Xentrall Customer News Issue 2 / November 2011
Welcome to the second edition of the Xentrall Customer Newsletter. We hope that you find the content useful and informative. Both Stockton and Darlington Councils have been through significant change over the last couple of years and there are more challenges to come. We at Xentrall play a key role in supporting you, our customers, through your change whilst facing our own challenges which has included a restructure of all our services in the last twelve months. We continue to strive to do our best and hope that you can see from the newsletter that whilst we are now a smaller organisation, following our restructure, we are also continuously seeking to improve our service delivery.
Inside this Issue:
Focus on Recruitment
Safend update
HRonline update
Customer Survey
Academies
Contacting Xentrall
XIP Xentrall Information Point
Don’t forget! XIP is the still the best source of information on anything Xentrall related. As new developments come on-line we will be updating XIP with any new or updated forms and will be adding quick launch buttons to Agresso, HRonline and Assyst Self-Serve to the homepage. Just type XIP in your browser or follow this link: http://xip/ Page 1
Customer News
Endpoint security Your questions answered What is Safend?
Safend is software that Darlington and Stockton Borough Councils have chosen as their corporate solution for End Point Security.
What does Safend do?
Safend controls the use of USB ports on a PC/Laptop and also encrypts devices and hard drives.
Why do we need it?
The Councils have a responsibility to ensure that the transfer of information is done in a secure manner and in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements. Safend controls the extent to which information can be transferred to removable storage and also uses encryption to ensure that the information stored on the devices is protected. The Information Commissioner has powers to impose substantial fines (up to £500,000) for personal data loss and implementing controls such as Safend significantly reduces the risk of data loss as well as safeguarding our customer and business information .
What’s the Corporate Policy? The Corporate Policy is that all laptops must be encrypted and that the use of removable media (e.g. USB memory sticks) must be strictly controlled. This means that all laptops will have Safend installed together with those desktop PCs requiring the use of USB devices. Desktop PC’s that have not been identified as requiring USB devices will have the USB capability disabled. All new desktops and laptops will have Safend installed as standard. What’s the cost? The cost is shown in the table below …. Item PC Laptop
Initial Cost (cover for 3 years) £25 £50
Annual Maintenance Cost (Year 4 onwards) £3 £5
How do I get a licence?
Many PC’s and Laptops throughout both Councils are now currently running Safend so if you are currently unable to use the USB ports you won’t have a licence on the PC. If you feel you need to use the ports then you need only contact the ICT Service Desk and request a USB Risk Assessment form. It’s then a simple form to complete and send back to the ICT Service Desk remotely and give you access to the devices you have requested.
What happens to my permissions?
Don’t worry, the initial licence is attached to the PC/ Laptop, however your user credentials are placed in groups that enable access to the devices you request. So if you go to another PC/Laptop and there is an instance of Safend applied your permissions will follow you to that PC/Laptop.
I have further questions, who can I ask?
If you have further queries you can either contact the ICT Service Desk and log a call or you can email Informationsecurity@xentrall.org.uk
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Customer News
Focus on Recruitment Xentrall Recruitment Services has had a number of successes over the last 12 months. We have implemented the electronic recruitment process for Darlington Borough Council, launched a Featured Jobs page on the Stockton-on -Tees Borough Council website and aligned the back office process and all recruitment paperwork for both Councils. These are just a few of the things we have been working on. Our aim has been to provide a more efficient and less complex service to our customers.
New Structure – New Challenges Since the implementation of the new structure for HR Operational Services we have designed and implemented a new way of working within the Recruitment team. The whole team has gone through a training programme to cover the areas that were new to them.
How does it Work Now? Previously the campaign stages were dealt with by different people. Now, each member of the team provides an end to end service – starting with the initial request to advertise, through the short-listing, interview and offer stages and finally processing the new starter information to ensure they are paid. The benefits include closer working relationships between the team and the recruiting managers, a more complete knowledge of each vacancy and a quicker response to queries resulting in a more efficient process. We are also more able to cover absence – with everyone being able to work on any vacancy regardless of the stage reached. We hope our customers feel the benefit of this new of working. The team has worked hard to learn the new systems and processes. They have each gained new skills and are enjoying the challenge of providing an improved service. If you have any comments on our new way of working or would like to suggest further improvements, please give us a call. We are always looking at ways to improve the service we provide to our customers.
The HR Recruitment Team: Juliet Lawley, Christine Blenkinsopp, Carolyn Griffiths, Pam Wood, Gavin Smith, Anne Fox, Sam Hind, Louise Rooney, Joanne Vowles, Sarah Barber.
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Customer News
HRonline
Your one stop shop for HR Information
HRonline, the self-service HR portal, has now been live for a little over a year, and the roll-out is progressing well, with all Stockton users granted access. The roll-out to Darlington was unfortunately put on hold due to the massive restructure the council undertook, however, now that the three directorates are settling into their new structures we are looking to progress this as soon as possible. Initial meetings with Directors are taking place to highlight the benefits of HRonline for managers and employees, and then we will begin to issue emails inviting staff to try it for themselves. Following the successful launch of basic functionality in June 2010 we have also developed:
Appraisal ratings screen for managers to record Appraisal outcomes
Newsflash for important messages ‘Secure server’ to protect sensitive data https://hronline.xentrall.org.uk/yspages/default.asp Numerous cosmetic changes suggested by users Bug fixes identified by users The HR System Development Team: Christine Stanford, Gary Smith, Andrea Langley,
The next major development is a Sickness Absence reporting Tanya Dixon, Mandy Hill, Gloria Lawson, Sharon Crilly, Alex Whitfield, Fallon O’Brien solution that will include Return to Work and Phased Return functionality for managers to replace the current spreadsheet based process. We are always looking for suggestions for new functionality and future developments will include: Nationality and Country of Birth Training booking requests and Course Availability CRB expiry dates for staff Reviews and restructures are a fact of life for the Councils at the moment, and every change to structures needs to be reflected in the HR system before it becomes available to managers in HRonline. Unfortunately this can often take some time while we wait for the information to come in to us, but we do make the changes as swiftly as possible. We recently posted a Newsflash on HRonline asking the question ‘Do you have the correct reportees?’ If you are not aware of any restructures in your area, yet your reportees are incorrect please let us know by emailing PSESupportLine@xentrall.org.uk and we can look into it. Finally, some facts and figures:
Over 500 users regularly access HRonline on a monthly basis to view online payslips, check details of staff absence or contracts and update their details.
Since going live in June 2010, 113 people have changed their address online, 162 people have updated their marital status and 32 have made changes to their bank account details.
An amazing 576 people have updated their emergency contact details, which is one area most of us
forget to tell HR about when circumstances change. So far 689 people have opted out of receiving a paper payslip, contributing to efficiency savings as we don’t have to purchase the payslip, print them, pressure seal them, sort them, post or distribute them. Banks and building societies are happy to accept copies of payslips printed from HRonline on plain A4 paper as proof of income, which is significantly cheaper than payslip stationery. Your entire payslip history* is available to view, and a number of payslips can be printed prior to leaving if required. If you have opted out of receiving a paper payslip but you are going to be absent from work due to maternity leave we can arrange for a printed payslip to be sent out until you return if required.
*Payslip history is only held on the system back to April 2004 We welcome all comments and suggestions which can be emailed to us at PSESupportLine@xentrall.org.uk. Page 4
Customer News
ICT Service Desk In April of this year, Xentrall ICT introduced a new Service Desk team which is equipped to resolve more calls at first point of contact. The new Service Desk gives the customers a more responsive service where calls for data backup and restores, remote software installs, printer problems and other technical issues can be handled quickly, without the need to pass the call on to other teams. New tools within ICT are also improving our customer service. The SMS texting notification service has proved very useful. For example, when Blackberries had a problem in early October, we were able to alert our customers to the problem very quickly. This is something that we couldn’t have done easily in the past. Another improvement is the use of remote control software in the Service Centre, enabling us to remotely view and control customers PCs when they have issues, enabling the Service Desk to quickly get to fault or issue or provide real time assistance with advice and guidance. This improves our resolution times, and our ability to service more customers on the service desk. With around 4000 calls coming into the Service Desk every month, ICT are looking at more ways of improving our customer’s experience. One of these is Self-Service, where customers can log ICT Service Desk (1st Line): Scott Martin, Emma Thorns, Andy Boddy, calls from their desktop. This allows Steven Vaughan, Graeme Temke, Louise Kavanagh. customers to report a fault or request a service without ringing the Service Desk. The pilot for Self Service has been well received by pilot customers and a roll-out is planned in 2012. We are also implementing System Monitoring Tools that can warn ICT of potential problems. This gives ICT a head start which in some cases can prevent an issue that would mean system down time for our customers. This pro-active approach will assist us in preventing problems before they happen, and improving system availability times, which is a key performance indicator for ICT.
Printer Consolidation Update The procurement on this project is nearing completion. Canon is our preferred supplier and the project team and Canon are working together on due diligence. It is expected that with approval from both Councils, the roll-out of the new multi-function devices will commence in January. The roll-out timetable has yet to be drafted, but the complexities of office space and end-user needs has all to be factored into what will be a complex project. Further updates will be published in KYIT (SBC), the Flyer (DBC) and XIP.
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Customer News
Xentrall Annual Customer Survey 2011
We Asked
We Did You Said
As part of Xentrall continuous improvement programme, customers of Xentrall Shared Services are asked throughout the year to comment on the service received. Various methods are used for example. ICT - when a service desk call is closed an automatic email is generated and sent to the customer
asking them to rate the service. Recruitment ask managers and candidates “how it was for them” following a recruitment exercise.
This survey data provides a useful insight into the customer’s opinion and enables the service to be adapted and changed to reflect the needs of our customers. Design and Print provide the customer with a feedback form with every print job completed To complement these surveys a Xentrall wide survey was undertaken with a cross section of customers from Darlington and Stockton Borough Councils. The results of this survey helped formulate an action plan. Here is a selection of suggestions made and what we have done to improve customer service to you. We asked about
Design & Print
ICT
Transactional Finance
Transactional HR
You said
We did
Some of the requirements could be met externally at a more competitive rate
Design and Print currently outsource work externally where is it more cost effective to do so and where economies of scale mean we can save by bulk buying. All requests are channelled through Communications teams within Stockton and Darlington to ensure work is linked up and campaigns can be combined where this will produce benefits and economies.
When you send an ICT online form you don’t get an acknowledgment – and doesn’t show in your email log – concerned it gets “lost” especially so when close/open new accounts.
This problem has now been rectified with automatically generated email confirming receipt and action
Quoted 5 day fix which caused me stress but fixed in an hour – wished I had known it would be that quick as wouldn’t have panicked.
All call response times are to be reviewed in line with best practice standards. Progress e mails sent to the customer so you know what stage your “fix” is up to. The timescale given if the overall target, therefore, the call may actually be resolved before this.
Creditors – copy invoices not always easy to get Creditors could do with more info on the new procedures I get confused which Finance mailbox to use – what’s the difference between them all?
All this information has been reviewed and now available on the Xentrall Intranet XIP.
My problem is incorrect coding. I am consistently asked to identify who it should be going to and I don’t have that information
A new product code list has been produced. The reviews in both Councils have resulted in new authorisation levels. Once this work is finalised more details can be given on authorisation routes.
The paperwork is very time consuming for managers and the decision making process for advertising a vacancy should be delegated to managers
Budget constraints mean that higher levels of authorisation are required before a vacancy is advertised. All recruitment paperwork is available electronically.
Above is a snapshot of suggestions made and acted upon by you our customer. We are always keen to hear your views and suggestions. Suggestions can be made through one of the representatives on the Customer and Communications group please see http://xip/xentrallstaff/ Page 6
Customer News
Schools to Academies Xentrall Finance and HR have been very busy marketing and setting up new services to Academies over the last few months……and they are not finished yet! Academies are schools that have decided to change their status and gain independence from the local authority. This brings with it increased freedoms around curriculum and funding but also additional responsibilities especially within Finance and HR as the Academy becomes the employing organisation …….and that’s where we come in. We have two main services we provide to Academies - a finance system and payroll service - as you can see in the extracts from our marketing material below. All Academies have to have these services and are required to undertake a tendering process to acquire them. The provision of these services is very different to those provided to schools that are part of a local authority and we are competing in a commercial market against other external providers.
How can we help? Xentrall can provide you with the class leading Agresso Business World finance system under license from Unit 4. Agresso Business World is simple to use and will give you everything you need from a finance system and much more. Xentrall understands the needs of Schools and Academies as we have extensive education finance and finance system experience. We will work with you to ensure you get optimum benefit from your finance system. We will help you improve your financial management, business processes and efficiency. Xentrall will host your Agresso Business World system using Unit 4’s exciting new development ‘VITA Cloud Angel’. This uses state of the art cloud technology to provide a cost-effective, secure and easily accessible platform for your finance system that you access over the internet. Xentrall can provide a comprehensive managed payroll service to your Academy. We currently provide payroll services to over 140 Schools - Primary, Secondary and Special – and, since September 2011, 10 new Academies. We have a hardworking, committed and highly qualified team with a wealth of experience across a diverse range of employee terms and conditions. We have a readily expandable and extremely resilient multi-customer HR and Payroll system. We have a track record of delivering high performing, cost-effective payroll services.
So far we have managed to secure business with all of the Schools/Academies in Darlington who have or are working towards Academy status. In addition we have also been commissioned to provide services to Stockton, one Academy in Leeds and another in Bishop Auckland. We are now being asked to provide quotes for the provision of our services to Academies across the region. Whilst working with the Academies we are also forming new business relationships with their business partners – Avec, Lloyds Bank, Clive Owen & Co., Blackett, Hart & Pratt to name a few. We are also working on enhancing our business partnership with Unit 4, the company who provide us with Agresso Business World, and on developing a number of other potential opportunities with new, non-Academy organisations. It’s all very exciting and challenging in equal measure but is all good. Watch this space!
Business is currently secured with the following: North Shore Health Academy, Stockton Hurworth School, Darlington
Abbey Grange, Leeds Heighington & Bishopton Federation, Darlington
King James I, Bishop Auckland
Longfield, Darlington
Reid Street, Darlington
Abbey Federation, Darlington
West Park (Alderman Leach), Darlington Hummersknott, Darlington
Education Village, Darlington Branksome, Darlington
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Customer News
ICT Projects In December 2010, Tristar Homes partnered with Hartlepool Housing to became the Vela group, and took on the ownership of Stockton-On-Tees Borough Council’s housing stock. Vela brings together two prosperous registered social housing providers - Housing Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees based Tristar Homes - which together have over 17,000 homes in their portfolio. Tristar Homes is regulated by the Tenant Services Authority and has become a separate entity from the Council. Xentrall ICT was delighted to assist the new organisation with the design and implementation of their new ICT platform. For us here at Xentrall this meant a major piece of design work. Tristar needed a new separate and secure network but also needed to keep access to some SBC systems. As we were making such a huge change we saw this as the ideal time to roll-out Windows 7, Office 2010 and implement offline files. We like a challenge! The ability to work with offline files has enhanced the working experience of all at Tristar Homes. It means that a copy of the users file is stored offline, making it possible to keep working even if the network were to go down and also makes it possible for a user to go home and work on a document and when they come back the next day the document is automatically updated on the server. The preparation for new Tristar network took about a month to complete, which was a huge achievement given the size and scale of the project. Xentrall ICT staff worked around the clock to make sure everything was ready for the new network. A colossal amount of research went into this project, and some of the design principles used were leading edge. The Council’s new virtual infrastructure gave ICT the ability to make copies of live existing servers and then move to the new network without incurring any downtime to systems. The implementation was completed over a single weekend in May. A team from Xentrall ICT worked from Thursday night to the early hours of Monday morning to move 280 users from their old network and Windows XP machines, to a new network completely separate from Stockton Borough Council. This included the install Windows 7 and Office 2010 on all 280 PCs across six sites and the migration of all email users to new Tristar accounts. As you might expect; the weekend didn’t go without incident. A security guard doing a check on Tristar House at 1am on the Saturday morning thought that the ICT team had left without switching off the lights. He was more than surprised to see that the team were still beavering away at that time in the morning. Then, on the Sunday evening when deadlines were looming there was a three hour power cut that stopped all work. However, this gave the team time to grab a bite to eat and luckily the power was restored by 10pm and the work was completed on time. In the near future Tristar are to get a new phone system and Xentrall ICT will also be implementing a wireless network solution for home working, including public/guest access for remote machines. Xentrall ICT are currently running an assessment on the Tristar Homes domain to see if it will be suitable for a VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) environment. VDI will see us running Windows software from the central datacentre, instead of from a local PC. Hard drives will become a thing of the past. VDI’s simplify desktop management and reduce typical issues faced when dealing with distributed desktops, which in turn reduces support costs.
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Customer News
Did you know that in a year we……. 1,000 5 r e Answ ce desk ervi S T C I ls
Is s u 15,00 e or a 0 Em men con ploye d trac e ts
Produce 144,000 pay slips
cal
P r o c es s 130,000 invoices
Proce s 8,500 s applic job ation s
We said goodbye to: Neil Atkinson, ICT Alex Chapman, ICT Helen Dunn, HR David Jackson, ICT
Helen Carling, HR
Gary Borwell, ICT
Jordan Holmes, ICT
Lyndsey Lofthouse, Finance
Sarah Plummer & Maggie Powls, ICT
Brian Darby, ICT
Bob Holmes, ICT
Janis Pinder, ICT
Kelvin McIvor, ICT Clare Robinson, HR Lynn Robinson, HR Pat Turner, ICT Sue Wratten, ICT Pip Rayner, ICT
Diane Umpleby, ICT
Colin Ward, Mgt Team
Ged Wilson, ICT
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Customer News
DESIGN & PRINT
ICT
General Enquiries
Contacting
ICT Service Desk
01642 526284 (Ext 6284) / 526195 (Ext 6195)
From DBC 01325 388300 (Extn 2300) From SBC 01642 527890 (Extn 7890)
Design.print@xentrall.org.uk
Located at:
IThelpdesk@xentrall.org.uk
Municipal Buildings, Church Road, Stockton. TS18 1LD & Town Hall, Feethams, Darlington. DL1 5TQ
Main address: The Studios, Lingfield Point, Darlington. DL1 1RT
FINANCE Agresso Support
Car Mileage
Debtors / Collections
01642 528157
01642 528392 (Ext 8391)
01642 528385 (Ext 8385)
agressosupport@xentrall.org.uk
carmileage@xentrall.org.uk
collections@xentrall.org.uk
Banking & Income 01642 526851 (Ext 6851) / 528420 (Ext 8420) Banking.Income@xentrall.org.uk
Located at : 2nd Floor, Bayheath House, Stockton. TS18 1DF
Creditors / Payments 01642 528391 (Ext 8391) creditors@xentrall.org.uk
Postal Address: PO Box 877, Stockton on Tees. TS19 1JA
HR Payroll
Recruitment
Contracts
Central Payroll 01642 526971 (Ext 6971) Non-schools payroll 01642 528176 (Ext 8176) Schools Payroll 01642 524513 (Ext 4513)
01642 526992 (Ext 6992) recruitment@xentrall.org.uk
Non-schools contracts 01642 524515 (Ext 4515)
Recruitment Advertising email
ContractsHR@xentrall.org.uk
payroll.department@xentrall.org.uk
Absence Management 01642 526492 (Ext 6492) absence.services@xentrall.org.uk
Schools contracts 01642 524515 (Ext 4515)
recruitmentadvertising@xentrall.org.uk
ContractsHRschools@xentrall.org.uk
Located at:
Pensions
5th Floor, Bayheath House, Stockton on Tees. TS18 1DF
pension.department@xentrall.org.uk
Postal Address:
PSE Support
PO Box 891, Stockton on Tees. TS19 1JA
01642 524510 (Ext 4510)
01642 524567 (Ext 4567) psesupportline@xentrall.org.uk
DBC Customers use 15 then extension for all 01642 numbers
Feedback Thank you for reading this latest edition of our newsletter. I hope you found it interesting and informative. The newsletter has been developed with you, our customers in mind and we hope you enjoy it! However, it is important that we hear your own thoughts, so if you have any comments or suggestions to improve the newsletter please email these to the XentrallSharedServices@xentrall.org.uk mailbox for consideration
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