Here at Ctrl O, we provide the award-winning software, LinkSpace, a case management tool that can be configured to exactly your specifications. It’s been designed with security from the ground up, and can be used concurrently by hundreds, even thousands of people. It was originally created for situations where holding data in a spreadsheet wasn’t robust and flexible enough. The Ministry of Defence took it on first, to hold information about their defence engagement activity around the world.
LinkSpace has also come into its own with workflows, guiding employees through complex processes step by step, enabling them to do the right tasks at the right time, get the correct approvals, and bring in other colleagues where relevant. It’s used to great effect when team members need to stay within strict legal guidelines. LinkSpace is used every day by staff at the Ministry of Justice, who have to rigorously adhere to legislation in their casework. Because our platform is so configurable, you can adapt to changing circumstances, and ensure your workflow processes are always up to date.
At Ctrl O, we are always on the end of the phone. Our clients love ringing us up and discussing little changes to get their system exactly as they want it, secure in the knowledge that our service is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant.
Full Detail
LinkSpace is currently used to great effect in the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and beyond. One client at the MOJ told us recently, “when we first started using it, we had no idea just how much it could do”.
LinkSpace is extremely configurable - no two of our systems look the same when in use. And information is very secure too - there’s a full audit history and nothing can be lost, which gives peace of mind and accountability when working collaboratively. The system references one set of live data that’s accessed from a web browser, so editable from anywhere. Some of our systems have information that is accessed by over 6,000 employees, completely securely.
For workflows and casework, it can be designed with a completely bespoke system of drop-down options, calendars, tasks to complete, free text boxes, and alerts, that can also be tweaked over time to keep up with changing circumstances. During these workflow processes, others can be brought in to complete particular tasks or give permissions where necessary. It’s also possible for people from outside bodies or other companies to be involved, where they can be given permission to access very specific data for a specific time.
For one of the workflow systems we built for the Ministry of Justice, our team collaborated with their employees for a month to create the exact workflow design they needed that worked for all of their specifications. It is in use every day by employees, enabling them to carefully stay within rigorous legal frameworks.
Essentially, LinkSpace supports staff, giving them piece of mind that they are keeping within specific regulations, and carrying out all of the correct processes they need to, when they need to. This is particularly important when employees need to keep within stringent legal guidelines, and LinkSpace is used to great effect in these situations. It is also useful for managers, who have peace of mind that the correct processes are being carried out by their team, and who are able to share their knowledge in the software, guiding their team through workflows effectively.
Why could LinkSpace be right for you?
Before we outline the solutions, we will just explain how it’s used so you can visualise it. In it’s simplest form, LinkSpace looks like a table, and it is often used where one might use a table or spreadsheet. Here’s an example.
But this is where LinkSpace is different from many other systems - users don’t type information in each row as you might do on a spreadsheet or table. Instead, a row, when selected, leads you through to a form where all of the work is carried out. And it is this form that is completely configurable. If used for a caseload, each row would take you through to the form for a particular case.
Here is an example of a basic form that you might see when selecting a row.
And here are some of the ways the form can be configured. On this page, you can see a variety of options, such as a calendar and chances to write times, and a calculator which works out the hours that will be spent at a meet.
Some answers can lead to other boxes appearing. For example here, if you select that a meeting was a business one, rather than personal, then other boxes spring up to be filled in.
This might all look very simple, but it allows teams to create workflows for their cases that is bespoke to their needs, and it can become very sophisticated. This all has a lot of benefits.
Different views of the data can be created
On a more macro level, there isn’t just one view of the table we showed you earlier - that would show a full caseload for a whole team. Users can create views to show any information they like that’s in the system. They could just look at cases they are dealing with this week, cases that need an urgent answer on something, or cases that require approval from someone with the relevant authority.
This means that each user is looking at their own slice of the data, as it were. This view selection can be scaled up – and managed so that whole departments will only see their region in the data set. The Prison Service use an instance of LinkSpace, where operators only see the data for their prison or clusters of prisons in their region.
Your data is very secure
With LinkSpace, all of the data for your process is in one place, stored securely on the cloud, with a full version history and audit trail. It’s a secure, scalable alternative to spreadsheets and paperwork underpinned by a robust Information Security Management System certified to ISO 27001 standards and compliant with UK GDPR Legislation.
LinkSpace ensures employees work correctly through critical processes
Organisations require employees to follow particular processes, and often these may have a legal requirement. It might be that in order to carry out surveillance, the MOJ needs to have established public benefit, risk assessed and have secured all of the correct authorisations, or that a team dealing with complaints needs to respond in a certain time frame. LinkSpace can guide your staff through these processes so they can complete their work effectively, and in a way that assures them they’ve stayed within the legal guidelines.
Indeed, the Ministry of Justice does use LinkSpace to make sure they stay within legal guidelines when gathering intelligence - more on that below.
This guidance that LinkSpace provides can be sophisticated, and save staff hours of their time each day. For example, over 5,000 probation officers in the UK use a version of LinkSpace when working in the Effective Proposal Framework (EPF) at the Ministry of Justice. This system has a highly developed shortlisting capability, that helps and ensures that the probation officer will see the relevant sentencing and rehabilitation options while allowing the flexibility for their professional judgement.
Using LinkSpace, the officer can select the relevant criteria- such as the offence, how old the offender is, their location, assessment scores, and any other relevant information. The system then generates a logically correct short list in the form of a a drop down list of sentences and conditions. “It turns hundreds of regularly changing options into the ten that are relevant, and that’s extremely useful” explains our COO John Hayden.
While the EPF tool takes nothing away from the professional knowledge of the probation officer, it ensures that they have the most up-to-date policies and legislation to inform their final recommendations to the judge.
Similar applications also enable the sharing of knowledge and experience across an organisation, meaning that new or inexperienced staff can use decision support to access recommendations or suggested actions to take based on good practice. In short, they can have the confidence to take action based on a decision process that is fully audited.
This all ensures compliance with National Guidelines, and minimises risk for companies
As with the example of the drop-down menu above, certain complex processes (like narrowing down a list of possible options in a particular circumstance) can be automated, which saves employees from having to each do all of the work in each situation.
Software bespoke to your needs
Because LinkSpace is a an off-the-shelf package that can be configured, we can tailor a system for you where the workflow processes are designed to be bespoke to your requirement. This system can be fine-tuned and changed over time, and some of our clients even like configuring it themselves. The fact that it’s so configurable means that something can be developed over time that suits exactly what you need. Our clients have found this invaluable, particularly where changes can be deployed to support operational tempo.
Specialist knowledge is leveraged and staff are levelled up
With LinkSpace, managers can build their experience into the questions and answers and workflows, guiding people through their tasks and passing on their knowledge. If staff are doing an assessment for example, experience can be built into the questions and possible options of what should happen next. This could be anything from an architect assessing a property for its design possibilities, to the police responding to an incident, to health and safety or risk assessments. In all of these situations, employees can be guided through possible processes, and knowledge can be built into the questions and answers.
Some examples could be a request for further information or a list of what could come next, or a red flag answer that could lead to a box that says “call your manager”, or even alerts them directly. Not only would this ensure people carry out the correct processes, it would enable them to learn during the process too.
Enabling teams to collaborate effectively
LinkSpace allows people to work together effectively. The fact that it’s secure means team members have confidence when sharing their work with others. Also, different users in the system interact with it differently, in a way that’s relevant to their role. So people in different positions can be alerted to provide their input or give approval when the workflow require it.
Also, rather than one person trying to aggregate monthly project data for a report, from 50 different spreadsheets, everyone can put their data into one robust framework - no more looking for random variations from month to month!
Work can be assessed along the way
Managers don’t need to wait for work to be emailed over - LinkSpace is a centralised system where the same, live data can be accessed by everyone [with permission of course], which means they can quickly identify gaps, obstacles and errors as they arise, and work to avoid them.
In addition, people can demonstrate that they have complied with the process, because it is all there in writing. All changes are audited, by whom, when and what. This gives managers and process owners piece of mind and the confidence to engage positively with auditors and inspectors.
Work gets easier over time
All of this guidance can be built on over time, so teams develop knowledge and gain confidence in processes as their experience grows.
A picture of your data when needed
LinkSpace can analyse a lot of the data it holds at the touch of a button. For example, the MOD could quickly see the proportion of their non-operational activities in each country in the world, or the MOJ could analyse the variation in sentencing regionally or a breakdown of the types of complaints received in the last year. Having this information available makes it possible to validate or review policy more reliably.
Case Study 1 - MOJ - Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) Authorisation Process
The MOJ occasionally needs to carry out surveillance activities, in the interests of public safety or detecting crime. However, there is legislation known as RIPA, which is the Regulatory Investigatory Powers Act. “It’s a law which prevents surveillance unless under very specific situations” explains our COO John Hayden. “So the authorities can’t just bug your phone for example”.
The RIPA legislation is very important for human rights, but the MOJ also need to do surveillance at times to keep everyone safe, and need to stay within the law. As such, applications and risk management are carried out in LinkSpace. Using a workflow, applicants can make sure that they get all of the relevant permissions, and stay rigorously within the law, with a full audit trail demonstrating such. “Staff need to prove that any applications for surveillance are in the National Interest, or necessary for the safety of individuals” explains John.
The system takes the pressure off individual staff from working everything out themselves, and managers have full oversight of the whole process for each application.
Case Study 2 - HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) – Probation Complaints System
The MOJ uses LinkSpace to keep a record of complaints within the Probation service. Any and all complaints are carefully recorded, and in the first instance are expected to be resolved within 25 days.
Once these complaints have been categorised, a workflow is followed, with alerts and different stages. For example, each complaint might need to be acknowledged within 5 working days, and the team handling the complaints can put on alerts to make sure that the particular complaint is resolved in compliance with the HMPPS Standard Complaints Procedure.
Also, because every change is recorded, there’s a full audit history, and nothing can be changed or deleted accidentally. Thanks to the data set and the consistent approach of adding in the information, you can get a National picture about, for example, how many complaints there are against probation officers or officers in a certain area.
Additional Information
Here at Ctrl O, we continue to work with teams on changes over time when required, and to supplement their capacity. There’s no lock in- it’s easy to get your data out if you feel this isn’t the right system for you, as it’s also open source software. “In many tech programmes, such as Microsoft Word, the code is hidden” explains our CEO Andy Beverley. “But in LinkSpace, the code is open, so it can be changed if programmers wish. And it’s worth saying - the code is open, but the data is still private!”
“Ctrl O is the shortcut for Open on the desktop” explains Andy. “And I’ve always been a fan of open source software, since I was about 16”.
LinkSpace is fully compliant with UK GDPR, ISO 27001 certified and other relevant IT security risk assessments as required by our customers.
Service at Ctrl O
“I’ve always been passionate about a personal service” explains Andy. “Real people at the end of the phone that you can reach and speak to on your first phone call without waiting. There are no automated telephone prompts – you’ve only got one question to answer when you first ring and it has two options- both lead you to a real human being”.
Our team create a bespoke configuration of our software, working with clients on the requirements, and are then always on hand to deal with any queries or problems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We’ve had lots of great feedback recently about our service, and the fact that we are always on hand has been a big reassurance to our clients. You can read more on our testimonials page.
If there’s anything else you’d like to know about LinkSpace, do get in touch.
