Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council has been named as the local authority with the Best ICT Service by Socitm (Society of IT Managers), the professional association for public sector ICT Management.

Socitm has been running a Benchmarking and User Satisfaction survey since 1998 to help those who supply ICT services to better understand the views of their users. The survey covers customer satisfaction and training adequacy in public sector authorities in the UK.

This was the 4th time that Dudley MBC has participated in this survey, which was distributed to all staff (excluding ICT Services) and members. Of those responding, over 70% of their users stated that ICT is completely integral to their jobs.

All scores in the survey were marked 1 (low) through to 7 (high) and Dudley MBC scored an impressive 5.67 for customer satisfaction. This was the highest mark throughout the UK, where the average score was 5.10.

Pete Hipkiss, Customer Support and Services Manager credited Axios Systems' assyst ITSM solution with helping them to achieve this award, "assyst is central to all of our business ICT processes. It is the glue which bonds everything together."

Other areas in which Dudley scored highly are:

• How seriously they take ICT security (6.03)

• Customer service skills of ICT support staff (6.02)

• Technical competence of ICT support staff (6.00)

• Ability to fix problems (5.98)

• Ease of contacting ICT (5.89)

Ailsa Symeonides, Sales and Marketing Director at Axios Systems said, "We are delighted that Dudley MBC has won this award. It just goes to show that although the public sector is facing huge challenges at the moment with budget cuts and redundancies, a good ICT Service can still be achieved with the right tool."

About Axios Systems
assyst from Axios Systems - IT Service Management that Performs

In the modern age of commerce, IT is a fundamental enabler of business performance. Rapid growth in an ever-changing market is the key to survival and profitability in the global market. Axios Systems' focus is to support your business success through our innovative Service Management platform, assyst. The assyst solution enables the rapid design, deployment and support of the new services your business needs right now.

Combining over two decades of R&D with the latest Web 2.0 technologies, assyst is one of the most mature and innovative solutions in the market. Encapsulating full-spectrum ITIL functionality, assyst was architected as an all-in-one solution with a uniquely configurable design to support the rapid change you need to continually align IT capability with business direction. Our team of industry experts have been there and done it. Our unparalleled experience, spanning all industries, allows us to cut to the chase and work with you to get demonstrable results that impact the bottom line fast.

In an increasingly unstable vendor market, Axios Systems has the longevity, continuity and experience to deliver results to large enterprise organizations across the globe. Our track record of delivering success for household brand names speaks for itself. We stick with our customers for the journey, which is why 97% of our customers come back to us year on year.

Find out more about how you can optimize IT and gain that vital business edge with assyst - http://www.axiossystems.com/.

About Socitm
Socitm is the membership association for all ICT professionals working in Local Authorities and the Public and Third Sectors and suppliers to those sectors. Socitm provides a widely respected forum for the promotion, use and development of ICT best practice. It is also plays a leading role in ICT-facilitated local government transformation in the UK.

About Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Dudley Council is one of the top performing local authorities in the country according to the Audit Commission. The top rating status reflects the council's excellent adult social care and housing service, its good children's services and the good progress it has made in regeneration, with ambitious plans for millions of pounds worth of investment across the borough.

The council has also been praised for its work with diverse communities to strengthen community cohesion and significantly it was noted that Dudley Council has good capacity, with its partners, to make future improvements.

Working with partner agencies is very important to Dudley. In our 15,000 plus workforce you'll find an ethos of partnership working with the common goal of making the borough a good, healthy and safe place to live, work and visit.

Once at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, Dudley borough consists of four main towns: Brierley Hill, Dudley, Halesowen and Stourbridge. Each has a wealth of heritage, from Stourbridge's Glass Quarter to Dudley's 12th century castle, from Halesowen's historic Leasowes Park to Brierley Hill's modern retail delights. The towns contribute their own different qualities to the borough making it a special and fascinating place.

Contact:
Lauren Pyle, Axios Systems
Tel. +44 131 220 4748
E-mail: lauren.pyle@axiossystems.com