Zipporah's Ceremony Planner Solution

North Yorkshire is likely to see a boom in Weddings as the authority looks to implement Zipporah’s Ceremony planner to enable happy couples the option to book their ceremonies online! Developed in conjunction with Registrars around the country the solution ensure nothing slips through the net providing automatic alerts, prompting actions such as deposit payments, notice of marriage and setting tasks with reminders of completion dates.

North Yorkshire’s drive to bring their registration service into the 21^st century will see them utilising the Ceremony Planner in conjunction with a range of Zipporah’s other solutions to offer a truly unique online experience for North Yorkshire residents.

Zipporah's solution for environmental services

Zipporah has been helping to keep the streets of Britain clear of rubbish and rodents with its online appointment booking solution for Environmental services. In use at several Authorities the comprehensive solution is designed to allow the users control and full management of their bulky waste collections and appointment booking for Pest Control Officers online. Easy to use by both staff and customers, it incorporates a total workflow management system for collection of waste, booking a waste adviser and managing payments.

Offering easier public access to Environmental services has been known to dramatically reduce incidents of Fly-tipping and the ability to carefully monitor these collection levels will help with the drive for greater recycling.

Environmental Policies in Local Authorities

So we have two drivers that you hear so much about now. First is all about saving money in these tough economic times, second is about not printing things because of the environment (it's one every email these days). Nowhere do you hear about these things more than when you work with Local Authorities in the UK. Yet, somehow despite these factors I still have to print out bids and attend meetings all round the country in person!

In the modern age of video conferencing, skype and email you would think that meetings should be easy and sending in a bid document would be even easier but still around 75% of the bids that we complete require 3 printed copies to be produced. Why?! Does the money saving and environmental policy only stretch to within the council office (if we don’t print it here then its ok as we didn’t spend the money or killed another tree). Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to reduce to one printed copy or better yet, just look at a bid on screen.

Then we have the meetings. How many  important meetings do I attend that could very easily have been performed over skype or similar. How many? 90% I would say. Ultimately, it is my job and if a client needs me there then that is where I will be, but again we should really think about whether it needs attendance. Perhaps when calling a meeting it should be considered whether the authority would agree to the client travelling to our offices or would they say it could be done online? Environment and cost: are we really taking as much account of these factors as we should be?

Zipporah's new projects

Zipporah will now be working alongside BT and Sandwell Council as part of the ‘Transform Sandwell’ project. Zipporah has been initially chosen to help the Registration Department achieve a more efficient service through the use of our online solutions. Key factors in the decision to select Zipporah were the impressive number of clients delivering services with our solution via their websites, as well as our superior knowledge and proven track record within the public sector.

We have also recently secured contracts to deliver similar projects with Walsall Council and North Yorkshire Council, taking the number of Zipporah’s local authority clients to almost 60, cementing our position as the market leader for online business solutions.

Digital Public Service

Read the full article: Digital Public services need us 'all in this together'

I always love these moments about addressing the digital divide. So much is talked about on this topic and plenty of money is spent.  All of which I agree with in principle but I’ve seen lots of money spent in Local Authorities on these things, bringing in Digital TV, more computers in Libraries, wi-fi everywhere and all other manner of addressing these issues.  The one thing that gets less investment is having content which encourages the need for people to address the digital divide themselves.

I see websites, digital TV and all of the availability for people to get online but maybe there just isn’t anything on there for them to interact with so to government it looks like people aren’t using the internet.  Skype, facebook, twitter – there are certainly plenty of people using these from all ages and generations.  That’s because they have something that we want to use them for (although I won’t pretend I always want to know everytime someone goes for a run in the morning).

So let's try getting useful things on council and government websites.  I know my rubbish collection dates, they are generally the same each week.  How about letting me book a bulky item pickup? I’m confident I understand what the process is for requesting a licence,  How about letting me contact you, request it, upload my documents and pay online?

Lincs to the Past

With the official launch of the Lincs to the Past early this month, Zipporah helps the public view the Lincolnshire past more easily.
Zipporah has been working with Lincolnshire County Council to help deliver a fully transactional website enabling users access to hundreds of thousands of records covering items held in Lincolnshire’s Historic Environment Record, Archives, Libraries, Museums and Tennyson Research Centre.

Utilising our e-commerce solution ‘Zipi’ within the Lincs to the Past site you can create your own personal archive by saving your searches, images and records into a private area. Those people who create an account are then able to buy copies of images online.

Budget misses out on digital savings

Read the full article here: Budget misses out on digital savings

What a shame to see that the use of IT to make savings is still being ignored.  Its all about cuts in the news when it would have been so easy to look at how the use of IT would improve services despite the lower cost.  Now that could have been a story that gives some hope in these gloomy times (if you believe the press!).

Here at Zipporah it is good to see that Local Authorities are waking up in a way that the great and the good of Whitehall aren’t yet realising.  We have seen a massive increase in interest in online solutions within councils both in our own field and several others.  All of which is fantastic news.  Councils are starting to realise that if they are to maintain service whilst cutting cost then better ways of doing things are the future not reducing the numbers on the current status quo.

Our own solution has proven time and again that it is worth the investment with many authorities greatly increasing their savings with a combination of quality and relevant integrations reducing re-keying, online services requiring less staff interaction and allowing more home working. These are all key savings and are a base on which our clients continue to build and save more money.  Local Authorities are actually pretty smart when it comes to latching onto a money saver and they rapidly adapt digital solutions to reduce all sorts of expenditure including hardware and the cost of processing funds etc. Maybe the Government should take a closer look and start planning for bigger measures and incentives for everyone to adopt such an approach.

Welcome to the Zipporah Ltd blog

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