Designing A New System For The Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer

Background

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) required a bespoke system for the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer (QLTR).

The QLTR is part of the COPFS in Scotland and is concerned with Crown dues.  If someone dies intestate and there are no known living relatives, their estate goes to the Crown and the QLTR administers that estate.  The QLTR also has a key role over Treasure Trove - lost and abandoned property, the owners of which cannot be traced, belongs to the Crown.  It is the responsibility of the QLTR to ensure valuable finds are recorded and preserved for posterity.

To perform their role, the QLTR used a basic contact database system along with a number of individual spreadsheets to record data and a considerable number of their current processes were paper-based.  Whilst this arrangement provided most of the required information, the processes promoted double entry and the QLTR team sought a more efficient, responsive system'

Solution

To combat the problem with the QLTR's existing system, COPFS employed Sopra Group to design and implement a fully integrated and robust information management system that caters for all their business processes and requirements.

With a wealth of experience in the design, build, testing and implementation of business critical software systems, Sopra Group delivered a solution with a user-friendly intranet application, modelled on the look and feel of Microsoft Outlook.

This familiar and intuitive interface helped ensure that time required for user acceptance and understanding was minimised.  In addition, by utilising a code generator tool, exclusive to Sopra Group, the system building and testing time was also minimised.

Using Microsoft .NET technology, the system allows cases to be prioritised in order of importance and the Mail Merge component gives system users the ability to create and edit their own bespoke letter templates.  Functionality was included so that user names, dates and times are now recorded against updates of records so that a full audit trail of amendments can be provided if necessary.

User training together with a general user and administrator guide was also provided by Sopra Group.

Benefits

The new system offers the necessary reporting and performance management functionality and has the flexibility to allow it to be modified and updated so as to comply with future change requirements such as those necessitated by new legislation.

By providing a consolidated approach to data storage and retention the system enables efficient extraction and monitoring of data for government and local purposes.  Duplication of entry is avoided and operational staff now have more effective information in a format that is simple to navigate.

Catriona Ogg, QLTR Administrator, comments "The system delivered by Sopra Group is extremely user friendly and has made life, for us in the QLTR department, so much easier.  I have already noticed a big increase in the volume of work done in a day and it is apparent that it is the letter producing facility that has factored greatly in this.  We can produce a letter for a case in around a third of the time it used to take us.  The fact that the letters are then stored against the case record is a major benefit when dealing with enquiries.  Also the information we are able to hold on the system and the search facility means that we can deal with enquiries much more efficiently."