Collaborative
Working to Deliver
IT Transformation
and Business
Change
Andrew Dale – Head of IT
Ian Pritchard – IT Manager
Who are we – unITe Solutions
• Collaboration between Shropshire Housing Group (SHG) and
Severnside Housing (SSH)
• Delivery and Management of all IT Services to both SHG and
SSH as a single team
• Created from each company’s separate IT Departments
• Brand created as an identity for IT and to enable long term
resale of IT Services to other organisations
collaborate to deliver
www.deliverIT.org.uk
Who are we – Severnside Housing (SSH)
•
•
•
•
Based in Shrewsbury
Owns and maintains 5,400 properties across Shropshire
Employs 280 staff.
Group structure that also includes electrical contractors
(A.Walters), registered charity (Shrewsbury Homes For All)
and Social Enterprise (Digital Den).
Who are we – Shropshire Housing Group (SHG)
• Based in South and North Shropshire, comprises two HA’s
(South Shropshire and Meres & Mosses)
• Owns and maintains 4,500 properties across Shropshire
• employs 270 staff.
• Group structure that also comprises a DLO contractor (Total
Response) and social enterprise (Grow Cook Learn).
Business Objectives for change to IT Services
•
•
•
•
Benefit from geographical location of offices and staff
Enable resource sharing for VFM and skill transfer
Enable holiday and sickness cover
Enable joint IT strategy with joint working practices and
common solutions
• Enable service and procurement cost sharing
• Enable resale of IT services in the future
Challenges Faced in Meeting Objectives
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Business objectives
Understanding of a joint IT service
Perception of unequal IT service
Technological deficiencies and differences
Process deficiencies and differences
Lack of IT strategy and alignment with business objectives
Team and people issues
Business Challenges
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
On-going acceptance of IT as a shared service
SHG DLO growth and SSH DLO acquisitions
SSH expansion and group structure setup
SHG and SSH expansion of staff and working locations
Digital Inclusion Initiatives
Customer Service Initiatives
Ever Increasing Internal Customer Expectations
Strategic Challenges
– Lack of long term IT Vision and Strategy at both SHG and
SSH
– Lack of alignment with business objectives
– Different viewpoints within SHG and SSH for future IT
requirements
– Incomplete and delayed projects for housing and DLO
system upgrades at SHG
Technology Challenges
– Aging and differing infrastructure for Networks, Servers,
Telephony
– Various Data Centre and office locations
– Aging and differing systems – If systems across SHG and
SSH could be different, they were different!
– Keeping up to date with technology developments across
diverse technologies in use
Process Challenges
• Lack of:
– IT Policies
– IT Procedures
– Project Management Methodologies
– IT Performance Measures
• Insufficient processes for monitoring and maintaining system
availability
Team and People Challenges
–
–
–
–
Fragmented teams
Lack of customer service
Lack of willingness to work at different locations
Lack of willingness to work with different technologies
• Breaching of Comfort Zone!
– Occasionally, a lack of willingness to work with each other
Transforming IT Objectives
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Delivering IT Services as a “Business Partner”
Ensuring Relevance of IT to Overall Business Strategy
Making Services Proactive, not Reactive
Ensuring IT Staff are customer service focused
Enabling standard working practices and processes
Delivering standard working solutions
Making change through “Evolution”, not “Revolution”
How unITe was developed
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Initial appointment of joint Head of IT
Review of Stakeholders aims and requirements of IT
Review of Existing team members roles and skills
Recruitment of team members with the right future skills
Team Members training
Review of IT teams identity and brand creation
Selling and Embedding joint service offering
unITe Brand
• Brand creation was a very interesting time….
• How to get away from….
– Shropshire Housing Information Technology
– Severnside Housing Information Technology
How unITe has been structured
• Not a separate company – yet!
• Staff employed by either Shropshire Housing Group or
Severnside Housing
• Due to staff structure, salary costs are similar per company
• unITe define and manage separate budgets per company
Strategy Transformation
Customer Interactions
Information Giving
Flexible Working
Core Systems
unITe Services
Infrastructure
Service Transformation
•
•
•
•
•
•
Common Policies and Procedures
Common SLA’s and KPI’s
Single Service Desk and contact numbers
Adoption of ITIL principles
Regular IT Review Meetings with key business stakeholders
Board level representation on IT Steering Group
Infrastructure Transformation
• Review each companies:
– Contracts
– Availability, performance, capacity, points of Failure
• Compare and contrast both companies setups
• Review Business needs for continuity, remote working, office
locations, etc
• Devise short and long term strategy, action plans and budgets
Infrastructure Changes
Servers
Physical
Telephones
WAN/LAN
Contracts
Data Centre
Wifi
Servers
Virtual
Telephones
WAN/LAN
Servers
Physical
Data Centre
Wifi
MDM
Telephones
Contracts
WAN/LAN
Data Centre
Wifi
Contracts
System Transformation
• Review each companies systems for:
– Contracts
– Functionality, Ease of Use, Fit for Current Purpose
• Compare and contrast both companies setups
• Review business needs for systems match against future
objectives
• Devise short and long term strategy, action plans and budgets
System Changes
Housing
Finance
Assets
Housing
DLO
Assets
GIS
DLO
HR
Finance
Reports
Email
Texting
Texting
Apps
GIS
HR
ASB
HR
Reports
Email
ASB
Housing
Email
DLO
Housing
Reports
Assets
Finance
Assets
Finance
DLO
Team and People Transformation
•
•
•
•
•
Setting up and embedding single team working
Developing Customer Service ethos
Encouraging cross site working and cross training
Monitoring role responsibilities
Ensuring training is relevant to new initiatives
Tangible Benefits
• Cost savings on contracts through economies of scale
• 15% saving on mobile contracts
• 35% saving on office WAN contracts
• For joint solutions (HR, ASB, Telephony)
– 35% saving on system implementations
– 25% saving on system annual maintenance
• Savings have enabled of additional solutions to be installed
Tangible Benefits – IT Staff v Total Staff, Locations
70
60
50
40
Staff per IT Staff
IT Staff
30
Locations
20
10
0
10/11
11/12
12/13
13/14
Tangible Benefits – Availability, Continuity, Recovery
100.00
99.00
98.00
97.00
96.00
SSH Availability
95.00
SHG Availability
94.00
93.00
92.00
91.00
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
10/11 10/11 10/11 10/11 11/12 11/12 11/12 11/12 12/13 12/13 12/13 12/13 12/13 12/13 12/13
Tangible Benefits – Service Desk Performance
100
90
80
SSH Incident
SSH Request
70
SHG Incident
SHG Request
60
Target
50
40
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
10/11 10/11 10/11 10/11 11/12 11/12 11/12 11/12 12/13 12/13 12/13 12/13 13/14 13/14 13/14
Tangible Benefits – Satisfaction with IT Service
5
4.5
4
3.5
When unITe started
Now
3
2.5
2
Helpfulness Keeping up Courtesy Time Taken Knowledge System
Software
to date
to Resolve
Availability Quality
Hardware
Overall
Average
Quality Experience Satisfaction
Summary
• Collaborative working was well worth setting up due to the
benefits that have been realised
• Creating an identity has been key to the success
• What wasn’t anticipated was the level of work required to
setup and promote the service, nor the level of effort
required to stabilise systems and develop staff
• Having a joint board level steering group has been important
to strategy development and acceptance of service
Thankyou