We are really pleased to be able to say the alpha phase of the open revenues and benefits project has launched.
With the project partners coming together and the funding being approved by DLUHC in December, the last piece of the jigsaw was getting our delivery partner on board, and we are really happy that Made Tech will be supporting us.
The aims of the project is a really exciting one for local government – to focus on one component of an open source Revs and Bens system (business rates), test that data can be migrated from other systems into it and that the system can be integrated into other council systems.
From our discovery project we heard how difficult it can be to move from one system to another – so we thought we would find out!
We have chosen revenues and benefits as the service area to work on because it is such an important one for local government. It’s also an example of a limited market in system options for councils, with only three options in wide use across the sector. The area of revs and bens that we will work with on this alpha is business rates.
What makes the project really interesting is that Sedgemoor is one of the partners to the bid and we have chosen their system to migrate to. Sedgemoor have for years operated their own, in-house revenues and benefits system. They are currently in the process of redesigning and redeveloping it, to make use of modern design and technology. We’ll be sharing more about the system in future posts on this blog.
Another workstream of the project will be to look at the governance model around an open source system and how a sharable, open source model might look, so even more councils could potentially adopt such a system, increasing the options available when considering the technology used to run this vital service. Our discovery phase showed that there was a lot of frustration with the technology for revs and bens, but there was a lot of nervousness about changing providers amongst service managers. By the end of this project phase, we hope we will have a real example of how this can be achieved successfully.
Our other workstream is looking at the user experience by demonstrating that the digital and interoperable features of the Sedgemoor system can lead to a better and more joined up experience for local businesses.
We have a great team of partners joining Teignbridge and Sedgemoor, with East Devon, Leeds, Brentwood and Basildon councils all involved, along with DLUHC and Made Tech. We will be sharing our progress on this blog through weeknotes and other content, so the lessons we learn can be applied by other councils.
We would love to hear from you if you are interested in our work. We have a channel in the LocalGovDigital Slack team for discussion, or you can email us using [email protected] with any questions you may have. Also, to measure interest across the sector, we would love it if you could complete this form, if you would like to know more about what we are doing.