Harrow Council

London Borough Uses Sun Java CAPS to Integrate Applications and Business Processes for Improved Citizen Service

Harrow Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Harrow. The council looks after the well being of 211,600 residents and employs approximately 5,000 people.

Customer Challenges

Improve citizen services
Eliminate inefficient, paper-based processes
Integrate siloed applications and business processes
Reduce administrative burden, freeing employees to serve citizens better
Establish Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for long-range business agility and cost control

Solution

The council and its systems integrator, Capita Group Plc, selected the Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS) to integrate its SAP and line of business applications, eliminating information silos and establishing a flexible Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) for more efficient and effective citizen service based on a single view of the citizen. At the heart of the architecture implemented is the Java CAPS —eView module—indexing, rationalizing and ultimately cleansing each interaction of information being processed.

Business Results

Provided one-stop citizen access to numerous services across multiple channels
Created a flexible IT infrastructure that will support the addition of new services for years to come
Positioned Harrow Council as a leader in local government modernization

Products and Services

Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite

Story Details

The London Borough of Harrow is an administrative unit of Greater London, located northwest of the city. The Boroughs are the most important unit of local government in London, and are responsible for running most local services in their areas, such as social services, waste collection and roads. The governing body of the London Borough of Harrow is the Harrow Council.

Citizens today expect prompt and effective service from their local government and become dissatisfied when they have to make multiple calls to find the right services or repeat information to agencies and workers. For this reason, the UK national government is encouraging local governments to apply information technology to improve the efficiency and quality of citizen services.

" As well as excellent value for money, this approach based on integration with Sun Java CAPS is leading to major improvements in resident services. It will also enable staff to concentrate on providing first-rate service to residents, rather than undertaking repetitive administrative tasks. "

— Carol Cutler, Director of Business Transformation, Harrow Council

To provide its citizens with better service, Harrow Council, under the leadership of Carol Cutler, director of business transformation, launched an ambitious program known as Access Harrow to ensure that citizen would only have to “Tell the council once.” When the program is in place, changing information in one Council department will trigger consistent changes in all other departments. For instance when a citizen files a change of address form in the parking office, the records in other council offices—rubbish collection, libraries, planning—will be automatically updated.

But the Council’s IT infrastructure needed upgrading and integration to support this vision. Historically, council departments had operated more or less autonomously, with little integration of citizen information.

In 2004, Harrow Council sought a way to integrate the different departments and create a more integrated infrastructure. The Council envisioned a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in which multiple applications and services could work together seamlessly across channels and share a unified view of information on Harrow’s 250,000 citizens.

The project required the integration of SAP CRM applications with other line of business applications. The integration and upgrade work needed to be completed in a phased approach that would enable easy reuse and not disrupt the Council’s business and citizen services.

Harrow Council looked at alternate solutions and strategies from several vendors, including SAP’s NetWeaver technology, before selecting the Capita Group Plc, a Sun Advantage Partner, to perform the necessary application and business process integration using the Sun Java Composite Applications Platform Suite (Java CAPS). The Sun solution gave Capita and the Council the ability to integrate a wide array of line of business and packaged applications without the need for extensive coding.

In an initial project phase, the Council has already integrated 10 business processes, reducing paperwork and administrative overhead while enabling citizens to contact a wider selection of services from a single call to the telephone contact center. Next phases include the Web enablement of HR, social services, finance and tax systems and the full realization of the “tell the council once” vision.

The SOA infrastructure gives Harrow Council the agility to add innovative new services rapidly and at less cost. For example, technology exists to centrally manage RFID tags attached to each rubbish bin, weigh the bin automatically as it is dumped into the truck, and generate charge-backs to businesses based on those readings. In this way, the council could help conserve resources and protect the environment while implementing new services.