English Partnerships - General Other - The e-Business System

Date: 09 Jan 2002

An IT-based legal instructions system has resulted in major cost and time savings for a government organisation. The e-business system has been implemented by English Partnerships - the national catalyst for regeneration and development - which issues between 50 and 100 instructions per week to its panel of four legal firms.

Judith Roberts, Head of Legal Services for English Partnerships, estimates that the organisation has seen cost savings in the region of 15 per cent during the six-month period that the system has been operating, as well as a range of other benefits.

"With such a large number of instructions being issued each week, it was very difficult for our small in-house team to effectively monitor the quality and level of instructions being given to our legal consultants. Now all instructions are issued via the e-business system and this means we can monitor more effectively where the work is being sent, how efficiently it is being carried out and whether we are achieving best value from our consultants and this has certainly led to cost savings."

She adds: "In return our legal consultants get a comprehensive instruction, because the web-based system requires that mandatory data is included. It also allows us to monitor work loads, so we can distribute our business more evenly between our consultants and this also allows them to operate a quicker, more effective service."

As a further benefit, English Partnerships will be able to access information directly from its consultants - Pinsent Curtis Biddle, Denton Wilde Sapte, Eversheds and Forshaws - including billing details and progress of work. Being able to check costs will mean that the in-house legal team spends less time on monitoring and control of billing.

Roberts continues: "The operation is very transparent and all of our consultants have been happy to work with us in the development of the system."

In addition to streamlining the instructions procedure the system incorporates e-mail alerts to flag-up receipt of instructions, document executions and completions.

The development of the system is part of English Partnerships' strategy to increase its levels of e-business. This is in line with the government's directive that all external communications with partners and consultants of its agencies and departments should be carried out using electronic means by 2005.

The flexibility of the instructions system allows it to be used to instruct any consultants. Consequently, English Partnerships will be installing similar systems for its property, planning and engineering consultants. Ultimately this will create an integrated project management instructions system, leading to time and cost savings as well as increased efficiency.

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