Citizens Information Board - Oyster - Enterprise Information Management Suite
Technologies: IIS, .NET, ASP.NET, SQL Server, Lotus Notes
Customer Profile
Individuals should have access to accurate, comprehensive and clear information relating to social services and should be referred to the relevant services.
The Citizens Information Board provides independent information, advice and advocacy on public and social services through citizensinformation.ie, the Citizens Information Phone Service and the network of Citizens Information Services.
It is responsible for the Money Advice and Budgeting Service and provides advocacy services for people with disabilities.
Business Situation
The Citizens Information Board (CIB) had a number of existing applications that they used in support of their interactions with their customers. These systems included Lotus Notes applications, Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. The application(s) stored customer details for all of the CIB’s customers. The information stored included training course/attendee information, operational information for Citizens Information Services and Centres, as well as mailing list information for regular subscribers to the CIB’s publications.
Changes in the nature of the CIB’s relationship with its customers, and emerging requirements in the areas of reporting, grant management, training management and publications management were not being met by the existing systems, and a replacement with a larger centralised system was sought by means of a public tender.
Solution
Engine Solutions successfully tendered to analyse, specify and build the new customer and management information system.
The new system has both customer relationship management features and management information system features. The backbone of the system is a Customer Module that manages all information relating to the Citizens Information Network and all other customers in a hierarchical fashion.
The system provides powerful functionality such as workflow, work queues, reports, metrics and audit trails which facilitates the day to day operations of the Citizens Information Board.
The system is also used by the national Citizens Information Service (CIS) network to avail of services such as training, publications and funding which are managed centrally by the Citizens Information Board. The CIS customers also enter queries they receive into the system which provides statistical information for the Citizens Information Board.
Results
The Citizens Information Board now uses one centralised system to perform the functions of their day to day jobs. As data moves through the workflow engine of the system, different users from different locations and departments within the Citizens Information Board and the Citizens Information Services can now collaborate effectively.
The system was rolled out on a phased basis with the initial launch including a customer management module and an administration module. These modules were closely followed by a data collection module which is used to capture query data from various sources. Four further modules were released including a training module, a funding module, a publications module and an activity reports module.
The new system ensures complete consistency in terms of how data is captured and managed. This consistency greatly benefits the Citizens Information Board in relation to the quality of data and reduces the time spent creating and managing information.
The system is user friendly and intuitive to use while also providing powerful functionality to its broad spectrum of users. The Citizens Information Board now leverage the data collected by utilising powerful reporting tools within the system to generate a variety of reports and metrics.
Testimonial
"Working with Engine Solutions has been a very positive and rewarding experience for the Citizens Information Board; their effortless ability to understand our business requirements and processes has made them an extremely easy and flexible organisation to work with. The quality of their work is exceptional and has consistently helped the Citizens Information Board reach all of our project goals within the specified timeframe."
Sinead Forde | Manager ICT Development & Support
Citizens Information Board
www.CitizensInformationBoard.ie