Audit Commission

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Better value for money in the public sector

The challenge

The Audit Commission is an independent body responsible for ensuring that public money is spent economically, efficiently and effectively; to achieve high-quality local and national services for the public. Its remit covers more than 12,000 bodies in England, which between them spend £100 billion of public money each year. The Commission's work covers local government, housing, health, community safety and fire and rescue services.

Not surprisingly, the processes and systems required to support all of this activity are extensive and continually evolving in response to changing government policy. In 2004, with a range of important projects in the pipeline, the Commission realised that it would need assistance to successfully deliver on its plans and thus realise the predicted benefits. The requirement was for a business partner who could understand the business environment of the Audit Commission and provide the technical expertise to deliver appropriate solutions.

Using approved OGC S-Cat supplier status to pre-qualify the selection, IPL was one of several organisations invited to bid. After an evaluation of responses, IPL was selected as the preferred supplier of software development services to the Audit Commission.

The solution

From the outset, IPL's relationship with the Audit Commission has been one of partnership, with an emphasis on helping the organisation solve the ‘right problems’, rather than simply filling short-term vacancies. While engaged on one of the Commissions key projects, we helped to develop a high-level model of the key business processes and core data, as both an enabler for business change and as a foundation for subsequent systems development work.

At the architectural level, IPL helped clarify the shape and size of a corporate portal as well as to tie down functional requirements for a CRM implementation and a marketing campaign system.

In parallel with this higher-level work, we have also delivered in more technical areas:

• Project audits
• Integration of a commercial HR package
• Joiners and Leavers system
• Web-based development for on-line survey submission
• A comprehensive geography-based portal on public sector performance

The highlights

Our appreciation of the importance of business process, coupled with the depth of our technical expertise, has allowed IPL to help the Audit Commission right across the development spectrum. IPL has worked in close partnership with the Audit Commission's internal ICT team to ensure that, systems developments are aligned with business need, solidly architected and engineered to suit, as well as providing the capacity to provide a timely response to changing business requirements.

“IPL brought a fresh and independent look at the way we develop systems and has helped us to take a valuable step back from the day-to-day detail. I am confident that, together, we will develop many more successful solutions that will help us to influence providers of public services to improve the quality of service delivery to the public.”

Jeremy Boss,
Director of ICT.