A massive congratulations to the Rotherham Planning Team who scooped the prestigious RTPI Local Authority Planning Team of the year at the 2018 awards ceremony. 

The RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence are the longest running and most high-profile awards in the industry. For 40 years they have rewarded the brightest talent in the profession; the teams, projects and individuals that transform economies, environments and their communities all over the UK and internationally.

At HQ we are very proud to be providing DataSpace Live our cloud based document and case management solution as a key part of the IT systems used daily by the Rotherham Team.

The judges particularly noted “their commitment to efficient working including a paperless document management system.” We are quietly taking a little bow in the background as well.

“The planners at Rotherham Council’s dedication to improving their community through planning is outstanding – the high level of community satisfaction is a testament to this. We were blown away by their exceptional submission, especially their commitment to efficient working including a paperless document management system.”

As well as getting formal recognition from the RTPI the Rotherham Team have been leading the way in the recent Gov’t statistics which have been published to address Local Authority performance in the speed of determining planning applications ranked #1 for carrying out Non-Major Decisions as well as Joint #1 for determining Major Applications.

And it that’s not enough they are amongst the lowest cost amongst their peers. Great job Rotherham!

Helping them along their way to these impressive list of accolades and results Resolution are providing Rotherham with our Agile Suite:-

• Paperless Processing – Rotherham moved from using installed Dataspace to our online, cloud-based DataSpace Live system (DSLive). Operating a more electronic system of processing, approving and consulting on applications with our advanced tools and solutions proves more efficient in terms of saving time, space and effort as well as the cost of the paper, printing and postage involved in producing numerous copies of paper applications.

• Document Management System - The team now register all their applications and documents in Dataspace Live (DSLive), including those imported directly from the Planning Portal and those received by post or email. As electronic applications uploaded to DSLive all their applications are now stored, processed, assessed and approved in one place online using the same tools and functionality offered by the system. From DSLive application and approved documents can be shared with clients, consultees or partner authorities quickly and simply. Rotherham can also run reports on all application information within DSLive to monitor their performance.

• Remote Access - The need to work smarter and more efficiently has also seen Rotherham benefiting greatly from DSLive’s accessibility outside the office. The increasing need for council employees to hot-desk or work from home is solved by users being able to login to DSLive and access application documents and information from any location with internet access and on a range of devices. All without the need to use troublesome VPN type technology, or incurring the IT costs of facilitating it.

• Application Workflow - Rotherham also use our 'Workflow' tool which enables them to define how an application moves from one individual or group in the department's 'To do list' to the next, simply by 'signing off' when their work has been completed. They can add notes at any time letting the next person see any for-seen issues. The 'Workflow' tool is set up for each authority individually according to their needs and has enabled Rotherham to manage the progress of applications more efficiently, while ensuring QA is fully guaranteed. 

• Public Access – DSLive’s streamlined ability to redact documents and have them published in seconds, means supporting public access is a minimal overhead to the department.

• Multi-Department – The same system with other BC based agile solutions helps building control utilise the same efficiencies. With totally bespoke workflows, DSLive can help any department with their processes, QA and access.

In their use of DataSpace Live, Nigel Hancock has said “DataSpace Live has been the engine room that has enabled us to capitalise on the efficiencies of working in a paperless environment. It’s workflow presents everyone with their to-do list on a daily basis”

To chat to us about how DSLive can assist your authority contact Tony James at Tony.James@resolutiondm.co.uk or on 07976 797984.