Essex County Council Implements Actuate’s Performancesoft Views

Key Performance Information now Available to all Staff and LAA Partners via Published Briefing Books

London, UK – February, 27th,  2007 – Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTU), the leader in Business Intelligence, Performance Management and Reporting Applications, today announced that Essex County Council has implemented Actuate Performancesoft Views (‘Views’) to support its corporate Performance Management arrangements.

Essex County Council is using Views across the breadth of its organisation, to automate the collection of strategic performance data and to make information on progress in meeting corporate and partnership objectives widely available to a range of stakeholders. In addition, department heads and district partners are leveraging Views to better understand their own performance levels and how these contribute to performance as a whole.

Essex County Council monitors its performance against a set of key targets outlined in its Corporate Plan and the Essex Local Area Agreement, agreed with partners.  In its last Comprehensive Performance Assessment, the Council was ranked four out of four stars by the Audit Commission.

“We selected Views because the product was felt to be intuitive and easy to use. We thought that our strategic requirements to implement a tightly scoped core system were understood and accounted for in the solution and there was a clear and sensible implementation plan – these factors were key differentiators for us when choosing Actuate,” said Gill Butterworth, Performance Manager, Essex County Council. “Our implementation and deployment of Views has been fast and smooth, facilitated by the excellent implementation support, and our focus now is on getting the most value from the information we hold.”

Prior to implementing Views, corporate data collection was a resource consuming task – now, data can be input directly by services as soon as it is available. “Our senior management board reviews corporate performance monthly, as will our Local Area Agreement partnership board, and Views underpins these reviews by providing the information on which we base the assessments of how we are performing,” continued Gill. “With the support of Actuate’s professional services, we were able to benefit quickly from the ability to publish headline strategic Briefing Books to our staff and LAA partners, via the intranet and email links.”

“A quality Performance Management programme, such as the one Essex County Council has established, is an important undertaking for a successful authority and we are delighted to have been selected by Essex in support of its ongoing commitment to service improvement,” said Steve Fluin, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Operations, Performance Management, Actuate.

About Essex County Council
Essex County Council was awarded four stars in December 2005 for the Comprehensive Performance Assessment and works in partnership with 12 District and Borough Councils to enhance the value of services provided to the people of Essex.  It focuses on four key priorities:

  • Ensuring Service Improvement
  • Strengthening Community Leadership
  • Enhancing Essex's Reputation
  • Guaranteeing Value for Money

With a 2006/07 Council budget of £1.9 billion the authority delivers a wide range of services including: Education, Social Care, Highways and Transportation, Waste Disposal and Libraries and was awarded Beacon Status for its integrated Children's Services in 2005/06.  In March 2006 Essex County Council signed a Local Area Agreement (LAA) which set a shared agenda for local service providers between 2006-2009.  Over fifty public organisations have come together as partners to focus on fourteen shared priorities.  The LAA draws together public money from 45 different funding streams and targets £877 million towards the issues that affect Essex most.  By combining funds and working in partnership, service providers will secure additional benefits for the County.

About Actuate Corporation
Actuate Corporation, the leader in Business Intelligence, Performance Management and Reporting Applications, enables organisations to develop solutions that optimise corporate performance. Applications built on Actuate’s open source-based platform provide all stakeholders inside and outside the firewall, including employees, customers, partners and citizens with information that they can easily access and understand to maximise revenue, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, streamline operations, create competitive advantage and make better decisions.

Actuate has over 4,000 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993, Actuate has headquarters in South San Francisco, California, with offices worldwide. Actuate is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol ACTU. For more information on Actuate, visit the company's web site at www.actuate.com.

Copyright © 2007 Actuate Corporation. All rights reserved. Actuate and the Actuate logo are registered trademarks of Actuate Corporation and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other brands, names or trademarks mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Copyright © 2010 Actuate Corporation. All rights reserved. Actuate and the Actuate logo are registered trademarks of Actuate Corporation and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other brands, names or trademarks mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.