Knowsley Council's winning IT strategy

Computing's CIO of the Year Rod Matthews explains how egovernment has changed attitudes to IT

It's been a busy few years for IT managers in local government - nobody in the private sector has had to work to a deadline of providing all their services electronically by 2005.

For many councils, this meant a re-appraisal of the role of IT in serving the community.

And it's also been an opportunity for their chief information officers (CIO) to prove they are every bit the equal of their (usually higher-paid) industry counterparts.

For Rod Matthews, head of IT at Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, successful egovernment led to winning the CIO of the Year award at this year's Computing Awards for Excellence (Computing, 4 November).

Knowsley achieved 100 per cent electronic service delivery (ESD) on 31 August - four months ahead of the national target - a big factor in Matthews' selection for the prize.

He says the focus on ESD has certainly changed attitudes to IT.

'We set up what we call the "e-council",' he says.

'It is the convergence of IT with the practitioner. It's brought together people who have to manage their services and the different channels through which their services are delivered. We've been able to come together and agree what an electronic service might look like and work together on the project to deliver that.'

But having achieved the ESD targets - what next? Matthews says the challenge is making the services as efficient and appropriate as possible. Simply making all services available in the same format is not necessarily the best route.

'You prioritise a more significant service based upon high utilisation,' he says.

'If there is two uses a year of a service, it may only ever be a form that can be printed from our web site. If it's 50,000 uses a year, then we might make sure the information can be entered and sent to us online. There are levels of sophistication. They all cost money but create different results in efficiency.'

Another trend that will become increasingly important is collaboration between regional authorities. Matthews spends a lot of time working with the north-west egovernment group and on various national projects initiated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

'One of the things we've done recently is look at a collaborative approach for buying disaster recovery,' he says.

'We got 38 local authorities in one room, which is pretty good. This reflects the implications of the Gershon report of coming together to merge projects and back-office functions. Disaster recovery is one where we could see the prices tumble and a massive collaborative advantage of having a framework buying contract.'

In Knowsley, the council and the Primary Care Trust have also merged, and this presents new opportunities for improving interaction with the public.

'The way we manage those services is becoming more integrated. It really increases the potential for information exchange, and helps people that need to update the two organisations,' says Matthews.

'If somebody is getting housing benefits because they are entitled to higher level disability allowance, why put them through the inconvenience and cost of applying separately for a blue badge?'

Matthews says the biggest lesson Knowsley has learned from its experiences online so far is about who uses its services and how.

'You have to understand that not everybody is sat at home with a Centrino notebook,' he says.

'We have to make sure we have provided the facility through which people will understand how to access the full range and choice of channels.

'We have about 4000 public access points, including schools and libraries. We have things like the senior citizens club, where they come into the library, have a cup of coffee, work together on a web project, with facilitators, so they gain an insight into what e-services are and break down some of the barriers. It's been remarkably successful, we've seen people become much more confident in using those services, and we are able to track that.'

And a further benefit of the egovernment agenda has seen local council IT managers playing a bigger role at the top table.

'It's not sufficient to be just an IT person, you have to be business-led,' says Matthews.

'I have both the IT provision in my portfolio and also the strategy. I can make sure the technology we put in place really does understand where the business is trying to go.'

Top tips for local government IT from Computing's CIO of the Year

* Understand the objectives of the council's elected members to make sure they can see how you have responded to their view of the community's needs. They are the litmus test for how successful the organisation is.

* Make sure the executive directors are fully aware of what technology can do for them. What is going to justify their investment in IT services? How will it change their organisation? How will it improve performance - and by how much?

* Have a vision, to make sure you bring people along with you step by step in understanding how the technology can create future capacity for change. Don't be afraid of the bigger picture, and explain how that affects the whole council's performance, rather than looking at each service.

* Make sure the council understands how and where you are good at what you do. The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model can give a service manager a real understanding that the IT is being managed well. It generates trust and faith that IT is using money effectively.