Eastleigh Borough Council were tasked with saving £4.7m across the board as part of a major cost saving initiative.
Eastleigh were required to save £4.7m across the board as part of a major cost saving initiative.
Digital Solutions Manager, Jim Nicholson, was tasked with IT playing a major role in this. An entire review of their application software catalogue took place with the aim of providing more efficient customer journeys for internal and external users, and, where possible, consolidating the vast array of systems into a common solution that would give a single view of both customer and staff information.
In HR alone, different systems were being used for core HR management, time, attendance, recruitment, training, payroll and document management. These were all from different suppliers with very little integration resulting in multiple databases, increased admin and significant expenditure of approximately £45k per annum.
It was agreed that a single solution HR/Payroll/document system would help overcome these challenges, centralising all processes and data globally, and reducing revenue costs.
The xcd people solution was selected due to their ability to deliver a single solution that consolidated all HR, Payroll and document requirements using one database, removing the need for further integration. As the only HR solution built on the Salesforce platform, this also meant it met all the requirements of Eastleigh’s new IT structure and the overall aim of a common underlying platform throughout the authority.
Eastleigh Borough Council is a medium-sized district council with a £65m turnover and big ambitions. With over 450 employees, they have recently delivered a diverse range of capital projects focusing on putting the community and customer first. Associated to this was a major restructure with an overall staff reduction of 20%.
The xcd team rolled out their core HR product, with a strong focus on self-service and creating a more engaging employee experience.
It was important to the business that basic HR requests such as changing personal details, claiming expenses and mileage, and payslip access were achievable by all employees to reduce time pressures on the HR department and line managers.
The new single-solution approach also meant that data only needed to be updated once, reducing the risk of discrepancies and improving reporting functionality and confidentiality. Staff were impressed with the ease of use and how it improved internal processes and self-management.
Jim Nicholson, Digital Solutions Manager said:
“xcd is a true single-solution which meant we didn’t need to worry about integration risks, and were still able to have all of the functionality we were looking for. The base Salesforce platform also meant all staff would be able to use the system be they on the move, working remotely or working from home.”
Despite being in the early stages of ROI calculation, Eastleigh Borough Council were able to identify clear ROI in the reduced costs of a single-solution, with financial revenue savings of over 20%.
With eagerly anticipated plans to further roll out the self-service elements to over 100 remote employees, the ‘easily accessible anywhere’ solution will soon provide even greater benefits than those already achieved.
Jim Nicholson, Digital Solutions Manager added:
“The system is aesthetically pleasing, and the functionality makes it easy to use. The xcd solution has proved to be a major step forward for everyone in Eastleigh Borough Council.”
Jim Nicholson
Jim Nicholson
Digital Solutions Manager, Eastleigh Borough Council
Digital Solutions Manager, Eastleigh Borough Council
