Capita

Capita Software Services

Of all the elements that make up the current UK Government's modernizing agenda, the drive to apply state-of-the-art information technology to the business of local councils has been arguably among the most successful.

Britain's nearly 400 local authorities - responsible for the delivery of a range of services from housing and street lighting to schools and emergency planning - were given a challenge to make their entire menu available electronically by 2005.

While many councils had already been exploring ways in which Information Communication Technology (ICT) could enable them to work smarter and more efficiently, the deadline not only brought urgency and focus but also a sea-change in both the way councils interacted with citizens and the way in which they worked internally.

Although even the smallest local authorities had their own IT staff on the payroll, the eGovernment agenda was so broad in scope and concept that it was inevitable (and part of central government planning for the program) that private sector companies should play a major and conspicuous role.

Software solutions developer Capita Software Services was already active in the local authority arena and therefore well-positioned to capitalize on the urgency imposed by the deadline. It was able to build rapidly on its market share with software solutions for eGovernment including revenues, benefits, payment management, and integrated housing management systems. Today, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the £1.4bn turnover Capita Group plc, it has over 500 installations in local government and housing associations.

At the center of many Capita solutions is the Ingres database and a 10 plus year business relationship that has been given yet more impetus in 2006 by the emergence of Ingres as an independent company.

Deliver on promises

Alex Cutler, technical director of Capita Software Services, commented: "We bought the Ingres database and development tools in 1994 to use in products for the local government market. It's a decision that has helped us come from fifth place in the market during 1994 to the number one supplier today, and never given us cause for regret. Our customers' number one concern is whether we can give them a reliable product or service and because we have vast experience with Ingres, and a long history of reliability and proof of production-quality, we can be confident in our ability to deliver on our promises."

Cutler is quick to assure that using Ingres - currently in service with over 180 Capita customers - is far from a better-the-devil-you-know choice for Capita. He and his colleagues have a deep respect for the fundamental elegance and strength of the product and its development environment OpenROAD. However, equal weight goes to the comparative ease with which Ingres can be managed by end-users. The eGovernment program is at root about councils providing better services for less cost and it's here Ingres helps Capita solutions deliver impressively.

"Ingres makes it easy for us to design applications that do not require dedicated system administrators to be resident on customer sites. That means we're able to show a real cost of ownership advantage," says Cutler. "From the developers' viewpoint, the combination of the Ingres database and OpenROAD is a boon. OpenROAD has an unusually short learning curve for developers, and as a dedicated database language, is a highly efficient tool for database heavy applications. The focus on the Ingres database being an excellent, powerful production quality SQL database rather than a whole operating system gives Ingres a unique clarity which our developers find very easy to pick up and write good code for."

Capita's three platforms of choice are Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris and Linux. Cutler reveals that OpenROAD makes it easier to deliver a solution for both UNIX and Windows that is totally focused on the database. It also supports fast conversion of legacy systems from any database - hierarchical, relational, object or even flat file - to Capita applications. "It's consistently given us a lead on the competition."

System administration in-house

An example of a Capita product using Ingres in what Cutler characterizes as an exemplary way is Academy Benefits. As the market-leading product in its sector and in use at many of the largest local authorities in the UK, Academy Benefits automates the calculation, distribution and administration of public fund financial help to needy citizens for rent and other essentials. It is written in OpenROAD and supports both public web-access, and middle-tier transactions to CRM systems, as well as a highly comprehensive business application that enables councils to speed the delivery of services. Ingres has enabled Capita to build system administration entirely into the application itself, allowing non-technical council staff to take direct control of their process.

Another Academy solution was the choice of Elmbridge Borough Council in England. The council was facing a forced replacement of the system it used to handle the administration and collection of local taxes from some 55,000 homes and businesses. In a double blow, the legacy software vendor had signaled that it would not upgrade the solution to meet incoming legislation and the supplier of the ageing VME hardware had similarly given notice of a withdrawal of support. As if that was not enough to contend with, the council also realized that it was falling behind the timetable for implementing eGovernment projects.

With the deployment of Academy software solutions and an extensive range of Capita services including project management, data migration and end-user training and support, Elmbridge Borough Council has reduced operational costs, simplified its support arrangements and has accelerated its achievement of eGovernment projects.

Data migration

Capita Software Services installed the Academy suite on a new SUN V440 Solaris system, integrating it with the council's finance systems. There then began an extensive data mapping exercise, transferring live mid-year and historical data to the new Ingres database using openROAD.

By January 2005 the new software was fully operational thanks to the high quality data conversion. It didn't take long for the users to fully appreciate the power and ease of use of Windows-based applications.

Reporting proved a major contrast, ending the cumbersome batch processing of the VME system and constant IT staff involvement. The Academy Decision Support system enables users to define and print new reports on demand.

The speed of system response has been greatly improved too. Many processes that previously had to be run overnight can now be run during the day. Year-end processing takes less than two days, compared to a week previously. The new system costs significantly less than the old, and work to meet eGovernment targets is now back on track.

Ingres as an independent

The emergence of Ingres as an independent, dedicated company jointly owned by CA Inc and Garnett & Helfrich Capital after years as a product in the CA portfolio gave Capita every reason to pause for thought. Capita's investment in Ingres as a product was extensive and strategic, with the database embedded in multiple applications and in service at nearly 200 customers.

"We were not unhappy with things before the spin-off - the product was good and our relationship with CA was strong. And so we did take a hard look," agrees Cutler. The conclusion of the review was not just to confirm the strategic role of Ingres in Capita solutions, but to extend it with the signing of a five-year agreement covering deployed versions of the database and its supporting tools, as well as the new version of the Ingres 2006 database.

Cutler approves of the declared intention of Ingres to combine the dynamism and flexibility of a start up business with the technical and intellectual strengths of a highly developed product. Capita has found that the new flexibility Ingres has brought to the relationship - such as agreeing to five-year licensing terms - provides a better fit for many of Capita's local government customers.

"We have a good relationship with Ingres as a product and we think the changes are looking positive," comments Cutler. "It remains a strategic element of our offering and we're looking forward to seeing the user base grow as Ingres puts more focused marketing muscle behind its products. That's obviously going to benefit Ingres, but it will also benefit organizations like Capita and its customers."