Case study: Liverpool Direct - Business and IT working together

When IT and business re-connect the results can be spectacular, and underline the positive impact of technology on even the most ‘broken’ organisation.

One example in the public sector is the contribution to better local government services being delivered by Liverpool Direct, the joint venture 80 per cent owned by BT and Liverpool City Council.

Chief executive David McIlhenny paints a picture of a severely dysfunctional organisation where IT was not a positive force.

‘We had the country’s highest council tax and some of the poorest-quality services. There was a general loss of confidence by stakeholders in us, from staff to government to citizen. We needed to change,’ he says.

‘We had 11 departmental IT functions and one central one. The focus of the departments was to get one over on the central team and the aim of the centre was to get one over the departments. We had a lack of consistent standards or way of operating, all the way from the desktop to disaster recovery.’

The new operation was set up in 2001, and the turnaround has been dramatic. Liverpool Direct says it is now delivering £5m of savings to the council, while operating with a £20m annual budget, mainly through aggressive use of eprocurement, which has cut the number of suppliers from 18,000 to 3,000.

Liverpool’s revenue and benefits process was taking an average of 136 days. That has now been cut to 33, with a target of 14 days by the end of 2006. It could even come down to as low as seven.

‘Now we have one IT service that is a platform for all our change, one way of doing things, and that is about being as close to the aspirations of the business as possible,’ says McIlhenny.

‘The real message here is that no matter how complex the issue, by sitting back and using all the tools you have, very much including technology, looking at non-traditional ways of solving the problem, with the right leadership and appropriate investment immense steps can be taken.’

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