Case Studies - Fife Council
Background
Fife, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, is Scotland’s
third largest local authority area with a resident population of just
under 360,000. Almost a third of the population live in the three principle
towns of Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, and Glenrothes.
Fife Council has an annual budget of over £580 million, and delivers
over 900 public services across Fife, through a team of 20,000 people.
Fife Council also plays a large part in the Fife Partnership which brings
together, the NHS, Constabulary, Scottish Enterprise, Communities
Scotland, and the appropriate further and higher education bodies of
Fife.
Project Requirements
Fife Council was faced with a challenge – how to proactively communicate with
parents, teachers, and residents when an emergency caused a school to be closed.
Emergency school closures were most often caused by poor weather during the
winter, and occasionally by heating or water supply failures.
The solution to the challenge lay in the in-house development of a service that would
enable the head teachers of the local schools to be able to call a dedicated phone
line, access the system securely, and, through touch-phone access, select their
school, and choose the reason for the school’s closure.
Once the head teacher hangs up the phone, the system would then automatically
send texts and emails out to registered parents and teachers of the affected school,
as well as updating the school and Council’s website, in addition to emailing local
radio and TV stations.
Project Solution
Fife Council decided to develop and deploy the new system itself, and, as text-messaging
was an integral component to the system, the Council entered a tendering
process to select a text-messaging partner for the pilot project.
Six companies responded to the tender invitation and, as a result of the scoring process
applied to the tender and the subsequent trial, TextAnywhere was awarded the
contract for the pilot system.
“We chose TextAnywhere on the simple basis that they came out top
on the scoring system. Simplicity of using the system was important to
us, and, in procuring best-value services, the cost of the text service
was critical – we liked having no setup fee, and the messages were
low-cost too,” commented Michael McMonagle, New Media Developer
with Fife Council.
The overall system was developed and deployed in a matter of months, on-time, on-spec
and on-budget.
Project Successes
Since the system has been live it has received very positive feedback, most noticeably
from parents of children affected by school closures. The text-messaging element
of the system has become the most popular means for parents to receive closure
notifications.
“The system has proved to be immensely popular with all parties involved. The text
service functions very well because a head teacher can convey the school closure
message to the parents within a minute of calling the phone line”, added Michael Mc-
Monagle. “TextAnywhere has proven to be a very capable partner, providing a robust
and reliable service over the three years that we have been running this service.”
On the back of the success of the school closure system, a second, innovative use
of SMS technology has been deployed in the past twelve months in the area of
matching available supply teachers to short-term teaching vacancies.
Previously, when a head teacher had a supply teacher need, they would ring round a
list of registered supply teachers, provided in book-form by Fife Council.
The new, fully automated, intranet-integrated system enables a head teacher to securely
login, and enter their supply teacher requirements (skills, location, and timing).
The system then sends out text messages to those supply teachers that match the
requirements, providing assignment and contact details for the vacancy.
“This second system works exceptionally well because we can match supply teachers
with head teachers in minutes, and the text system is again at the heart of the
system”, commented Michael McMonagle.
In fact the system has recently won two prestigious awards – “National eGovernment
Award 2007”, and a “Fife Council Partnership” award for best use of technology.
About TextAnywhere
TextAnywhere provides commercial and public sector organisations with text messaging services to enable the sending and receiving of SMS messages from individuals’ desktops, through online and email applications, and a developer toolkit.
Since 2002, TextAnywhere has offered a range of text services that focus on reliability, ease of use, security, and good value, backed up by quality support, from a financially viable, profitable organisation.
TextAnywhere has over 11,400+ UK clients. Clients range from single person organisations, through academia, the health sector, and local government, to FTSE 100 companies. Our client community includes CM2000, Debenhams, Dixons, Harveys The Furniture Store, Leeds City College, Pepsico, Totton College, and Virgin Active.
TextAnywhere is a privately owned, limited company, registered in England, with company registration number 04208390, and is VAT registered with number GB 781 7907 88.
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