As e-Government reform comes together in a sonic boom of target dates, renewed focus looks beyond project initiation, towards ensuring maximum efficiency gains stretch out in front of us, as both direct and measurable results of our efforts.
But then how can this work? Implement a supersonic service, ok, but then roll it up in a wad of financial saving; it’s not unfair to suggest we’ve set our sights sky high!
So as Central Government approaches with a glint in their eye, and a box full of empty money bags, how are these best of the best getting results, we follow the Lincolnshire finalists of the local government ‘Team’ category to find out.
The ‘Team’ category of this year’s e-Government National Awards looked for synergies, specifically “team-working or partnership activity delivering more than the sum of the parts”.
In pursuit of such synergies, local government finalist Lincolnshire County Council recognised their success could be the success of others too, not only at a fraction of the cost but in a manner that would unite the partners for future benefit.
The county council’s websites run on a Content Management System (CMS), a good one, not simply good because it ticks the necessary e-government boxes, but because the software is flexible, driven and changeable according to customer need. But all this comes at a cost, a financial cost. Like anything in life, you pay for what you get ~ or perhaps not exactly in this case.
You see, in the two-tiered system of Lincolnshire the county council has brought resources to bear on CMS provision that local district councils might have found challenging, given the huge “e”-agenda we are all striving to deliver.
The county council and CMS suppliers recognised that to join-up the local website systems, not at the ‘front-end’ public-facing level, which remain individual and independent, but rather through the same ‘back-end’ CMS system, on the same servers, would present huge immediate and long term efficiency rewards.
Corporate Web Strategist Peter Barton said: “We negotiated a deal with AbacusEmedia to give licenses to use Webstructure (the CMS) for a much reduced price. Two of the local district authorities took up the offer we then extended, firstly North Kesteven and then West Lindsey.”
North Kesteven Web Manager Mike Astill adds: "North Kesteven District Council thoroughly researched the market place for content management systems and carried out a tendering exercise. The additional benefits derived from a partnership approach with the County Council meant this was the route chosen"
Contracts and ICT Liaison Officer Jackie McGeachie explains West Lindsey’s position before the partnership began: “The website was primarily an information website, and in order to offer transactional facilities to our customers, extend and enhance the information available, keep information up to date effectively, meet various government standards and meet accessibility requirements it was recognised that we would need to move to a Content Management System.”
CMS means control and compliance in publishing
It has been said a CMS is an expensive but necessary tool for local government if authorities are to meet service and efficiency targets - inherent in which are the issues of joining-up services and interoperability - and it is in the spirit of such movements that these Lincolnshire authorities have come together.
But to simply say a CMS is expensive ignores some of the logistical realities. A ‘flat site’ may be cheaper to buy in the first place, but is exponentially more complicated and time consuming to both operate and control, particularly if publishing is devolved.
In short, if you don’t have one, the result is sizable overheads and complexities in terms of managing your data, and arguably, a significantly reduced chance of keeping up with central government standards.
Here’s an example: If large amounts of sensitive data suddenly need to be taken from a website, a CMS makes it a 20 second job, whilst retaining the integrity of the site, which may include re-organising any links from other pages. Without that someone must sit and go through every page, searching out all the links for deletion, and what if the process needs reversing 5 minutes later?
So when talking about the costs of using CMS you can only really equate it with the manpower costs of not using it, whatever they may be in your case.
Synergism
The Lincolnshire partnership has greater potential still. The district councils not only gain a good CMS system at a fraction of the cost, including the necessary hardware to run it and opportunity to share content, but also the years of County Council web team experience.
Project Director for Abacus eMedia Ian Eckert said: “Provided Lincolnshire County Council was happy their investment should be used in this way, we felt offering the opportunity of a flexible licensing agreement and the technical wherewithal to do it, was a reasonable thing to do, because as a company we wouldn’t necessarily be able to offer the districts the same level of service in any other way.”
This is where the partnership really demonstrates attractive long-term benefits. In using the same CMS they share the same knowledge of how to use it, how to overcome problems, how to train others, and what innovations they may like to pursue. The county council are only a phone call away and provide the districts with any assistance needed.
Interoperability
Opportunities to work in the most efficient manner possible are in front of the partners now. For example, the events database run by the county council can pick out the West Lindsey or the North Kesteven events and have them automatically appear on the appropriate site. So someone else wouldn’t have to do the same job.
“The data is gathered once and used multiple times”
Any information can be shared like that, and could be with any groups. The CMS allows the XML sharing of information from the database to any other. It has also been designed to keep up with the needs of government standards, as a leader in the public sphere, particularly metadata. For example, the CMS has already been equipped with the new IPSV metadata categorisation along with the previous structure as well, to allow the mapping of information across the whole country.
So all the work Lincolnshire has done to achieve a demonstrably excellent site, reacting to both governmental and public need, meant they shot up the league table this year, as a result of changes made, and took their first partner North Kesteven District Council with them.
Jackie McGeachie said: “North Kesteven has already assisted West Lindsey with content provision in order for us to swiftly enhance our current information and we have tailored this for our own use. This is saving us considerable development time, preventing us from ‘re-inventing the wheel’, and enabling us to plan a short implementation timescale”
The same but different ~ how to keep control
But the partners are also necessarily independent. The district council’s determine what their site looks like, how it is navigated, what developments they would like to make, and what content is placed on it, because the CMS has inbuilt customisation. In this respect the partnership is a non-threatening efficiency, but equally the partners may choose to share content, ideas or the costs of new innovations, and can do so with ease.
“Non-threatening efficiency”
If a district doesn’t agree on a policy, they can do what they wish. Equally if a partner is doing something useful, they can get involved. Because the ‘back end’ system and ‘front end’ product of the CMS package are separate templates they can be changed and the sites appearances can therefore be very different.
So this partnership essentially ‘leap-frogs’ the districts over the pains inherent in getting where the county council finds themselves, evident in their immediate and substantial rise in recent SiteMorse rankings.
Whilst the immediate benefits of the partnership are considerable, the future promises to deliver significant opportunities and savings, especially topical in the light of the Gershon review.
So why has it gone without a hitch?
As is often the case, it’s all about the people involved. The relationship makes it work so well as a continuing project. The technical package works well, but it’s the dynamic between the partners, including the CMS supplier, which drives innovation on.
And if you have all that, new things become possible
Autor: Stuart Webster
Quelle: eGov monitor, 24.01.2005
