Collaborative Working to Deliver IT Transformation

and Business Change

Andrew Dale – Head of ITIan Pritchard – IT Manager

collaborate to deliver www.deliverIT.org.uk

• 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

Who are we – unITe Solutions

• 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 – Severnside Housing (SSH)

• 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).

Who are we – Shropshire Housing Group (SHG)

• 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

Business Objectives for change to IT Services

• 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

Challenges Faced in Meeting Objectives

– 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

Business 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

Strategic 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

Technology Challenges

• Lack of:– IT Policies– IT Procedures– Project Management Methodologies– IT Performance Measures

• Insufficient processes for monitoring and maintaining system availability

Process 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

Team and People Challenges

• 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”

Transforming IT Objectives

• 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

How unITe was developed

• Brand creation was a very interesting time….• How to get away from….– Shropshire Housing Information Technology– Severnside Housing Information Technology

unITe Brand

• 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

How unITe has been structured

Strategy Transformation

Customer Interactions Information Giving

Core SystemsFlexible Working

InfrastructureunITe Services

• 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

Service 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 Transformation

Infrastructure ChangesServers Physical

WAN/LANTelephones

Data Centre

Servers Physical

WAN/LANTelephones

Data CentreWifi

Wifi

MDM

Contracts

WifiData Centre

TelephonesWAN/LAN

Servers Virtual

Contracts

Contracts

• 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 Transformation

System ChangesHousing

AssetsDLO

Finance

Housing

AssetsDLO

Finance

ASB

ReportsEmail

HR

GIS

ReportsEmail

HR

Texting

Housing

Assets

DLO

Finance

Housing

Assets

DLOFinance

GIS

ReportsEmail

HR

Texting

ASB

Apps

• 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

Team and People Transformation

• 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

Tangible Benefits – IT Staff v Total Staff, Locations

10/11 11/12 12/13 13/140

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Staff per IT StaffIT StaffLocations

Tangible Benefits – Availability, Continuity, Recovery

Q1 10/11

Q2 10/11

Q3 10/11

Q4 10/11

Q1 11/12

Q2 11/12

Q3 11/12

Q4 11/12

Q1 12/13

Q2 12/13

Q3 12/13

Q4 12/13

Q1 12/13

Q2 12/13

Q3 12/13

91.00

92.00

93.00

94.00

95.00

96.00

97.00

98.00

99.00

100.00

SSH AvailabilitySHG Availability

Tangible Benefits – Service Desk Performance

Q1 10/11

Q2 10/11

Q3 10/11

Q4 10/11

Q1 11/12

Q2 11/12

Q3 11/12

Q4 11/12

Q1 12/13

Q2 12/13

Q3 12/13

Q4 12/13

Q1 13/14

Q2 13/14

Q3 13/14

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

SSH IncidentSSH RequestSHG IncidentSHG RequestTarget

Tangible Benefits – Satisfaction with IT Service

Helpfulness Keeping up to date

Courtesy Time Taken to Resolve

Knowledge System Availability

Software Quality

Hardware Quality

Overall Experience

Average Satisfaction

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

When unITe startedNow

• 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

Summary

Thankyou