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Meeting the government's objectives for 100% of services to be delivered electronically by 2005 presents a major challenge for England's local authorities. Amber Valley Borough Council's adoption of PS Financials has already enabled the payment of 77% of invoices electronically and provides a platform for the deployment of electronic purchasing in the future. In addition, PS Financials' flexible financial accounting and business management solution and broad access to real time information across the Council has enabled significant cost savings. The authority has overcome significant budgetary pressures and continue to invest in and deliver excellent public services. Located in the heart of Derbyshire, Amber Valley Borough Council employs over 1,000 people to deliver key public sector services, to local citizens. With an annual budget of £50 million, the Council has recently moved away from the traditional short term budgetary approach towards a rolling three year budget. In common with other authorities Amber Valley has faced major challenges in balancing its budget: as well as striving to attain cost savings from across the authority, the Council is committed to meet the Government's stated objectives for e-Government. As David Fox, Financial Services Manager, Amber Valley Borough Council, explains, "In addition to the introduction of proactive processes for delivering efficiency savings, the Best Value process, where council services are reviewed and independently inspected, continues to provide a mechanism that ensures the services the Council provides are efficient, economic and effective." To be successful, these initiatives have to be underpinned by the right financial management processes supported by excellent access to budgetary information. During the last decade, Amber Valley introduced commitment accounting to improve budgetary control. However, while this improved financial management, a lack of easy access to detailed financial information across the authority constrained further improvements. Amber Valley decided to replace its financial application and take the opportunity to embrace new technology developments, such as Windows, to create a platform for ongoing public sector developments. The authority reviewed eight applications, all of which purported to offer true Microsoft Windows functionality. Explaining his decision to implement PS Financials, Fox sad, "We wanted a product that would take us forward and give us the security of knowing that it would support our on-going developments in the delivery of public services. It was clear to all of us who had evaluated the product at Amber Valley that PS Financials was the product we needed to move forward successfully." The solution was implemented and integrated with the Council's core business applications, including Housing Repairs, Payroll and HR, Income & Sundry Debtors, Housing Benefit and Council Tax. The software has played a key role in enabling the Council to address the e-Government objectives. Using PS Financials, the Council now pays 77% of its 26,000 invoices electronically - either via BACS or other automated means. In addition, PS Distribution includes an automatic user defined workflow management system that enables requisitions to pass through different authorisation procedures, culminating in a purchase order being produced. As a result of improved processes, Amber Valley pays 80% of invoices within 30 days. Says Fox, "The adoption of electronic processes took place over several stages. PS Financials' support for web-based technologies such as XML provides us with the infrastructure to embrace full e-Government services to meet the 2005 objectives." With over 30 core Finance users who use PS Financials for financial management, invoice processing and cost control, the system also provides key financial information to over 100 budget holders throughout the authority. As Fox says, "Not only does the solution support commitment accounting but its flexible reporting structure enables us to devolve financial management across the authority. It is extremely easy to use, which means we were able to provide access to the information to budget holding staff, from senior managers to junior personnel, without intensive, training." Amber Valley has also exploited PS Financials' reporting flexibility to deliver detailed budgetary information. Using drill down functionality, users can start with an overview of, for example, the Council's annual stationery spend and then drill down to the individual transaction level to gain a greater understanding of individual budget holders spending trends. Says Fox, "Devolved financial management is a core objective of Amber Valley and can only be achieved if users are comfortable with the system. PS Financials eases the process of information access, empowering individual budget holders to manage their own budgets." This detailed information played a key role in enabling Amber Valley to achieve savings in excess of £400,000 to meet budgetary restrictions in one year, and included provision for a further £500,000 savings, enabling the Council to meet its budgetary objectives. Fox confirms, "The availability of detailed information from PS Financials enabled Amber Valley to identify how to achieve these financial savings." As well as supporting the requirements of individual budget holders, the flexibility of the solution has enabled the Council to respond easily to organisational change, which is of great importance to the Council who are currently progressing with a transfer of its housing stock to a new housing company. A practical example of the flexibility of the system comes as a result of the Government's Modernising Agenda, where the Council has moved away from a committee based system to a Cabinet of senior elected members, each with responsibility for a portfolio of services. Using PS Financials, the Council is in the process of providing financial and budgetary information to each cabinet member specifically tailored for their particular portfolio. Over the next few years, Amber Valley Borough Council will embrace full electronic services, including electronic purchasing, to meet the Government's e-business objectives. As Fox concludes, "With PS Financials, aided by their fully Microsoft compatible, web enabled solution, Amber Valley has the platform in place to meet all future e-Government targets." |
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