The time has finally come!  Today Emma Powell, Director of Zipporah and winner of the Best Business Leader 2011 at the Welsh Women Mean Business awards will be taking a temporary sabbatical from the organisation in order to embark on a new mission of madness (apparently keeping us in order isn’t enough).  Emma is off on maternity for a while or “preparing the future generation of Zipporah management” as I like to call it.

She’s not leaving and will still be keeping an eye on things and making sure that I manage all the things I am so terrible at doing (forgetting to bill you all is one of my cardinal sins!  Forgetting when wages are due would be the other!).  That being the case it will still be very strange that after 8 and a half years of working together almost every day to build the business Emma will have a bigger adventure to concentrate on and I will be at the centre of driving things forward.  I only hope I can show an ounce of the calm under pressure and business acumen that Emma has always shown whilst I have been cowering under the desk.

Not having children myself I have wondered why Emma would want to do such a thing and how she will cope and then it hit me.  The crying, the hysteria, cleaning up mess, controlling unruly behaviour, knowing when to show the steely determination in a battle of wills, showing you care, listening and empathising.  All these key parenting skills are part of Emma’s everyday life already.  She does it for the staff and for the customers all the time and when you see how well she does it you realise what a fine parent she will make.

So this is a message to congratulate Emma and wish her all the very best for the months ahead.  We’ll try to keep the place clean and tidy and ensure everyone stays happy.  We look forward to our new team addition and I’ll get a playpen set up in the office for when you come back – you know you won’t be able to leave us for long.

Good luck mum!

Zipporah's new project with Kirklees Council

We’re pleased to announce that Zipporah has been chosen by Kirklees Council to provide a solution for its Registration Department, with a key function of the system being to handle the range of different appointment types through our easy to use Electronic Diary solution. We’re looking forward to working closely with the authority on this exciting project over the coming weeks and months, and ultimately helping the council achieve a more efficient service for both staff users and members of the public.

Our proven track record in providing solutions within the Public Sector was described as a main factor for us winning the contract and with Zipporah now boasting well over 50 local authority clients, this latest win only cements our position as the market leader in providing online business solutions to councils throughout the UK.

SOCITM new advice released for council websites

Socitm Insight announces important changes in the way in which council websites will be assessed for the Better connected 2012 report. Given that we provide solutions to provide local authorities with a set of tools to better connect with its public, I was very interested to read recently about these new changes.

The changes are to reflect the way in which Socitm Insight believes that council websites should be evolving to meet the needs of their existing online customers and encourage more people to shift to the web channel. Socitm have decided for the first time to announce the survey topics in advance,  as they believe it is important that councils implement top tasks as quickly as possible in order to achieve the financial savings from a programme of channel shift.

Task 1 Apply for a council job

Task 2 Comment on a planning application

Task 3 Find winter gritting routes  

Task 4 Find rubbish collection day

Task 5 Pay a parking fine

Task 6 Pay council tax

Task 7 Renew a library book 

Task 8 Find out about getting help at home

Task 9 Find out school term dates  

Task 10 Find opening times for local swimming pool

Task 11 Find records office opening hours 

I can’t help but feel that by providing criteria in advance it’s a bit like providing the questions to an exam well in advance of the actual test, so would it not be more productive to merely suggest that a view would be taken over all aspects of the services that councils should be providing via the web?

After looking at the list of tasks that SOCITM have provided, I think its fair to say that their ideas on how council websites should operate is a relatively narrow one, especially when you take into consideration the large range of services that local authorities currently could, or perhaps should, be providing to the public. With these current tasks local authorities are working towards, instead of providing an improved site in all areas, the focus will be targeted on the tasks that will score points rather than potentially provide the biggest benefits.

Zipporah awarded new Framework Agreement by Government Procurement Service

Zipporah is pleased to announce that after an extensive tender process we were successful in joining the Government Procurement Service Framework agreement for Libraries, Museums and Leisure related Software Application Solutions.

Through this new framework agreement, Zipporah can supply application software, including standard packages or bespoke solutions on a licensed, rental or subscription basis, as well as providing any goods or services which are necessary for the implementation, delivery and operation of this application software. This includes everything from consultancy and business change, design and system build, integrations, training, support and hosting in the following area:

Lot 5: Social Care & Education – Libraries, Museums and Leisure

Zipporah specifically targeted this agreement because of its perfect match with the solutions we currently provide to all of these public sector business areas.

Benefits of Government Procurement Service framework agreements;The Government Procurement Service frameworks provide multiple benefits for the public sector organisations who procure services from suppliers on the agreements:
· An efficient, fully EU-compliant route to market
· A standard, pre-agreed call-off contract structure and terms and conditions
· Expert advice and guidance on using the framework agreement
· Provision of management information
· Benchmarking activity to ensure continued value for money
· Supplier management and audit
· Shared information on best practice.

About Government Procurement Service;Government Procurement Service, an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, is the delivery arm of Government Procurement. It’s overall priority is to provide procurement savings for all organisations across the UK public sector, ranging from central government all the way through to the NHS, with a focus that delivers expert sourcing, category and centralised data management. Through the centralisation, standardisation and aggregation of spend on common goods and services they deliver significant, sustainable cost reductions to Government. The value for money, commercial procurement solutions are fully EU compliant covering energy, property and facilities management, office solutions, professional services, travel, fleet, IT commodities (including telecommunications and networks) and eCommerce.

Carry on Camping!

As you know we were selected by Milton Keynes Council to provide the local authority with a Corporate Solution for Room and Facilities bookings and management.  This is a core system which has some additional requirements for specialised modules for discrete business areas; one of these additional business areas is the Emberton Country Park Caravan site.

Zipporah is really pleased to be starting work on delivering the country park with a new booking system which will ultimately allow campers to select their pitch or caravan online. The new solution will provide the user with an easy to use graphical interface to be able to select from over 200 touring sites and 114 static pitches available at the park. The staff will also be able to book and manage customers' requirements in a much easier and timely fashion and in addition will have access to unprecedented up-to-date marketing and reporting information.

Emberton Country Park is Set in 200 acres of mature unspoilt parkland, where you can enjoy wildlife, lakeside walks, play areas and camping all in a family friendly setting...all of this has made me reconsider my plans for my own family holiday!

Continuing International Success

With the exciting news that Zipporah has won its first international client in Ireland, the team feel this is definitely the time to continue this success, and make a huge effort towards winning contracts in Australia.

As you probably already know, we have been speaking to a large number of authorities "Down Under" over the last few years, with some extremely positive initial demonstrations of our solutions taking place towards the end of last year. In the next few weeks we will be looking to re-engage with these contacts, as well as talking to the councils we haven’t contacted already with the view to going back out in the not too distant future, to secure some positive and substantial partnerships with Australian councils.

With some hard work, a lot of effort and plenty of late nights, we’re hoping it won’t be too long until we are celebrating more success for Zipporah overseas!

Local authority services...on the rise online?

We’ve recently heard in the news how England and Scotland have joined Wales and Northern Ireland in rolling out faster broadband to more and more rural areas, allowing citizens the access to a faster connection for browsing the internet and downloading information. With this in mind, surely local authorities have to be looking to offer more services through their websites?

We have already talked on numerous occasions about the benefits of an online system, reducing the amount of money it costs for councils to handle bookings for a whole a range of services. Handling less phone calls and face to face meetings and embracing more online activity, has the potential to save substantial amounts of money. It also gives citizens the opportunity to access these services 24/7, from the comfort of their own home and with councils paying a lot of attention to their standards of customer service, this can only be seen as a plus.

With all of these advantages in mind, and central government seemingly looking to provide more and more people in the UK a top rate internet connection, the time for local government to handle more and more services through their website is definitely now.

So does the best cost equate to best value?

Tenders are often a source of great reward but at the same time can result in an awful lot of time and effort being spent to produce nothing except disappointment and a thank you for your interest.

You can spend months meeting and understanding a clients needs and mirroring your solution to match these requirements, then procurement rules dictate that it must go to tender. So you provide the best fit, the best tender response but not necessarily the best price.

So then when you don’t win and everybody agrees that you were the best application but the rules around the award, which nearly always do, favour the best cost and not the best system, I start to question the point of a process that asks all these questions in the first place, that in the end is simply going to award the cheapest provider.