CUSTOMER FIRST PROJECTS

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Report Customer First Sub-committee 26May2006

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VIDEO CONFERENCING

1. Reason for Report

To give Members of the Customer First Sub-committee the opportunity to discuss and approve the extension of Video Conferencing facilities throughout the region.

2. Background

2.1

Emergency Centre in February 2005.

We installed a "state of the art" Video Conferencing (VC) suite in the Council

2.2

with high quality voice and video and allows up to 4 locations to join in one video conferencing session.

This is a high quality VC system allowing meeting to meeting conferencing,

2.3

between all the participants of the conference and can be used to give remote briefings.

The system allows sharing of documents, presentations or spreadsheets

2.4 The system has been in constant use by the Broadband Pathfinder project office to conduct their regular weekly meetings with our partners at Scottish Borders Council. It has also been used by senior Officers for meetings and by the Officer Green Team as an example of good practice.

2.5

extend the facilities to cover the whole region, almost all saying it would cut down dramatically the traveling officers have to do to attend meetings.

There has been much interest shown from all Directorates in the potential to

2.6

all the VC facilities across the Council, and are in the process of extending this to include other Local Authorities and our partners across Scotland.

We have produced a local Video Conferencing Directory containing details of

2.7 The Council spent f l . 7 m on travel in 2004/5 (see Appendix 1).

2.8 A great deal of time is spent by officers travelling to meetings within Dumfries and Galloway. This time is generally not productive and the cost of officer time is in addition to the cost of mileage or car hire. There will be a positive effect on the environment with less pollution from car use.

3. Proposal

3.1

(Daar Road) and Stranraer (Sun Street). These would be all of the same The proposal is to install VC suites in Annan (High Street), Kirkcudbright

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Report Customer First Sub-committee 26 May 2006

3.2 It is intended to fund the required capital spend of f46.6k from the ‘Spend to Save’ fund. As part of the Council’s Financial Efficiency Strategy, a 10% reduction in the annual travel budget has been agreed. However a further review of travel costs should be carried out to see if further savings above the 2% identified from video conferencing can be achieved. This will pay for the equipment over 29 months (see attached Appendix 2).

3.3 The project would also

0 furnish VC rooms in Kirkcudbright, Annan and Stranraer to a suitable standard to be used as dedicated VC suites.

0 promote VC use across all Directorates and ensure staff look to VC first and not opt to travel.

0 publicise the VC directory

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both the local and national one to encourage use of the facilities. There is great potential to save money travelling outside our region to meetings with other local authorities/government and it’s agencies.

3.4

Conferencing suites and Desktop Video Conferencing. They complement each other rather than compete with each other.

To be able to deliver services effectively and efficiently, we need both Video

4. Timescale

4.1 We have identified rooms in the 3 locations that are suitable for a VC suite. Dedicating a room as a VC room pays dividends, if VC equipment were placed in existing meeting rooms, then given the pressures we have on meeting rooms, they would be unavailable for VC booking.

4.2

administration property budget.

The rooms need some redecorating, but this will come out of the

4.3 The lead time on ISDN lines is 3 weeks.

4.4 The facilities would be up and running within 4 weeks of approval.

5. Future

5.1

Strategy, improving access to services by our customers. We need to look at the other facilities we have and where VC will add value, say in Customer Service Centres.

VC is an integral part of the Councils approved 2 I s t Century Government

5.2

sharing information, helping fill in forms or just general enquiries.

VC Kiosks would allow out customers to talk to the “expert” in the back office,

5.3 These kiosks would allow an element of self-service by customers. 5.4

conferencing”, using this technology to have one to one video conferencing between officers, or pulling in officers to VC meetings without them moving from their desks.

We also need to look at how we could take advantage of “desk top

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Report Customer First Sub-committee 26May2006

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6. Consultation

The Customer First Steering Group, Customer First Programme Board, Customer Services Strategy Board, Corporate Management Team, Area and Group

Management Team have all been consulted.

7. Recommendations

The Sub-committee is asked to

7.1

€46.6k and with a breakeven point of 29 months;

7.2 7.3

recommend this project is funded as a spend to save project at a cost of

receive future reports on progress; and

recommend a review of the current travel budget.

Report prepared by Keith Percival, Consultant

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tel: 01 387 260384 and Sean Barrett, Finance Officer

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tel 01387 260452

Gordon Lawson Leslie Jardine

Group Manager Policy and Improvement Tel: 01 387 260390

Date of Report: 4 May 2006

Corporate Director of Corporate Services Council Offices

English Street D u mf r i es File Ref: MG/1

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KP/MBRep002

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APPENDIX 1

Annual Travel Costs 04/05 Spend 04/05 Spend 04/05 Spenc

mileage essential usersTotal

f

E

Combined Services 386,016 200,550 586,566

Corporate Services 130,263 46,558 176,821

Education and Community Services 1,090,291 326,019 1,416,30E

Planning and Environment Services 1 37,998 77,641 21 5,63E

1,744,567 650,768 2,395,335 Target reduction

E

Saving

1% 17,446

2

891

Video Conferencing

3% 52 , 337

4% 69,783

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Video Gonferencing Facilities

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3 sites 46,636 46,636 872 5,657 52,293 46,636 84,864 89,721 29 Computer Equipment 172%

Annual Cost Savings

Net Present Value

17,944 22.286 Video Conferencing Facilities

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3 sites 46,636 46,636 872 5,657 52,293 46,636 104,064 109,721 20 Computes Equipment 21 0% 21,96 41,40; 47%

Scenario assumes : a 2% reduction (E36k) in depts adual mileage expenditure circa E1 .7m annually Scenario 1 Costs include a one off B O & project management charge (intern& salary costs) in first year. ScenaGo 1 breaks even in month 29 and returns annuai savings after depreciation

and nominal interest charge of E 18k.

Scenario 2 breaks evea in month 28 and returns annuai savings after depreciation and nominat interest charge of E22k.