Local shared service takes building control to the cloud

Building Control Solutions (BCS), a shared service partnership between Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, West Berkshire Council and Wokingham Borough Council, has selected a new technology supplier for the provision of a cloud-based building control solution.

The partnership, which formed in 2015 to improve the authorities’ ability to compete with private sector companies for building control services, has now moved towards further innovations by awarding an IT systems contract to Tascomi.

Tascomi Building Control is a cloud-based solution comprising a fully-hosted back-office system and integrated online services portal for building control applications, inspection requests and public access reporting. This all-inclusive solution for building control is entirely cloud-based, enabling agile working for officers using any mobile device and responsive online access to BCS services for residents and businesses.

“The integrated online services portal will enable us to digitally transform the way we offer our services, reducing the administrative burden, cutting reliance on paper and, most importantly, enabling us to deliver a better and more flexible service to our customers through greater access to the information that they need,” said Roger Paine, BCS Commercial and Operations Manager.

In addition to the functionality on offer, Tascomi Building Control was selected because of its ability to maintain the integrity of multiple authorities’ data in a secure single database, mirroring the operational set-up of BCS and resulting in many potential efficiency gains:

• greater overall focus and increased access to a wider remit of shared skills
• increased investment in advanced IT systems through consolidation of resources
• adoption of best practices across the service delivery partnership
• opportunities to redesign services to better meet the needs of the customer
• improvements in service performance, for example, improved response times
• opportunities to implement new ways of working, for example, agile working

“The solution is functionally rich, but the cloud-based nature is absolutely key to enabling us to implement more agile ways of working, in line with our goals of becoming increasingly innovative and competitive,” concluded Paine.