IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

"At North Lincolnshire we don't see e-government as an add-on" says Phil Entwistle, Head of Information Technology, North Lincolnshire Council. "It's just part of providing modern services. So instead of a sticking-plaster 'everything on the web' approach we're:

• Changing our culture as well as introducing new technology
• Looking in depth at service processes
• Improving the quality of our information.

"There are great opportunities to give our customers new options, without increasing costs. We've done well on the national measure of electronic service availability (BV157) - having attained 50% as early as April 2002. But it's essential that people can see a benefit so that they use our e-services."

"With dozens of systems and as many suppliers, it's not practical for them all to interface with each other. With the rate of change our services experience, there is no possibility of a fully integrated system emerging. Instead we are adopting national (e-GIF) standards and developing our skills at joining systems up. This means we will be able to adapt without having to wait for suppliers to co-ordinate their products."

"We're concerned at the lack of infrastructure provision in our area. In 1999 we set up an ambitious community project, North Lincs Net, to help people and businesses to connect and develop their skills and confidence. By pooling our network needs with others in the public, private and voluntary sectors we hope to show that it's worth investing in North Lincolnshire."

"To make sure our services really are better, and not merely electronic, we were one of the first councils to adopt the SPRINT method from the Salford Pathfinder project. This is helping us to redesign our services to exploit the four channels - face-to-face, post, telephone and electronic - so they can:

• Reach into rural communities
• Be available at times when the customer wants them
• Be accessible to those who can't travel
• Be fast, accurate and flexible
• Make dealing with us as easy as possible, and
• Drive down administrative costs.

"With all the services a unitary council provides there's vast potential for duplication of data. We were one of the very first councils to bring information into one Client Index. This involved a huge amount of complex data matching. But it enabled us to put a single change-of-address form on the web, exposed a dramatic amount of inconsistency in the data, and gave our "Local Link" one-stop-shops very good information to help customers. As we already hold data about most of the local population (e.g. for the electoral register, libraries, schools and council tax) it's a solid foundation for developing Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This innovative work, combined with our use of SPRINT, helped us to be successfully selected as a "proof of concept" authority for the National CRM project."

"We're proud of our new website. It's based on the APLAWS national standard to make it easy to find information, and can now be readily linked to the "back end" systems - essential to give customers the full benefit that an e-service can bring. We were able to build on our earlier success, having been independently rated as in the top 10% of council websites. We're also working closely with the three other councils in the Humber area, to share development costs and spread best practice."

"We see a lot of potential to develop the telephone "channel". Our housing repairs and council tax departments have separate call centre teams, but use the same system. This means we can easily pool staff in future if our emerging customer service strategy requires it. The Local Links will be part of the pool, helping out the specialists at busy times."

"We were classified as a "good" council in the 2002 Comprehensive Performance Assessment, but are not resting on our laurels. We have embraced a "one-council" approach, and re-shaped our management structure from five directorates to 14 services. This will help our e-government plans, which often involve several services working together to achieve step-change improvements. We'll have a single co-ordinated IT programme based on agreed priorities, rather than a number of parallel directorate plans."

"Our Intranet includes what we call the Organisation Directory. This is evolving from a mere "phone book" into a rich and illuminating view of our assets, strategies, services, processes, performance - and of course our people and their skills. We see this as an excellent aid to make visible - both within the council and with our many partner organisations - what we all do, how we work, and our interdependencies. As well as being a superb management tool, we can use it to share knowledge and collaborate, perhaps in unexpected ways. It's also the platform for simplifying and speeding up our many internal processes. If we're as effective as possible on the inside, our customers will see a difference in the services they receive."

"We're convinced that culture, information and processes are as important as the technology. There's still a long way to go, but we're beginning to see a lot of patient behind-the-scenes work bear fruit."

Quelle: PublicTechnology, 24.11.2003