Euro look at £2m savings
A Staffordshire county councillor will tell an information technology conference in Italy about a pioneering initiative which has saved the county's taxpayers more than £2 million. Councillor Jack Barber, from the Wildwood area of Stafford, will be in Siena to explain how 10 Staffordshire councils used technology to make the savings. He will speak as chairman of Staffordshire Connects, an award-winning partnership of councils which has saved funds by providing public services in convenient new ways. His presentation on the region's progress towards shared services will be one of the highlights of a three-day annual event next month, being staged by the Major Cities of Europe IT Users' Group. It will also mark the end of his year as chairman of the partnership's strategic joint committee, with his international talk taking place eight days before he steps down. Read the full story in the Express & Star.
He will speak as chairman of Staffordshire Connects, an award-winning partnership of councils which has saved funds by providing public services in convenient new ways.
His presentation on the region's progress towards shared services will be one of the highlights of a three-day annual event next month, being staged by the Major Cities of Europe IT Users' Group.
It will also mark the end of his year as chairman of the partnership's strategic joint committee, with his international talk taking place eight days before he steps down.
Staffordshire Connects spokesman Charles Malkin said of Councillor Barber's presentation:
"He will reveal how the partnership saved £1.8 million by purchasing e-Government systems together, and how it saves more than £400,000 each year by maintaining and developing its systems jointly.
"Delegates will hear that the partnership's crowning glory to date has been one of local government's largest implementations of a single Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
"The system will ultimately give service advisors the information they need to deal with around 80 per cent of inquiries at the first time of asking. Most importantly of all, the system will let partners accept service requests for each other from a date to be agreed."
It covers Staffordshire County, Stoke-on-Trent City,Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands and Tamworth district or borough councils.
