Case Studies

• Improving business effectiveness through strategy development and best practice project management.
• Making strategy practical.
• Getting results
• Project Management, from setting Strategic Objectives to Implementation and Post-Project Review.
• Process mapping and business modelling as an aid to identifying opportunities for beneficial change.

Three case studies are described here:

1. National Project funded by central government - See Below

2. Purposeful Process Mapping – Download the PDF

3. New ways of working - not just an office move – Download the PDF

1 National Project

This project, described briefly also in Credentials, was won as a combined assignment with Minerva Management Consulting.

Programme Management, Co-ordination, Marketing and Communications.

Detailed Case Study – A Local e-Government National Project.

Background

The Local e-Government National Project programme was established to ensure that all councils have access to key electronic services and building blocks without having to build them from scratch. One of the projects in this programme was the Valuebill Project. The long term aims of Valuebill are to:

Enable the electronic exchange of data between local authority billing agencies, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) in order to improve the rate of collection by one per cent for domestic and by 0.5 per cent for commercial rates within three years. This represents a total of £300m. Reduce the number of unknown and untaxed properties that go unrecognised in the existing system, which contributes to the under-collection of property taxes.

Integrate the VOA and Local Authorities (LAs) into the wider land related initiatives in local and central government, such as the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), the National Land Information Service (NLIS) and the Planning Portal.

Improve services to citizens and business through these enhancements to central and local government land systems; to reduce the cost of collection and provide a robust basis for strategic planning.

The principal objectives of the prototype phase of the Valuebill project were to:

• Confirm the benefits and practicality of the Valuebill concept.
• Provide a source of information and experience to support and encourage the rollout to all English Authorities.
• Ensure that software interfaces are developed which meet agreed standards to enable the direct electronic transfer of information between the VOA, NLPG/LLPG and Local Authorities' billing systems.
• Manage the budget

Initially we were asked to undertake the overall programme management and project co-ordination, but subsequently Minerva were also commissioned to run the marketing and communications programme.

The overall project budget was £2.25m.

Our Approach

We worked closely with the Programme Board and other stakeholders who included LA practitioners, VOA management, the Improvement and Development Agency, the ODPM, now CLG (Communities and Local Government), the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation, the NLPG, and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The task also required liaison with numerous Central and Local Government departments as well as private sector suppliers.

Throughout the project much encouragement was required from our team as many LAs and suppliers were already heavily committed, both in terms of finance and resource, to other initiatives. We:

• Managed the development and prototype programme with Prince2 methodology, over a two year period, through to completion and roll out.
• Co-ordinated all aspects of the project including meetings and general administration.
• Directed the communications and marketing programme. This included the development of an extensive contact database of over 3,000 people; regular newsletters; production of articles for the media and other sources; development and maintenance of the project website; initiation and development of other marketing material; production of a promotional video; plus development and organisation of all aspects of the events programme including the Launch Events and workshops nationwide for the initial project and subsequently for rollout over a total period of four years.
• Developed the initial and updated project plans and monitored progress against them, identifying potential problem areas and recommending ways in which they could be overcome.

A key deliverable was a Starter Kit to inform Local Authorities, Local Valuation Offices, software suppliers and other interested parties how to implement Valuebill. The Starter Kit was sent on CD to every English LA, Welsh Authorities by request, and was placed on the project website. 

Results

The business and technical case for participating in Valuebill was proven. The project moved to the sustainability stage and is being rolled out across all English Authorities.

As a result of the participation of many Authorities in the Valuebill project, the overall level of accuracy of property data held by Authorities has improved. The benefits of this have not only been proven to extend Authority-wide, but also beyond to agencies such as the Police and other emergency services.

We also gained support from the facilities management aspects of major banks operating in the UK, through the Inter Bank Rating Forum, IBRF.

The database schemata specifying the data to be transferred between LA billing systems, VOA systems and land and property gazetteers has been approved so that software suppliers have a firm standard which they can work towards.

All the above was achieved within budget.