With 5 of Wiltshire’s councils joining together to form a Unitary Authority, Simon was engaged to support a number of the project sponsors to ensure the transition happened smoothly and met the go live date. With a focus on realising the benefits that would be generated from amalgamating and streamlining services, Simon’s commercial awareness was crucial. For example, when acting as Project Leader for the Council’s Corporate Fleet Management Review Project, he immediately identified a number of areas where significant savings could be made. With no centralised Fleet Management team in place, he pooled resources to create a dedicated team that could curb unnecessary expenditure and monitor assets. By linking up Fleet systems with ICT and Shared Services, Council leaders now have a more holistic view of fleet activity relating to its vehicles, its drivers and their journeys, ensuring more cost-effective use of pre-authorisation processes and superior risk management.
There was a considerable amount of money being spent on vehicle insurance because the Council couldn’t give a definitive answer to how many vehicles they were actually operating. Through creating an asset register and upskilling the team in its use, Simon prevented any further waste. He also identified opportunities for creating cost savings in vehicle maintenance and purchasing through working with other public sector agencies such as Police and Fire. In total, Simon made over £150k in repeatable annual savings in this department alone, without impacting services, and met all milestones for the go live date.
