INVEST TO SAVE - The business case for e …INVEST TO SAVE 1. Introduction This document provides...

INOVEM Whitepaper

INVEST TO SAVE - the business case for e-Consultation November 2010

INVEST TO SAVE

1. Introduction

This document provides helpful information

the business case for e-Consultation

some of whom have been with us since

in 2003.

For organisations that require evidence of tangible cost savings we have provided an accompanying

Cost Benefit Analysis1 spreadsheet that can be used to calculate

(ROI) for your organisation. To build your

accompanying section on Cost Benefit Analysis

can also use the spreadsheet to

participant take-up rates and/or

adoption of the service across your organisation or partnership.

"All in all an excellent choice … proven through a

together to demonstrate the cost

investment in one year only, combining cash and non

As each organisation and implementation approach

absolutely what you will save. If we did, would

the costs savings are likely to apply to your organisation

the control parameters based on yo

We think you will find the review

using traditional, less automated

currently spend on consultation

responses? Are you confident that with fixed or

increase, current levels of stakeholder

If at any time, whilst developing

clarification, please feel free to contact

services really do provide you with

Regards and enjoy!

1 Electronic copies of whitepaper and spreadsheet available can be found at: http://www.inovem.com/EConsultationInvestToSave.html

INVEST TO SAVE - the business case for e-Consultation

Page 2

helpful information to organisations that need to investigate

Consultation. It has been produced with the assistance of INOVEM’s clients

with us since the launch of our e-Consultation system,


spreadsheet that can be used to calculate a projected Return On

To build your personal model it is advised that you

section on Cost Benefit Analysis below as you enter values into the spreadsheet

can also use the spreadsheet to model different ROI scenarios, for example using

an increasing number of online consultations reflecting

ervice across your organisation or partnership.

"All in all an excellent choice … proven through a business case which I put

together to demonstrate the cost- effectiveness of e-Consultation; return on

investment in one year only, combining cash and non-cash cost savings."

Community Involvement Officer, Herefordshire Council

plementation approach will be different, we are not able to tell you

If we did, would you believe us? Instead, you get to decide which

costs savings are likely to apply to your organisation and to what degree. You also

the control parameters based on your own knowledge and experience.

review exercise enlightening as the true cost of running consultations

less automated, techniques becomes clearer. Do you actually know how much you

annually? Do you record how long it takes to manually

that with fixed or shrinking budgets you will able to

stakeholder involvement? If not, you are certainly not alone!

your business case for e-Consultation, you require further

to contact INOVEM. After all, we too have to make sure

you with quantifiable benefits and value for money.

Sales & Marketing Director

[email protected]

Electronic copies of whitepaper and spreadsheet available can be found at:

http://www.inovem.com/EConsultationInvestToSave.html

Consultation

organisations that need to investigate and document

assistance of INOVEM’s clients,

Consultation system, INOVEM Consult,


Return On Investment

that you read through the

below as you enter values into the spreadsheet. You

scenarios, for example using numerous

reflecting gradual

business case which I put

; return on

Community Involvement Officer, Herefordshire Council

different, we are not able to tell you

get to decide which of

You also get to define

as the true cost of running consultations

know how much you

manually process

budgets you will able to maintain, or even

not alone!

you require further

. After all, we too have to make sure that our

John Glover Sales & Marketing Director

01488 648 478 [email protected]

INVEST TO SAVE

2. Background

The Empowerment Agenda

In July 2008 the Communities in Control

regard to the Government’s empowerment agenda

authorities, health trusts and the police

hands of local communities. By increasing the pool of active citizens

improve service development and

In April 2009 this policy became a statutory requirement.

required by law, under the ‘duty to

decisions, policies and services that may affect them or be of interest to the

accountability and transparency, local authorities are

“percentage of people who feel they can influence decisions in their locality”

also required to set growth targets, with th

Similarly, since April 2010, health trusts are

publish details of how stakeholder feedback has influenced commissioning deci

In addition to the performance measure

as Total Place and the formation of new Health & Wellbeing Boards will require local partnerships

to deliver cost efficiencies and a more joined

Looking forward, localism is a fundamental

agenda. The focus on empowerment is likely to intensify as increased community participation

central to their Big Society vision

forward will be how to effectively deal with significantly more local

diminishing resources.


Page 3

The Empowerment Agenda

Communities in Control – ‘real people, real power’ whitepaper

empowerment agenda. It clearly placed an emphasis

and the police, to pass power and control over local decisions

increasing the pool of active citizens this course of action

development and delivery as well as the regeneration of local democracy.

this policy became a statutory requirement. Councils and NHS organisations

under the ‘duty to involve’, to use appropriate methods to involve people in

decisions, policies and services that may affect them or be of interest to them. To increase

accountability and transparency, local authorities are periodically measured with regard

of people who feel they can influence decisions in their locality” (National Indicator 4) and

targets, with their local partners, as part of their Local Area Agreement.

, since April 2010, health trusts are under a ‘duty to report’ on consultation and required to

details of how stakeholder feedback has influenced commissioning decisions.

In addition to the performance measures under Local Area Agreements, Government initiatives such


efficiencies and a more joined-up approach to service delivery and consultation.

“We also want to make sure that

people are not bombarded with a

range of consultation requests. We

think that public bodies should, where

appropriate, join-up with other

organisations to engage people. We

will work with local bodies under the

‘duty to involve’ to identify ways to

streamline consultation and

engagement. Local Strategic

Partnerships (LSPs) have an important

role here.”

DCLG whitepaper, Communities in

Control - real people, real power

Looking forward, localism is a fundamental principle of the new coalition Government’s policy

focus on empowerment is likely to intensify as increased community participation

vision and the planned reforms across the NHS. The challenge going

forward will be how to effectively deal with significantly more local feedback using

Consultation

was published with

emphasis on local

control over local decisions into the

course of action aims to

local democracy.

and NHS organisations are now

to involve people in

To increase

with regard to the

(National Indicator 4) and are

Local Area Agreement.

under a ‘duty to report’ on consultation and required to

sions.

overnment initiatives such


delivery and consultation.

“We also want to make sure that

people are not bombarded with a

range of consultation requests. We

think that public bodies should, where

up with other

organisations to engage people. We

ork with local bodies under the

‘duty to involve’ to identify ways to

Partnerships (LSPs) have an important

DCLG whitepaper, Communities in

real people, real power

overnment’s policy

focus on empowerment is likely to intensify as increased community participation is

the NHS. The challenge going

using limited and


Page 4

Doing More with Less

Irrespective of the economic climate, it makes sense for all organisations to continually assess where

efficiencies can be made. Following the recent Comprehensive Spending Review it is clear that there

will be significant cuts to public sector spending at the local, regional and national level. In addition to

current workloads, service providers will need to consult on significant changes to local services

under their ‘duty to involve’ commitment. It makes sense, therefore, to use this opportunity to

thoroughly review the true cost of engagement and identify where potential savings can be made.

"e-Consultation is the mechanism by which we as a small local authority are able

to undertake meaningful, low cost consultation that is sustainable and can be used

to inform decision making by officers and members alike"

Corporate Information Officer, West Somerset Council

For anyone that has had to book a room, print large numbers of documents, fill and post envelopes,

travel to offsite meetings or manually capture comments from paper-based response forms the

business case for technology will seem pretty obvious. Certainly, traditional face-to-face and paper-

based engagement techniques are too expensive and environmentally damaging to use on a regular

basis or to scale to engage more than the ‘famous few’. We are not suggesting that technology

replaces all offline activities. To ensure a truly inclusive approach to involvement, we believe that

technology should help organisations provide a more consistent framework for engagement and

management of stakeholder commitments and consultation activities.

With consultancy and marketing budgets slashed, the procurement of an e-Consultation system

allows organisations to make better use of limited staff resources, provide greater levels of

transparency and accountability, and make new and innovative engagement channels available to

residents.

"Without a common consultation management framework in place, older contact

information and past project records were recorded in multiple formats and in a

variety of locations. Each new consultation required a great deal of manual

searching, duplicate research and time-consuming administration. We needed to

use that valuable time more efficiently for targeted consultations focused on

quality engagement."

Communications and Engagement Coordinator, NHS Oxfordshire


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3. INOVEM’s e-Consultation service.

The benefits discussed in the following sections relate specifically to the capabilities of INOVEM

products and the experiences of INOVEM’s client base. This document does not attempt to describe

in detail the functionality provided by INOVEM Consult.

In summary, INOVEM Consult provides:

• A searchable consultation database and consultation calendar providing a single location for all past, present and future consultation activities

• A configurable stakeholder database to manage and profile stakeholder interests

• A People-Finder facility to target potential stakeholders based on their interests

• Mail-merge and letter production to communicate with on- and off-line stakeholders

• Subscription methods to keep stakeholders informed by email, RSS feeds and post

• Configurable privacy options for public, private, accredited and anonymous consultations

• Easy to build questionnaires with conditional branching and the facility for stakeholders to save draft responses

• Automatically generated summary graphs

• Commenting on ‘Structured Documents’

• A tagging facility to code qualitative responses

• Discussion forums that integrate with email to stimulate timely and informed participation

• Alerts and automatic email notifications

• A Report Wizard to create, run and save and export activities and responses to tables, graphs and online mapping.

Hosted by INOVEM, or on your own servers, the service only requires users to have access to a

web browser and email client and is fully web accessible (WAI-AAA). We seamlessly apply your

corporate, partnership or campaign brand style-sheets too. Should you wish to know more, further

details can be found on our web site at: http://www.inovem.com/InovemConsult.html or alternatively

you can contact us on +44 01488 648 468.


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4. Cost Benefit Analysis calculations

To help consultation and

engagement teams to develop a

solid financial case for investment

in e-Consultation software

INOVEM has prepared, with help

from some of our clients, a Cost

Benefit Analysis spreadsheet

that can be used to quantify and model the potential cost

savings that can be made.

The information provided below explains how to use the

spreadsheet, the assumptions used and how to model different

scenario outcomes.

Control parameters – assumptions & averages

Given the variety of consultations you could be involved with it is

unlikely you will have at your disposal a detailed breakdown of every activity you undertake. To

keep modeling simple, the ‘Overview’ worksheet allows you to enter:

• Staff costs per hour - remember to include employment overheads (generally = 2 x salary).

• Total consultations per year – include all engagement activities that could be supported with online feedback mechanisms. Obviously, the more an organisation makes use of their e-Consultation service, the better the ROI will be. N.B. Although INOVEM Consult is designed to be easy to use and administer there is often a measurable relationship between the number of consultations run online and the availability of an evangelical consultation coordinator to internally promote and support the widespread use of such a service.

• Average number of participants – per consultation, large and small combined. Altering this figure will show you the cost savings as participant rates increase.

• Percentage of responses submitted online – note how the ROI improves as the percentage of online responses increases. Altering this value allows you to understand the payback for encouraging consultees to move away from less efficient methods of providing feedback.

• Average number of questions asked – as consultations will vary, use an average. Altering this value will help you to model consultations of different sizes.

• Average percentage of open-text questions – typically consultations include a mixture of quantitative check-box type questions and qualitative open-text type questions. As the latter requires significantly more staff time to capture, process and analyse it is important to identify how much of the feedback is qualitative.

• The ‘Overview’ worksheet makes it easy to review the cost savings as you enter and change the generic control parameters and the investment costs

• The ‘Detail’ worksheet allows you to model the various cost savings at every stage: � Pre-consultation � During consultation � Post-consultation � Coordinating consultation activity

• Areas shaded in PALE GREEN indicate fields that you can edit and input prompts are provided

• Comments and tips are available on most fields to help you understand the fields used and calculations made


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Investment required?

When presenting a business case for e-Consultation you will of course be asked “How much is it

going to cost?” as this needs to be included as part of the ROI. So before working out the savings

that can be made it is essential to understand the investment required. For this reason the

‘Overview’ worksheet also allows you to account for:

• First year costs:

o Hardware (if hosted internally) – not required if hosted externally as part of the service. INOVEM clients choose where our software is hosted.

o Software license (first year) – the purchase price of the software which in INOVEM’s case also includes all the basic implementation services you’ll need and the first year maintenance and unlimited support. Unlike some services, INOVEM’s license does not limit the numbers of user licenses.

o Services (first year) – any optional services not included in the first year software license, for example full application branding using client supplied web style-sheets.

• Annual costs:

o Term over which to evaluate (years) – typically 3 to 5 years.

o Software maintenance – although INOVEM provides unlimited support and all product upgrades as part of a set annual fee, this may not be the case with other vendors.

o Training budget – as you roll out the service across your organisation you may require additional training of new users. The rate used in the spreadsheet is INOVEM’s fee for on-site training.

o Consultancy budget – INOVEM’s staff are renowned for providing helpful advice as part of a support contract, at no extra cost. There may be situations however where you need to request specific project assistance.

o Optional components taken – there may be other 3rd party costs to consider, such as ESCROW contracts, Secure Socket Layer certificates, web mapping licenses etc.

o Internal ICT support – little, if any, internal ICT support is required once the system is live, especially if hosted by INOVEM.

o Staff time to attend training – useful if you need to account for internal costs

o Other support staff time – relates only to effort spent ensuring your organisation gets the most out of the available service as INOVEM Consult itself is easy to use and administer. From experience, in multi-departmental implementations, the availability of a part- or full-time consultation coordinator dramatically increases the effectiveness of an e-Consultation service. Typically, this staff member will already be budgeted for if stakeholder involvement is inherent in the culture of your organisation.


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5. Cost Savings – in detail

The ‘Detail’ worksheet is split into two main sections to allow you

to assess the savings on staff time (internal or contracted in) and items that you might normally need

to pay for, such as postage and printing.

The four stages where cost savings are assessed are:

� Pre-consultation

� During consultation

� Post-consultation

� Coordinating consultation activity

You can use the ‘% of Consultations’ field to specify which savings you feel are appropriate to

your organisation. (100% = all consultations, 20% = 1 in 5 consultations, 0% = never).

Cost Savings – Pre-consultation

There are many activities involved in preparing for, and launching, a consultation. We have

attempted to highlight those that we feel would benefit from using INOVEM software; you may think

of others.

• Collaboration on consultation content – in most cases a consultation document and question set will be prepared and peer reviewed by internal, and sometimes external, team members. INOVEM Consult helpfully allows consultation co-workers to collaborate online and work in parallel on the development of a consultation document and automatically record the revisions made. This avoids wasted time sending contributions around by email and ensures everyone involved knows what the latest version is.

• In-house publication – with the addition of an INOVEM Co-Publish license it is simple to publish print-ready consultation documents applying pre-defined corporate template styles. This powerful function can save on both staff time and external design-work costs.

• Printing costs eliminated – consultees typically need to be provided access to a sizable consultation document and a variety of supporting documents and responses forms. Irrespective of the size of the target audience the environmental and financial cost of printing is something most rational organisations would wish to avoid. The savings reflected in the worksheet relate to the staff time (internal or external) saved by not having to print documents for online participants as well as the print cost of each document. If required, for those that insist on being provided with a paper copy, it would make more sense to print on demand than to create boxes of documents that never get read.

• Letters & distribution reduced – associated with the print costs above is the need to also produce covering letters, stuff envelopes and pay for expensive postage. Printing and posting costs significantly restrict the number of stakeholders that can affordably be involved in each consultation. With INOVEM Consult’s mail-merge facility such costs are eliminated for stakeholders that have access to the web and can be communicated with electronically.


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• Reduced need for meetings – in support of consultation management the INOVEM solution includes a collaborative work environment for team members to share information and keep track of actions so the need to repeatedly meet with colleagues to review and progress the consultation project can be reduced, saving on time, travel and room hire costs.

• Ease of stakeholder profiling Using a centralised database of stakeholder interests that they themselves keep up-to-date makes it so much easier to target potential consultees. Apart from the improvement in data quality, the staff time saved in researching and identifying candidate stakeholders can be significant and there is less chance you will overlook useful contacts held in a spreadsheet on someone’s PC.

• Recruitment & advertising – the cost of recruitment and marketing for each and every consultation can be both time consuming and expensive, especially if communications are not correctly targeted. With INOVEM Consult you only need to recruit stakeholders once, after which they are automatically kept informed about individual consultations that match their registered interests. The approach, therefore, is to use your web site home page and, where possible, general communications to direct stakeholders to the ‘Get Involved’ or ‘Have Your Say’ part of your web site as an integrated and cost-effective recruitment programme.

Cost Savings - During consultation

Once launched, running an online consultation is easy. As well as managing and validating responses

INOVEM Consult keeps you informed about those involved, levels of activity and automatically

notifies you when responses get submitted.

• Reduction in data take-on (qualitative) – typing in consultee text responses can be very time consuming and potentially error prone if the response is poorly written. If participants could be encouraged to use an online form then no subsequent data capture is required. It is also easier to ensure qualitative feedback relates to a specific question, policy or issue. INOVEM Consult does of course provide facilities to capture and assign offline feedback.

• Reduction in data take-on (quantitative) – transposing offline responses to quantitative questions can be subject to mistakes but is a lot quicker than capturing text responses. The more people you can get to answer online, the less you and your staff will have to do.

• Automatic data validation – feedback mechanisms in INOVEM Consult can be configured to use pre-defined rules that automatically validate data as it is entered. For example: ensuring users can only select one option in a list; using logic gates (conditional branching) to only ask questions that are relevant; and making sure mandatory questions are answered. Error prone paper-based responses will either have to be rejected, resulting in wasted effort, or clarified which would be time-consuming for both staff and respondent. (A ‘% answers in error’ field is provided in the worksheet to allow you to specify what you might expect to have to validate manually.)


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• Information updates/reminders – due to the typical broadcast and ‘wait for response’ nature of traditional paper-based consultations it is impossible to reliably know who is taking part until they actually respond. Not only can INOVEM Consult tell you who has registered to respond, it also makes it easy to see who has their response in draft form. This makes it effortless to automatically remind participants when their responses are due and acknowledge receipt of submissions. The service also makes it easier to send out points of clarification to all those taking part which helps improve the quality of responses and avoids unnecessary mistakes being made. (A ‘frequency’ field is provided in the worksheet to allow you to model the cost of providing information updates to participants using traditional communication methods.)

"Internally, the software has helped us begin to address the obstacles we wanted

to overcome to manage consultations more efficiently and effectively and enhance

our ability to analyse stakeholder views. In particular, the capability for

stakeholders to register their details and receive automatic acknowledgement of

responses has reduced the resource required to manage a consultation.”

Consultation Coordinator, Central Government Department

Cost Savings – Post-consultation

Whether captured online or entered subsequently by hand, once feedback is stored within INOVEM

Consult it is extremely easy to manage, process, analyse and report on.

• Speed of analysis and review – another advantage over traditional paper-based systems is that INOVEM Consult provides consultation managers with, on a per question basis, instant access to lists of comments made and dynamically generated summary graphs of quantitative question responses to date. The time taken to do this manually normally prevents access to interim or summary results.

• Coding and tagging text responses – qualitative comments often contain useful ideas, issues, suggestions and anecdotal feedback. However, such text-based responses are difficult to manage, analyse and report on. Typically, analysts attempt to record and thematically code such responses via spreadsheets, which is time-consuming, cumbersome and difficult to maintain. INOVEM Consult speeds-up this operation by queuing-up text based responses so that they can be quickly classified via interactive user-defined tag-trees that allow the analytical coding structure to evolve as issues emerge.

• Responding to comments (mail merge) – in certain situations, such as obtaining feedback on specific policies under review, you may be obligated to respond to each and every comment made. With INOVEM Consult’s customisable comment forms and mail-merge facility generating and logging such correspondence only takes a couple of mouse clicks. Without automation this function would be painstaking and prone to error.

• Report creation – the benefit of capturing feedback online is that it is properly structured and immediately available to be processed by INOVEM’s powerful report writer which analysts can use to quickly tabulate, graph and geographically map feedback using custom filter, group and sort parameters. Reports can be ad-hoc or saved as templates to run again or for re-use on other consultations. Just think how much time and effort would this take if you didn’t have access to such a facility?

• Summary publication & distribution – following a consultation it is widely accepted as best practice to ‘close the circle’ by thanking those who took part and providing them with a


Page 11

copy of a summary report of feedback, findings and recommendations. Some self-assured organisations even go as far as promoting this from the outset as a “You said, we did!” promise. Such a commitment clearly has resource and cost implications for staff time, document production and distribution. With INOVEM Consult, participants can be alerted as to the availability of consultation reports when they are uploaded at no extra cost and with very little effort.

• Ease of providing and tracking evidence – even when your final summary report is published there will be situations when you will need to re-visit your analysis and individual responses, especially if challenged by management or a politically motivated outside agency. By design, INOVEM Consult maintains a persistent central storage facility for all historic submissions, communication logs and reports as well as facilities to run further ad-hoc reports. In situations where such technology is not used it would be cost prohibitive to provide evidence by manually revisiting and reprocessing consultation responses.

Cost Savings - Administration

Properly implemented, a market leading consultation system like INOVEM Consult can help

organisations deliver best practice via a systematic and consistent approach to consultation. Apart

from the previously mentioned savings that can be made on a per consultation basis, improved

coordination across an organisation or partnership will provide further benefits.

• Avoiding duplication of consultation – preventing stakeholder ‘consultation fatigue’ and

the potential for embarrassment when different departments ask similar questions within a

short period of time are two very good reasons why it makes sense to develop a joined-up

approach to consultation and engagement. With the significant cost of developing,

promoting, managing, analysing and reporting on consultation, just think of the huge savings

that could be made if you could avoid duplicated effort through better internal coordination

and awareness. In addition, cross-service consultation can also lead to a more objective

understanding of internal and external views.

• Maintenance of stakeholder database – the problem with contact databases is that they

are normally out-of-date as soon as they are created. Stakeholders change their address,

telephone numbers, organisation and interests and rarely let you know. Poor quality data

will result in wasted and badly targeted communications and getting staff to regularly check

and validate records would be costly. An extremely effective alternative would be to let

stakeholders maintain their own user profile. INOVEM Consult makes it easy for

stakeholders to edit their contact details and the topics they are interested in as and when

they want. In this way they are in control of what consultations they get told about and the

consulting organisation achieves better response rates and reduces costs.

"Currently it is not uncommon for one consultation exercise to unknowingly repeat

questions from another, sometimes to the same audience. This not only wastes

time and money for Torfaen and our partners, but also creates confusion and a

perception of poor co-ordination amongst those we have engaged with. With the

new enhanced consultation service we hope to eliminate duplication and

inefficiencies and maximise our existing resources and research information."

Citizen Participation Manager, Torfaen County Borough Council


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6. Additional benefits

The cost-saving sections outlined above relate to the direct financial benefits that can be achieved via

effective use of staff time and a reduction in unnecessary consumable costs. Using the worksheets

provided it is fairly straight-forward to model and estimate the return on the investment that can be

obtained by using INOVEM Consult as part of your engagement toolset. Whatever the financial

climate “Doing more with less” is certainly always attractive. Using technology to manage

consultations across an organisation also brings quite a few additional benefits that do not

necessarily lend themselves to direct financial returns, but are just as important when forming a

business case for e-Consultation.

Additional benefits – to your organisation

We conferred with our e-Consultation clients to get their views about other organisational benefits

and created the following summary list from their feedback:

• Makes it easier to scale levels of involvement and strengthen democracy

• Improved quality of decision making

• Increased convenience of access to information in one place

• Ensures that we meet the commitments we have made to stakeholders

• Increased improvement of (brand) reputation due to high-visibility of information, leading to

better organisational accountability

• Transparency and openness will lead to improved levels of trust

• Provides a framework for best practice across the organisation

• Allows us to develop a more integrated communications strategy

• Opportunity to make use of new multi-media tools & techniques

• In the world of Web 2.0, stakeholders will demand we exploit the potential of the Internet

• Improved environmental credentials and reduced carbon footprint

• Helps us to support the e-Government agenda

"Online consultation is allowing us to reach a new and wider audience to enhance

our offline activities. It enables us to keep thorough, well maintained records of

our engagement activities - what is being said and by whom. Importantly it allows

us to build relationships with stakeholders who might find it uncomfortable or

impractical to contribute in face-to-face meetings."

Communications and Engagement Coordinator, NHS Oxfordshire


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Additional benefits - for your stakeholders

It is important to also account for the external benefits, for your stakeholders, of deploying an e-

Consultation service. For your e-Consultation service to be successful, they must see “What’s in it

for Me”. The following arguments may help you to promote the service to your stakeholders and

increase online participation rates:

• Provides further choice of feedback mechanisms available

• Allows pre-registration of interests to receive targeted communications

• Makes it easier to keep-informed through more frequent updates

• Time & geography no longer a barrier to participation

• Respects the time stakeholders have available to help develop policies and services

• Improved coordination lowers 'stakeholder fatigue'

• Creates an environment for networking and consensus forming

• Facilitates improved two-way communications with decision makers

• Provides a permanent record of an individual’s contributions over time

• Fosters an informed, aware, active and involved citizenship

• Improves sense of community ownership

An example of a “What’s in it for Me?” promotional leaflet, distributed by an INOVEM client as

part of their ongoing recruitment programme.


Page 14

7. Invest to Save

When making your calculations it may also be worthwhile to model and document the reduced cost

of ownership you might achieve by scaling up your implementation across your organisation, shared

service or a local partnership, as this could help you establish other additional operational, financial

and cultural benefits.

We hope that having read this document, and by using the Cost Benefit Analysis spreadsheet

provided, you are in a much better position to put together your own business case for e-

Consultation. Although the way you engage with local communities and key stakeholders should not

be driven by financial calculations alone, it is comforting to know that technologies, such as INOVEM

Consult, offer significant cost savings over traditional resource hungry consultation methods. We

believe that an investment in INOVEM Consult will allow you to cost effectively involve greater

numbers of people than would otherwise be possible, empowering residents and local communities

to have their say and feel they can influence decisions about services in their locality.

INOVEM Consult in Action

If you would like to see examples of how our service is being used, you might want to look at

consultation web sites of some of our many clients:

• https://consultations.southglos.gov.uk/

• https://consult.oxfordshirepct.nhs.uk/

• http://consultation.oxford.gov.uk/

• http://consult.waveney.gov.uk/

• http://consult.herefordshire.gov.uk/ and http://pctconsult.herefordshire.gov.uk/

You will notice how, in each case above, INOVEM Consult fits seamlessly within a client’s existing

web site(s), strengthening user trust and ensuring their brand benefits to the maximum from their

involvement initiatives.

Further information with regard to INOVEM’s stakeholder

engagement solutions can be obtained by:

• visiting our web site: www.inovem.com

• emailing us at: [email protected]

• phoning us on: +44 1488 648 468

• or by writing to us at:

INOVEM Ltd

Weston Court, Newbury Road

Weston, Berkshire

RG20 8JE

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