Supplementary memorandum submitted by
HM Treasury
Question 129 (Mr Field): Examples of successful
IT-enabled projects
PLANNING INSPECTORATE—PLANNING
PORTAL
The Planning Inspectorate (an Executive Agency
of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) has established a
"Planning Portal" to provide a one-stop shop for issues,
information, guidance and transactions relating to town planning
in England and Wales.
The Portal cost £3 million to set up and
has a number of interesting features including its success in
linking central and local Government (over 50% of local planning
authorities have signed up together with a number of statutory
consultees and other organisations), its close work with all ICT
suppliers in the sector to deliver interoperable standards and
its provision of components such as online planning applications
which can be used by local authorities on their own sites.
HM PRISON SERVICE—EQUIP
The Prison Service eQuip programme (part of
HMPS's 12 year PFI contract with EDS known as Quantum) was brought
in on time and budget last year. The programme required the installation
of a completely new IT and telephony infrastructure at some 170
different sites in England and Wales, including over 130 prisons.
Prisons present a particularly challenging environment for this
kind of work, because the need to control movement into, out of
and around them complicates the installation process considerably,
as does the varied nature of the prison estate itself: prison
buildings can comprise anything from medieval castles with walls
metres thick right through to modern, purpose built facilities.
Completing the programme on schedule, and with
no significant business disruption, therefore represented a major
achievement. This view has been underpinned by work done subsequently
on benefits realisation, during which users reported tangible
benefits in their day-to-day work arising from the new infrastructure.
The cost of the Quantum project, of which eQuip
is a part, is estimated to be £351 million over the 12 years
of the contract.
NATIONAL SAVINGS
& INVESTMENTS (NS&I)—OUTSOURCINGIn
1999, NS&I outsourced 4,200 of its 4,350 staff to Siemens
Business Services. The scope of the outsourcing included IT modernisation
to enable NS&I to continue to compete within the financial
services industry into the 21st century.
The total contract value of the outsourcing
equates to approximately £1 billion over a 10 to 15 year
period. The benefits can be measured by significant cost savings
of over 25%, greatly enhanced customer service, quicker processing,
delivery of new customer access channels (telephony and internet)
and improved management information. This customer-centric view
and improved customer service coupled with a modern IT infrastructure
has enabled NS&I to grow and increase its value to HM Treasury.
NHS DIRECT
NHS Direct provides a 24-hour telephone clinical
advice and health information service. It was launched in 1998
and was rolled out to meet a demanding timetable to achieve coverage
of the whole of England by November 2000. In 2003 the service
handled 6.5 million calls and enjoys a regular user satisfaction
rating of over 95%.
NHS Direct also operates an on-line health information
service which routinely receives over 500,000 unique visitors
every month. A version of this service is due to be launched through
digital television in the summer of 2004. NHS Direct on-line has
also developed a secure personalised health account known as My
Healthspace. In May 2002, NHS Direct on-line was awarded an e-Europe,
e-Health award by the European Commission.
In total the service costs around £120
million per year to deliver. In their July 2002 report, the Committee
of Public Accounts noted that the implementation within demanding
timescales was a "significant achievement".
HM CUSTOMS &
EXCISE
Two major IT projects that have been successfully
implemented by Customs and Excise as part of their e-business
programme are the National Co-ordination Unit and the National
Export System. Both were evaluated by the NAO, who found that
they had been successfully implemented on schedule, to budget,
with a take up of 100% and 99% respectively. For further detail
we would refer you to Case Studies 1 and 2 in the recent NAO Report,
Transforming the performance of HM Customs and Excise through
Electronic Service Delivery.
Question 130 (Mr Field):
To strengthen delivery of IT-enabled projects
and programmes, all departments are required to take into account
actions agreed by Ministers in December 2002.These include greater
scrutiny at earlier stages of proposed `big bang' projects to
challenge the need for this approach as opposed to a modular incremental
development and implementation and, if necessary, to ensure more
comprehensive testing before operations commence.
The actions also include the requirement for
Accounting Officers to satisfy themselves that major IT-enabled
projects do not suffer from any of the common causes of failure
identified from OGC and NAO experience. Lack of effective engagement
with stakeholders was one of the failures identified and accounting
officers must satisfy themselves that all requirements, needs
and views of all stakeholders including users have been taken
into account.
OGC also encourages departments where appropriate
to pilot systems before they are rolled-out nationally to reduce
risks of failure and increase acceptance of the system by users.
For example NHS Direct conducted piloting alongside implementation
to draw out lessons for the successful roll out of the remaining
sites.
The Public Record Office's Electronic Catalogue
is a good example of where successful implementation was aided
by adopting a controlled and incremental approach, running precursor
projects to investigate options and prove the technology, running
interim and pilot catalogues and involving senior management and
users in the project.
Where external consultants are engaged by departments
to provide expert advice and assistance, they should be selected
and managed effectively to ensure the needs of the end user are
met. In December 2002, the OGC published "Delivering world-class
consultancy services to the public sector—a statement of
best practice" to support best practice working between departments
and management consultancy.
13 February 2004
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