Challenge

Producing, publishing and distributing committee documents had proved to be a time-consuming operation for The City of Lincoln Council.

The council needed help to streamline the way it carried out this work, while making access easier for councillors and customers.

Solution

Thanks to The Meeting Factory, hours of admin have been sliced away and The City of Lincoln Council’s committee information is now consistent and available quickly and easily.

And with this pioneering solution live on the council’s website http://tmf.lincoln.gov.uk it’s clear for all to see the big difference it’s making.

These impressive results are attracting attention from other local authorities. North Lincolnshire Council have already signed up and others are expected to follow suit soon.

The Meeting Factory is an agenda and meeting management system created by e-government specialists A Recipe for Success in partnership with The City of Lincoln Council and Colchester Borough Council. The team has an in-depth understanding of how the democratic process works and has used this knowledge to create a bespoke system that’s flexible enough to fit the varying needs of local government.

When meeting information is published, The Meeting Factory creates a PDF version of the agenda front sheet and merges all of the meeting documents into a PDF print pack with automatic page numbering, headers and watermarks. This provides a far more efficient way of working.

If the agenda is altered an updated front sheet and print pack is automatically generated, saving hours of work. Agendas and minutes can then be published to your web and intranet sites at the touch of a button, ensuring consistency.

As this innovative solution is web-based, users can access it from any computer, making it ideal if teams hot desk or are split between several locations.

With its user-friendly interface, it is suitable for use by someone with basic PC skills; no technical knowledge is required.

Results

The Meeting Factory made a dramatic difference to the City of Lincoln Council from day one.

Senior Business Analyst Lashelle Reed explained: “It has saved us time in a whole number of ways, from no longer having to manually number pages to automatically converting documents to PDF.

“Before we weren’t making it easy for our customers to get the information they wanted. However, with The Meeting Factory, we just don’t have to worry any more as the system pulls everything together in a PDF print pack and it is so much easier to make changes. It allows us to offer a more open and accessible service.”

Previously two teams played a part in collating committee documents, manually formatting and numbering pages. Last minute changes meant the document had to be manually renumbered throughout. Each document was turned into a PDF and loaded onto the website and the intranet separately.

“The one touch technology is a real dream as it cuts the final step in half. And admin staff who used to manually work on committee documents can spend their time on other tasks, which has resulted in real savings.”

Feedback has been really positive, with the benefits clear for all to see. Lashelle explained: “Our Scrutiny Officer, for example, is a huge fan of The Meeting Factory as she refers back to agendas a lot. It has saved her so much time finding the information she needs to do her job.

“Usually when you put new technology in place, if you want to change something the answer is no – that certainly wasn’t the case here. Instead The Meeting Factory team found out what we needed and worked around it. I can’t praise them enough for their flexible, responsive approach and dedication to deliver something that brings real savings.”

Steve Swain, Democratic Support Manager explained just some of the savings the system will bring: “The process doesn’t involve as many staff and as everything is now web-based we will also use far less paper and ink printing draft and final agendas. This will bring real savings over the course of a year. We also expect we will now get far fewer queries from people trying to find agendas as these are now clearly available on the internet and intranet.”