4-page Case Study - Posted 10/5/2006

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Isle of Man Government

Isle of Man Deploys Business Management Solution, Delivers Citizen-Centric Services

The Isle of Man (IoM) is a self-governing island jurisdiction of 76,000 people located in the Irish Sea. One of the aims of the IoM Government is to offer its citizens and businesses more efficient and effective public services. Working with Microsoft® Services, the government is supporting this aim with a detailed technology roadmap based on Microsoft technologies. These include the Microsoft Dynamics™ AX business management solution, which replaces its legacy Oracle Financial system for 350 users. Despite working with a limited budget, the government has already implemented an advanced computing environment based on Microsoft Windows Server® 2003. This supports a range of new services and reduces total cost of ownership.

Situation

The Isle of Man (IoM) Government administers an island country of 76,000 people, and is situated in the Irish Sea off the coast of North-West England. It is responsible for the delivery of public services, including healthcare, education, police, fire fighting, fisheries, trade and industry services, as well as local authority responsibilities. The IoM is a self-governing British crown dependency, but is not required to follow United Kingdom government procurement rules. Its economy is based largely on international financial services, the film industry, and tourism. The government offers the same breadth of services as the U.K., but unlike many local authorities, has to continuously improve services, helping sustain growth by attracting businesses and visitors to the island.

The IoM Government employs 8,000 people. Until now, it has worked with a variety of information technologies, resulting in duplication of processes, and customer frustration. The IoM Government’s information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure has evolved in a piecemeal fashion. Until recently, it was using a mixture of Novell, Sun, and UNIX technologies, as well as early versions of Microsoft® Windows® on its desktops.

Peter Clarke, Chief Technical Officer of IoM, says: “What we had was a very fragmented application base. Every solution was a point solution, because every department of the government worked under its own authority. The only central control related to IT budgets.

“We were operating between 70 and 80 separate domains and more than 200 servers. Historically, we’ve had a fraction of a person supporting each product in terms of working hours. Managing such a disparate estate was becoming a major headache and was costing us a fortune, mainly because of the need for manual intervention if things went wrong. Despite having a vision, and political support from leading members of the IoM Government, we had to work with a limited budget.”

In 2003, the IoM Government decided to embark on the first phase of business process reengineering and to adopt a single technology environment with processes based on best practice. In parallel, it also agreed to implement a new converged voice and data network solution and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to reduce connectivity costs.

A key goal of the project was to maximise efficiency and effectiveness wherever possible across internal departments. One example of this was the government’s decision to reform its management of financial and business processes. Through a close working relationship forged with Microsoft, the broader business benefits of standardising the application environment across departments became obvious. Allan Paterson, Director of the IoM’s Information Systems Division, says: “We were previously a relatively small-scale user of Oracle Financials, with just 350-end users. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet our diverse requirements using this system.”

Solution

Any initial implementation costs for our new environment are offset completely by increased ease of use and support for our wider business aims. Allan Paterson Director Isle of Man Information Systems Division

In a major procurement decision, the IoM Government decided to replace its Oracle Financials business management software with the Microsoft Dynamics™ AX business management solution.

Paterson says: “We converted from a wide range of legacy systems, and constructed a new computing environment based on 100 per cent Microsoft technologies. We plan to use Microsoft Dynamics AX to manage general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and tax and treasury functions.”

With 350-users to retrain, displacing Oracle Financials was a major business decision. Clarke says: “Any initial implementation costs for our new environment are offset completely by increased ease of use and support for our wider business aims. Every improvement we make helps us enhance service delivery for our citizens, and Microsoft understands that.”

In 2003, the IoM Government concluded its first three-year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) volume-licensing plan. Renewing that agreement highlights the expected growth in use of the proposed common infrastructure by different departments.

Working with Microsoft Services, the government is using hardware from Microsoft partner Unisys for its consolidated data centres. The environment is supported with 64-bit consolidated server farms and hot standby. By 2005, the government had standardised all its departments for e-mail messaging through Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server and Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003.

The government is already using the Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 operating system with Active Directory® directory services. It has deployed the Microsoft Windows XP® operating system on desktops, which now run the latest Microsoft Office System applications. Through the EA, the government has ensured that all its employees use a standard desktop with Group Policies.

The migration of applications to the Microsoft environment is ongoing. So far, the IoM Government has deployed 80 per cent of its common business applications to Windows Server 2003. Clarke says: “The Microsoft solution gives us a common environment that is scalable for our future needs. When we concluded the first EA, we had only 2,400 users, but now we have around 4,300, including police, fire fighters, and medical staff.”
 
Clarke emphasises that the choice of Microsoft Dynamics AX was based on functionality as much as cost. He says: “This change is cost neutral as far as the integration is concerned, but Microsoft Dynamics AX is a much better fit with the end-to-end Microsoft server and desktop environment. We are also confident that it will be much easier for staff to use and maintain.”

Benefits

The government’s ICT standardisation has delivered business benefits in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and maximisation of resources. In particular, its choice of Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a range of benefits over Oracle Financials, including single point of data entry, enhanced ease of use for reporting, greater accountability and visibility for auditing, and familiar user interface for rapid user adoption.

Civil Servants Deliver More Citizen-Centric Services to Residents

Unlike local authorities in the U.K., the IoM cannot rely on help from the British Government or Europe to drive its e-government agenda or balance its budgets. Nevertheless, the government wants to ensure the island remains an attractive place to live and do business. Standardisation on Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Dynamics AX, has maximised available resources, ensuring that citizens derive the greatest possible benefits from their ICT infrastructure and budget.

Clarke says: “Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a perfect fit for the government’s accountancy and financial requirements. It is flexible enough to automate a range of business processes, which frees resources to help deliver more citizen-centric services to residents and businesses.”

The system will also be used in other departments including health, education, and the treasury.

While the number of users on the system has grown from 2,500 to 4,300, a rise of over 76 per cent, the IT budget for supporting them has only risen by 33 per cent. Allan Paterson Director Isle of Man Information System Division

The choice to deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX was driven by a need to reduce costs and support an integrated e-government policy using an annual IT budget of £8 million (U.S.$15.1 million).

The IoM is confident the system will be cost-effective to maintain because it integrates a range of technologies, including Microsoft System Management Server 2003, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, and Active Directory.

Paterson says: “We now have a template for other regional governments to follow. If we can make our staff more efficient, they can work on higher value-added government work, which will ultimately result in better services to citizens. We call ourselves the e-island and we need to maintain that reputation for flexibility and agility.”

Good Return on Investment for IT Managers

The IoM Government’s decision to replace Oracle Financials with Microsoft AX was not initially designed to just reduce costs. However, it is confident of achieving a good return on investment from the early stages of the project. Paterson says: “The numbers told us that it would be substantially cheaper to meet our business requirements using Microsoft Dynamics AX.”

This optimism is supported by metrics on the early stages of the technology upgrade using Microsoft Windows-based technologies. Paterson says: “While the number of users on the system has grown from 2,500 to 4,300, a rise of over 76 per cent, the IT budget for supporting them has only risen by 33 per cent. Inevitably the conclusion is an ongoing saving in this area of the government’s budget.”

Foundation for Even More People-Friendly Services
The adoption of Microsoft Dynamics AX is only one step in the government’s wider agenda for delivery of electronic services to citizens and businesses. The ambitions are expressed in what the government calls its Joined Up Information for the Electronic Resident (Jupiter) programme.

Paterson says: “One of the overreaching aims of Jupiter is to provide better, more customer-focused services to the public and to the business community. We have to begin that process at the heart of our services, by ensuring that key business functions, such as financial accounting, work effectively. From there, it’s a far shorter step to providing citizen-centric, people-friendly services, right across the board.”

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft DynamicsTM is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.

For More Information

For further information about Microsoft products and services please visit www.microsoft.com/uk
 or call 0870 60 10 100*

For hearing impaired customers with a Minicom contact: 0870 50 30 400*
*Lines are open 8am-6pm Monday to Friday. Please note Numbers prefixed 0870 will be charged at national call rates. For details of national call rate charges please contact your telecoms

For more information about Unisys products and services, visit the Web site at:
http://www.unisys.com/

For more information about Isle of Man Government products and services, visit the Web site at:
http://www.gov.im/

For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Active Directory, Windows, the Windows logo, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.