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Torfaen County Borough Council decided that the mainframe would be decommissioned in November 1998. David Jones, systems officer within the Contract Services Department, was given just nine months to select a new system and get it set-up and running, to manage all aspects of the department's business.
"It was an immense task!" says Jones. "Our intention was to apply a business management system across all contracts under the responsibility of our Building Services Division. During our extensive research and site visits, ROCC's Uniclass system clearly came out as best overall and was selected in June 1998. It has taken until 2001 to start seeing the enormous benefits that we knew the system could bring."
The role of Contract Services is to provide direct services to other council departments, housing associations and other approved bodies. Maintenance contracts cover property, housing, grounds, highways and gas maintenance, leisure management, school and leisure catering, office and school cleaning services, refuse collection and other environmental cleansing.
Building Services Division processes 60,000 jobs a year, looks after 9000 residential properties, 1200 housing association properties and 300 authority properties such as schools and offices.
The mainframe ceased functioning in November 1998 as scheduled. Between then and April 1999, when David Jones' team eventually began using the Uniclass system, and for the rest of the year we played 'catch up', untangling the results of the manual system period and resolving the problems encountered with making Uniclass our new 'way of life'.
"When Crystal Reports arrived in January 2000, as a front-end, user friendly and highly efficient 'window' to Uniclass, we began to really gain control and understanding of the system and to benefit from the improved data extraction, manipulation and reporting that showed us just how good the system could be," said Jones.
Torfaen has invested over £300,000 in the Uniclass system, but the actual investment by the council is far higher than this, and ROCC has also put a lot into the project.
"We have been determined to end up with a solution that maximises that investment and can be justified by our ability to prove 'Best Value' throughout the business," said Jones.
"We have now completed Phase I - to go live with the bulk of the system, covering housing, property and highways. Phase II will commence during 2001/2002 and will cover transport, refuse, environmental cleansing and grounds maintenance. From what we have seen so far of the benefits of having Uniclass in support of all aspects of our Building Services client and contractor operations, we believe that it has significantly contributed to improving our services and our business prospects," notes Jones.
"Teamwork has improved and there is a greater sense of shared responsibility and ownership. We had to change and the system has helped us enormously. Ultimately the client has the final say - and what they are saying is good news," says Jones.
David Jones concludes: "In our efforts to move towards 'Best Value' service delivery, we have found ROCC to be an effective, innovative and supportive partner in developing an integrated information system. It would be fair to say that ROCC Uniclass is a sound system, backed by a professional company. Together we have come through a tough two years, but the effort has certainly been worth it."
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