NDL In the News

Swindon Borough Council's digital-first response to an unprecedented 2000% increase in Free School Meals Applications features in Virgin Media Businesses 'Transforming the UK economy' 2021 Report.

A digital workforce at the local authority comprising of more than 40 robots operats around the clock to complete the work and the process enabled the team to deep clean data, significantly improving quality and accuracy.

The local authority shares valuable transformation lessons from its first few months of using robotic process automation. The council made its move to using RPA during a time of significant change, and so far, has made good progress in meeting its ambitions.

Read more about how finding the right combinations of humans, robots and AI delivers a big step forwards for digital transformation.

Warwickshire County Council has received a national award for its suite of mobile apps, recognising the widespread achievements digital technology has helped to facilitate across many departments.

The best examples of digital transformation in the public sector and NHS are being celebrated as the NDL Community Awards 2020 winners are unveiled.

In recognition of their work, the Emerging Technologies team at Swindon Borough Council received the NDL Changing Lives Award at the software organisation's annual community awards ceremony. They won a trophy and a £500 charity donation from the firm, and council leader David Renard and chief executive Susie Kemp chose Swindon Food Collective to further support families in the region.

Swindon Borough Council has employed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to improve processing efficiency, enhance the safeguarding of citizen data and manage high application volumes as part of its Free School Meals programme, resulting in a 66% reduction in application turnaround time for parents and carers. 

NDL Software Ltd, a specialist provider of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Integration software tools are delighted to announce their expansion into the New Zealand market. NDL bring over 35 years of IT expertise in a variety of public sector, health and corporate industries.

NDL Software Ltd, a specialist provider of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Integration software tools are delighted to announce their expansion into the New Zealand market. NDL bring over 35 years of IT expertise in a variety of public sector, health and corporate industries and are looking to work with similar clients and partners across New Zealand. The market for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in New Zealand is forecast to rise exponentially over the next three years. NDL has long-established proven experience in RPA, working with many of the back-office systems that are being used by Health and Public Administration organisations in New Zealand today.

Robotic software has saved a cash-strapped council more than £1m and freed up hundreds of staff days as human jobs are carried out by machines, it can today be revealed. Newcastle City Council has freed up 574 staff days and saved a ‘non-cashable’ £151,000 per year due to an investment in the state-of-the-art technology.

Staff culture is still the most common reason for mobile working projects failing in the public sector, according to a new report on mobile working. The survey of over 200 respondents from local government and NHS explored people’s thoughts and experiences with regard to mobile working.

A number of local authorities are successfully responding to cuts in funding through implementing mobile working for their field-based staff. Teams such as highways, planning, repairs and refuse collections are achieving significant time efficiencies while also reducing costs through effective app-based mobile access to key back-office systems.

Report highlights a lack of integration of CRM and e-forms with back office systems
Local authorities are still rekeying a lot of information and wasting about 2 million man hours a year, according to a survey of 250 around the UK. The National Digital Report by software company NDL, says that councils are not going all the way with digital transformations or obtaining the potential savings.

Local authorities are wasting two million man hours per year by re-keying data they receive either through online services or CRM, according to research by NDL. The National Digital Report surveyed 250 authorities across England, Scotland and Wales to determine how technology is being used to support the digital transition of local authorities.

The vast majority of councils’ digital self serve systems are window dressing, with citizens paying for staff to rekey data they have already provided online, according to a new report. A survey of local authority staff by supplier NDL software found that 44% of councils pay staff to rekey more than half the data entered in systems dubbed “self serve”. It said that the issue is costing councils an average of £100,000 a year. Declan Grogan, managing director of NDL Software, said: “Sadly the vast majority of organisations have only implemented in sparsely selected areas and most are papering over the cracks by using manual labour to present allegedly end-to-end ‘digital services’.

Local authorities are ‘wasting’ two million man hours every year due to the hidden costs of delivering digital services, a new report is warning. The annual National Digital Report from NDL found that the delivery of online services is still ‘slow and inefficient’ with many councils still re-keying data they receive through online services or via CRM systems. The report also showed 50% of local authorities are re-keying more than half the data they receive via e-forms at a cost of £14m a year. It predicts that this could increase to £45m a year due to councils being only one third along the route to channel shift.

 

Around two million man-hours are being wasted every year through council staff manually keying in data from online services, according to a new survey. The National Digital Report by software company NDL shows that half of local authorities are having to input the data they receive from electronic forms by hand, wasting around £14m a year.

 

Given an ageing population, budget constraints and higher citizen expectations, the move towards self-directed and personalised care - at the point of need, at any time and anywhere - is radically changing the way care services are commissioned and provided. Our experience is that this personalised and co-ordinated care can be enabled by technology in many ways and places - whether at home, in community centres or in the workplace - allowing cities and health organisations to continue to innovate with shrinking budgets.

Norwich City Council says that data integration associated with a new text alert service has saved £50,000 on staff time to align data across departments. The council has rolled out text alerts across a range of service areas, beginning with local election reminders, information about the council’s switch and save energy scheme and promotion of individual electoral registration.

IT company NDL, which specialises in providing the public sector with software which helps integrate IT systems and mobilise workforces, has launched a free-to-use App Showcase, designed to allow customers to rapidly implement mobile working projects and to dramatically improve end user adoption.

Large proportion of e-form data is re-keyed, defeating the point of electronic forms
Councils want a big switch to web services to save money and better serve citizens, but a lack of IT integration is causing them "serious concern", according to research.

With councils facing further funding cuts, software house NDL has revealed that three-quarters of councils now view increasing the amount of transactions done online as the "main focus" for maintaining or improving service delivery.

Figures released this summer show councils face up to a 16% reduction in funding from central Government in 2015/16 and an on-going freeze in council tax, research carried out by software house NDL has revealed that three quarters of councils now view increasing the amount of transactions done online as the ‘main focus’ for maintaining or improving service delivery.

Councils aim for dramatic switch to web to provide services to citizen
With figures released this summer showing councils face up to a 16% reduction in funding from central Government in 2015/16* and an on-going freeze in council tax, research carried out by specialist software house NDL has revealed that three quarters of councils now view increasing the amount of transactions done online as the ‘main focus’ for maintaining or improving service delivery.

With the Information Commissioner’s Office saying recently that 47% of UK adults already use a personal device for work and Gartner predicting that by 2016 50% of all apps will be hybrid across operating systems in order to accommodate BYOD, it’s vital that public sector bodies consider what apps need to do both now, and in the future, in order to ensure a sound investment of precious resources.