Parity customer scoops Government award
for new online service
~ record customer numbers seal national accolade for Charity Commission ~
January 23, 2009
Parity’s project with the Charity Commission has won top prize at the 2009 e-Government National Awards. The success of the new online returns programme saw the Charity Commission win the award for ‘Central e-Government excellence: Take-up and usage growth’ as the number of charities using the service smashed all targets. With 17,000 charities initially expected to use the portal, recent figures show that in fact over 106,000 have used the site.
Supported by the Prime Minister, the awards are designed to recognise organisations that are using new and innovative technologies to deliver better public services and are widely recognised as the highest level of commendation for technology-driven services in the UK public sector.
The Charity Commission’s accolade was awarded for a project implemented by Parity, a provider of IT and business solutions. The project involved building a portal that would allow the charities to submit returns online, rather than via paper-based documents.
By replacing a system that was inefficient, costly and a drain on resources, Parity has enabled the Charity Commission to make annual savings of over £430,000. With submissions now made online, the new system reduces the administrative burden for hard pressed charities and estimated savings are the equivalent of 18,000 man hours in administration each year. It has also reduced the cost of transactions to just one tenth of the original amount - where a paper form cost £4 to process, an online transaction now costs just 40p.
“We are thrilled the Charity Commission won this award,” said Simon Wayne, managing director at Parity Solutions. “The organisation is embracing the digital age by using technology to improve service levels and lowering operational costs. These awards are a testament to the company’s vision, and its commitment to improving customer experience.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown supported the ceremony and sent messages of congratulations to the winners.
"When times are tough, as they are now, it is more important than ever for government to work as smoothly and efficiently as possible, so it's good to see technology providing real efficiency gains at the same time as increasing the effectiveness of services,” he said.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Parity
Parity is a business and IT solutions company. With over 40 years' industry experience, it delivers a range of recruitment, learning and business and IT solutions that contribute to the growth and organisational performance of private and public sector clients.
Parity has deep industry knowledge and expertise across a variety of sectors including commercial, central and local government, defence and commercial. It delivers people, skills and concepts for IT projects and programmes and has provided these services to a range of blue-chip clients, including BT, Ofgem, HBOS, The Cabinet Office, BAT and The Charity Commission.
The company operates as three divisions, Solutions, Resources and Training, all of which use people to solve business and IT issues. Parity designed and runs the largest graduate recruitment programme in the UK for The Cabinet Office, is responsible for creating the UK’s award winning eGovernment portal, eFire, ranks as the top supplier of IT and Programme and Project Management specialist contractors to the public sector through the Catalist framework and throughout its history, has delivered training to over 1 million people - more people than any other UK IT training provider
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Parity recorded a turnover of over £150m in 2007.
http://www.parity.net/
For further press information, please contact:
Louise Waller or Suzy Ferguson at LEWIS
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7802 2626
Email: Louisew/ suzyf@lewispr.com
Web: http://www.lewispr.com/
Caroline Overholt at Parity
Email: c.overholt@parity.net
Tel: +44 (0) 845 873 6942