Background
Natural England champions the conservation and enhancement of the wildlife and wild places of England. Natural England’s job is to ensure that future generations can enjoy properly functioning, diverse and attractive natural environments as a major part of their quality of life.
As part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Natural England is also the Government wildlife adviser, with powers and duties to protect and enhance the natural heritage throughout England. Natural England does this by, advising, regulating, enabling and enthusing.
The Challenge
In its efforts to provide a more efficient service to its stakeholders, Natural England required a number of existing paper-based processes to be transferred to electronic delivery via the web. Two initial projects were identified for eGovernment service delivery; Protected Species Licensing and Land Purchase Grant application processing.
The projects selected involved the general public, environmental consultants and Natural England operational departments. The documents to be completed were complex and the process of submitting an application required interaction with Natural England staff. Moreover, as Natural England provides its services to a wide audience, including individuals with disabilities, web applications for both internal (staff) and external (public) use needed to be designed according to the latest accessibility guidelines and recommendations.
The Solution
After an extensive tender and vendor evaluation exercise Natural England selected Modcomp to design and build the document handling applications. Modcomp demonstrated excellent transactional web application development experience and had the knowledge to build an accessible site underpinned with workflow features.
To build mutual understanding and shared objectives, Modcomp and Natural England participated in joint team meetings and maintained open communication channels at all times. To ensure gaps between the Modcomp design and client expectations were minimised, all applications were fully prototyped to provide a full working model to be tested with all interested parties.
Jonathan Budd, Information Management Team Manager for Natural England commented, “We are confident that the application delivered by Modcomp will enable Natural England to provide a better service to our customers and meet the Government’s targets for e-Services.”
The application built by Modcomp supports Natural England’s fundamental role by improving the flow of information and the interaction between Natural England and the users of the English countryside. By making this interaction as efficient as possible, the application allows Natural England to protect the wild places of England, without unduly restricting those who want to live in, work or enjoy those places.
The project had tight deadlines, and a high profile among Natural England Stakeholders.
“We are very pleased that Modcomp delivered the project on time and to budget. The project was funded through the Treasury’s Capital Modernisation Fund and it was critical that the targets were met” said Jonathan Budd.
Conclusion
The application built by Modcomp supports Natural England’s fundamental role by improving the flow of information and the interaction between Natural England and the users of the English countryside. By making this interaction as efficient as possible, the application allows Natural England to protect the wild places of England, without unduly restricting those who want to live in, work or enjoy those places.
About Modcomp
Modcomp is a Microsoft Gold Partner which helps public and private sector organisations get the most from their IT investment by providing both the consultancy to help develop a strategy and the hands-on, day-to-day expertise to implement the strategy.
Modcomp has a proven track record of delivering reliable, scalable solutions backed by a comprehensive support service. Modcomp is known for delivering cost effective integrated web applications and document management solutions on time and on budget.