The Highland Council

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The Highland Council

When nine local authorities joined together to form The Highland Council in 1996 the initial challenge was to improve the way that IT was used throughout the organisation. The new council decided to outsource to a partner. Two years later it entered into an agreement with Fujitsu to supply IS services. The Highland Council now has new line of business applications with 3,500 users on a standard MS Office platform, including email and intranet access over a reliable network.

The Challenge

When nine local authorities joined together to form The Highland Council in 1996 the initial challenge was to improve the way that IT was used throughout the organisation. The new council decided to outsource to a partner. Two years later it entered into an agreement with Fujitsu to supply IS services. The Highland Council now has new line of business applications with 3,500 users on standard MS Office platform, including email and intranet access over a reliable network. The latest challenge is all about managing the organisational change that e-Government will bring and making sure that geographic and economic issues do not hinder the council.

"The partnership with Fujitsu is one of our tools," said the council’s Chief Executive, Arthur McCourt. "Our vision is to make the Highland Council area an even better place to live, by increasing opportunities for citizens of all ages. In order to do this, we must get a return on our IT investment and use this to improve services to the public. We cannot get economies of scale because our geography means that we need to be decentralised. So we have to look for economies in other ways. We also need to increase fulfilment, which means completing the delivery of service from the point of initiation. We therefore need more capable information systems."

The Solution

A dedicated Fujitsu team works on site. The team can call upon the resources, the economies of scale and the strategic relationships of the whole organisation. While liaison takes place continuously at all levels, the partnership has formal board meetings every two months. These are chaired by the council’s chief executive and attended by his senior managers as appropriate. The meetings reflect the partnership’s citizen centric approach to modernising government. Fujitsu’s role is to exploit existing technology by identifying innovative projects that cut across the council to save money, support staff and serve the public.

The Benefits

"It was always a partnership contract but as we started off with some fundamental problems which we had to resolve, it is only in the last two or three years that the true nature of this has been apparent", said Arthur McCourt. "The partnership enables us to benefit from Fujitsu’s practical expertise and innovative thinking. We can now concentrate on people: the public and our staff."

With the right infrastructure in place, the council is able to focus on its plans to support economic activity, lifelong learning, better public services and greater participation in democratic processes through a project known as ‘Digital Highland’. As Arthur McCourt explained, "We can stop worrying about meeting basic objectives and focus on what’s possible. We have the flexibility to try things out and achieve quick wins without taking any risk. We are, for example, piloting an e-procurement project that links 20 schools with 8 educational suppliers to gain economies of scale and reduce time consuming paperwork."

The ten-year contract with Fujitsu includes an assumed efficiency gain with a price promise and a framework that allows for change; plus a best value arrangement with external benchmarking.

"We expect more benefit for the same cost," commented Arthur McCourt. "This will effectively release funds."

The Implementation

The Highland Council and Fujitsu made the management of change a priority. "While there is no substitute for face to face communication, we can supplement that with technology to reach people effectively," said Arthur McCourt. One result is that council staff now schedule diaries and meetings electronically. "We also want to ensure that all staff have the resources they need," he continued. "We use technology to deliver e-training, which means we no longer have to send trainers all over the Highland area and we have 250 people engaged in obtaining the EC computer ‘driving licence’."

The Expertise

Fujitsu has taken a thought leadership role and invited specialist consultants in the fields of social services and education to attend partnership board meetings and initiate debate. This approach ensures a high level focus on the cultural and social issues that create business and technological needs.