Local Authorities Choose Civica to Modernise Legal Services

Company Secures New Contracts with Metropolitan, County and District Councils

8th September 2003. Civica, one of the UK's most experienced specialist providers of public sector software and services, has continued to demonstrate new business success with local authorities, with recent contract awards for its Galaxy Premier case management solution at West Sussex County Council, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Thurrock Council and Horsham District Council.

• West Sussex County Council - the UK's tenth largest authority (by population) and one of the largest to be rated 'Excellent' in recent Comprehensive Performance Assessments - has awarded Civica a contract worth more than £200,000 for its Galaxy range of software. Initially, the Council will deploy Galaxy for all legal teams to provide case management and integrated time recording and billing for 75 users. Initially, a number of case modules including Child Care and Debt Recovery will be implemented, with further modules being developed by users. Civica is producing a new Insurance and Risk Management module, which will see over 300,000 existing records transferred from the Council's current system. Vivian McPhee, Head of Legal Services, West Sussex County Council, said, " Civica offered us the best solution to achieving a consistent approach and maintenance of a central system, to help us improve service delivery and management information."
  
  
• Thurrock Council, responsible for a region that is home to one of Europe's largest retail attractions at the Lakeside Shopping Centre, has selected Galaxy for time recording and billing, following the testament of users at the nearby London Borough of Bexley. Thurrock will use Civica's Fee Earner Desk Top as part of a reorganisation programme in the legal services department.
  
  
• Existing customer Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council has upgraded to the Galaxy system to provide efficient time recording and comprehensive case management for its 30 users. Sandwell currently uses case management for activities such as Right to Buy, Housing Possession Actions, Traffic Regulation Orders, Closing and Demolition orders and Compulsory Purchase orders.
  
  
• Horsham District Council has gone live with Civica's latest release running on Windows XP, helping the authority to meet tight timescales. Another authority to achieve an 'Excellent' CPA rating, Horsham chose Galaxy to achieve increased recovery rates and improved reporting. Modules include case management, debt recovery, time recording and billing, in particular to manage case types for Planning, Litigation, Property and Conveyancing.
  
  

Simon Parkes, Enforcement managing director at Civica said, "Civica is committed to helping customers modernise their day-to-day processes. Streamlining activities from time recording and cost management to 'any time, any place' data access is helping authorities achieve best use of their resources. These recent successes underscore our ability to deliver effective modern solutions, complemented by a broadening range of services."

Civica's Galaxy Premier is a comprehensive, functionally rich and easy to use time recording, billing and case management system designed to deliver responsiveness and efficiency to legal teams faced with a growing workload. Providing staff with easy access to information and automating both case tasks and repetitive administration and accounting processes, the Windows application contributes to improved service levels and increased productivity. As a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner and a Rapid Adoption Partner for Windows Server 2003, Civica also has a particular pedigree in the design and delivery of modern infrastructure.