Computing Awards - Company Awards

There are just four weeks to go until this year's Computing Awards for Excellence, which will be hosted in London on 16 November. This week we focus on the organisations shortlisted to win some of our prestigious business categories.

Most IT-enabled Organisation of the Year
RBT (Connect)/Rotherham Borough Council
In April 2003, Rotherham Borough Council and BT set up a joint venture company called RBT (Connect) to manage the technology investment needed to modernise the local authority and help meet its egovernment targets.

The 12-year partnership will see £30m invested in IT, new business practices, training and better ways of working, while the council makes £50m in efficiency savings to fund improvements in public services. As a result, IT has become central to the provision of better services to a quarter of a million citizens.

The organisation has installed a number of successful initiatives. A major overhaul of infrastructure has rationalised old application and servers, as well as updating PCs for 3,000 staff. A Siebel-based contact centre is improving day-to-day dealings with citizens, and the introduction of eprocurement has saved more than £1m in 12 months.

The council’s benefits service has been transformed. The Rotherham Grid for Learning has been set up to provide secure broadband and email for schools. And an emergency planning incident management system is the first of its kind in the country to link all those involved in responding to major emergencies in the region.

RBT, in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University, has launched the first masters degree course in egovernment. Even street cleaning has improved as a direct result of new technology.

South Eastern Trains

IT has been central to a turnaround in performance and processes that helped South Eastern Trains (SET) become the most improved company in the rail industry.
When the service was taken back into government control in 2003 because of its franchise owner’s poor performance, the IT department inherited a decrepit infrastructure which provided such a poor service to users that IT support was virtually non-existent.

Renewing the IT infrastructure was identified as a vital stage in the organisation’s overhaul before it could be refranchised. In less than 12 months, the company delivered 43 major projects plus some 150 others to fix more minor problems. Networks, servers and PCs were updated, and industry best practice processes were introduced, including Prince 2 for project management and ITIL (IT infrastructure library) for helpdesk services.

The IT department also uses the balanced scorecard technique to measure and monitor the benefits delivered by technology and conformance to corporate objectives.

SET is now rated as one of the top three train operating companies in the UK, and staff confidence in technology has improved significantly.

Berwin Leighton Paisner

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) is a City law firm that places IT at the heart of its business. Its goal is to become the most respected law firm in London and the best place to work in its sector, and IT is seen as central to achieving this.

Technology is used to support lawyers’ work and to provide services to clients. A BLP IT expert is often part of the bidding team when pitching for customers.

Internally, lawyers depend on IT systems including an intranet combining data from document, customer relationship and practice management systems; mobile systems allowing access to email and other applications from mobile devices; and digital dictation tools to improve work-sharing among secretaries. Clients can access an extranet providing documents, expertise, news and electronic briefings. The ‘Ask BLP’ service offers an online research library for customers’ in-house legal teams. And a business process management project over the past year has helped to automate repetitive transactions, promising increased profitability and greater efficiency.

A new initiative known internally as Starbucks is helping lawyers to understand and use a number of remote connections to the office, including wireless hotspots and home working.

NPS Property Consultants

NPS Property Consultants, owned by Norfolk County Council, provides property consultancy services to public sector organisations across the UK.

The company relies on its IT infrastructure and all 650 employees in 13 regional offices are IT users. Technology supports every aspect of the firm, from architectural design through surveying, estate management and engineering to business support.

Using its public sector expertise, NPS also develops bespoke IT systems for local authority clients, to provide innovative systems that help the company win new business. It says continuous investment in IT has contributed to business growth of 25 per cent per year over the past three years.

A wide area network linking the offices has allowed IP telephony to be introduced across the organisation.

Its plan to achieve ISO9001 quality accreditation in 2006 relies on a document management system that covers all business activities, including work carried out by the IT team in support of operational departments. NPS says the latest technology is continually monitored and used wherever possible.

UPS
UPS invests $1bn (£0.57bn) annually on an integrated global IT network. The courier firm uses sophisticated digital systems to deliver more than 14 million packages each day. It handles 10 million requests per business day through an online tracking tool and uses some of the world’s largest DB2 and Oracle databases, containing some 26TB of information.

In the UK, the company is deploying wireless technology to enhance visibility throughout its delivery process. Staff in sorting centres and distribution hubs wear Bluetooth scanners on a finger. These send package tracking data to WiFi terminals worn on the waist, which transmit to the UPS network so customers can track the progress of their delivery at every stage.

The UPS network will be one of the largest wireless networks in the world. Some 55,000 wireless ring scanners will be deployed worldwide over the next two years, and 7,000 drivers will use the firm’s Diad (delivery information acquisition device) wireless computer in the next five years.

In January, UPS launched its Quantum View Manage service in Europe. This web-based application allows shipping companies to view transportation information for multiple accounts, so their customers can see where their shipment is at all times.

UPS is also investigating and piloting potential uses for radio frequency identification technology.

Most IT-enabled Small Business of the Year

JLA

JLA is one of the biggest independent distributors of commercial laundry equipment. A seven-strong IT team handles all of its infrastructure development and maintenance, and builds many of the firm’s applications in-house.

Technology is at the core of JLA’s operations. It implemented a Linux-based intranet and data warehouse as long ago as 1999, and has provided field engineers with wireless handheld computers for six years. Another recent development is a database of 4,500 hyperlinked diagrams covering 50,000 parts, accessible from the handheld devices.

A sales force automation system helps to maintain contact with customers, even though the equipment those clients are using is expected to last for more than 10 years.

The company’s use of innovative technology even extends to the staff restaurant, where its ‘Q-Cam’ allows employees to check the length of the queue before leaving their desks.

KnowledgePool

KnowledgePool provides managed training services to private and public sector organisations. IT is used to manage all aspects of communication, information and billing for large teams of trainers across multiple customers and locations.

The firm sends out up to half a million electronic communications every year, such as surveys, course evaluations and joining instructions. Customers have access to a secure web portal to maintain employee learning records for 250,000 people.

KnowledgePool developed LiveMentor, an online mentoring tool used by clients 24 hours a day. And virtual private network technology provides secure access for office, home and client-based staff.

Course schedules are managed and analysed using algorithms based on Bayesian probability theories, which reduce a three-week task to just 20 minutes.

Inside Track

Inside Track provides training and services for individuals looking to invest in the residential property market. An 800 per cent increase in revenue is largely thanks to its applications infrastructure, developed with supplier Western Consulting.

The system combines web-based management reporting, event management and customer relationship management functions with an externally hosted data warehouse. The application is based on Microsoft .Net technology, using a service-oriented architecture for scalability and flexibility. The secure system is also accessible to customers wishing to view and manage their property portfolio.

‘The implementation of a .Net strategy has allowed us to support the phenomenal growth of the business,’ says Inside Track IT manager Richard Pemberton. ‘This includes adding new businesses and initiatives to the system, while keeping IT costs and staffing to a minimum.’

DriveTech

DriveTech provides driver training services for companies to help reduce vehicle costs. The firm has implemented an online customer relationship management (CRM) system from Salesforce.com, which has cut sales teams administration time from one day a week to less than three hours.

DriveTech achieved a return on its investment in just six months. The system is integrated with an in-house course management application, developed using Microsoft Visual Basic. The combination gives a complete view of the firm’s sales and marketing activity. It contributed to a 56 per cent growth in business in the 12 months to the end of February this year, and a projected increase of 66 per cent in the current financial year.

Postcode Anywhere

Postcode Anywhere uses web services technology to provide access to some 240 databases, containing postal address data, bank and credit card verification, lifestyle information and geographic data.

Unlike its rivals, which provide similar information on CD, the company links customers’ applications directly to its own servers in real-time. It can respond to a postcode entered into a client’s application or web site within 40 milliseconds, having searched 27 million addresses.

The company says it has structured the business to use IT wherever possible, from sales and marketing to customer service and accounts, using bespoke technology developed with Microsoft’s .Net tools. Some 95 per cent of sales come through the web site, so the success of the organisation depends on the robustness, security and performance of its IT.

MSB International

Recruitment company MSB International has made significant savings by automating some of its key business processes. With more than 40,000 contractors in its database and nearly 10,000 clients across Europe, managing its workflows to maintain customer service levels was becoming increasingly important.

MSB worked with software vendor Metastorm to create applications that free staff from paper-based tasks, so they can spend more time with customers.

For example, a sales agreement called a ‘contractors out’ form can be completed from any office via the intranet and automatically routed through its chain of approval, capturing information from MSB’s database as required. Automating this form alone has saved £100,000 in one year by removing 4,000 hours of process time from 200 users company-wide.

IT in the Community Award

Computer Associates Digital Schoolhouse Foundation

The Digital Schoolhouse Foundation is a charity run by Computer Associates (CA) to give children access to, and education in, technology.

From a classroom in CA’s offices near Slough in Berkshire, the foundation runs one-day lessons for 10- to 11-year-olds from schools within a 20-mile radius, many of whom do not have access to computers or the internet in their schools or homes.

The aim is to help all children in the local community understand how technology can help them to learn, by teaching them to use IT to support the National Curriculum.

Since it opened in September 2004, the schoolhouse has welcomed 3,584 pupils from 60 schools, and it is now working with Age Concern to provide similar services for elderly people.

Preston City Council eCity
Preston City Council is using IT to provide innovative services to the community and bridge the digital divide.

The local authority has implemented five programmes. WiFi hotspots give citizens and community groups access to the internet, and support mobile working for council staff. A free video email service is provided through internet kiosks to bring communities together, and for people with family overseas to send video messages.

A community portal provides simple web templates and content management facilities, for local groups to build and maintain their own web sites. An internet radio service helps community groups and citizens create programmes that reflect local issues. And a text messaging service sends information or alerts about events to groups that are difficult to reach, such as young people, engaging them through a technology to which they can relate.

There’s no substitute for being there, and it’s not too late to share in the fun. For full details on how to book a table for the Oscars of the IT industry, visit www.computing.co.uk/awards