Staffordshire Connects Partnership

Contact Centre

e-Government Partnership

Awarded Beacon Status

CLIENT ASSIGNMENT:

Strategic Review of organisational structure and delivery options for Project Management and CRM support

Duration: 3 Months

Location: Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

EiB Role:

Management Consultants

Project Overview:

Staffordshire Connects provides a partnership based approach to the provision of Client Relationship Management (CRM) to all of the local authorities within Staffordshire.  The innovative nature of this approach has been recognised by the award of Beacon Status to the organisation for partnership working and delivery.  In response to the challenges on local government to look at alternative methods of service delivery in order to improve efficiency and demonstrate VfM,  Excellence in Business were commissioned to carry out a fundamental review of Staffordshire Connects services and provide recommendations to reduce costs while, if possible, improving the quality of service provided to partner organisations. This included reviewing the business case for the Oracle LG45 CRM upgrade and the arrangements that were in place to deliver the project.

This strategic review and option appraisal for the future delivery of projects and CRM involved consultation with all local authorities and other stakeholders; analysis of a wide range of data; the review of various financial and operational models; the creation of service delivery options and the development of a report with recommendations in order to make informed decisions on the way forward.

Project outcomes/impact:

1. Wide endorsement of our report and recommendations amongst the partners;
2. A total annual cost saving of over £300,000 and the ability for Staffordshire Connects to deliver 3%, year on year, efficiency savings from the financial year 2009/2010;
3. A change in the organisational structure to a commercial 'strategic commissioning' model involving the appointment of a long-term private sector partner;
4. The use of Virtual Transformational Teams to deliver projects by formalising the existing arrangement of drawing team members from partner organisations to form project teams;
5. The establishment of two key permanent posts in the new structure (Executive Director and Business Manager);
6. A decision to proceed with CRM upgrade to LG45 R12 and to carry out a formal 'option appraisal' in order to establish the costs, benefits and implications of each of the structural options presented in the EiB report.

CONSULTANCY SERVICE LINKS:

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