Monthly Archive for July, 2011

Confirm Loves Clean Streets

Published on July 16, 2011 in Local Government. 0 Comments
Love Clean Streets can be locally branded to help citizens associate more with the provider of local Street Scene Maintenance Services

Love "Your Council" Streets. Love Clean Streets can be locally branded to help citizens associate more with the provider of local Street Scene Maintenance Services.

On Wednesday 22 July, we hled a joint webinar with the team from Love Clean Streets, showing both the Love Clean Streets applications (free mobile app and host system) and the link with Confirm. Nigel Tyrell, Head of Environment at the London Borough of Lewisham joined us and gave a crystal clear insight into cost savings and efficiency improvements realised through the use of “Love Lewisham”.  Not only that, but he explained how very, very different Lewisham now is compared to just 5 or 10 years ago…why not have a look yourself, next time you are in the area?  And Lewisham are even more ambitious – they aspire to be a suburb where families choose to live, not just the professional generation of “Friends” fans, but the young couples who start and raise a family.

Confirm is unique in offering a pre-packaged link with Love Clean Streets. 

This is a natural “combination”, as most of the issues logged with this simple “point, photo and send” free smart-phone app will go to Confirm user departments, where the Council are using Confirm for Street Scene Maintenance.  With links through to the Operational Services teams, the speed with which Environmental Issues can be resolved is quite stunning and a huge amount of cost is taken out of Service provision.

Have a look at the BBC News article from this morning, featuring Nigel Tyrell from the London Borough of Lewisham, pioneer Council for this innovation:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14172714

If you would like to see the recorded version, click this link https://pbinsightevents.webex.com/pbinsightevents/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=4030307&rKey=ff671471ed83984a, or, if you have any questions, you can always contact me at dominic.mcneillis@pb.com .

Six: the way to realise Shared Services Savings?

Published on July 5, 2011 in Local Government. 0 Comments
Six is a common number in Nature

Six is a common number in Nature

Yesterday, a group met in London to discuss Government Shared Service issues under the “Chatham House Rule”. 

Out of that discusssion came a great “rule of six”, a number that occurs in nature in some interesting ways.  The rule of six describes the main factors affecting the relative success of a Shared Service initiative, measured by its capacity to deliver anticipated savings. 

The rule set out these six ideas:

  1. Simple: if the shared service idea is simple to explain and understand, it is more likely to deliver anticipated savings.
  2. Small: large ideas are complex and have an implementation overhead, that sometimes prevents savings being realised.  Small ideas are not easy to identify, but often will evoke a reaction of “oh yes, obvious isn’t it”…once explained.  We reflected whether it takes an insightful genius to spot a small idea that others overlook?
  3. Measurable: If, at the outset, all stakeholders can see how success can be measured, buy-in follows and savings delivered…or so out group thought
  4. Sequential steps: medium to large ideas succeed where sequential steps are identified at the outset, or along the way.  Is this an expansion on idea #2?
  5. Leadership: A shared service will involve multiple organisations or multiple departments.  Leadership by common minded Senior Management will inspire teams to work towards the common goal
  6. User-obvious benefits: the “what’s in it for me” piece.  If those who implement the shared service idea get something that they truly value from the shared service, they will embrace it with vigour and enthusiasm

Bees organise their energy savings into six-sided stores - honeycomb

In nature, if we wish to pack irregular soft-sided objects as close together as possible, they will form hexagons – like the honeycomb in a bee-hive.  If government wishes to realise massive savings, the rule of six may happen organically; could it also be evangelised?