. A strategic support service contract was put in place with Northgate Information Solutions (at the time Anite) to deliver a range of projects with the council, these being:

• Project A - Infrastructure
• Project B - Service Integration (Intranet, Internet, e-Payments, CRM)
• Project C - Person & Property Index
• Project D - Corporate Document Management
• Project E - IT Effectiveness
• Project F - Flexible Working
• Ad-Hoc - Change Management, Security, Product Integration

 The programme commenced in 2005 and was completed in 2009, along the way the fundamental way in which the Council engaged with its customers was transformed and annual savings of £866K have been identified with future savings likely to grow beyond this figure.

By combining technology with a change programme the council has now established itself as a change organisation, it has set up its own team of change experts and has a equipped itself to deliver the outputs of the change programme.

Policy Context

NHDC are a District Council within Hertfordshire, we provide core services to the citizen and have to meet the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR2007) targets of saving 3%. The project board and governance structure included the Chief Executive, Strategic Directors, Members of the Administration, Members of the Minority Parties, Senior Officers and the strategic IT supplier.

Description of target users and groups

North Herts encompasses four towns within its boundaries: the market towns of Baldock, Hitchin and Royston as well as the first garden city, Letchworth. Most of the district’s 375 square kilometers are rural and agriculture is still of great importance, however, recent years have seen the growth of residential areas, which might be expected to continue to expand with the current drive for affordable housing.

There is a population of circa 120,000 with 19% under the age of 14 and 21% over the age of 60 years.

Being quite spread out there is a need to provide servcies to the rural communities in the most effective way possible, so having a multi-channel strategy is crucial as is having a single view of information that can be used directly by the citizen through the service desk.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

Overall Programme Management rested with the Council’s Cabinet and the Project Assurance role was be carried out by the Council’s Performance, Audit and Review Committee (PARC). A strict governance model was established and Prince2 was used for the implementation. There were 7 projects within the programme:

 

Project A - Infrastructure

Project B - Service Integration (Intranet, Internet, e-Paymentrs, CRM)

Project C - Person & Property Index

Project D - Corporate Document Management

Project E - IT Effectiveness

Project F - Flexible Working

Ad-Hoc - Change Management, Security, Product Integration

 

Each project had its own success factors but there was an underlying theme of cost reduction and improved service that ran through them all.

 

The programme had deliverables through the course of the period and this enabled efficiencies to be identified early on, similarly it allowed for changes to the scope to be managed so that more services were being delivered within the constraints of a fixed budget.

 

Technology solution

Working with our strategic IT supplier Northgate Information Solutions (NIS), we looked to put in place key enabling technologies that would have a high degree of interoperability, use common standards and would be flexible to meet the changing demands in the future. A solution architecture was established and this was used as the blue print against which the change programme was delivered.

At the heart of the was the definition of the Service Level Agreement that will be ‘signed’ by NHDC with its citizens through, this provides the business framework through which the technology can be deployed to meet the business objectives. The Citizen SLA addresses issues such as:

¨     The quality of the service experience for the citizen;

¨     How frequently information will need to be updated on the web site;

¨     How quickly the impacts of any new legislation will be communicated to the citizens;

¨     The content that will be made available, with specific emphasis on the provisions made in the Freedom of Information Act;

¨     How quickly information provided by a citizen will be updated into back-office systems or stored on-line through the CRM system;

¨     Measures to protect information under the Data Protection Act;

¨     Security measures NHDC have put in place;

¨     The provisions made for those with disabilities.

By setting the technology in a business framework, the service design and implementation goals were more clearly understood.  It also provided a framework against which key cost/benefit decisions can be made. 

The key technologies chosen were:

Lagan CRM

OpenText WCM

Northgate EDRMS

Northgate e-Payments

Northgate Mobile

eBase e-Forms

Other supporting technologies were also included, for example pre-built integrations between the core systems and the service area systems. The approach was to use what was already available but to do so in a manner that would be set against the change programme, i.e. we looked at how we wanted to change how the Council operated and then select the components that were needed to help achieve that.

Technology choice: Standards-based technology, Accessibility-compliant (minimum WAI AA)

Main results, benefits and impacts

Cashable savings of just under £900K have been identified and these are set to increase. The big impact however is the way in which the council operates and the customer service centre which now provides the following services

• Council Tax
• Benefits/Verification
• Waste
• Housing
• Planning
• Sports & Play Bookings
• IT Helpdesk
• FOI Requests
• 3Cs
• Parking
• Allotments
• Environmental Health
• Elections
• Bus Pass Enquiries

The number of e-Payments has increased from 9635 to 14308 with the value being taken at £1.9M.

The website hits on average have doubled and there are 27 e-forms live on the site.

Return on investment

Return on investment: €1,000,000-5,000,000

Track record of sharing

At North Herts we have implemented a business and technical framework that is delivering on-going savings The programme has established a change culture that runs through the organisation based upon change management. Now that the programme is fully operational it is in a position to be replicated by other Councils so that they too can reap the benefits and efficiences from the model that is in place. The business change model is one that can work effectively for other councils and the technical framework is agile enough to work with different components that may already be in place.

Lessons learnt

Consistency of the programme team has made a major contribution to the success, this has allowed us to maintain the momentum throughout.

Engaging with a single IT supplier has allowed us to form a strong relationship that is based upon trust, one that moves from the traditional supplier model to more of a true partner model.

A strong Governance model has underpinned all aspects of the programme and has help to keep a tight focus on the deliverable and the benefits realisation. Having a project board that includes represnetatives from the council and the opposition parties has ensured that each area has been challenged.

Scope: Local (city or municipality)