Terry Keefe et al.
earlier ECEG12 paper( Keefe, et al., 2012). The task of identifying objectives, indicators and measures was difficult and protracted but it is arguable that the main benefit was in making project participants aware of the measurement process and its benefits( Bikfalvi, 2012). The benefits realisation approach in particular helped partners to identify and elaborate their individual aims and objectives.
• Creating a quantifiable measure for improvements in the organisation and administration of service delivery, referred to as“ Service Modification”. This helped pilot partners specify where improvement had occurred, and also allowed the project management team to identify a relationship between this area and the achievement of cost reduction benefits( Bikfalvi, 2012).
Table 1: Information about each partner and their project outcome
Description |
Strategic aims |
Outcome |
Pilot 1 A municipal authority, Spain. |
|
|
Pilot 2 A municipal authority, France.
Pilot 3 A municipal authority, Italy
Pilot 4 A technical support unit within a municipal authority, Germany
Pilot 5 A women’ s health information and awareness provider, Eire
Pilot 6 A regional police force. UK
Pilot 7 A large city authority, UK
Project Coordinators
Reduce the costs Improve administrative efficiency Improve service quality Digitise service delivery Reduce the costs Improve administrative efficiency Improve service quality Encourage new ways of working Reduce the costs Improve administrative efficiency Improve service quality
Demonstrate potential to reduce costs Encourage more e‐ working within the municipality
Explore the potential of the system to improve information dissemination
Explore the potential of the system to improve information dissemination within a larger programme Not stated
Success The authority had been part of the original development projects and felt the project was a big success.
Success Embraced the project with enthusiasm and has consequently generated a high level of success in terms of service improvement, working practices and cost burden reduction.
Success The municipality already had a well‐developed approach to monitoring service delivery and a productive IT support function. Worked closely with their own IT department and other pilots to implement an effective CAS. Success – none identified in terms of service modification or burden reduction. Within the project context, the pilot, in the framework of the iSAC6 + Project, provided a different organizational model compared to the other sites. It is responsible for the IT service of the city. Its main responsibility is for Information Technologies and has no specific citizen attention or information provision functions. Success – limited Provides a different operational model to other partner sites. It is an NGO and not publicly funded or governmental sponsored organisation. The iSAC project caused the management team to completely rethink their online service model together with the office and services back ends to help generate an integrated environment for management, staff, external supports and their information consumers. Measures were difficult to apply. Failure The force came into the project after the failure of their outsource partner to deliver an associated programme. They struggled to clarify objectives and were unable to justify continuation when funding cuts were imposed Withdrew before committing resource Represented in the proposal bidding stages by an outsource supplier but pulled out before start‐up because of lack of clarity over what the service would provide
University of Girona, Spain, supported by Sheffield Hallam University, UK
It appears that those organisations which entered the project on an open‐ended research basis struggled more to get benefit from it. One, for example, could not clearly define what they wanted to achieve. As a result they could not create a strong enough case to defend their involvement when they were faced with funding cuts. Those who could define their organisational strategic objectives are seeing very positive results
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