Background

A unitary authority since 1998, Warrington is quickly emerging as one of the country’s foremost high performing and dynamic councils. Warrington Borough Council is actively striving for a community where the quality of life for people and business continues to improve. An essential part of this is the effective use of Information Technology in all departments of the Council in order to enable it to deliver its services to its citizens.

The IT Development Unit of the Council is charged with turning the aspirations of the council into reality through the development, implementation and maintenance of numerous IT systems. These aspirations include serving the Citizens of Warrington by moving forward on the “e-Government” agenda; with “joined-up”, easier and integrated access to services; whilst still providing efficiency, effectiveness and Best Value.

All this means that the IT Development Unit has to manage a great variety of complex and inter-related IT projects. It has recognised that the successful management of these projects is a Critical Success Factor for the Council.

Warrington Borough Council therefore employed Sky Consultancy Ltd to review their project management systems and procedures. Martin Berman, a Director of Sky, put forward a number of innovative proposals, which were accepted. Sky Consultancy Ltd. was then asked to turn these proposals into reality.

It did so by implementing a project methodology, which is now applied to all IT projects. An essential part of this method is the powerful use of software to control both projects and resources.

AMS Solution

The software chosen was the AMS REALTIME Solution. The AMS REALTIME resource management and timecard facilities are now integrated with Microsoft Project 2000. This provides project managers and team members with the information they require to complete their jobs on schedule and on budget.

The aim of this implementation is to provide improved utilisation of valuable IT resources across multiple projects. WBC projects include a mixture of development and on-going maintenance work for systems across the council.

The AMS REALTIME Solution is designed to provide increased visibility of resource availability and current workloads. With this information, WBC are able to make better use of their valuable manpower resources.

For further information visit www.warrington.gov.uk

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