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TourKey Performance Indicators
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Covalent addresses the very specific needs of Councils relating to the CAA Framework, key LAA priorities and the National Indicator set (England), and in Scotland the Single Outcome Agreement.
Covalent provides councils with a tool to self assess against Audit Commission KLOEs, such as Use of Resources and the 10 CAA themes.
Covalent also helps manage partnership working with other public bodies in LAAs, LSPs and other localised groupings.
- Manage inspections better to achieve tight compliance on the Audit Commission KLOEs and CAA assessments and ensure constant readiness for a short notice inspection. Conduct scored self assessments and consolidate the necessary supporting evidence to meets inspectors requirements.
- Powerful Performance Reporting on statutory Performance Indicators as well as any local operational indicators you may use to drive performance improvements.
- Comprehensive Risk Management with strategic and operational risk registers consolidated in one place and scored on an Impact/ Likelihood matrix.
- Manage Partnership working with other public bodies in LAAs, LSPs and the Comprehensive Area Agreements (CAAs).
- Align performance information with the council's strategy to monitor progress towards achievement of corporate aims, priorities and operational objectives.
Performance Portal
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Covalent Portal gives you one-click access to everything you need to know about.
The Covalent Portal is the entry point for most users on the system. It clearly summarises the status with information the user is responsible for, and gives immediate one-click access for drill down to supporting details.
The Portal consists of a number of 'portlets' providing summaries for different types of data e.g. KPIs, Actions, Risks, Reports etc. A filter in each portlet allows the user to show information based on different type of ownership (assigned, administrator etc) and also by traffic-light status. You can quickly drill down to supporting information by clicking on any item in a portlet, which then opens a new window.
- Everyone's Portal is personalised so they are presented just with information they have responsibility for, thus minimising data overload. User profiles control what parts of the system each user can access, and what permissions they have to change data.
- Simple software navigation. As the Portal provides direct access to every part of the Covalent system, for many users this is the only button they require on the navigation panel. This greatly simplifies usage of Covalent and minimises the amount of user training required. Of particular use is the ability to create a number of Portal tabs to organise information into logical grouping or to suit the user's own preferences.
- Traffic-lighted status updates are displayed in a visually engaging way, in convenient filterable lists. One-click access drills down to the supporting information allowing users to interrogate all aspects of corporate or departmental performance.
KPIs
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Covalent gives you an easy, visually engaging way of monitoring the Key Performance Indicators that tell you how you're doing.
Covalent manages all the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you have defined as critical performance drivers of your strategy's success. Each KPI is mapped to one (or more) strategic and operational objective. As results are recorded against target performance levels for each time period, the KPI gauges are traffic-lighted so you can quickly identify any problem areas. With one click you can drill down to more information, assign a corrective action or run an exception report.
Covalent streamlines the process of measuring and tracking Performance Indicators, saving huge amounts of time on data gathering, analysis, manipulation and reporting. The system is preloaded with a full library of statutory and housing industry PIs and you can also add as many of your own local PIs as you want.
- Focus on the measures that need attention. Gauges, graphs, traffic-lighting and trend icons will bring your data to life, making it understandable 'at-a-glance' so you can quickly zoom into the problem areas (if any!).
- Make more informed decisions with the full picture. Touch-of-a-button status updates, on screen or on printed reports, quickly show all you need to know.
- Proactively manage performance to take action where needed. Covalent constantly tracks performance against targets and emails you alerts when things change that you need to know about.
Covalent GPM (Geographic Performance Maps) allows you to examine performance data on a geographic basis. It takes data results for PIs set up in Covalent and displays them in a map layer corresponding to the organisation's boundaries. Covalent's unique approach, using SVG files, means you don't even need to have GIS software to use this module.
Actions
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Covalent Actions consolidates all your action and improvement plans in one place, giving you powerful progress tracking facilities.
Covalent Actions consolidates all the organisation's action plans and projects in one place. It gives you powerful progress tracking facilities, and the ability to easily look at project from multiple perspectives - by owner, by status, by corporate priority. In fact, the more customers use Action Central, the more uses they find for it - improvement plans, inspection recommendations, staff appraisal tasks, service & corporate plans.
You'll be able to pick out overdue actions or missed milestones at-a-glance, as action plans are traffic-lighted based on progress and deadline date. As actions are progressed, users can enter status update commentaries so providing ongoing communication and feedback.
- Provides senior management with clear visibility of progress on major initiatives to ensure that when plans go off-track timely corrective action can be taken.
- Proactively manage against deadlines. Put an end to chasing people for action status updates by phone or personal email and save massive effort and time.
- Track progress of your projects portfolio. You'll be able to easily compare status and identify overlapping dates with Covalent's calendar-view, which shows progress for all your projects on traffic-lighted horizontal bars.
- Dramatically simplify projects reporting. You'll get reporting that's flexible enough to meet modern demands - different audiences looking at the same projects information in various combinations; by owner, by status, by date, by strategy.
Self Assessments
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You can use Covalent to conduct self-assessments & manage all aspects of the inspections process.
Covalent is pre-loaded with the CAA framework and Audit Commission KLOEs. It also contains a host of generic frameworks, including Customer Service Excellence: The Government Standard, Investors in People (IIP), Equality Standard, Investors in Diversity (IiD) etc.
- Take action where you need to, whilst there's still time. Well in advance of the actual inspection, Covalent will alert you to any problem areas that may impact on your ultimate score. Covalent gives you a traffic-lighted view of the entire model and each KLOE, highlighting at-a-glance those lower scoring criteria (red or amber) that merit further attention.
- Make sure you're complying with the statutory framework. As they work through a self-assessment, staff will have one-click access to guidance notes to direct them towards an appropriate score, based on what inspectors are looking for.
- Simplify the consolidation of supporting evidence by attaching relevant files and working papers to each KLOE. Action plans, managed elsewhere in Covalent, can be linked to individual KLOEs and questions in the assessment.
- Ensure a consistent approach across the organisation. Now you can be sure everyone will complete the regulatory assessments in the right way, with Covalent presenting questions in an easy-to-access, structured format, in line with the published guidance.
Risks
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Covalent consolidates all risk registers in one place, visually displaying the risk score on a colour coded matrix.
Covalent Risks gets your staff actually managing risks by progressing mitigation actions and adjusting internal controls. It offers a superior way to manage risks, replacing inflexible spreadsheets and Word documents. Instead, information is maintained centrally and risks that should be getting the most attention are easily identifiable.
- Get everyone using a consistent scoring method. Staff will understand the process better and will have a tool to bring risk management into their day-to-day work. Covalent's two dimensional matrix mapping Likelihood of risk occurrence and risk Impact means you'll be able to compare risk profiles across the organisation.
- Identify the issues at-a-glance. Your risk registers will come to life with traffic-lighting and exception reporting focusing people's attention on areas of concern. Everyone will have immediate one-click access to risks they're responsible for, with exception reporting to highlight risks' status.
- Monitor effectiveness of Internal Controls. You'll be able to assess the internal controls that have been put in place with supporting information (such as risk profile, risk factors, assessment record or potential effect) just one-click away.
- Proactively manage risks, with regular reassessments. Put an end to chasing people for updates by phone or personal email and save massive effort and time. Covalent constantly tracks against due dates and emails staff reminders when a risk is due for re-assessment, or alerts when things change that they need to know about.
Feedback
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Consolidate all your customer feedback for easy tracking against resolution deadlines, in line with your own procedures.
Covalent Feedback helps boost customer confidence and overall performance by offering a centralised method of storing, progressing and resolving customer issues.
Covalent Feedback centralises and structures the management of Complaints, Compliments, Freedom of Information requests, CCfAs and other forms of customer interaction.
You can set up different stages to allow you to progress the complaint through your normal workflow process and assign actions to each complaint to remedy the problem.
- Traffic-lighting quickly highlights the status of all feedback relative to target resolution date. Tracked progress through each escalation stage, corresponding to your own specific procedures and processes.
- Simple dropdown lists ensure the right information is recorded against the complaint. These are configurable and can comprise Complaint type, Complaint Source, Complaint Remedy, Complainant Type and Complainant Ethnicity.
- Set up default options for remedy types. If a specific action can be taken to remedy a complaint, for example removing refuse that had not been collected or a review/change to the processes of the organisation, a specific default action can be allocated, complete with due dates and subsequent actions.
- Powerful reporting that's simple to use. Covalent is supplied with a library of pre-defined report templates that cover most requirements. Customer-specific reports can be created using Covalent's built-in reporting tool, using an easy point & click approach.
Consultations
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Manage all aspects of customer consultation exercises and obtain a comprehensive assessment of impact and value for money.
Councils need to assess the impact of each consultation event and make a judgement as to its overall value for money based on the associated costs. It is also important to provide customers with feedback so they can see themselves the impact and how the organisation responds to their involvement in a consultation exercise.
Covalent Consultations manages all aspects of customer consultation exercises, dramatically reducing the time and effort in producing impact assessments and annual returns.
Covalent Consultations helps you demonstrate how customers have been involved and the degree of their influence. It provides the ability to incorporate customer feedback into priority setting and service design.
Consultations holds full details on multiple consultation events; events can be analysed using a variety of customisable 'grouping' options, such as event type, topic, method, involvement activity.
- Attendee profile details can be recorded for each individual such as age, ethnicity, family situation, gender etc.
- Each event can be assessed in terms of its Impact and Value for Money simply by selecting from a dropdown list of pre-defined, traffic-lighted labels. Clearly this is a subjective assessment, but it is made more valid as all the relevant supporting information is presented on the Covalent screen.
- Events can be analysed using a variety of customisable 'grouping' options, such as event type, topic, method, involvement activity. This allows you to run queries and create summary reports that present the same information from a variety of different perspectives.
Scorecards
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Covalent Scorecards allow you to view performance data in a range of visually engaging, meaningful and intuitive ways.
Scorecards visually represent the organisation's strategies and map PIs, actions and risks at each level in a hierarchical tree.
- Scorecards highlight interdependencies between activities with drill-down to the underlying data for further investigation.
- The 'Panic' overlay button provides a traffic lighted view of current status for each element in the scorecard, with scores aggregated up to indicate status with 'softer' perspectives like corporate priorities and objectives. Status of a higher level perspective is highlighted with a 'rider' red-flag if performance of a sub-element is at red
- Scorecards can be built at multiple levels in the organisation and can be used to view the same information from different perspectives.
Performance Snapshots provide a high level summary of all key data for PIs, Actions and Risks of specific interest to a specific user or department.
- Summary information is provided on current status with each performance element, as well as recent results. On the right, exception reporting highlights any linked elements that are also at 'red' (i.e. off target).
- Typical Snapshots would be PIs/actions/risks by organisational unit, service area, corporate priority, strategy theme etc. Whilst there may be hundreds of Snapshots on the system, each user will typically have just a small number that they have been given visibility of, to minimise data overload.
- Users have one-click access for drill down to the supporting details to interrogate all aspects of corporate or departmental performance.
Strategy Maps
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Covalent Strategy Maps lay out a strategy with supporting objectives in a visually engaging one-page map.
Covalent Strategy Maps allow you to describe your performance strategy pictorially and create a visual representation of the connections between desired outcomes and the performance elements put in place to achieve them.
Strategy Maps can be created quickly and simply to suit the purpose and audience. With one click you can choose to view the 'RAG' status of each element within your diagram, providing a mechanism for quickly and effectively highlighting problem areas.
- Makes your strategy explicit in a one-page visualisation of cause-and-effect relationships that connects the desired strategic outcomes with the drivers that will lead to their achievement. Each level, element and measure in a Covalent Strategy Map becomes embedded in an explicit chain of cause and effect logic that connects the desired outcomes from the strategy (the effect) with the drivers that will lead to those outcomes (the cause).
- Use Strategy Maps as a 'live' tool, allowing you to link to sub-maps for increasing levels of performance detail and also to drill down to any element within the diagram. So by double-clicking on a PI in your map, for example, you can drill down to obtain a micro view of performance.
- Easily create maps for different audiences. The real power of Covalent Strategy Maps lies in the formatting and drawing capabilities available in the Map Layout canvas. You can improve the visual appeal of the map using the various drawing objects such as arrows, rectangles and ellipses. And add colour to lines or filled elements. You can also use the text box to add your own labels or headings for navigation around the Map.
Web Publishing
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Powerful, configurable performance reporting and automatic publishing to the web.
Covalent Reports contains a vast library of predefined templates, and an ad-hoc report generation tool to custom build new reports.
Report Dossiers allow you to combine a range of individual reports in a sequenced whole mixing report types such as Actions, KPIs and Risks. Additionally, you can incorporate any non-Covalent report document into the Dossier - such as an image file, or a Word/Excel file - and print that in one go with the Covalent reports.
- Multiple formats supported. Reports can be viewed online, distributed electronically to colleagues, exported into other desktop systems or printed in hard copy. Output formats supported are XML, HTML, PDF, Rich Text and CSV format. Using these formats, data can be exported into predefined templates (such as those required for statutory returns) or can be exported to other applications like Microsoft Excel or Word for further data manipulation if required.
- Simple report creation and generation, with no coding or third party tools required. Wizards guide users through the process of creating customised reports from templates using a parameter driven, point-and-click approach, whereby users select from drop down lists what query they want to run and what they want to show on the report.
- Total control over colour, fonts and report layout. You use drag & drop to add things to the report layout or move them around to reposition on the page. You can also specify what profile information is included such as organisation logo, header, pagination and various other elements.
What some of our customers are saying...
Covalent is far better than the diverse mix of spreadsheets and other systems that we previously had dotted across the Council
Dumfries & Galloway Council
The council's electronic web-based performance management system Covalent has been in place for over a year and has transformed the way we use performance information. Timely performance information is easily accessible to officers across all directorates and service areas.
Stoke City Council
I consider the system an extremely effective tool for supporting performance management in my council.
Edinburgh City Council
Covalent has completely changed the way performance information is monitored and reported with emphasis on the availability of Real time information; one of the main benefits of the system is that it this has reduced the amount of time collating and chasing information. This time in theory, can then be spent to manage and put actions in place to improve or sustain performance rather than simply monitoring. I have been happy to provide references to potential Covalent customers on the competency of the system and the efficiency of the Company. I would not hesitate in recommending Covalent to other potential customers.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Covalent makes it much easier to determine how the actions, risks and PIs we are measuring relate to what we are trying to achieve and so we can be much more focused in managing and reviewing performance as a result.
Lichfield District Council
We chose Covalent to enable us to maintain the highest standards of data quality and get our performance information right first time. Covalent has transformed the way we manage performance.
The Audit Commission told us that we had a robust system for performance monitoring with Covalent, so I felt confident that Covalent gave me a sound base from which to work. We were able to give the auditor remote access to our web-hosted Covalent site so that she could log in and view the data prior to the visit... The meeting that followed was very focused as a result and relevant evidence was readily accessible on Covalent, which ultimately improved our score.
Overall Covalent makes my job much easier. Each score for each question corresponds to a traffic-lighted status, so I can see at a glance what to target for improvement, which gives the council a clear direction. The KLOEs pre-loaded by Covalent are presented in such a way that it is easy to answer each question. I have also found the fact that users can upload relevant documents to back up self-assessment criteria invaluable in managing our performance. Covalent is quick and convenient to use and has proved to be vital before and during inspections, as it cuts down both the initial inspection process and the interview process as well.
Adur & Worthing
The overall functionality of the product is very strong. It's hard to find things it can't do!
Covalent offers the best of both worlds - comprehensive functionality and complete usability. Performance data from all services is now streamlined, co-ordinated and managed in one location. Our data quality and scrutiny procedures have improved since implementing Covalent and we can record and view data from multiple perspectives and see its impact at a glance.
Having Covalent in place has enabled Crawley to develop a far more structured approach to performance management across the organisation. With all elements of performance recorded, linked and monitored in one place, managing performance systematically has become not just easier but far more reliable as well. And because Covalent is easy to use and includes some great functionality, staff are happy to use the software and Heads of Service want to know more about how they can use Covalent to manage new projects.
Crawley Borough Council
We purchased Covalent a year or so ago and I would score it 10 out of 10. It is an extremely good system and the company is very committed and customer focused.
Uttlesford District Council
Covalent allows us the visibility to see how well and where we are performing and achieving. The managers in the Council have now become reliant on the information we are able to provide and are keen to have access to more.
Harrogate Borough Council
Covalent is now an integral part of our performance management framework. It has become embedded across the organisation and is now part of the day job. We would be lost without it and it certainly delivers value for money.
South Staffordshire Council
Covalent has really helped us to focus and put performance management at the heart of the organisation.
East Herts District Council
The performance management IT system is a positive and resourceful tool, which has applications beyond the collation of performance indicators, such as risk management, complaints monitoring and pay strategies.
Audit Commission's 2008 Inspection Report on Uttlesford District Council
Introducing Covalent into West Dunbartonshire Council has led to a marked change for the better in our performance and improvement focused culture. We now have a clearer and more proactive approach to communicating our performance outcomes, particularly around the SOA, to our many stakeholders and electorate. As a result we are seeing a steady improvement in our overall performance as a Council, and I will continue to recommend Covalent as a key corporate performance management tool.
West Dunbartonshire Council
