The Scottish Borders Council is the unitary authority for the Scottish Borders, an area covering over 1,800 square miles of beautiful scenery and home to over 106,000 people. The Council is one of a number of councils throughout Scotland who have utilised CAS' well-proven IT services.

Business Issues

The Council had a proliferation of MS Access database applications in use throughout many departments. Such applications were often crucial to the smooth running of the department concerned, yet they had been developed by past employees or 3rd parties who could no longer provide support for the application. This gave the Council cause for concern since their central IT department often had no knowledge of the application area and were unable to provide the required level of support. With their IT department focussed upon support of their own legacy systems, they decided to look for an external vendor who could support a wide variety of departmental MS Access and SQL Server applications and develop small departmental systems. Support was required for a wide variety of departments - Corporate Finance, Administration, Personnel, Treasury Management, Transport and Environment to name but a few. New systems development projects were already waiting to be actioned.

CAS solution

CAS was awarded a Framework Agreement for MS Access/SQL Server Support and Development Services. SBC have recently renewed this contract for another 2 years with CAS. Under this agreement CAS provide a telephone help desk, resolution of database issues, distribution of updated software containing 'fixes' and installation of software as required. In addition, CAS develop new applications as requested, convert applications to SQL Server as well as providing full documentation and training where necessary.

Benefits

Benefits experienced include:-

  • Users of departmental systems now have support at the end of the phone to allow them to focus on their job and not on IT issues
  • For existing applications which require further development, CAS provide the additional functionality as required to satisfy business needs
  • Where there was the requirement to develop a new application to solve a business issue, CAS were available to work with the department concerned to understand their needs and deliver a timely solution.

"As an existing supplier to the Council, CAS had demonstrated their skills over a number of years in the delivery of systems development and support services to our Social Work Department. With such a proven track record, we were delighted to be able to award the 2 year contract to CAS. We have been extremely happy with both the support and development services which they have provided. They work closely with us to understand departmental needs and we have been impressed by their professional attitude in delivering systems development and support services."

Henry Thompson, Acting Head of IT