Case Study: Notice Board

Centreline in Action with London Borough of Harrow
Noticing the difference with Office 2000 NoticeBoard

The London Borough of Harrow Social Services department is responsible for the statutory provision of a wide range of care services for elderly people, children and families, people who are visually or hearing impaired, people with a learning disability, people with mental health problems and people with a physical disability.

The department are constantly looking for ways of improving the service they offer, though their geography can make this all the more challenging as Malcolm Jeeves, Management Information Manager for the department explains. 'Although we are one of the smaller London Boroughs, we have to maintain efficient communication systems to over 400 staff across 10 sites.'

Fortunately the department has always recognised the part that IT has to play. 'We view IT as a key weapon in helping us to deliver a better service for our clients - which is why we selected Office 2000 NoticeBoard from Centreline 2000' says Jeeves.

Strategy for Sharing

The department has substantial investments in both UNIX and Uniplex coupled with the Oracle database. 'Terminals have been a highly cost-effective way of delivering IT services' comments Jeeves, 'and cost is a key concern because our strategy is to make the appropriate IT services available to every member of staff in the department.'

Part NoticeBoard, Part Library

To meet the strategy, the Social Services department wanted to develop systems that made it easier to share and communicate information. 'We produce large amounts of information on policy, practice, procedure, training and administration' says Jeeves. 'Creating, locating and storing this information is costly and time-consuming. I wanted to find a better way because it would help us deliver the best service to our clients.'

The team evaluated a number of approaches - looking at both specialist products and generic email solutions. 'Some organisations are content to use email for this type of information sharing, but we wanted something that people could refer to over time' says Jeeves.

Ideally the department wanted a forum for publishing and maintaining the information electronically. It had to integrate closely with existing UNIX, Oracle and Uniplex systems and it had to act as a definitive reference on all matters of policy and procedure.

'What we wanted was an electronic noticeboard and library - rolled into one. We wanted to use a proven technology and it needed to hook into all our existing systems' explains Jeeves.

Office 2000 NoticeBoard

Following evaluation of a range of possible solutions, Harrow Social Services department chose Office 2000 NoticeBoard from Centreline 2000.

The team started implementing and training people on how to use the system over 12 months ago. Now 200 staff on sites across the borough have access to the system. The team have developed noticeboards for policy documents, procedures, training and many aspects of administration.

Always current and up-to-date

Jeeves is pleased with the way the system is developing. 'We chose Office 2000 NoticeBoard for two main reasons. It worked with our existing systems and Centreline 2000 demonstrated that it could deliver the combined function of noticeboard and reference library index- which is exactly what we need.'

As with any new system, it has been important to train staff to take full advantage of the noticeboards. 'It does take people a little time to get used to the idea that the official version of something is always on-line' admits Jeeves.

Paying Dividends

'But now the system is paying dividends particularly in terms of reducing the amount of paper that is generated, filed, and stored. It helps us to save time, save money and work more efficiently.'

The department holds training course information for the coming 3-6 month period on a noticeboard. The latest versions of every policy and procedure are stored on noticeboards. Copies of official forms are held on the electronic boards. Staff can print a copy of this information - for example to take to a meeting. But the definitive version is always on the board!

NoticeBoard and Workflow

Over the next 12 months, there are plan to consolidate the system into the departments working practices, but there are already outline plans for new development. 'Currently all our forms have to be printed off and signed. That is an area we would like to explore because I would like to use NoticeBoard to help automate that process. That is the beauty of the system - we can develop and tailor it precisely to our needs.'

Product Information

NoticeBoard is available for Windows and Unix. The Windows version can run standalone, on a Windows or Novell network or client/server with a Unix host. The ASCII terminal version will run on any flavour of Unix.

A standalone version is available for download from the www.c2000.com web site - see Software Downloads.

NoticeBoard is also used by Kent County Council, National Rivers Authority, Ministry of Defence, Hydrographic Office, London Boroughs of Lewisham and Waltham Forest.