Public Technology Institute (PTI) Recognizes Local Governments Across US for Providing Public Multi-Channel Access to Government Services and Information

Rockville, MD – June 24, 2010 – Lagan, the global leader in government to citizen technology, today announces that Lagan customers, Buffalo 311, Hampton 311 and San Francisco 311 have been designated by Public Technology Institute (PTI) as “Citizen-Engaged Communities.”   A total of nine local governments across the US have been awarded leadership as “Citizen-Engaged Communities” for their efforts to provide the public with multi-channel (web, civic media, Interactive Voice Response, 311/call agents) access to government services and information. 

The three Lagan awarded customers, Buffalo 311, Hampton 311 and San Francisco 311, continue to demonstrate contact center excellence and lead the charge with accountability, consistency and overall customer satisfaction.   “This award is challenging local governments to achieve high standards in citizen participation, seamless service delivery and democratic accountability; which speaks volumes about the dedication and commitment our three winning customers have to their communities,“ said Des Speed, CEO of Lagan.  “All of us at Lagan extend our heart-felt congratulations for this prestigious honor from PTI.”

In Buffalo, Mayor Brown’s 311 Call and Resolution Center handles 13,000 calls per month on average with over 30% of inquires addressed by Self Service.  Live with Lagan CRM since July 2008, Buffalo 311 strives for excellence with the recent addition of a satellite office of the Buffalo Police Department Internal Affairs Division in the 311 suite in City Hall and a direct link from 311 to Buffalo’s newest crime fighting tool, Keeping Neighborhoods On Watch (KNOW) email alert system.  “Mayor Brown’s 311 Call and Resolution Center has been a key initiative that has strengthened communication between city residents and the Administration,” said Oswaldo Mestre Jr., Director of Citizen Services in Buffalo.  “In our effort to decrease response time and avoid unnecessary department transfers, the 311 Call and Resolution Center prides itself on following citizens’ concerns from receipt of information to completion of the corresponding city action, while always maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction.”

One of the original 311 contact centers in the country, Hampton 311 continues to pioneer contact center excellence since its initial launch with Lagan in 2006. “Staying true to our track record of innovation, Hampton is always looking for ways to enhance and extend service delivery through Hampton 311,” said Liz Nisley, Hampton 311 Call Center Manager.  “With over a million calls answered, 12,000 emails and self-service requests created, and tens of thousands of non-emergency calls offloaded from 911, we are committed to serve to our citizens and are very pleased to be recognized in PTI’s elite group of ‘Citizen-Engaged Communities.”

Famous for leading-edge innovation, such as the rapid adoption of Twitter and being at the forefront of the Open 311 movement, San Francisco 311 has been a success story since its initial launch in March 2007.  With over 5.5 million calls answered in its first two years of operation, 88% of all departments supported, and Self Service ROI in less than seven months, San Francisco 311 has been named a Citizen-Engaged Community for just some of these reasons.  “As the official site for obtaining information, reporting problems or submitting service requests to the City and County of San Francisco, we are proud that our contact center has been recognized by PTI as a leader in the country,” Andy Maimoni, Deputy Director, San Francisco 311.

PRELIMINARY UNAUDITED RESULTS FOR THE 2009-2010 FINANCIAL YEAR

BELFAST, 7.00AM BST, 26 APRIL, 2010 - Lagan Technologies Ltd, the global leader in Government to Citizen (G2C) technology, today announces preliminary unaudited results for the 2009-2010 financial year:

 Financial highlights:

• Revenue up 13% to a record £17.1 million (US$26.4 million) (2008/09: £15.1 million (US$23.3 million))
• Income from new licenses and on-going support and maintenance up 34% year on year
• Fifth consecutive EBITDA profitable quarter
• Group consolidated EBITDA for the year £2.5m (US$3.9 million)
• Very strong fourth quarter – the strongest on record – with 9 major new customers signed, including: Sheffield City Council, UK; Cobb County, GA; City of Pasadena, CA; South Northamptonshire Council, UK, and multiple extensions to existing contracts
• Positive outlook for 2010/11 with strong (and strengthening) pipeline of new business opportunities

 Operational highlights:

• A series of new business wins throughout the UK and North America
• Lagan innovations now enable governments worldwide to serve the needs of 60 million citizens
• Launch of Citizen Connect, a mobile application that enables citizens to register GPS-tagged requests with local government
• Launch of LaganOnDemand, a cloud-based CRM option, offering governments and authorities a low cost entry route to CRM
• Collaborative Open Source project with the City of San Francisco enabling citizens to connect with government via social media platforms including Twitter
• New business engagements include systems to support Adult Social Care, transport initiatives and housing.

 Des Speed, CEO of Lagan Technologies, commented:  “It has been an outstanding year for Lagan, with record sales and profits, a record number of new business wins in the UK and North America and a strong pipeline of innovation.”

 “We strengthened our leadership position in our market and we broadened our business base to include several new substantial areas of local government service delivery where technology delivers several important benefits, including improving service and compliance. Lagan innovations now serve the needs of 60 million citizens worldwide.”

 “This performance took place against the backdrop of a challenging period for the global economy when governments sought to achieve cost reductions whilst improving services.  Our model of low-cost, fast-track implementation combined with our global knowledge base makes Lagan the logical technology partner for local, state and regional governments worldwide.”

 “We continued to innovate, with the development of cloud-based applications, mobile phone applications and new enhancements to our 311 (non-emergency service) technology, which is now installed in several leading government organisations across the US and Canada.  During the year we completed our largest 311 implementation to date for the City of Toronto.  We were delighted to have our work in partnership with the City of San Francisco on an Open 311 standard cited as a strong example of Open Government by the White House CIO.”

 “We will soon be bringing Citizen Connect, our mobile phone-based application that enables citizens to send GIS-tagged reports to local government, to the UK after a very positive reaction to its launch in the City of Boston.”

 “Looking ahead, we are confident that our market will continue to grow and we anticipate strong business growth as local governments worldwide focus on the delivery of better services at lower cost. Our Omnibus polling confirms to us that there is a healthy appetite amongst citizens across the age and demographic spectrum for technologies that enable them to access public services in a more efficient manner.  Market conditions and citizen demand play to our strengths.  In the year ahead, we will continue to innovate and we will investigate opportunities to enter new territories.”

A British technology firm has created a global mobile application designed to instantly report local problems.

Belfast-based Lagan Technologies developed its free Citizens Connect application (app) for the iPhone to enable members of the public to report problems such as graffiti, potholes, broken lampposts and uncollected rubbish.

A number of UK local authorities are in talks to trial the innovative app, which lets people send a photo and GPS reference of the nuisance directly to the relevant council worker’s desktop or mobile phone.

Lagan Technologies recently launched Citizens Connect in Boston, Massachusetts, which allowed graffiti cleaners to quickly remove paint and predict where the culprits would go next.

The use of mobile devices to communicate with local councils is something we expect to soar in the years ahead.

Des Speed

Chief Executive, Lagan Technologies

People who use the app, which can be downloaded for free in the iTunes App store, get a confirmation on their mobile when the issue is solved.

Des Speed, chief executive at Lagan Technologies, said: “The use of mobile devices to communicate with local councils is something we expect to soar in the years ahead. We already work with 180 local governments worldwide – from Toronto to East Timor.

ICT innovation in the UK

Read more about ICT innovation in the UK.

“In many cases those governments are looking at ways in which mobile technology can create a closer link between local residents and the people directly responsible for service delivery.”

Industry analysts Gartner forecast there will be more than 1.82 billion internet-enabled mobile phones across the world by 2013, outstripping the predicted 1.78 billion computers.

Copyright © Press Association 2009

Dynamic businesses across Northern Ireland will set the agenda for economic success over the next decade, a leading banker in the Prvince has claimed. Henry Elvin, Ulster Bank’s head of business banking, said the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to outhink their global competition was a critical factor in future growth.

Speaking today ahead of the next instalment in the Ulster Bank and Centre for Competitiveness (CforC) programme of “growth seminars” at the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel in Bangor tomorrow, he said many of Northern Ireland’s larger corporate businesses were already competing strongly in global markets and that SMEs must be highly enterprising in order to follow suit.

“The Northern Ireland economy enjoyed a period of prolonged economic growth which was driven to a large extent by government spending and the property boom,” he said. “Something else now needs to drive our economy in the years to come.”

“Larger export-oriented businesses will continue to be important in this regard and any foreign direct investment will be very welcome.

“However, it is the potential of our SMEs and their ability to exploit that potential which offers to be the major economic driver over the next 10 years and beyond.”

SMEs had many role models in dynamic local businesses but needed to discover the kind of innovation and enterprise that have driven the likes of Radox, Brett Martin, Lagan Technologies, APT,FG Wilson and others to global success, he added.

“This means availing of all the advice and help available, getting the right expertise and people behind them, putting in place systems and structures that will support ongoing innovation and being highly determined and ambitious. “Economic conditions are extremely challenging, but that doesn’t mean SMEs should just be waiting for the economy to turn around.”They should be doing everything they can now to take advantage of the opprtunities there are and positioning themselves as strongly as possible to capitalise fully when thing do turn around. I am confident that they can and will do so.”

BusinessWeek, May 13, 2008-’ When Des Speed joined Belfast’s Lagan Technologies as its cheif execitive officer in 1999, the five-year-old, Northern Ireland software company had 11 employees, no products, and was in danger of going bust. Now Lagan is not only Northern Ireland’s most successful technology company-250 employees and growing -but it’s also taking off in the U.S., where it is snatching contracts from Oracle (ORCL), Motorola (MOT), and other big-name rivals to supply software that improves delivery of public services. “In the beginning we were living hand to mouth,” Speed says. “Now our aim is to be the market leader in North America.”

Lagan likely won’t unseat the software industry’s global giants anytime soon, but this upstart from Belfast-a city that until recently was better known for bombs than businesses-is managing to capture a sizeable chunk of the market for so-called “enterprise case management” software. There are systems that help organizations manage and analyze thier client workload. It has already snared contracts with more than 160 government agencies,r anging from the state of Tennessee to the city governments of Hartford, Conn., Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Berkeley, Calif.

The Software is developed by a crew of 120 programmers at Lagan’s Belfast headquarters, while sales and marketing is handled primarily from offices in Chicago and Bethesda, Md., where CEO Speed now spends most of his time.

Since 2000, Lagan has averaged 65% annual sales growth, and last year alone its orders ion the U.S surged 80%. Spped says the company is winning business by offering local and state governments a product better tailored to their needs than the off-the=shelf packages many now use. As if to cement this claim, Lagan last year won a $3 Million contract from the city and county of San Francisco, right up the road from Oracle. “Lagan is going up against the giants and winning” says Hal Wilson, investment manager at Belafst venture capital firm Crescent Capital, which was the first outside investor in the company.

Lagan’s transformation reflects the dramatic changes underway in Northern Ireland since the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which finally brought peace to the region after three decades of violence. Since then Northern Ireland’s small, homegrown tech industry has begun to emerge from the shadows of its highly successfull counterpart south of the border in the Republic of Ireland.
Before the peace agreement, gaining access to capital and customers was difficult at best, Speed says. “When making a significant investment, people understandably want to see the headquarters,” he says. ” But potential customers and investors were fearful about visiting what they knew was a war zone.” After the Good Friday agreement Lagan finally began attracting both investment and customers. In 2001 the company won its first big contract, a $3 million deal with the city council of Birmingham, the biggest single local goverment council in Britain. ( London is larger by population, but it is broken up into many boroughs).

The Birmingham contract-three times the aize of the company’s entire revenue line in the year before-called for Lagan to help improve delivery of services to Brimingham’s nearly 1.3 million inhabitants by supplying the tools for a central information dispatch. Prior to the new system citizens had to phone around to countless government departments-and sometimes clogged up the 999 emergency service line with mundane matters.’

Government software provider Lagan has announced that the London Borough of Brent has become its 100th local government contract. The new agreement is a key element in the council’s initiative to reengineer its IT infrastructure, involving the implementation of Lagan’s Enterprise Case Management (ECM) integrated with a sophisticated Customer Data Integration (CDI) hub. The project is part of the strategic aim of making the council a centre for excellence in the management of information and data, while improving services and driving efficiencies.

Home to 270,000 residents as well as the world famous Wembley Stadium, Brent started its journey as one of the Government’s Pathfinder local authorities to improve its citizen-centric services back in 2000, and is now seen as a thought leader by other councils because of the way it is exploiting the available technology to best advantage. With the decision to adopt an enterprise-wide approach to service delivery came the need to re-evaluate the existing CRM system and its potential to support and drive fresh initiatives. Having assessed a number of options, the decision was taken by Brent to replace existing systems with the Lagan solution. Compelling reasons supporting this decision were the enterprise-wide capabilities and high quality of integration with other systems that the Lagan solution could deliver as well as its ability to support Brent’s future requirements

Compelling reasons supporting this decision were the enterprise-wide capabilities and high quality of integration with other systems that the Lagan solution could deliver as well as its ability to support Brent’s future requirements.

Says Tony Ellis, Head of IT at Brent, ‘’We first started working with CRM systems five years ago and have learnt a lot along the way. As a result, we have a very good grasp of the demand that having excellent service delivery puts on the technology. We were keen to find the right solution and suppliers who were as committed as we are to delivering these benefits to residents, workers and visitors in Brent. Our partnership with Lagan means we are confident of delivering together a consistent, modern and efficient service to the citizens of Brent and to our public sector partners. We’re doubly delighted to learn that we are Lagan’s 100th customer in local government – their track record of delivery and focus on public sector case management was a key factor in our selection process.’’

Key to Brent’s future plans is integration of the Lagan system with a Customer Data Integration (CDI) solution from Initiate to transform the way information from citizens is handled. By creating a single view of residents’ data, Brent council is aiming to improve customer service standards across all departments. Currently, data is held in numerous back office applications, but new solutions will provide far greater integration between front and back office, allowing customer services staff to handle multiple enquiries on the spot. Once a case is complete, data will be updated automatically, eliminating the current reliance on manual updates and ensuring that a single client index is used to synchronise multiple systems. This will have a direct impact on the quality of information and services received by citizens, who will be able to access their council via multiple channels, and will allow Brent to operate more proactively. Lagan’s solution will also be integrated with Brent’s telephony and Revenues & Benefits systems, using Lagan’s proven packaged adaptors.

Ellis continues, ‘‘Lagan’s extensive experience in delivering enterprise case management solutions to local authorities gave us great reassurance, as did their proven capability in integration with our key systems. Lagan’s ability to enable us to be self-sufficient was critical to our decision and we look forward to the flexibility and cost of ownership benefits that this will bring.’’

Lagan is the leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions to Local Government worldwide. There are now 100 councils and over 20 million citizens across the UK being served by Lagan solutions. The company is also the fastest growing provider of 3-1-1 Single Non-Emergency Number solutions to the North American market place with customers such as San Francisco (City & County), New Orleans (to support the City’s services post Hurricane Katrina) and Minneapolis (where the Lagan solution helped to coordinate rescue and recovery operations following the recent collapse of a bridge.

One of the great ironies of Des Speed’s move from Belfast to Washington DC, as he readily points out himself, is that he gets to meet Northern Ireland politicians more frequently in the US capital than he did at home in Belfast.

Lagan Technologies, the software company he runs, is “the only show in town” when Stormont ministers want to showcase a high-growth, high-technology, indigenous Northern Ireland company.
When he arrived at Lagan in 1999, the company had just 10 employees and was in every danger of going under.

With more than 250 employees and a turnover of Pounds 14.3m (E20.5m) last year, Lagan is still hardly a heavy-hitter in global terms, but it has averaged a 65% growth rate since 2000. It has also notched up 45 US-based customers for its case management and customer relationship management (CRM) software, in addition to about 110 UK customers. Speed cut his teeth working at most of the big names in Northern Ireland industry -Shorts, Harland and Wolff, Northern Ireland Electricity -before he arrived at Lagan.

“I always had a hankering to start a business, but I hadn’t a clue how to go about it,” he said. “I did some research with a friend, but we hadn’t the funding, knowledge or confidence to go out on our own.”

The offer to take over at Lagan was as close to a start-up as he could get. “There were two world-class technical guys there, but what the business lacked was commercial skills -how to sell, how to operate finance, that sort of stuff,” he said.
Lagan Technologies was founded in 1994 as a software services company in the telecoms market. Speed’s first decision was to turn it into a product company. “We closed down the telecoms software business, which is where we were making money, but which was sucking in all our best people,” he said.

“At that stage, we didn’t have venture-capital funding, but we felt that if we had any belief in the future, we just had to do it.”

Five years’ experience of working with telcos meant it didn’t take the company long to come up with its first product, a customer management tool. A few months after Speed took over, it was developed and sold to a Jordanian mobile-phone company. In early 2000, the company got a welcome cash injection of Pounds 500,000 from the founders of Apion, the Belfast-based software company, which had recently been sold. By then, however, the telco sector, Lagan’s main market, was in the throes of a massive downturn following the dotcom bubble burst.

“We were casting about for alternative markets when several directives came out of Europe on modernising government through IT. The only government that took it seriously was the Blair government and in 2000 they ring-fenced about Pounds 2billion for these kinds of projects,” said Speed.

Lagan’s CRM product was quickly adapted for the local government market and through a mixture of hard work and good luck, the company found itself on the shortlist for a Pounds 1.5m project at Birmingham city council, the largest in the UK. “We thought we hadn’t a chance,”said Speed.
But Lagan won the contract, and a year and a half later Birmingham was winning awards for its e-government offerings. “We assumed, naively, that having won Birmingham we’d be holding back all-comers,” said Speed. “But nothing happened for over a year. It turned out that other government organisations thought Birmingham had made this quirky decision and they’d wait and see.”
After the awards, the contracts came rolling in. By 2003, Lagan Technologies was the largest provider of CRM to local authorities across Britain. “In terms of strategy, we began to feel we could do more,” he said.

The company looked at various markets, but decided Europe was too protectionist, Asia too difficult to understand and Australia too small and far away. In front-facing local government systems, the US was widely agreed to be in the early stage of development. “We were also very encouraged by Gartner Research that said software would work there,” said Speed.

Following a favourable response from potential customers during a visit to Virginia, Speed decided to tackle America. “It’s an expensive place to do business. It’s a potential graveyard because you just get seduced by the scale.” The company raised funding in 2004 and Speed and other colleagues “lived out of a suitcase” to test how much interest there was in the product. By early 2005, the company had opened its office in Washington and a year later Speed had moved to the US capital. “I couldn’t get comfortable growing something as significant as that 3,000 miles away,” he said. The UK business still accounts for about 70% of turnover and continues to grow. But because of its size, the US has the most potential growth. It is costly, however, and while the UK returns a “healthy profit”, the US business is still in investment mode.

Lagan, the specialist software provider to government, has announced a year-end increase in revenue from £9.95m to £14.3m. The company has achieved over 65% average annual revenue growth since 2000 and, with exciting new opportunities ahead, the positive trend looks set to continue. The company already serves more than 15 million citizens in the UK via its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Case Management (ECM) software, and is making significant investment to expand both geographically and in terms of product application. Lagan is the leading provider of CRM and case management solutions to Local Government where it now has the largest market share worldwide. Earlier in the year, the company achieved the highest possible rating in Gartner’s MarketScope: Local Government CRM products 2007] Lagan was one of eight software suppliers evaluated in the report, and received a “Strong Positive” rating.

Commenting on the encouraging results, Des Speed, President and CEO of Lagan, said, ‘’This has been an exciting year for Lagan. Our continued growth and expansion is the result of the hard work of a talented and dedicated team whose common aim is to support our customers in improving service delivery and realising cost-saving process efficiencies. We have seen our customer base expand, developed software for wider applications, continued our penetration into the US market and maintained our unbroken record of growth. Looking ahead, we have ambitious plans for further expansion which we are confident we can achieve as we take our solutions further into the wider public sector.’’

Lagan’s performance highlights another year of winning new customers, while ensuring its existing customer base is effectively supported and developed. For example, through working closely with Lagan, West Sussex Accessible Services Partnership, a unique combination of 25 different agencies, including seven borough and district councils, the county council, town and parish councils, the police and the NHS, won the most recent prestigious e-Government National Awards for the best e-Government Services. Transport for London, which uses Lagan’s HR shared services case management solution, was cited in the UK Government’s Strategy Annual Report for generating £8.1 million savings per year from their HR Shared Services operation.

Lagan itself has been lauded with a series of accolades, including the company’s appearance for the fifth time in the Deloitte Fast 50, and a listing in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 Awards as one of the UK’s fastest growing private sector technology companies.

Lagan solutions are now implemented in over 150 government organisations worldwide. In the UK, the company now works with over 90 local authorities, and this year won its first Adult Services contract with Blackpool Council. In addition, the company has secured prestigious contracts with the London Development Agency and a number of housing associations.

In the US, Lagan has continued to focus on the state and local government market and will build on its success in delivering Human (Social) Services, as well as the 311 Single Non Emergency Number market where it has now won 10 new customers (including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans).

Lagan currently has more than 250 personnel, and earlier this year announced the creation of 100 new jobs, mainly in software development, implementation and support.

The Improvement Service, the body responsible for improving the efficiency, quality and accountability of public services in Scotland, has announced that the National CRM Project for Scotland has selected Lagan as the Preferred Supplier of its Customer Relationship Management solution. The initial phase of the National CRM Project will be implemented across four councils Aberdeen City, Inverclyde, Scottish Borders and West Lothian, which serve a total of more than half a million citizens. The four councils expect the collaborative partnership to realise significant efficiency savings combined with improved service delivery. The project is being coordinated by the Scottish Executive funded Customer First programme.

At West Lothian Council today Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney said:

“Throughout the summer, I will be visiting businesses, public and third sector organisations across Scotland. I am looking to find ways of improving our public services to deliver better value for taxpayers and build a wealthier and fairer Scotland.

The Customer First National CRM project managed by West Lothian Council is a good example of how we can do this. This project will generate efficiency savings and improve service delivery within four local authorities – a clear demonstration of the benefit in taking a joined up approach – for both local communities and local authorities.

I look forward to seeing this project progress over the coming months.”

Martin Brown, CRM/Citizen Account Programme Manager with the Improvement Services, says the decision to procure a CRM and Case Management solution to facilitate citizens’ access to key services across multiple councils will yield a number of benefits: ’’We expect that people calling their council with an enquiry will be given a satisfactory solution in a fraction of the time it takes currently. Not only that, opting for a solution that can be implemented at four sites at the same time has saved time and money in selecting a suitable supplier, and paves the way for other councils in Scotland to do the same. The agreement with Lagan creates a Best Value solution that ensures other Scottish Councils can benefit from a very attractive offer that would not be accessible to an individual council. ’
The lead council within the Partnership is West Lothian, whose Chief Executive, Alex Linkston, is looking forward to getting the CRM and Case Management system up and running as quickly as possible: ‘’We’re confident that citizens across the four councils will experience a dramatic and quantifiable improvement and that our front line staff will get greater job satisfaction because they will be able to help callers directly rather than passing them on. The collaborative approach implemented by the Improvement Service, achieved within an aggressive timescale, has resulted in a very effective solution for everyone, with no wasted time and effort.’’

The CRM solution, procured through the Catalist framework, will be implemented by Lagan’s newly formed “Scotland First” Delivery Team which has been brought together to ensure the company’s combined knowledge and expertise is used to best effect. The Scotland First Team will work in conjunction with the Improvement Service’s National Project Coordinator to facilitate Best Practise within the National Project.

Lagan is already the CRM supplier to five Scottish Councils and this latest project will make Lagan the clear market leader in Scotland. Philip Murray, Lagan’s Director of UK Business and Executive Sponsor for Scotland comment, “We are absolutely delighted to be chosen by the Improvement Service and the National CRM Project councils. We recognise that Scottish Councils have a unique set of priorities and core programmes and we have therefore formed our Scotland First team to ensure that best practise is shared across the National Project in a way that reflects the specific needs of Scotland. Our aim is to play our part in a 3-way partnership with the Improvement Service and the councils to deliver real service improvement for the citizen and significant cost savings for the tax payer.”

The first part of the CRM implementation programme is scheduled to begin in July 2007 subject to contract finalisation.

Des Speed, President and Chief Executive Officer of software supplier Lagan, has been awarded the title of Business Eye Magazine Goldeneye IT personality of the Year in a ceremony on 10 May at the Culloden Hotel in Belfast. The award judges identified Speed as the personality who had made the most significant and lasting contribution to the advancement of a technology agenda in business and the public sector over the past year. Lagan supplies customer relationship management and enterprise case management software to local government and the wider public sectors, facilitating access for constituents to government services, and helping councils make significant cost savings. The company currently serves 90 councils and more than 15 million citizens in the UK alone, with further expansion into Europe planned.

Recently voted one of Northern Ireland’s top 25 Corporate Elite by Business Eye magazine, this is not the first time that Speed has been recognised for his leadership qualities. Since joining Lagan eight years ago, Speed has had a significant impact on the business to the benefit of both employees and end-users.

From his appointment in 1999, Speed has succeeded in growing the business 30-fold, increasing revenue by an average of 65% per annum year-on-year, entering and opening up new public sector markets for the company, leading three rounds of venture capitalist funding to drive growth, the last of which secured £8.3 million and personally spearheading expansion in North America where the company currently has 40 clients .Speed’s decision to reside in the US demonstrates his whole-hearted commitment to developing the North American market.

Commenting on his success, Speed says, “Winning this award is a remarkable achievement and I feel very honoured. Lagan‘s value set is to ‘make a difference’ and to improve the experience that end customers and citizens experience when interacting with Government. This aim has fuelled my drive and determination to maximise the company’s enormous potential and grow the business so significantly.”

Lagan recently received the highest possible rating in leading analyst firm Gartner’s MarketScope: Local Government CRM products 2007 [1]. Lagan now serves the citizens of some of the UK’s largest councils such as Birmingham, Blackpool, Newcastle