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10 May 2004
Conference Report: Enterprise Workflow National Project Dissemination Event, House of Commons, 10 May 2004
'The Council of the Future'
What is the Enterprise Workflow National Project?
| | The Enterprise Workflow National Project (EWNP) is one of the 23 National Projects sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Minister. Some £3.38 million has been made available for this project, led by Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, which commenced in June 2003 and will officially complete its work on 31 May 2004. It is designed to encourage as many councils as possible to transform their processes through the effective use of Enterprise Workflow, and to examine the benefits of moving from 'departmental' thinking to the 'enterprise' approach. EWNP's strategy is to combine outputs from a number of transformation projects, both the experiences and any assets developed, with the EWNP Toolkit, a repository of guidance on workflow-related business process re-engineering. The main project website - www.workflownp.org.uk - provides news and update. For the suppliers forum website, see www.workflowforum.org.uk. | |
Enterprise Workflow - The Council of the Future
Local eGovernment Minister, Phil Hope MP
Key Points
| | · | The Minister said that the medium to longer term, 'e' was very much key to creating the council of the future and highly relevant to developments such as the Gershon Effiency Review of the public sector, the Lyons Review of public sector relocation and the Barker Review of housing, which give local government a challenge to change the way services are delivered |
| | · | Increasing focus is being placed on value for money, greater efficiency and the concept of '24-7' interaction between the council and citizens |
| | · | The Minister stressed that even councils who considered themselves to be efficient could go 'one better' by using some of the National Project outputs |
| | · | He reiterated that the National Projects were developed for local authorities by local authorities, and designed to avoid duplication of effort and resources |
| | · | The IEG3 indicate that councils are confident that the 2005 target for e-enabling services would be meet, but we now need to see this optimism translated into local delivery |
| | · | The recently-released Priority Service Outcomes, the Minister said, still left plenty of scope for local flexibility and diversity, and were a useful benchmark for local authorities and what an e-enabled council should look like in future |
| | · | Enterprise Workflow is highly relevant to at least two priority areas - making it easier for citizens to do business with councils through CRM, e-enabling housing, council tax and benefits systems and transforming back-office process alongside CRM for front-offices |
| | · | Improvements to back-office systems, he said, also provide the key to return on investment. With workflow, real efficiencies could be gained, whether councils are large are small, and to single, two or three tier authorities. |
| | · | Another issue highlighted by the Minister was eProcurement, where the potential efficiency gains look to be significant |
| | · | The Minister announced the approval of funding for the e-Pay and Local Environment National Projects. |
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Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council - Using Workflow to Support Citizens and Employees
Steve Gallagher, Chief Executive, Knowsley MBC and Chair, North West eGovernment Group
Key Points
| | · | Knowsley BC has delivered a number of workflow projects to transform business processes, raise awareness, improve efficiency and increase customer satisfaction |
| | · | Work streams included: Revenues & Benefits, eBookings, Expenses, Internal Trading and Insurance Claim Processing - Steve outlined activity in these areas |
| | · | Workflow is considered as a major plank in helping Knowsley to deliver more efficiency gains. Its use in streamlining the Revenues & Benefits Service, he explained, had assisted in reducing processing costs by £100,000 and a 50 per cent reduction in processing times, although he acknowledged that a lot, but of all, of this was due to workflow |
| | · | Using workflow for booking of council resources by citizens has worked well, with processing savings expected to be an estimated £150,000. |
| | · | Overall the work has underlined the need for standards for information management standards to ensure better consistency and removes barriers to integration |
| | · | On the issue of integration, Steve underlined the importance of joining up services from the customer's perspective. What mattered, he said, was joining up people's experiences rather than organisations |
| | · | Workflow had been useful in exploiting technology and, Steve said, "making better use of what we've got" |
| | · | Don't underestimate what is required in terms of culture change |
| | · | Ensure suppliers can deliver. |
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Harlow District Council - Using Workflow to Join Up Service Delivery Across Partner Organisations
Graham Branchett, Executive Director of Resources, Harlow District Council
Key Points
| | · | Through the EWNP, Harlow has taken enterprise workflow and utilised it on a large scale for one of its local and national priority areas - Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) |
| | · | This involved the creation of a multi-agency solution to manage and reduce ASB, in partnership with key agencies, including health, police, social and probation services |
| | · | The work reviewed and streamlined business processes to generate greater efficiencies and has drafted information-sharing protocols for ASB which did not previously exist. The protocols have received endorsement from the Department for Constitutional Affairs |
| | · | A technology specification has been produced which is in the process of being approved by its partners. The business case should be finalised by the end of this month |
| | · | Harlow has developed enterprise-wide workflow that has been integrated in its bespoke CRM solution. In less than 12 months since the introduction of a Contact Centre operation and the supporting technology, it has been a 30 per cent increase in resolution of enquiries at the first point of contact, a 48 per cent rise in back line service responsiveness to customer enquiries, and 94 per cent customer satisfaction levels in the Contact Centre operation. |
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Workflow Implementation for Automation of Order and Invoice Processing
Bob Marshall, Chief Executive, North Wiltshire District Council
Key Points
| | · | Bob explained that NWDC is looking to eGivernment to address the many and varied needs of its dispersed citizens and has explored organisational change using workflow technology |
| | · | The Council provides the technical lead for the EWNP Programme |
| | · | Although at an early stage, it is introducing electronic tools to support an improved procurement policy, and hoping to move to reverse auctions |
| | · | It has streamlined its electronic order and invoicing processing to reduce the steps involved and possible 'loops', which it expects will lead to potential savings of £156,000, and a reduction of two staff posts |
| | · | It has seen a 30 per cent increase in the productivity of staff working from home |
| | · | Bob said the two key eGovernment issues facing the council were culture change and funding. There is a growing recognition that there are some areas of its work that are not economically viable and it needs to take action accordingly. |
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