SSLPost Attend Socitm event and prove popular with delegates.
October 11th 2009:
SSLPost, one of the UK’s leading providers of secure electronic document delivery software, attended this year’s Socitm event held at the Edinburgh’s EICC as first time delegates and found the event highly rewarding. Socitm is an annual event that brings together the IT managers from all of the UK councils. The main objective is to help councils leverage the value of IT and Software to help reduce costs, deliver more business value and service the local community.
It quickly became clear that SSLPost are ideally placed to provide a solution to the many problems posed at the event.
Paul Evans, Sales Manager for SSLPost made this observation:
"This year the main topic of discussion was the need to prepare for the inevitable budget reductions, which could be from 10% to 30% based upon feedback from various council leaders. Councils and IT Managers are looking at every possible way to deliver ‘more for less’ and to leverage the value that the new software and IT services can provide.
When I got talking to various delegates there was clearly an appetite to talk to us further about what we could offer. This is a challenging but exciting time for all of us. However, I think we should view this as an opportunity to revolutionise processes within public sector organisations."
SSLPost has already been working with Barnsley Borough Council to significantly reduce their paper output and, therefore, their costs.
This was highlighted by David Robinson, Assistant Head of Shared Services:
"SSLPost has streamlined our document delivery process and we are now seeing significant operational benefits and cost savings. We have run a very successful pilot and now look forward to rolling out this initiative across the whole organisation and, therefore, achieving huge savings as a result."
Many of the sessions highlighted the need to leverage new technologies such as "Cloud Computing" and also to move away from costly practices such as the prolific use of paper and post for communication within the councils and also with their customers.
SSLPost’s software, protected by a European patent, provides a full audit trail with no requirement for software to be installed by recipients. The solution conforms to FSA compliance best practice recommendations and is significantly cheaper than sending traditional postal documents and has no upfront costs. Therefore, organisations are able to get the solution installed without completing an "invest to save" bid.
SSLPost are very conscious of the requirements for councils to ensure inclusivity, so have already negotiated, as part of their solution, an opt-out service where customers can continue to receive paper format if required. However, recent trials with their clients show that the majority of customers and employees see the benefits of electronic communications and opt to receive their documents electronically from SSLPost whenever possible.
The area of "GreenIT" was another topic of discussion. Many councils explained how forthcoming "Carbon Reduction Targets" will be imposed from central government. Clearly, the SSLPost solution will help them meet these carbon reduction targets. If councils significantly reduce the amount of paper, print cartridges, envelopes and stamps they use plus they reduce their dependence on the postal service for delivery then all of these savings can be set against their carbon emissions targets.
To understand how you can take advantage of the many benefits offered by SSLPost then please contact us on: 08456 425 425 or email info@sslpost.com.