Blaenau Gwent eyes service transformation and GBP1.1m savings with Civica.
Civica’s new service helps meet government transformation and
spending review targets using existing IT investment
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council in South Wales is to implement a four-year corporate programme to enhance local service delivery and generate at least £1.1 million in efficiency savings with help from Civica, a market leader in software-based solutions that help public sector organisations to improve service delivery. The new programme is being implemented with support from Civica’s Enterprise Service Transformation unit. It provides a ‘road map’ for service improvement across the council’s main departments, underpinned by significant savings, with optimum use of the authority’s IT investments to date.
A unitary authority serving one of the most deprived areas in Wales, Blaenau Gwent is benefiting from Civica’s specialist enterprise service transformation capability, which is focused around efficiency and return on investment at an organisation-wide, rather than departmental, level.
By September 2008, the social services, planning and building control departments will all be using enterprise-wide administration processes based on electronic document management (EDM) and workflow software. This approach will greatly reduce manual data input and paperwork processing across different departments, provide seamless home working in line with Blaenau Gwent’s mobile working strategy, and cut duplication of staff resource in administration. The council, now gaining recognition as one of the fastest improving local authorities in Wales, is also planning to move more services to its main call centre to improve contact management and replace smaller departmental-level contact centres.
Robin Morrison, Chief Executive, Blaenau Gwent, commented: “Civica’s involvement has enabled us to implement a service improvement-led approach to enhancing efficiency across the entire authority, built on a clear business case. The initial ‘return on investment’ research demonstrated savings of £1.1 million over four years, with the possibility of even greater savings in the future. We are seeking a corporate transformation in the way in which the organisation interacts with its customers and, of course, the considerable cost savings that may accrue from the project. The local community is utilising the latest digital methods to access the authority’s services and it is vitally important that we keep pace.”
Lindsay Dransfield, director of Enterprise Service Transformation at Civica said: “Local government’s agenda remains enormous, but with increasing emphasis on efficiency. Many forward thinking authorities such as Blaenau Gwent are on a journey of change, but often from a different starting point with differing political backdrops, local targets and resources. Many are operating more effectively on a departmental basis, but the determination to drive through a ‘customer-centric’ vision demands much more. Civica’s “enterprise” approach to business analysis, process re-engineering and integration of new and existing IT systems can help achieve this in a sustainable manner. We are committed to helping Blaenau Gwent achieve local service and efficiency outcomes.”
Drawing on Civica’s expertise in integrating streamlined processes and systems around service outcomes, the approach avoids the risks associated with outsourcing of entire business processes to third parties while providing more effective service and process improvement than small scale, departmental or system-centric projects. The roll-out of effective workflow and EDM technology is fundamental.
Blaenau Gwent’s Transformation project builds on a successful partnership with Civica. In 2006, the company helped improve housing benefit and tax administration by re-engineering processes and replacing paper systems, based on EDM and workflow. Benefit claim processing times were cut by one third by late 2007 while the proportion of rent allowance claims processed on time has increased from 92 to 97 per cent.
Civica’s Enterprise Service Transformation (EST) unit made this corporate-level approach to change possible. EST provides a portfolio of business analysis, benefits identification and process transformation skills. The combination of market insight and expertise enables different types and sizes of authority to manage the implementation of corporate service improvements and ‘system-based’ efficiency savings, thereby providing a framework for councils to balance the ‘transformation’ vision of the Varney Report and tougher government spending targets for 2008-11.