BOROUGH OF POOLE
REPORT TO RESOURCES PORTFOLIO HOLDER: 8 JULY 2004
REQUEST FOR CARRY-FORWARD OF BUDGET SURPLUSES FOR ACQUISITION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED LEGAL CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
1. Matter for consideration
1.1 Approval is sought for the carrying forward of the surpluses from the overall Legal Services budgets in order to procure an integrated Legal Case Management and Time-recording/billing system, and for the waiving of Standing Orders so as to permit a negotiated or quotation process rather than a tendered procurement process.
2. Background
2.1 The urgent acquisition of an integrated Case Management system is crucial to the ability of Legal Services to cope with increased workloads (particularly in Licensing and Child protection areas) without additional staff, to provide the performance and budgetary management information required by the Unit and it’s clients, and to meet Law Society Lexcel Practice Management standards.
2.2 The justification for the procurement both in financial and efficiency terms is unquestionable - (see details in Capital Bidding form attached AT Appendix A), - as not only will the effectiveness of the Unit be significantly enhanced through the elimination of routine administrative tasks, the annual license and support costs for the system will be less than half that those presently paid for a wholly inadequate time recording system and separate civil litigation package, - which is no longer sophisticated enough or capable of delivery of functions essential to our survival in an excellence seeking environment with a restricted budget climate.
2.3 The Unit has been attempting to bid for funds through various routes so as to enable this to be acquired since last November and has received in-principle support from the Management Team and from relevant Members, but because of uncertainties over Capital allocations and IT investment plans, this support has not been translated into immediate release of funding.
3. The present situation
3.1 The matter is now time critical, - both in terms of our ability to cope with workloads and satisfy client requirements for better information flows, and because unless a system can be procured, implemented and be fully operational before November this year so that can be data transferred from the existing time recording system, the License for the present inadequate and expensive time recording system will have to be renewed, - and under the Companies Contract conditions, we would be locked into the system for a further period of 5 years. In addition, IT Services have advised that they can make a project manager available for the project only provided the work is completed and the manager released by October.
3.2 So far as funding is concerned, General Legal Services has had another very busy year, - and as a result of large one-off projects such as the setting up of the A.L.M.O, the Bridge/Central Area regeneration, and the major prosecution of B&Q, have created a surplus of £21,000 during the 2003/4 budget year. In addition, our Registration staff have had a very busy year, - especially in conducting weddings at outside venues, and their increased external fees have lead to a further surplus of £20,000 on the 2003/4 budget. If carried forward, these funds would be more than enough to enable an integrated legal case management system to be procured and installed, and for costs of data transfer, training and internal IT support costs to be met.
3.3 The Head of Financial Services has confirmed that he would support a bid to the Portfolio-holder that approval be given to the carrying forward of these surpluses in order that the Legal Case Management System could be procured at once.
4. The procurement contract
4.1 The cost of purchasing and installing the most suitable modern integrated legal case management software system will be below the £25,000 threshold above which a tendering exercise is required under Contract Standing Orders, - the balance of the costs being for internal IT support costs, for training, for inputting data and for creating workflow and document templates. The timescale to procure and implement a new system before November is such that it could not be accomplished if a full tendering process was required, and whilst the overall cost of the project will exceed the £25,000 threshold, consent is sought for the project to be procured and implemented through quotations and/or negotiations in a manner to be agreed by the Head of Financial Services.
APPENDIX A
PROJECT INFORMATION
Project Name / INTEGRATED LEGAL CASE AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Lead Service Unit / LEGAL SERVICES
Lead Officer / CHRIS EAMES / RACHEL BROOKINGS
Purpose of Project
To acquire an e-based system specifically designed for the needs of a local authority legal service department, that incorporates a central relational database linking and integrating case management, time recording, billing, performance and risk management functions into one system.Where did the idea for this project come from?
(e.g. Asset Management Plan, Government legislation, etc) / From 2 major sources.
The information meeting held by IT and i.documents introducing the capabilities of their work flow and central document storage; and
From discussions held by Local Government Business Support Managers Special Interest Group of the Law Society on the inadequacy of current time recording system, lack of administrative/fee earner resources, unnecessary duplication of data, lack of case management support for fee earners, problems accessing data, all leading to inefficiency.
What assets are being utilised, or likely to be utilised to deliver this project? / We propose to make use of: our existing hardware and Thin Client server farm; our existing software Microsoft Windows 2000; IT Services project team for advice and support; the Unit’s Practice Manager and Service Unit Head for lead direction and implementation; Senior Solicitor Diana Ashley and Legal Assistant Linda McGannity who have expert experience in drafting tender and contract documentation; a “Train the trainer” system to deliver basic ongoing training and support once installed; current standard documents to be made available to the system; current case details to be converted; the eventual use of the i.document system once it’s rolled out in Legal Services and linked to the system.
Asset Register Reference (UPRN), available from Property Services? / N/A
What are the consequences, risks and/or penalties if this project is not carried out? / The Unit is in danger of becoming inefficient, ineffective and unable to meet the full demands for legal advice and assistance and continual improvement to service delivery.
There is concern that we would not be able to meet existing and projected workloads without recruiting additional staff as demand for advice, outstrips supply. With the constant changes in legislation, and the commitment of staff to service delivery, excessive working hours are not uncommon for senior members of staff. The Unit is mindful of the associated potential for stress related illness if this continues unchecked. If ad hoc work has to be given to solicitors in the private sector to deal with the overflow, the overall effect on the Council’s budget is not good, as it is usually brought in at a premium cost. (Our in-house hourly rates are significantly lower than those charged by firms of external solicitors.) Once in-house expertise and experience is lost, there is a reduction in the effectiveness of service delivery.
Inefficient use of fee earners time spent on administration is leading to frustration and a waste of valuable time, which could be utilised more effectively meeting the demands for legal advice and support. All fee earners and managers are severely hampered by the inadequacy of the current time recording system, having to switch programmes constantly from work areas to time recording, with unnecessary duplication of data. Business management cannot be undertaken effectively and in the case of instruction by e-mail, workloads are not necessarily apparent by the number of files on desks.
We have recently be set up to run on Thin Client, hoping this would reduce the strain on the hardware. However, the current software we have for time recording and debt recovery has to sit on Fat client. This means we cannot use our pcs as dumb terminals, and this slows our pcs down. We have fairly old equipment and this further adds to frustration.
The current time-recording software is not windows based and does not link to any workflow or case management or document storage system. The limits of the current soft ware design are proving immensely problematical in responding to the ever-changing face of local authority client units and we are running out of case numbers!! We do not wish to commit to the renewal of a further 5 years on our current Time Recording contract, which is coming to an end in February 2004.
Relative to other projects being undertaken within your Service, what is the priority of this project? (e.g. other properties in the Council's Asset Management Plan within the Services' control) / This is our sole major project, with very high priority.
NEED
To which Policy, Plan or Strategy is this bid being linked?
Policy/Plan/Strategy / Relevance of the Projecta) Delivering Services through e-government / It will centralise data, reduce the necessity for manual filing, make access to information more immediate, and effectively deliver as much of the Service through e-government as possible.
b) Supporting continuous improvement to provide Best Value
b) Supporting continuous improvement to provide Best Value (cont) / It will provide an effective and contemporary tool enabling Legal to deliver an improved service to our clients; acknowledging their priorities, whilst building on our capacity to adapt quickly to the ever-changing demands of legislation imposed on them.
It will provide the Unit with accurate, good quality, performance management data, which in turn will also provide identification and control of risk assessment and management. The changes in the Licensing regime are putting an unknown and potentially huge demand on the Unit. Once the project has been rolled out, training completed and all staff familiar with using the system, we would want to apply for Lexcel accreditation as proof of our improvements and quality attainment.
c) Manage expenditure within budget and Work/Life balance / By removing unnecessary duplication of data and tasks, streamlining processes and reducing administrative tasks we are sure it will:-
a) drastically reduce the current need to recruit further administrative or professional staff, especially with the current demands we face including:- as above the changes in Licensing legislation; support of the Arms Length Management Organisation being created for Housing Management delivery; Central Area regeneration; Leisure Centre facilities management and other similar initiatives.
b) reduce managers’ more arduous administrative tasks, and thus:-
i) free up time within the working day for managing thereby supporting their staff, and
ii) reduce the necessity to take work home, or work outside of normal office hours, thereby removing the burden on themselves.
This is likely to reduce the potential for strain on the budget linked to stress related sick pay, or the strain on staff resources produced by lack of cover for the office/ or burden put on other staff coping whilst staff are taking Flexi Leave/Time Off In Lieu/Sick Leave.
c) reduce the need to put work out to private sector solicitors at greater expense.
d) produce more comprehensive time recording and therefore more comprehensive billing of work to clients and cash flow for the Unit.
How does the Project relate to the Council's Best Value Performance Plan for the forthcoming year?
Objective / Relevance of the Projecta) e-government provision of a single point of access for information / It builds on this to meet the requirements of a legal office.
b) Internal Service Reviews p.23 of Best Value Performance Plan 2003-04 / It also builds on this to provide management information as previously described. It should also enable service delivery to be reviewed more easily.
c) CPA Corporate Action Plan p 9 / It will help to meet the action plan targets by ensuring resources are used cost effectively.
Please identify any Performance Indicators that are applicable to the Service and will be affected by this project.
Best Value or local Performance Indicator / Expected Change(s) / Expected % improvementBest Value indicator 157 / Every service that can be e-deliverable, will be e-deliverable by 2005 by using electronic work flow/performance management/ risk management/ case management/ time recording tools. By utilising an electronic central library of documents this will be available to all in Legal. There is also the possibility for sharing of work flows and standard documents with other Councils. / 100% = areas currently restricted to hard copy deliverability.
50% = already electronic but which can be improved in design or accessibility.
Please outline the Service aims and objectives for this project.
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xii / Main objectives:
To improve our ability to meet the Law Society’s quality standard “Lexcel”.
To assist in the Unit’s response to the corporate e-government commitment of a joined up and seem-less data retrieval system providing “instant” access to information, in preparation for making best use of the Council’s investment in Document Image Processing technology.
To enable the Unit to respond to the significant and ongoing increases in workload, without recruiting additional staff or increasing the strain on current resources.
To eliminate as far as possible avoidable repetition of manual administration processes, thereby reducing fee earners’ time spent on administration and the costs of that time.
To streamline and automate process driven work as far as possible.
To provide a central library of documents accessible to all relevant members of staff.
To provide a tool for fee earners and managers, so that they might easily be able to provide information to clients as to the timeliness, cost, and efficiency of specific areas of work completed for them, and the progress of ongoing cases.
To provide internal management information in a quick and easily understood format,
To enable the Unit Management Team to monitor and predict work loads and allocate resources effectively.
To increase productivity and efficiency, further enabling the Unit to provide Best Value and to remain competitive against other potential providers.
To improve the equitable and efficient recharging of clients.
To assist in the consistent monitoring of performance against targets.
Please list below the intended outputs and outcomes for this project.