Computing Awards for Excellence - Best IT Strategy shortlist

Capital & Regional

Since 2002, Capital & Regional (C&R) has radically changed its perception of technology, thanks to a pragmatic delivery of no-risk, user-friendly IT.

The progression was a vital part of the company’s shift from the traditional functions of a property company towards co-investing and active management and marketing. C&R’s centralised approach to IT has allowed it to keep costs low and a team of 16 supports a user base of 700. Core services have been moved to a virtual environment and other disparate web sites will follow.

The move to virtualisation has reduced power waste, cooling and equipment leasing and hosting costs, while new acquisitions can be integrated quickly and easily.

Hampshire County Council

Hampshire County Council (HCC) operates in a challenging environment, where budgets have not increased to match demand and where an ageing population is putting pressure on care providers.

HCC devised the Transforming Through Technology initiative, which aims to drive change over the next decade. An initial strategy for the next three years focuses on areas such as partnership working.

HCC’s IT staff are developing a comprehensive understanding of how objectives can be achieved through technology. HCC is working to establish a service-oriented architecture that spans organisational boundaries.

Intelligent Finance

Familiarity with the business allows Intelligent Finance (IF) team members to be innovative in their design and scoping of projects.

Following an investment of £8m and 135 man-years, the internet bank’s Gold IT change programme will realise benefits in revenue and cost savings of £26m. An internal restructuring of the IT team has improved efficiency while reducing overheads and improving service.

An overhaul of incident and problem management processes has helped to reduce critical system downtime by 76 per cent between 2006 and 2007. “IF’s IT team are business partners ­ not commodity suppliers,” said Nick Waugh, head of business change and operations.

Kent Connects

Kent Connects is Kent and Medway’s lead technology partnership, working with local authorities and using IT to transform Kent’s public services.

When funding stopped after the closure of the national e-government programme, Kent Connects became self-sustained, as its partners chose to pay a subscription for its core services, training, projects and research and development. Kent Connects is focused on giving better quality by providing citizen-centred online services, common access and shared IT components.

East Kent Audit Group recently awarded Kent Connects exemplar acclaim. Kent Connects aims to be more than just a support network for IT managers by helping decision-makers to think in a different way.

Linklaters

More than 75 per cent of Linklaters’ transactions involve more than one office or practice group, so the international law firm needed improved collaboration and more information to be available.

Linklaters has used Microsoft SharePoint 2003 to build a flexible framework to support collaborative working environments for the firm and its legal teams, practice groups and business service teams.

It introduced the balanced scorecard methodology, which allows partners to monitor the performance of individual practice groups and provides global practice heads, national managing partners and business managers with aggregated and drill-down information across their global practice areas.

Littlewoods Shop Direct Group

When the Littlewoods and Shop Direct groups merged in 2004, the combined company launched a business optimisation programme to integrate both organi sations under a single platform, referred to as the target operating environment.

The integration has created £200m of ongoing benefit, while cutting IT operating costs by more than £25m per year. Littlewoods Shop Direct Group (LSDG) increased its internet business from 21 per cent to 34 per cent between May 2006 and May 2007. By 2009/2010, the group expects this to have risen to more than 50 per cent.

LSDG uses Fair Isaacs’ Triad and Blaze Decision products to achieve a competitive edge and hopes to attract 1.8 million customers every year, while increasing retention from 55 to 65 per cent over three years.

National Australia Group Europe

As a financial services organisation, National Australia Group Europe (NAGE) recognises that its IT infrastructure must promote its business strategy, so it devised a plan with seven key steps, focusing on the relationship between business and IT.

NAGE recognised that decisions that work for a particular area are unlikely to collectively benefit the overall organisation. Workshops were run to identify the priorities of individual business areas, as part of a synchronised response to the needs of the organisation.

NAGE demonstrated the benefit of co-ordinated IT investment by building an enterprise architecture view from the enabling technologies, which created an IT asset that could be understood by each business area.

TNT Express ICS

The Information and Communications Services (ICS) team provides IT services, integrated business systems and a global infrastructure to TNT Express, a leading provider of delivery and mail services.

Regarding itself as an early evaluator rather than an early adopter, TNT chooses research and technology partners that can identify emerging technologies and business solutions. Next-generation in-cab technology has been installed in vehicles, allowing supply chain tracking through radio frequency identification. Service-oriented architecture and open standards enable the integration of acquisitions in emerging countries.

TNT has achieved 10 per cent year-to-year business growth, generating 23 per cent transaction growth and delivering 99.9 per cent service availability.