STELJES CASE STUDYLOCAL GOVERNMENT

technology with purpose

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelseaintroduces flexible, agile working using SMART visual collaboration solutions

Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall is an iconic building. Designed by the famous architect Sir Basil Spence, it is laid out around a square courtyard plan and was built to house the administrative centre of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council.

But the building belies the revolution that is happening within its walls. The Council has embarked on a 5 year programme of works called the ‘Space Programme’. One of the main aims of the programme is to create a flexible, open plan working environment.

In order to achieve this, corridors and offices have been taken down and the Council’s staff are able to work from any desk. A number of meeting spaces have been located on each floor, and most of the formal meeting rooms are un-bookable in order to encourage a more agile working environment. In addition, there are several breakout zones and collaborative meeting areas where staff can have more informal meetings but with easy access to SMART Technologies’ visual collaboration solutions delivered by Steljes.The Council chose the consultancy services provided by Steljes to help decide which

technologies would give them the greatest benefits for what they wanted to achieve. The consultancy service starts with Steljes getting to know how your organisation and your people work today, so the company can help you change the way you work tomorrow. This approach means Steljes can help you choose the right technology and get the maximum return on investment by focusing on the areas of productivity that are most important to you.

Mike Hollingsworth, Space ICT Project Manager, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea explains, “The Council is making a quantum leap in its use of technology and we chose Steljes as our consultancy partner because of their knowledge of the latest collaboration technologies and their excellent reputation in the industry. We will be replacing dry whiteboards and flipcharts in all our meeting rooms with the latest technologies such as SMART Board interactive whiteboards, SMART Meeting Pro software and Bridgit data conferencing software. We will be creating a more productive, efficient and collaborative working

CHALLENGE

Creating a more productive and collaborative working environment where people have the freedom to work with colleagues anytime, anywhere. SOLUTION

SMART Board® interactive whiteboards, SMART Meeting Pro™ software, Bridgit® conferencing software. BENEFITS

Reduced travel and costs Support home working policy

Make working practices more productive Save time Reduce carbon footprint

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environment where people have the freedom to work with colleagues anytime, anywhere, as if they were in the same room.”SMART interactive whiteboards combine the simplicity of a whiteboard with the power of a computer. Together with SMART Meeting Pro software, users can write notes in digital ink over any document, application or website on the interactive whiteboard and save them as a PDF or PPT file.

Marked-up pages, revised documents, diagrams, notes and comments can all be captured easily and e-mailed directly to meeting participants. Users can also write and save notes directly into applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat and AutoCAD.

Used in conjunction with Bridgit conferencing software, it gives the Council a cost-effective solution to connect their SMART interactive whiteboards to each other or to remote computers, helping remote workers to participate in meetings without having to physically be in the meeting room. Hollingsworth adds, “Bridgit conferencing software will be a facilitator to help us extend and improve our home working policy and is an important factor in the Council achieving the aims of its Space Programme.”

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“Bridgit conferencing software will be a facilitator to help us extend and improve our home working policy and is an important factor in the Council achieving the aims of its Space Programme.” Mike Hollingsworth, Space ICT Project Manager, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

In February 2012, The Space Programme completed works to the third floor of Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall. Delivering the first fully completed refurbished floor, and giving over 400 staff, a new working environment and access to SMART technologies.

The feedback has been very positive with the new technology already making a difference to their way of working. Their meetings have become more productive as users are finding that the technology has enabled a richer collaborative and knowledge-sharing environment.

Hollingsworth continues “Before we had SMART solutions, time was wasted writing up minutes of meetings and then distributing them. Now meeting notes are captured instantly and saved digitally for immediate and easy distribution so everyone has the most recent notes when they get back to their computers.”The installation of SMART visual collaboration solutions is part of the overall Space Programme that will see the Council implement a number of technological changes including WiFi connectivity, moving from desktops to a one laptop per person model, using the SMART Go Wire auto-launch cable to connect to the SMART Boards, and moving from fixed line telephony to a mobile solution.

technology with purpose

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Hollingsworth elaborates “The Space Programme will affect a cultural step-change for us. We are adapting the working environment to take a more innovative and effective approach to use the space we have.”

The new working environment will also have a positive impact on reducing the Council’s carbon footprint. Zahra Shah, Lead Communications Officer, explains, “The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea wants to stretch itself as far as it can to reduce CO2 and save money. The Council’s Green ICT strategy sets a target to reduce our carbon emissions by 40% by March 2014 and implementing SMART collaboration solutions is part of our plan to achieve this aim. It will help us to reduce business travel and its associated costs and deliver energy savings through more sustainable working practices.”

“Every day we think of more innovative ways to use the SMART Boards and the possibilities are endless. When we are planning a change to a floor layout, we use the recording facility of the SMART Board to show what areas are open or closed, what lifts are working etc. This makes installation much quicker, easier and more cost effective” adds Hollingsworth.The Council, held its first ‘SMART Week’ in March 2012, dedicating a full week of activities around improving awareness and use of the SMART solutions to support the adoption of this new technology by employees.

The week included daily drop in sessions, open to all staff, providing tips and ideas on getting the best from the technology and live chat sessions with SMART UK via Bridgit.

During SMART Week an event was held using the SMART technology located in

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breakout areas, allowing the Council to promote use of the space as a shared area, enhanced by technology that can be used for multiple events, be they meetings, talks or presentations.

Videos, case studies and staff feedback was communicated daily via the Councils intranet to support the week-long event, with good feedback from staff on their experiences of the technology including; “I would highly recommend using SMART Boards. The benefit of collaborative working when using SMART Boards have changed the way I work completely. It saves so much time and completely changes how a team can work more effectively.” Revenues and Benefits team member“Using Bridgit was great! It was quick to set up and the reception and clarity of the call was really good. I think it would be a useful tool for those who work from home.” New Ways of Working project team member

The Council isn’t stopping at improving how it works. It plans to extend its new way of working to accommodate a tri-borough initiative that will see it sharing selective services with the City of Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham boroughs.

Hollingsworth concludes “Every council looks at how it can improve its services to its public and achieve a good return on investment in the money it spends. SMART solutions are even more relevant in the current economic climate as they tick all the boxes – they reduce travel and associated carbon footprint, reduce costs and make working practices more productive.”

technology with purpose