Injeet Bamrah is Islington Council’s Integrated Corporate Architecture Manager; he is involved in any systems integration or business application development projects that the council undertakes. When he took on this broad role, one of his first tasks was to ensure that the council was properly supporting its critical web systems.

Although the council has its own internal IT resources, these focus mostly on networks and infrastructure requirements. Injeet Bamrah wanted to find a supplier that could give him the right people, skills and approach to support and develop critical business applications.

Strategic relationship

Injeet says, “I wanted to build a relationship with a team that could not only support the documented platform, but that could also support the bespoke developments that had been built by other organisations in the past.”

Perspicuity was just one of the companies Injeet approached when he put out an Invitation to Tender for a three-year support contract: He says, “Perspicuity made a good response and we felt confident that we could build a long-term, strategic partnership.

“We selected them because of the experience they had to offer and their capacity to build in application development and consultancy services.”

Added value

Injeet says, “We initially wanted Perspicuity to support our Documentum enterprise content management platform, but, during contract negotiations, I realised that they had a lot more to offer. They clearly had strong application development skills, so it was an opportunity to build a relationship around platform enhancement as well as ongoing support.

“We also felt, from the size of the company and the kind of work they had done for other clients, that this was an organisation we could happily work with, without having to incur excessive support costs.”

Continuity

As well as servicing the three-year SLA-based support contract, Perspicuity has continued to guide Islington Council’s business systems development strategy.

For Injeet, one of the major benefits of working with Perspicuity is the strength and continuity of the relationship: He says, “Some larger companies send different individuals for different pieces of work whereas Perspicuity has kept the core team engaged with us from the very beginning. They understand what we need to do and that’s always at the back of their minds.”

Support critical applications

The Web applications that Perspicuity supports are both high profile and critical to the Islington Council’s ability to provide services to its citizens.

Not only does the website provide large volumes of information across a relatively complex information architecture, it also has a significant commerce element: Injeet says, “The website is an important income stream for us. If it’s not available, citizens can’t use it to pay for services and revenue suffers. I need to know that it’s properly supported and that any downtime is kept to an absolute minimum.”

Injeet is very clear about the level of response and flexibility that Perspicuity offers him and his team. He says, “They have always responded quickly to any requests. We have never come across an issue that hasn’t been resolved. They have a great reputation internally for being able to get in and get things sorted quickly.”

Application development

Perspicuity has helped Islington Council to redevelop a number of areas of its website. One of these is the Family Directory, an important source of information for parents and carers, young people and practitioners: http://www.islington.gov.uk/Education/FamilyDirectory.asp

Injeet says, “When they deliver something it’s tested, it’s well thought through and it’s of good quality. I don’t have to keep going back to them with changes.  They’ve made the effort to learn about the way we like to work; it’s a good relationship and it’s working well for us.”

Expert guidance

When Injeet first took on the role of Integrated Corporate Architecture Manager, he became the internal champion for applications that ran on the website. The long-term nature of the Perspicuity relationship allowed him to step back and hand over some of this responsibility. He also had a team of experts that he could turn to when making technology decisions.

Injeet says, “Instead of thinking things through on my own, I can sit with another organisation that has a similar sort of knowledge, and additional skills in other areas, who can give me guidance on improving some of the systems we have.”

He says, “Looking back, there used to be a lot of engagement from my end. I’ve stepped back and can now say, okay, if there is anything you need to know or change there’s an organisation that you can go to.”

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