Tameside Council gets new Legal Services IT system

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council has signed a contract to use Axxia's Local Government DNALegal Services system. Tameside is an "excellent" rated council and the only local authority in the north west to receive the top CPA rating of four stars with a judgement of "improving strongly". The council recently won the coveted “Best Achieving Council” award at the prestigious Municipal Journal Awards 2007.As the lead authority for the Government Connect project – currently a £22.5m initiative led by Tameside, DCLG and the Cabinet Office to provide a common infrastructure for secure electronic interaction between local government, central government and citizens - Tameside is at the forefront of the service transformation agenda, and its in-house Legal Services enjoy a correspondingly excellent reputation. The council’s procurement of DNA underpins its strategy of further improving the quality of its Legal Services by using a next-generation platform which can offer internal and external clients a seamless, business-orientated service, whilst supporting the service’s longstanding Lexcel accreditation.Sandra Stewart, Tameside’s Borough Solicitor commented on the decision; “The choice of Axxia’s DNA system was made after a comprehensive procurement process. We concluded that Axxia DNA was the only truly web-enabled system which met the current and future needs of my service, and Axxia as a supplier showed a real enthusiasm to work with Tameside on a partnership basis, recognizing the mutual benefits that this contract should deliver. By deploying Axxia DNA across a diverse service, including the team which provides legal services to the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, we are looking to improve the quality of our overall service and meet the business demands of our internal and external clients for electronic service delivery and comprehensive management information.”Part of the Tameside implementation will involve significant conversion of data from the Council’s existing Datix system. Once fully deployed, the 35 user DNA system will comprise case management, electronic files, time recording, KPI’s, conflict checking, workflow (including Lexcel) and legal business process management, Capella management reporting and PDF docs to create electronic case bundles. The implementation will be incremental and, over time, integration with Tameside’s existing systems is planned.