South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive implements an IDOX information management system

THE SOUTH Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) identifies the travel needs of the people of South Yorkshire and meets those needs by promoting the best possible systems of public transport within the financial and other resources available.

SYPTE therefore promotes the maximum use of public transport, encourages growth of the public transport network, funds indispensable services which are not provided on a commercial basis and plans future developments in public transport.

SYPTE is also responsible for the strategic planning of public transport in South Yorkshire, developing new products and services aimed at improving the network and, through subsidiary companies, the operation of Supertram.

The organisation owns and maintains five large public transport interchanges, four mini-interchanges, five park-and-ride sites, nine travel information centres, significant office accommodation, one light railway system and has a large involvement in the local heavy rail network.

In addition, SYPTE interfaces with facilities owned by private enterprise. All of these activities create documents and drawings, currently held on paper, and information management is a serious issue for the organisation. SYPTE deals with, and shares information and documents with, a number of third party consultants on a daily basis.

Main issues
The main issues facing SYPTE weree the management of the creation and distribution of many thousands of documents and drawings to the right personnel both inside and outside of the SYPTE organisation; management and distribution to remote sites of Building Information files containing multiple documents from multiple sources; management, distribution and authorisation of financial documents (primarily supplier invoices); storage of many thousands of hard copy customer feedback documents, particularly from a storage space point of view; management of equipment manuals containing sections from diverse sources; improve service delivery; promote electronic collaborative working and enabling the publishing of documents on the internet in a timely and cost-effective manner in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act requirements.

SYPTE came to the conclusion that the solution would be a corporate information management system that would also provide them with the ability to share information and documents across the Internet with their partners. They chose, and are in the process of implementing, the i?documentsystems Enterprise Information Management system – IDOX Software. SYPTE is only the second passenger transport executive to implement this type of system.

IDOX Software is a complete, web-based, information management solution, providing a reliable and secure integrated system of electronic document management bringing together, under central control, all types of electronic documents. These documents include including scanned documents, internally generated documents, maps and plans, forms and correspondence. People-based workflow is also available to allow staff to transfer documents around the organisation in a systematic and trackable manner.

Implementation
The first phase, implemented within the Development Department, forms the initial stage of a potential five-year corporate implementation. Document management and people-based workflow modules were initially installed, with the addition of the knowledge management module soon after to provide additional searching functionality within the system. This initial phase includes 12 core users and will be used to demonstrate the capabilities of the system to other departments.

If the pilot implementation proves to be as successful as expected, IDOX Software will be rolled out corporately in subsequent phases. Further implementation opportunities would bring on board staff and managers at all major interchange sites as well as the head office staff. To further promote operational efficiencies, some external partners such as architects, engineers and quantity surveyors, will be given access to the system. Further phases will also see the integration with existing back office systems; eCRM, Maximo and eBackoffice.

Implementation commenced in August 2003 and the system went live on 13 October 2003. Other departments are keeping a keen eye on the pilot phase with a view to achieving early implementation in their business areas. Time schedules for the next phases have not yet been determined, but SYPTE are keen to roll the system out as rapidly as possible, while ensuring that it is completely bedded in at each stage.

Key factors
The key factors in the selection of the i-documentsystems solution were the flexibility of the software to integrate and co-exist with other systems and applications; the ability of the software to handle joined-up working, allowing SYPTE to transfer documents across organisations and not just internally; the web-browser interface (and the ease with which information can be published to the web for public access) and the scalability of the software to meet SYPTE’s future requirements.

i-documentsystems is currently a leading provider of e-government solutions with local government and the rest of the public sector. Its software is presently installed within over sixty organisations.

Photo: Supertram from Centre for Independent Transport Research in London
Street Trams for London Conference, 22 September 1994. www.cilt.dial.pipex.com/paul.htm

i-documentsystems, Tontine House, 8 Gordon St, Glasgow G1 3PL. Tel: 0141 574 1907; fax: 0141 574 1901; www.i-documentsystems.com; e-mail: cathie.pringle@i-documentsystems.com

IM@T Online November 2003