e-Government Solutions

Our solutions make it possible for separate departments and businesses units to work as one; to share information and to deliver improved services without the typically prohibitive costs of replacing established information systems and databases.

Many organisations are now discovering that the information that they require for joined-up service delivery is dispersed across different business processes and often held in different formats and widely distributed databases. By delivering comprehensive and affordable information management solutions based upon unique meta-modelling techniques, we enable organisations to seamlessly organise, categorise, link and access real-time data across entire business processes. Being portable and extensible across different systems, our solutions bring considerable benefits where business processes or service enhancements require interaction across internal departments and with external agencies. Our ability to transparently connect legacy systems and divergent applications across office and geographic boundaries, and to join together, in real time, relevant information extracts from multiple databases, makes it possible for new service frameworks to be established on existing infrastructures.

Trends towards multi-department, multi-office, multi-agency working and knowledge-led, client-driven public services demand easy and secure access to shared information at any time of day. Our implementation of the Information Gateway at Barnsley MBC was assessed by the ODPM in light of the recent FAME (FrAmework for Multi-agency Environments) National Project which is developing a framework for information sharing in a multi-agency environment, and their feedback is that it is a valid and live example of what FAME is tasked to deliver. The technology complies fully with the Data Protection Act and Caldicott requirements and both the ODPM and NHS Information Authority had to sign off this project which confirms that we fully satisfied their requirements in relation to a confidentiality framework.

Additionally, our information gateways conform to the e-GMF and e-GIF standards mandated in central governments technical standards for modern e-government, delivering office, home and mobile access to mission critical information wherever it is required.

Identification, Referral and Tracking (IRT)

Our solutions facilitate the early identification of vulnerable children and young people at risk of social exclusion, their referral to preventative services and tracking of progress. We can provide real-time access and sharing of high quality information between organisations such as the police, social services, education, health, and voluntary organisations that are critical to driving the process. Our focus is the provision of a child-centric service and a single approach to the key processes of assessment, planning intervention and review. We can enable the linking of a whole variety of departments as required, providing the sharing of centralised information resources and working across functional boundaries – all of which are integral to co-ordinating joint service delivery around each individual child. As care needs to be delivered wherever the child is located, our solutions incorporate a system of different layers that can be accessed using a variety of access methods such as mobile, PDA and web.

Single Assessment Process (SAP)

Local agencies need to work together to agree a single assessment summary for the collection of information on older people who are assessed, whether or not they receive services. Our SAP solution enables multiple organisations to collaborate in a seamless, single process when assessing, service planning and caring for older people. We have worked in many projects where collaboration is critical to the success, as is the ability to use a multi-channel approach. Consisting of a federated communication system that has been built from the ground-up, our solution facilitates the support of complex business processes across multiple organisations, adhering to the security requirements inherent to each organisation and industry standard health privacy and data protection standards that must be integral to a SAP Information System. Our solutions can also incorporate a variety of mobile access devices such mobile technology and PDAs in addition to web and office-based IT.

Democratic Accountability

We help councils to be efficient, transparent and accountable to the public and support Members in their roles. We can help councils achieve improved efficiencies while at the same time extending their accessibility and delivering an increased public focus. Our Democratic Accountability solutions enable the public to be consulted more frequently and effectively on a range of issues, allowing e-government initiatives to revolutionise both internal and external working processes. We can co-ordinate cabinet and committee management activities through the quick and effortless publication of reports, agenda and minutes to councillors and members of the public. We are also able to facilitate easy and rapid public access, participation, scrutiny and feedback by ensuring smooth information workflow, enquiry and publication, all of which are integral to the smooth operation of scrutiny committees and decision call-in procedures.

Community Collaboration and Care

Local government is undergoing a fundamental transformation; good communication with local people has never been more important and there is a strong link between resident satisfaction with their council and how well that council keeps them informed. We believe that we can play a vital role in helping local government deliver new levels information access into the community. Working in partnership with public, private and voluntary sector providers, we enable the rapid construction of comprehensive and interactive information solutions resulting in enhanced community collaboration and awareness.

Freedom of Information

In our view the Freedom of Information Act presents a strategic opportunity for organisations to view their information assets from a corporate perspective and by so doing not only meet their immediate legal obligations, but also deliver the long term information infrastructure for an efficient multi-department, multi-agency FOI business process. A key output from this process will be a legacy database integration model that can easily be extended to include other business processes.

RYOGENS

RYOGENS is a national e-government project funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). We have built and tested a generic IT-based system to capture professionals’ concerns about children and young people in order to identify, assess and refer vulnerable individuals before they reach crisis point. Our aim is to protect vulnerable children and reduce crime and social behaviour.

RYOGENS provides a secure web-based system for professionals to chare concerns about individual children and young people against reasons for concern from the Youth Justice Board’s ONSET tool and the Department of Health’s National Framework for the Assessment of Children’s Needs. When the number or nature of concerns crosses a risk threshold, an alert is triggered for practitioners in the RYOGENS Management Function to make a preliminary assessment and consider the case for referral. The case can then be tracked through intervention to outcome and feedback provided to the practitioners who originally recorded concerns.

Children and Young Peoples’ Service Directory

Helping to empower children and young people to seek the services and support that they need, our Service Directory solution will enable the collection, maintenance, analysis and dissemination of information on statutory, community and voluntary organisations providing services to children, young people and families. It is able to include a broad range of preventative services with the ultimate aim of reducing the number of inappropriate and misdirected referrals. It is also able to take into account the development of other national service directories e.g. Children’s Information Service, Connexions etc.

Supporting your partnership working with appropriate key agencies, the system provides a mechanism through which all can contribute, share data and derive benefit in a way that is intuitive and totally transparent to end users. With it, comprehensive information can be made available on local providers, eligibility criteria, geographical location and referral procedures. In addition, processes within the system mean that the service directory can be kept up to date, and can be accessible to all interested parties, from the children and young people themselves to parents, carers and professionals wherever they are located geographically.