For Carillion, delivery of high quality, continually improving services is seen as key to their future. Therefore, introducing an effective Workforce Management solution was vital to ensure they continued to meet and exceed client expectations. The system would help to ensure that all practices within the organisation are geared for sustainable success, and accountability, with readily accessible data.

The original business case detailed the requirements of the new solution.

These included:

• Coping with future changes to the organisation, procedures, and rules;
• Providing management with proven results, ensuring accountability at all levels;
• Linking to the existing Payroll and HR systems;
• Providing the company with substantial return on investment.

“As an innovative and proactive service-led organisation, we needed to work with a partner who could deliver a system that is in harmony with our aspirations,” states Neil Davies, Programme Manager at Carillion. “We believe that, with Crown Computing, we have fulfilled this requirement. “Implementing Crown’s system has provided the company with a rapid and significant return on investment. The solution allows managers to manage, and promotes a more efficient working environment for the mutual benefit of Carillion and its clients.”

		Identifying the solution

Identifying Crown as the preferred supplier required a thorough examination of the market.

“There was a full selection process,” explains Davies. “We looked at 14 suppliers at arms length, and selected 5 for greater scrutiny. We then narrowed this down to 2, for an extensive fact-based comparison. This included presentations to a cross-section of staff, from Directors through to Administrators, who put their questions to the potential suppliers in a structured, metrics-driven manner. The response from the attendees was 100% in favour of Crown.”

The new swipe-card solution went live in 2007 and has been deployed at 13 healthcare locations in total, piloted at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford. Crown demonstrated the adaptability of its solution within this rollout in many ways, including the use of 3G technology and the internet where a standard networked solution was not practical.

		Reducing the administrative burden to allow ‘managers to manage’

Implementing Open Options has significantly reduced the administrative burden, allowing managers to focus on the management of their workforce, for the mutual benefit of Carillion and their clients. “The old paper-based solution was time-consuming,” says Davies. “The key to an efficient and effective operation is the management of staff – and Crown’s system now allows us to do that.”

Davies explains: “Senior management were the main drivers behind this project. We wanted managers to manage, and have their initiatives supported by easily accessible information, and a flexible application. Open Options facilitated that. It provides for resource planning, real time monitoring, and management information.”

		Rapid return on investment

Addressing the administrative issues, as well as the overtime, absence and attrition concerns, has resulted in a significant return on investment for Carillion.

“We are getting a more rapid return on investment than estimated in the original business case,” states Davies. “The cost of deployment fell under budget, and fact-based reviews have shown that we have significantly reduced overtime - for example at the John Radcliffe hospital. There are also qualitative benefits such as the ability to readily distribute overtime fairly, and be seen to be doing so,” he adds.

		Collaborative approach

The success of the implementation is largely down to the collaborative approach between the organisations, and local client and employee representation, as well as the ongoing support from Crown. Such support will benefit the rollout of Workforce Scheduling, as well as the potential expansion throughout the group.

“Crown listened to our requirements and were very helpful and responsive,” says Davies. “I can see that their solution is adapting to future needs. In collaboration with Crown, we are constantly looking at the more innovative methods of transaction collection – widening the potential use of the application. Following the success of this implementation, we are currently investigating the potential of rolling out the system into other parts of Carillion.”