CASE STUDY

Industry Sector - Government

Intranet Development Project to Deliver Savings and More 'Joined-up' Local Government

Scenario:

East Lothian Council wished to implement a solution to cut down on the use of printed documents, bring more information online, and increase knowledge sharing and efficiency across departments.

Background:

The local authority wished to provide greater access for staff to a larger amount of information via online channels, whilst achieving greater efficiency and openness in local government as a whole.

Intranet development was identified by East Lothian Council as one effective way to reduce the production of paper-based communications and so increase efficiency, save money and improve the flow of information across departments and organisations.

Infographics’ proposal to build a flexible easy-to-use Intranet based on the latest Microsoft technologies was identified as the best way to achieve these goals.

Implementation:

Infographics was selected to partner with East Lothian Council to develop and deploy a new Intranet. The solution was tasked with providing a comprehensive online internal network, accessible by all employees.

From this brief, Infographics developed an Intranet that allows users to access a range of council-related information online, including: an internal contact book, an A-Z of services, committee minutes, an active bulletin board, press releases, and detailed information on finance, training and organisation structure.

Information circulated via the Intranet will be made available to members of the public through the council’s website, marking another important step towards more open local government in East Lothian.

Business Benefits:

  • Net publishing replaces paper – with significant savings returned
  • Easier access to and sharing of information
  • Improved internal services
  • More open local government
  • Move closer to being a fully online organisation

East Lothian Council anticipates achieving significant efficiency savings through electronic publishing and circulation of documents.

A spokesperson for East Lothian Council said: “The council’s key goals in investing in the Intranet were to improve access to and exchange of information, and to achieve significant cost savings through replacing traditional publishing with electronic publishing.

“It is estimated that savings could amount to as much as 20 per cent per year of publishing costs once the Intranet is fully operational. This is a very exciting project to be involved in and we are confident of achieving our aims.”

Technical Overview:

The Intranet site, designed by Infographics specifically for East Lothian Council, integrates with other Microsoft products and supports the council in meeting central government-driven requirements.

Operational Requirements:

  • Extremely user-friendly, allowing those with no IT training to benefit equally as compared with those who do
  • Fast, efficient, cost effective
  • Facilities for drag-and-drop publishing in a controlled environment
  • Comprehensive search engine for easy location of information

Summary:

Intranet-based deployments offer a good solution to local government bodies that are keen to utilise and gain from the efficiencies and improved communications that online services can offer. East Lothian Council has been quick to respond to the increasing demand to bring more information online, and is committed to continuing to meet Central Government targets.