5.1  The scope of core business systems can be represented in various categories.

Our systems can be put into three groups:

• Those which are essentially public-facing.
• Those which are internal but shared at a corporate level.
• Those which operate at a directorate or service specific level.

The diagram in Appendix A shows the breadth and volume of systems being used daily in CYPS. This emphasises CYPS dependency on ICT to achieve its business objectives, and the role of Capita EMS as the core directorate system.

Systems and applications which are primarily public-facing will mainly be dealt with through the corporate strategy. However there are a number of applications which cross between public use and internal use, such as content management, which is used internally to generate the
public-facing web site. The main areas which cover public and internal use are the customer relationship management or contact management systems. These may be used by members of the public to track their own requests as well as by staff as a tool to manage responses.

Shared corporate systems have conventionally been used in areas such as finance and workforce management and for providing basic office tools such as mail, diaries and word processing.

5.2 As the understanding of business processes improves we should be able to identify more shared features between the processes underlying specialist tasks. The needs of specialist operations should be met with shared solutions, if this can be done without too much loss of function for operational systems. This means that we must make a rigorous effort to identify common ground between services and see past the superficial differences.

5.3 Specialist systems will continue to be a significant part of the ICT platform. While many tasks will be supported by generic products, growing sophistication in specialist tools and an increasing demand for specific performance indicators will mean that specialist software will still be needed in some areas. It will be necessary to review all our applications and systems and a mapping of significant systems, and systems planned or in development, is needed.

5.4 This process will allow three further tasks to be done:

• Identify major gaps and decide whether these should be filled and how.
• Identify common areas between applications and planned developments to be able to consider where there may be scope to rationalise or integrate.
• Identify key stakeholders and owners (present and future) and make sure that appropriate governance arrangements are in place.