Westminster City Council faced a number of challenges with respect to Technology deployment.
Increased use of technology-based solutions was vital for the future of the Council’s external facing services and for the smooth running of internal processes. However, there was doubt about the ability of the ICT Function to define the Council’s technology direction and lead the implementation of a strategy, along with an outsource partner and 3rd party suppliers, that would satisfy the Council’s need over the next 3 years and beyond.
Westminster City Council needed to define an outline strategy for the use of technology in the furtherance of the council’s business and public services and to re-assess the return expected from recent technology investments.
The internal ICT function had grown without any real strategic leadership, so the function was not fit for purpose in its current structure.
CIO Commissioned Hops through Serco to provide expertise in IT Services, change, outsourcing and supplier management.
HOPS built up relationships with various Heads within the council and found that the major outsource contract was not effectively managed by the ICT Function. HOPS gained confidence from various leaders within the council through good stakeholder management, which enabled information to flow freely.
We sieved through a 1500 page outsourced service contract and realised that many of the services were not being delivered or managed accordingly and highlighted changes were happening with no real ownership or audit trail.
HOPS worked closely with a contract specialist (Best Practice Group) to address the issues with the supplier direct. BPG clarified the provider’s contractual obligations which put the council in a position of strength to decide whether or not to stay with the incumbent or to seek a new provider.
Under the leadership of HOPS, BPG supported the review, recovery and renegotiation of a £280m IT/Facilities 10 year Outsource contact, and enabled detailed analysis, good governance and strong supplier and stakeholder management.
HOPS went on to recruit an external interim team to formulate a programme of work to change ICT structure, implement ITIL best practice processes, drive down TCO to meet target savings and implement contract and programme/project governance.
Initiated the development and implementation of Service Introduction Gate Methodology for all Council ICT related projects.
Recovered a 10 year £280m Outsource contract and negotiated reduction in costs over the life of the contract whilst removing risk of service failures and reduction in customer complaints.
ICT Reorganization designed and implemented, achieved target savings, appropriate ITIL processes rolled out and reduced unplanned work by 60%
Delivered the replacement of critical unsupported Servers and lead the developed a 3yr plan for the council to become infrastructure-free and outsourced to a fully managed service.
Mobilised business prioritised Programme Portfolio, consisting of 8 Major Work streams, delivering the future IT Strategy in-line with the newly established Corporate Technology Architecture (CTA) Framework with Sponsors and Prime Partner for implementation
Recovered the main telephone (VOIP) programme to original plan and savings.
Crisis managed power outage to the building and re-established back-up generator to avoid risk to Services