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SINGLE BUSINESS ACCOUNT (SBA) PILOT
REPORT FOR LICHFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
Status Author Version Date
Draft for Approval Caroline Stewart, 1.0 18 May 2006
Lee Daffern
Steve Laslett
Business Matters: Oracle/Lichfield DC SBA pilot report
Index
1 Introduction and Background ........................................................................ 4
1.1 Purpose of this document ................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Overview of Business Matters ............................................................................................ 4
1.3 SBA Implementation Team ................................................................................................. 4
2 What Was Implemented ................................................................................. 5
2.1 Developing the Statement of Requirements ....................................................................... 5
2.2 Duration............................................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Processes for SBA .............................................................................................................. 5
2.4 SBA Development ............................................................................................................... 5
2.5 CRM System ....................................................................................................................... 8
2.6 Web Development .............................................................................................................. 8
2.7 Out of Scope ..................................................................................................................... 11
3 How It Was Implemented ............................................................................. 12
3.1 Implementation Roadmap ................................................................................................. 12
3.2 Staff Readiness ................................................................................................................. 12
3.3 Benefits Appraisal ............................................................................................................. 12
3.4 Business Process Re-engineering .................................................................................... 12
3.5 Create TO-BE Processes ................................................................................................. 18
3.6 Validate TO-BE Processes ............................................................................................... 24
3.7 System Development ........................................................................................................ 24
3.8 Staff Training ..................................................................................................................... 25
3.9 Pilot Outcomes .................................................................................................................. 25
4 Observations and Lessons Learnt .............................................................. 27
4.1 New Discipline. ................................................................................................................. 27
4.2 Learning Curve and terminology. ...................................................................................... 27
4.3 Pilot specification. ............................................................................................................. 27
4.4 Flexibility. .......................................................................................................................... 27
4.5 Timescales. ....................................................................................................................... 27
4.6 CRM supplier. ................................................................................................................... 28
4.7 Pilot team. ......................................................................................................................... 28
4.8 Stakeholders ..................................................................................................................... 28
4.9 Project Management ......................................................................................................... 29
4.10 Business representative involvement. .............................................................................. 29
4.11 Business Service Area ...................................................................................................... 29
4.12 Budget. .............................................................................................................................. 29
4.13 Hardware availability and technical environment. ............................................................ 30
Business Matters: Oracle/Lichfield DC SBA pilot report
4.14 Replicability and roll out. ................................................................................................... 30
4.15 Process Maps ................................................................................................................... 30
4.16 Checklist............................................................................................................................ 30
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1 Introduction and Background
1.1 Purpose of this document
This document describes the SBA Pilot that was undertaken at Lichfield DC as part of the
Business Matters Project. It also reports on lessons learned and makes some
recommendations that may assist other Authorities plan and deliver SBA pilots.
Lichfield District Council (LDC) currently uses a shared instance Oracle LG45 eBusiness
Suite as their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform within the Staffordshire
Partnership.
The document describes:
What was implemented
How it was implemented
Lessons Learnt
Results & Benefits
Conclusions
1.2 Overview of Business Matters
The pilot was funded and supported as part of the Business Matters West Midlands
Regional Project. The ODPM funded project is focused on improving the quality and
efficiency of interactions between Local Authorities and their business community. A key
element of this is to develop the concept of a Single Business Account (SBA) and deploy it
in a number of controlled environments.
An overview of the project is available at http://www.wmlga.gov.uk/page.asp?id=301.
The project has designed and delivered a Business Description Schema to help define the
data fields and structure of the Single Business Account. Version 2.3 of the schema was
used for the pilot.
1.3 SBA Implementation Team
The Environmental Health Department was the chosen business area for the pilot, with PID
390; Registering a Food Business as the service to be piloted.
The following resources supported the implementation of the SBA pilot at LDC:
Rita Wilson - Programme Manager
Business Matters Project Board
Graham Hakes - Service Area Expert - Environmental Health
Ysanne Williams – Service Area Expert – Customer Services
Caroline Stewart - Project Manager rol
Lee Daffern - Technical Resource rol
Mike Wolfe – Technical Resource Oracle Consulting UK
Staffordshire Connects ICT department
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2 What Was Implemented
2.1 Developing the Statement of Requirements
The statement of requirements was drawn up with the involvement of the project team with
inputs from Oracle Consulting UK, representatives of Lichfield DC and rol solutions Ltd. The
document is available from the Business Matters project and can be used as a model by
other LAs when shaping a pilot. A template document is also available. Both documents are
available from the Business Matters section of the WMLGA web site, www.wmlga.gov.uk
The implementation strategy was developed with all members of the project team meeting to
agree the requirements and objectives. The concept of the Single Business Account was
already well accepted by Lichfield District Council, although support was needed from the
ICT department at Staffordshire Connects to ensure their commitment to the project.
The pilot service area was identified as Environmental Health. The council had already
been reviewing the functions of this department and considering whether to manage
information within the front office/CRM environment rather than in a back office database
system. It was noted that deploying the SBA in this area would be of benefit in progressing
the review of the front / back office split.
An earlier attempt to specify a pilot had led to a cost estimate that exceeded available
budget. The revised specification excluded using middleware and excluded reporting in
order to stay within budget.
2.2 Duration
The revised pilot objectives were agreed with Oracle Consulting following a revised
th
quotation for services dated February 9 2006. A pilot kick off meeting was held at Lichfield
th
on 27 February.
Oracle consulting completed their work in late March. The funding for the Business Maters
st
project from ODPM was planned to lead to project conclusion on March 31 . The successful
th
development of the SBA was announced at Expo on April 6 .
Due to these challenging timescales the scope of the pilot was restricted to proof of concept.
Further work is planned to build on the success of the proof of concept.
2.3 Processes for SBA
PID 390 was been chosen by Lichfield as the business process to pilot with the SBA. The
LGSL lists this as: Food business operators are required to register their business with the
local authority at least 28 days before starting operations or taking over any existing food
business.
2.4 SBA Development
All fields specified in the Business Description Schema were matched to available fields in
LG45.
An exercise was carried out to identify the fields relevant to the Environmental Health
department and the service request being piloted. These have been detailed below:
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2.4.1 Schema data to be collected at BPA registration when a business is
applying to register a food business.
Fields on the application form for Schema Entity
registering a business
Trading name BusinessName
Limited company name RegisteredBusinessName
Companies house number Used to create SBALinkNumber
Address of business BS7666Address
Business telephone number TelephoneNumber
Name of business owner Name fields within Contact
Address of business owner BS7666Address within Contact
Telephone number of business owner TelephoneNumber within Contact
Email address of business owner EmailAddress within Contact
Date of opening DateCommencedTrading
Type of business LegalStatus
Number of people engaged in food EmployeesLocal
business
2.4.2 Additional fields required for capture of information from the application
form
Field Required Data Values
Limited Company Address
Number of vehicles / stalls used by the business <5
for the purposes of food
6-10
11-50
>50
Water supplied to the establishment Public (mains) supply
Private supply
If a seasonal business – period of time it will be 1 month
operational each year
2 months
3 months
4 months
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5 months
6 months
7 months
8 months
9 months
10 months
11 months
Type of food business Farm Shop
Food Manufacturing / Processing
Packer
Importer
Wholesale / Cash & Carry
Distribution / Warehousing
Retailer
Restaurant / Café / Snack Bar
Market
Seasonal Slaughter
Staff Restaurant / Canteen / Kitchen
Catering
Hospital / Residential Home / School
Hotel / Pub / Guest House
Private Home used as a Food Business
Moveable Establishment eg. Ice Cream Van
Market Stall
Food Broker
Takeaway
Other (add details)
Number of vehicles / stalls used by the
business for the purposes of food
2.4.3 Data to be collected in addition to the fields on the Application form
National Insurance Number (to create SBALinkNumber)
Description
2.4.4 Schema entities not being collected through this service request
Turnover
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Website
BusinessStage
DateOfOccupancyAtThisAddress
Classification
2.5 CRM System
2.5.1 High Level Specification
An iterative, prototyping approach was adopted for the pilot. System configuration was
altered as feedback from the pilot review was gathered.
The pilot began by establishing a suitable Oracle environment (see “Version Information and
System Patches” below for details).
A data field ‘map and gap’ exercise was performed between the existing system used by
LDC, and the data fields specified in BDS V2.3. The purpose of this exercise was to
highlight the ‘closeness of fit’ between business data as it is captured currently (which was
implemented without any consideration of the BDS), and the data fields specified in the
BDS. The results of this exercise are presented below (see “’As Is’ Fit and Gap Analysis”).
Configuration of the system to fill identified gaps was performed and documented (see “’Post
BDS Implementation’ Fit and Gap Analysis”). Details of the configuration performed are
provided in the section “Application Configuration Additions”.
Much of this document refers to data fields specified in BDS V2.3. For this reason, a listing
of all fields in the BDS is provided below (see “Business Description Schema Elements”).
Reference numbers used in this section of the document are used consistently to cross
reference to later sections of the document.
2.5.2 Reporting
No reporting tools were configured or implemented for the purpose of this pilot.
2.5.3 Self Service
There was no self service implementation included in the pilot exercise.
2.5.4 Customer Engagement
Time constraints prevented customers, i.e. local businesses, being involved in the pilot.
The system was piloted by Lichfield DC employees performing system testing in the manner
that they would use the system in a real life environment.
2.6 Web Development
2.6.1 Web Front End
For the purposes of this documentation, the Web Front End is referencing the browser
based Customers Online interface through which the internal users will add and edit
business data to create the SBA. The interface screens have been updated from the
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standard display provided by the Oracle application to represent the fields required for the
SBA.
This is shown in the screen shots below showing the SBA schema data entry fields within
Customers Online:
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The following screen shot shows employee details linked to the business premises.
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2.7 Out of Scope
The following were out of scope of the SBA Pilot.
Bulk uploading of data.
Developing a self-service option for the business community to register a BPA and
complete a food business registration.
Integration with a business directory.
Authentication of customers to use the SBA
Back end system integration.
Business Case development.
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3 How It Was Implemented
3.1 Implementation Roadmap
Following the kick off meeting Oracle Consulting and rol jointly agreed an implementation
programme. Due to the compressed pilot timescales, the pilot specification document was
created in parallel with early stages of configuring the CRM system.
A separate document, the pilot specification document, is available for review.
3.2 Staff Readiness
The team at Lichfield were keen to implement the pilot and prove the concept of the Single
Business Account within their authority. They were confident that it complements their
Customers First strategy.
LDC is the lead authority for the Business Matters regional project. Each of the
stakeholders was supportive and could see the long term benefits of working with the team
to create a successful pilot.
3.3 Benefits Appraisal
LDC understands that in order to improve their offering to businesses, it needs to embrace
the concept of the SBA and ensure that the provision of it is sustainable across all service
areas
The pilot did not progress sufficiently to be able to measure cost benefits. It did however
demonstrate that the SBA can be established within an Oracle environment without
expensive software development.
The pilot demonstrated that the SBA in a CRM environment will help LAs move to regulation
and enforcement in an on line environment and meet the recommendations in the Hampson
Review.
3.4 Business Process Re-engineering
3.4.1 Environmental Health – Registering a Food Business
Businesses operating as a food business (in any regard) are required to register with the
Environmental Health Department within their local authority. This process does not involve
a licence being issued, but is simplly to register the business premises with the local
authority as dealing with food.
The introduction of the SBA pilot in Lichfield has allowed them to take advantage of new
legislation that came into force in January 2006, whereby the registration form no longer
requires a signature from the business owner. The Food Standards Authority (FSA) place a
legal obligation on the owner of new food business, including the new owner of an existing
food business, to register their business with the local authority within 28 days of
commencing food operations, with this process now being able to be completed employing
purely electronic means. It is a legal requirement to register a new food business, although
the FSA place no restrictions on how the local authority captures that information.
This legislation allows LDC to fully take advantage of the benefits of creating the registration
application straight into the CRM without the need to add additional time and costs of
checking, printing and sending the form to the business for them to sign and return within 28
days. The new process will allow the Environmental Health Officers (EHO) to progress
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immediately with setting up a date for inspecting the property and informing the Trading
Standards department at Staffordshire County Council that a new food business has
registered.
The authority is obliged to report a number of statistics based on local food businesses to
the FSA on an annual basis.
LDC currently stores the application forms in hard copy, filed by area and then alphabetically
by street name.
The initial contact between the business and the council involves many channels; face to
face with the business coming to the council, face to face through an EHO going to the
premises, after a change of ownership of a food business, the business phoning the council,
the business accessing the councils website.
3.4.2 Current Process
A business person contacts the council either in person or rings up for a form. The form is
given out if the person is at the council, or posted to them if on the phone. They are also
advised that they can request a form from an online location. This online form is in a pdf
format that the user prints locally.
The business completes the form and returns it to the council. The Environmental Health
admin team passes the form on to a Customer Services agent who will add the business
and application form details to the Food Registration Database, currently an excel
spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet is ordered by date and checked daily when the newest ones are printed in
order to schedule visits to check on food hygiene at the premises wanting to be registered.
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3.4.3 Future Business Process with the Single Business Account Implemented
3.4.3.1 Registering a Business Premises Account
During initial contact with the council, a business will be required to provide certain
information to enable a Business Property Account (BPA) to be set up for the premises in
which they are based.
The Customer Services personnel will take basic business details from the caller and will
then search the CRM for any matching data. If the business already has a BPA, the CS
person will then update any missing or changed information. If this is the first contact that a
business has with the council, a BPA will be created for the premises and business with
contact details being collected for the business. The system will then create the BPA
account, linking all the relevant information.
3.4.3.2 Food Business Registration - Mediated
Business owners wanting to register their premises contact the council requesting to do just
that. Once customer services have ascertained whether the company has a BPA, the owner
will be taken through the registration process. This involves the owner answering questions
about his/her business whilst the customer services agent enters these details directly into
the service request screen in the CRM. Once this process has been completed, the system
will trigger an update to the EHO’s system alerting them to the new registration. They will
then check the detail and if it is ok, set up a date for an inspection of the premises within the
28 days prior to the business starting to trade. If any further detail is needed by the council,
an EHO will contact the business to confirm prior to closing the service request. At this point
in time, further processes are triggered, including carrying out the inspection and informing
Trading Standards and Health & Safety that the business has applied to trade with food,
however, these processes are external to the actual registration of a food premises.
3.4.3.3 Food Business Registration - Future EH Led
On occasion, an EHO will recognise a new food business has not registered with the
authority and will take steps to ensure that the process is completed within the required
timescales. This can occur in one of three ways:
An EHO would visit the premises and complete the registration form whilst the business
owner is present. The EHO will then return to the office and enter the business details from
the form into the CRM to register the BPA and then set up the service request, completing it
at the same time and initiating the site inspection process.
Alternatively, the EHO would visit the premises and leave the registration form with the
business owner who would be advised to return the form to the council within 28 days. This
method requires the EHO taking business details and checking the status of a BPA and
setting one up if there is not one there.
With the new ruling from the FSA stating that a signature is no longer required, the EHO
could just advise the new food business owner that they are required to contact the council
to register their business, effectively kicking off the mediated process described above.
3.4.3.4 Food Business Registration - Future Self-Service
Business owners have the opportunity to print the registration form from the Lichfield website
and mail it to the council when completed. The form would arrive with a customer services
agent who would then register the BPA (if not already registered) and complete the
mediated process.
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Diagrammatic Representation of Registering a Business Premises Account
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Diagrammatic Representation of Registering a Food Business - Mediated
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Diagrammatic Representation of Food Business Registration - EHO Led
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Diagrammatic Representation of Food Business Registration - Self-Service
3.5 Create TO-BE Processes
3.5.1 Registering a Business Premises Account
During initial contact with the council, a business will be required to provide certain
information to enable a Business Property Account (BPA) to be set up for the premises in
which they are based.
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The Customer Services personnel will take basic business details from the caller and will
then search the CRM for any matching data. If the business already has a BPA, the CS
person will then update any missing or changed information. If this is the first contact that a
business has with the council, a BPA will be created for the premises and business with
contact details being collected for the business. The system will then create the BPA
account, linking all the relevant information.
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3.5.2 Food Business Registration - Mediated
Business owners wanting to register their premises contact the council requesting to do just
that. Once customer services have ascertained whether the company has a BPA, the owner
will be taken through the registration process. This involves the owner answering questions
about his business whilst the customer services agent enters these details directly into the
service request screen in the CRM. Once this process has been completed, the system will
trigger an update to the EHO’s system alerting them to the new registration. They will then
check the detail and if it is ok, set up a date for an inspection of the premises within the 28
days prior to the business starting to trade. If any further detail is needed by the council, an
EHO will contact the business to confirm prior to closing the service request. At this point in
time, further processes are triggered, including carrying out the inspection and informing
Trading Standards and Health & Safety that the business has applied to trade with food,
however, these processes are external to the actual registration of a food premises.
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3.5.3 Food Business Registration - Future EH Led
On occasion, an EHO will recognise a new food business hasn’t registered with the authority
and will take steps to ensure that the process is completed within the required timescales.
This can occur in one of three ways.
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An EHO would visit the premises and complete the registration form whilst the business
owner is present. The EHO will then return to the office and enter the business details from
the form into the CRM to register the BPA and then set up the service request, completing it
at the same time and initiating the site inspection process.
Alternatively, the EHO would visit the premises and leave the registration form with the
business owner who would be advised to return the form to the council within 28 days. This
method requires the EHO taking business details and checking the status of a BPA and
setting one up if there is not one there.
With the new ruling from the FSA stating that a signature is no longer required, the EHO
could just advise the new food business owner that they are required to contact the council
to register their business, effectively kicking off the mediated process described above.
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3.5.4 Food Business Registration - Future Self-Service
Business owners have the opportunity to print the registration form from the Lichfield website
and mail it to the council when completed. The form would arrive with customer services
who would then register the BPA (if not already registered) and complete the mediated
process
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3.6 Validate TO-BE Processes
3.7 System Development
The Staffordshire Partnership’s test environment for the Oracle LG45 CRM system was
cloned onto a standalone server. It was then patched to version 11.5.10 to enable the
utilisation of Customers Online, which was installed as part of the standard Oracle
functionality with this version.
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Detail of the work that was carried out on the Oracle CRM is contained in the appended
document entitled BR010_Business_Description_Schema.Fit_Analysis_Issue1a.doc written
by Oracle Consulting UK following the pilot implementation of the SBA at LDC.
3.8 Staff Training
The Lichfield staff members involved in the pilot had been involved in concept and pilot
implementation meetings for a period of time prior to the pilot work commencing. They were
familiar with working with the Oracle CRM Training on Customers Online was done in a real
time environment by adding test data to the system. As there were no training manuals
available for this exercise, the testing team worked methodically through the screens,
inputting data as would happen in a real life environment.
There were no back office systems involved in the pilot, therefore all data input was into the
pilot database and was retrieved through the CRM front screens accessed by Customer
Services.
3.9 Pilot Outcomes
The previously agreed measurements for success for the pilot are outlined below.
The pilot was deemed a success following the successful establishment of a Business
Premises Account, adding employee data related to the business, creating a service request
attached to the business premises and finally, creating a Single Business Account based on
two business premises joined as a single business entity.
Critical Success Primary Measures & Targets
Factor
BPA data model is A tried and tested working implementation of the
correct BPA data model within a test copy of the
Lichfield CRM system.
Sign-off of the data model after consultation
review with project team members.
Business information Document the ability of LG45 to export a data
can be shared between file of business details is created.
the Staffordshire
Partnership
The ability to capture Representatives from the Environmental Health
data to build the BPA in team should provide feedback outlining:
the required format is
achievable The ease of obtaining BPA data from the
business contact when on the phone
The effort involved in chasing applications to
gain further information to build the BPA
To create multiple The creation of an SBA with a working view of
BPAs that link together data stored at individual premises level.
to create an SBA
Restrict access to A user’s view of a record can be restricted to a
certain records within subset of available fields depending on their
the CRM role.
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Business benefits from Maintain and manage engagement and
having information communications with pilot businesses
joined together are throughout the pilot phase.
identified
Establish and document all perceived benefits
and differences to council communications
identified by the business due to having a Single
Business Account.
Search BPA data in the Search functionality on data within the BPA is
Oracle CRM complete and accurate
Provide advice on how Document the requirements on how to facilitate
to build a mechanism to a bulk load of data from back office systems into
bulk load existing data the CRM.
into the CRM
Local reporting Local authorities are able to report data from the
functionality is available BPA from the CRM as currently available
Create a service Prove that a service request can be created,
request updated and viewed.
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4 Observations and Lessons Learnt
4.1 New Discipline.
Implementing an SBA pilot is a new process for all stakeholders. As such, there is little
existing experience or guidelines to draw on. This should be borne in mind when setting
pilot objectives, timescales and budgets.
The Business Matters project deliverables include practical guidelines for other local
authorities to help share the experiences gained to date. These are recommended to other
authorities to help them shape and manage their pilot.
4.2 Learning Curve and terminology.
All stakeholders will be experiencing a relatively steep learning curve. Time allowance
should be made for this. The pilot stakeholders will not get all things right first time.
Terminology can be an issue. There was initially some confusion about the meaning of some
terms in the guidelines to the Business Description Schema v 2.3. It is recommended that
other pilots refer to the glossary of terms developed by the Business Matters project and
ensure that stakeholders are using consistent terminology and associated meanings.
4.3 Pilot specification.
Early attempts at agreeing a specification for the LDC pilot were overly ambitious. It became
necessary to scale down the objectives to stay within budget.
It is important to agree a specification that is clearly defined, achievable and manageable
within time constraints and budget constraints. The pilot may be a simple proof of concept
and will probably be limited in scope. It is important to remember that the specification for a
pilot will be very different from the specification for a full SBA implementation project.
4.4 Flexibility.
The LDC pilot agreed at an early stage that flexibility was essential. Whilst the objectives
and critical success factors were agreed and documented, significant allowance was made
to modify deliverables in the light of experience.
It was formally agreed that changes to the deliverables could be made by the project team
as knowledge grew and circumstances evolved.
4.5 Timescales.
The LDC pilot was managed within an artificial time constraint due to conditions associated
with funding. The pilot could not commence until the Business Description Schema had
been designed and agreed, which left little time before the March 31st Project completion
deadline. This meant that the time available for the active pilot process was only around six
weeks. This is insufficient to deliver a meaningful pilot.
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A more sensible pilot or proof of concept timescale would be around six months. This would
allow sufficient time for agreeing the specification, preparing process maps and ensuring
that all stakeholders are fully briefed before commencing with the live pilot phase.
It is unlikely that other pilots will be managed by a full-time project officer or service area
representatives. As such, time allowance should be made for the fact that all stakeholders
will have busy ongoing agendas and will not necessarily be able to focus on the pilot to
facilitate faster progress.
4.6 CRM supplier.
Unless the authority has decided not to integrate the SBA within the CRM environment, early
engagement with the CRM supplier’s representative is essential. As the leading CRM
vendors become more experienced in working with SBA implementations, their experience
and knowledge will become increasingly developed and useful. The LDC pilot broke new
ground in working with the Oracle CRM system and the newly designed version 2.3 of the
Business Description Schema. Some time and energy was expended exploring how this
would be addressed, with new concepts and terminology needing to be explored and
agreed.
It is probable that future pilots will not need to spend as much time reviewing the basics of
the SBA, but it is important to check that the supplier representatives are fully conversant
with the new SBA standards and the importance of adhering to them.
Enthusiastic support from the CRM vendor is invaluable
4.7 Pilot team.
The pilot will involve working in partnership with various stakeholders. It became apparent
at LDC that different stakeholders had different expectations. Managing these expectations
is important. Clear communications, clearly documented objectives and formal stage reviews
are recommended.
It is important that the pilot management team or steering group is led by a senior council
officer who has sufficient authority to take difficult decisions if needed. There were key
moments in the LDC pilot that this senior authority was drawn upon.
4.8 Stakeholders
The key stakeholders at LDC included:
LDC Strategic Director
LDC Environmental Health Service representative
LDC Customer Services representative
Staffordshire Connects ICT Department
Oracle Consulting representative
Rol solutions consultant and project manager
It is recommended that other pilots construct a similar team, following the guidelines set out
in the Business Matters deliverable, guidelines on running a pilot.
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Business Matters: Oracle/Lichfield DC SBA pilot report
An SBA pilot is a challenging mix of business and technology issues. Strong representation
is needed from the service area to understand before: ‘as is’ and after: ‘to be’’ business
processes. A good understanding of the CRM system and associated database
technologies is also essential. Good teamwork between the business and technical team
members is essential.
4.9 Project Management
The team should be led by a project manager who is experienced in a formal project
management methodology. The project manager can be an in-house resource, or external
as was the case with the LDC pilot.
4.10 Business representative involvement.
The original intention of the LDC pilot was to involve representatives from the business
community. It was hoped that they would contribute to the design of the technical
implementation as well as to the business significance of using the SBA.
Time and budget constraints prevented this. If future pilots plan to engage business
representatives, it is recommended that they be identified at an early stage in the process
and that their time availability is clarified. Moreover, a significantly longer pilot duration
would be required than with the LDC pilots in order to accommodate the inevitable difficulties
in securing supplier representative availability as needed.
4.11 Business Service Area
The LDC pilot drew heavily on the enthusiastic support of the Environmental Services
representatives. Individual officers gave their time freely and willingly.
It is probably more important to work with a service area that is positive about the need for
an SBA implementation than which services are piloted. It is recommended that future pilots
ensure the availability of an enthusiastic champion from a service area before the pilot
specification is constructed
4.12 Budget.
The LDC pilot was managed within a fixed budget. The original pilot specification led to a
cost estimate for services that significantly exceeded the budget. It was therefore necessary
to scale down the expectations. This included not deploying middleware, not interfacing with
any back end systems and not piloting any reports.
It is important to identify the key aspects of a pilot and ensure that sufficient budget is
available to address them. As with any pilot or proof of concept, it is possible to adjust
expectations downwards to meet the available budget, or increase the budget to meet
expectations depending on local circumstances.
It is particularly important to clarify with all suppliers involved which elements of the pilot will
need to be paid for. Formal quotations from suppliers are essential, specifying the cost for
deliverables, which must be clearly defined.
The LDC pilot successfully demonstrated that it is possible to configure Oracle CRM to work
with the Business Description Schema without software development. The report delivered
by Oracle Consulting should enable other authorities to repeat this exercise at significantly
lower cost than the LDC pilot.
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Business Matters: Oracle/Lichfield DC SBA pilot report
4.13 Hardware availability and technical environment.
The LDC pilot was designed to be run on the Staffordshire Connects development server.
This is a shared resource, with many competing needs from different partners. An important
early stage of the pilot was to confirm how the environment would be made available to the
pilot and how access would be given to it.
The decision to clone a new development environment was taken to make the environment
available as needed. All pilots will be faced with the challenge of a creating a development
and test environment that does not conflict with other existing programmes. The appropriate
response to this will be a local decision, but it is recommended that the pilot should not run
on the production environment.
In addition to the hardware and software environment, it is important to agree network
access to the environment. It must not be assumed that this will be readily available.
4.14 Replicability and roll out.
There was some confusion in the early stages of the LDC pilot whether the proof of concept
work was designed to lead to an SBA implementation that could be transferred to the live
production environment. This was resolved and the Oracle consulting report clarifies what
upgrades would be needed to the live environment to make this possible.
It is recommended that other pilots are explicit that pilot developments are created in an
environment that is in line with the authority’s strategy for future software configurations.
Suppliers involved in the pilot should explicitly confirm that the pilot developments can be
transferred to the production environment at no additional cost
4.15 Process Maps
The process maps for the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ processes were created by our rol consultants,
following briefings by the service area representatives.
It is important to confirm exactly what changes will be made to the business process during
the pilot phase, and what changes may be made post pilot at the time of full SBA
implementation.
Other SBA pilots will need to ensure that appropriate business analysis skills are available
either in house or externally to review the processes and document them using appropriate
tools.
4.16 Checklist
The following five stage overview may help other authorities to plan their pilot:
Stage 1 – Consult
This stage should involve the CRM vendor and other suppliers, the service area
representative and technical representation from both the authority to discuss the following
options:
The service area to pilot
The service request with which to test the business need
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Business Matters: Oracle/Lichfield DC SBA pilot report
Where to store the SBA data items
What budget there is available
Resourcing issues – time, people, financial and technical
Stage 2 – Decide
After addressing the points in the Consult stage, the team should decide, reflect and confirm.
It is important not to rush the decision making as clarity is needed in order to ensure that the
lessons learned and recommendations outlined in the previous sections are acted on
Stage 3 – Design
The decisions from the previous stage should be used to base the design of the project on.
This design will become the footprint for the implementation plan. The design should
encompass the following areas of work:
The process mapping of the service area request
Technical design, which will be completed by or accepted by the CRM vendor (if the
CRM has been identified as the best place for the storage of data.)
Stage 4 – Document
The documentation at this stage should cover the implementation plan and the project plan –
which should be developed with the understanding that the schedule is flexible and that the
dates are subject to change.
The requirements specification should be written up with a full technical design supplied by
or approved by the CRM vendor.
Stage 5 – Deliver
Develop the SBA components required into the CRM system to the requirements outlined by
the Business Description Schema together with any required updates to the user interfaces.
Ensure full testing is carried out against the process mapping ‘to-be’ stage, ensuring that the
mapping is correct. It is advisable at this stage to ensure that the data can also be extracted
from the CRM or other system in the format specified by the schema.
Following a successful pilot, the authority will be well-positioned to construct a full SBA
implementation project plan.
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