Pembrokeshire Council has gone live with a shareware
customer relationship management system developed by Newham Council
and Belfast City Council.
Newham and Belfast councils are part of the Local Authority
Software Consortium, which is taking on CRM suppliers in the local
authority market with its own, much cheaper product.
The LA CRM system was developed by Newham Council and produced as a
commercial product by Belfast Council. It has already been chosen
by Leicester, Tameside and Redbridge councils.
LA CRM costs £12,000 for a site licence, with no per-seat costs,
making the package far cheaper than rival products, according to
Geoff Connell, development services manager for the ICT division at
Newham Council.
"A local authority could be charged £30,000 for a site licence to
use a similar solution [from a commercial provider], and then there
could be a £1,100 per user cost on top.
"A typical local authority implementation of a system could cost a
total of £250,000, and the amounts spent by large private companies
on systems from Oracle and Siebel can run into millions."
Connell said councils using LA CRM would first integrate it with
their land and property database, along with document imaging and
printing. They would then choose which other departments should be
added.
Authorities that have adopted the system so far have integrated, or
are in the process of integrating LA CRM with education and social
services departments.
Acknowledging that integration was the key difficulty for any CRM
package, Connell said some authorities might choose to install LA
CRM in partnership with a consultant or another CRM supplier.
"We are not trying to cut anyone out of the local authority CRM
market, if anything we are helping to grow the market," said
Connell.
Connell said local authorities installing LA CRM were expected to
share their product integration knowledge with other
councils.
Commercial CRM providers contacted by Computer Weekly would not
comment on the LA CRMpackage.