Note to the Committee from the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office
FCO SERVICES: KEY ISSUES
We have agreed a set of challenging targets
for 2008-09:
— An in-year surplus before interest
and tax of at least £1.3 million.
— A Return on Capital Employed of at
least 3.5% (weighted average).
— A Wider Market revenue growth of
10% on that achieved in 07/08, assessed on a normalised baseline.
— A customer satisfaction rate, derived
from an independent qualitative survey, of at least 85% satisfied
or very satisfied.
— A utilisation rate of revenue earning
staff of at least 65%.
— A contribution to the FCO's Comprehensive
Spending Review commitments by delivering £2 million of cash
savings, achieved through price stabilisation.
DEVELOPING THE
RIGHT SKILLS
AND CULTURE
/ WORKING AS
ONE ORGANISATION
The overriding issue for FCO Services is to
embed the culture change needed to develop a more commercially-focused
mindset and to operate as one organisation, using consistent processes
and interacting with our customers in a consistent way.
Operating as an Agency has already produced
a cultural shift in this direction and we will look to build on
this by:
— Embedding the use of a standard commercial
process that covers the entire "customer lifecycle"
from pre-sales and sales, project delivery to on-going support,
through clear definition of roles and role-specific training.
— Ensuring that we have robust and
timely management information through which to steer the business;
— Completing our organisational restructure,
with a move away from a structure based on our services to one
that is customer-facing.
— Ensuring we have the right mix of
skills, both through developing our own staff and recruiting for
external specialist skills where needed.
GROWING OUR
REVENUE WITH
NON-FCO ("WIDER
MARKET" CUSTOMERS)
We have a challenging target for Wider Market
growth in 08/09. We already have a Business Development team focused
on Wider Market customers and we have recently strengthened our
market intelligence capability. We aim to build on this further
by:
— Developing further and deploying
marketing and strategies for our Wider Market sales.
— Working closely with our customers
to develop the products and services that meet their needs.
— Developing our pipeline of Wider
Market sales.
— Deploying the appropriate commercial
processes and governance to ensure we properly evaluate and manage
our risks and liabilities when taking on new business.
MEETING OUR
EFFICIENCY CHALLENGES
As part of our commitment to supporting the
FCO in achieving their CSR 07 obligations, we must deliver £2
million in savings through price maintenance. In addition to this
formal target, we aim to meet our efficiency challenges through:
— Realising cost savings through strategic
procurement.
— Reducing the ratio of contract staff
to permanent employees.
— Improving the cost efficiency of
our business practices, increasing staff utilisation, removing
duplication through the use of standard processes and focusing
on billable work.
June 2008
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