The fourth largest shire county, Lancashire is located in the central north west of England, has a population of 1.1 million and is home to over 35,000 businesses.

The county has transformed from its cotton industry roots to its present diverse economy made up of international and local leading-edge industries like Associated British Ports, British Nuclear Fuels, British Telecom, British Energy, Rolls Royce, Royal Bank of Scotland . However, manufacturing is still the main provider of the area's wealth accounting for a quarter of the 640,000 workforce and 30% of the local revenue.

Delivering services to such a diverse community and large geographical area means a large percentage of staff employed by Lancashire County Council work remotely during their daily tasks. Supporting these roles from a technology perspective is where ICT Services play a vital role in ensuring the right tools are deployed.

At Lancashire County Council Digital Pen and Paper has been deployed in two areas. Firstly for collection and distribution of meeting minutes and secondly for closure of helpdesk calls to the ICT department themselves.

Meeting minutes

Using a specifically designed form minutes of meetings are written in a structured way using the Digital Pen that records the handwriting. Specific actions can be placed against individuals, automatic emails can be generated and attendees registered. Once complete the writing is sent to Ubisys software where handwriting is converted in to a digital copy of the document and automatically emailed to relevant parties. Benefits of this solution include less administrative time in re-typing information and more importantly the ability to action items faster, thus improving service to its clients.

Helpdesk closure form

ICT staff support the various departments in ensuring their technology is working correctly and are also responsible for deploying new innovative solutions. As a result they often have to travel to departments to fix any issues and/or perform deployments. Once an issue is fixed the form is used to report on the work done, obtain a customer signature and ultimately report on the closure of that support call. Using the Digital Pen the forms are sent to a central portal and updated on the ICT support system making their call closure process more efficient and providing an improved service to their internal customers.

Back to Public Sector Case Studies