First and foremost we have won the highly prestigious 2006 e-Government National Award for Shared Services.

This has afforded the WDP national recognition and endorses the work we have done to date.

But it also, and perhaps more significantly, provides us with the impetus to take the ground-breaking work we have done so far, to the next level.

A joint strategy for customer service and access has been approved and partners are positive and enthusiastic about working together to bring about some major key objectives.

On the financial side, some of WDP's more significant successes have been:

• A £2m grant secured from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) to improve customer handling procedures
  
• Joint procurement of customer-focused IT systems resulting in savings in the region of £600,000
  
• Further funding (£150,000) from West Midlands Centre of Excellence (WMCoE) to improve the capacity in each authority by ensuring staff have relevant skills and training for bringing about changes in business processes and change management
  
• Further joint procurement savings of about £150,000 for site licences (40% discount) and connectors (30%)
  
• Revenue savings of £80,000 p.a. for new network arrangements using the county broadband network
  
• A common telephony and IT system for handling customer contact in all partners
  
• A partnership with all partners committed and willing to share best practice and to work together to bring about efficiencies
  
• Successful governance arrangements

For information on what we are currently working on, have a look at our Programme.