General Digital Transformation and Procurement

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would be grateful if you could provide the following details regarding your organisation's mail fulfilment processes, inbound mail handling, financial operations (Accounts Payable and Receivable), and digital transformation oversight. ________________________________________

Hybrid Mail

1. Does the organisation use a Hybrid Mail service to send letters? 2. Which departments use this service? 3. Who is the supplier of the Hybrid Mail service? 4. What is the annual spend on this service? 5. What is the contract end date and/or renewal date? 6. Who is the procurement lead responsible for this contract? 7. Please provide the name or role of the relevant departmental contact for this service. 8. What is the annual volume of letters sent through the Hybrid Mail service? 9. What Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are in place for this service? 10. Is the Hybrid Mail solution integrated with any internal systems (e.g., ERP, CRM, or document management platforms)? 11. Are there any plans to review, expand, or retender the Hybrid Mail service?

________________________________________

Outbound Mail (In-House Processing)

1. Does the organisation use franking machines and/or folding/inserting machines for outgoing post?

2. Which departments use these in-house services?

3. Who supplies or maintains this equipment/service?

4. What is the annual spend associated with this equipment/service?

5. What is the contract end date and/or renewal date?

6. Who is the procurement lead responsible for this contract?

7. Please provide the name or role of the relevant departmental contact for this service.

8. What is the annual volume of letters processed in-house?

9. What equipment models are currently in use?

10. Are any in-house mail processes automated or digitised?

11. Are there any plans to migrate in-house mail processes to a Hybrid Mail solution? ________________________________________

Inbound Mail and Scanning

1. What is the annual volume of inbound mail, broken down into:

a) Letters

b) Parcels

2. Does the organisation use X-ray equipment to scan for suspect items?

3. Is inbound mail opened centrally by the post room or by individual departments?

4. Do you scan/digitise physical mail once opened

5. What system/software do you use to scan

6. Do you use off-site storage for physical documents?

7. Who is the procurement lead responsible for off-site storage and/or mail digitisation?

8. What is the contract end date and/or renewal date for off-site storage?

9. Please provide the name or role of the relevant departmental contact for this service.

10. What is the current volume of boxes or files held in off-site storage? 11. Which supplier(s) provide inbound mail scanning or off-site storage services? 12. Do you use a document management system for storing digitised mail? 13. What is the average turnaround time for scanning and distributing digitised mail?

_______________________________________

Accounts Payable

1. On average, how much staff time is spent manually entering vendor invoice data into your ERP/finance system? 2. How much time is spent manually tracking invoice approvals?

3. What processes are in place to prevent or detect fraudulent or duplicate invoices?

4. How are Accounts Payable documents and audit history stored and retrieved (e.g., ERP, DMS, shared drives)?

5. How many invoices does the organisation receive per month?

6. How many employees does the organisation have?

7. What ERP or finance system is currently used?

8. Do you use any invoice automation, OCR, or AP workflow solutions?

9. What percentage of invoices are received electronically versus on paper?

10. Do you operate a purchase order (PO) and/or non-PO invoice process? ________________________________________

Accounts Receivable

1. How much staff time is spent manually chasing customers for payment of invoices?

2. What are the main challenges faced in reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and managing bad debt?

3. How accessible is accurate, up-to-date reporting for Accounts Receivable?

4. How far into the future can the organisation accurately forecast its cash-flow?

5. How many invoices or bills are sent per month?

6. How many employees does the organisation have?

7. What ERP or finance system is currently used?

8. Do you use any automated AR or credit-control tools?

9. What is the organisation's current average DSO?

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General Digital Transformation and Procurement

1. Who is responsible for overseeing the organisation's digital transformation strategy?

2. Who holds the position of Head of Procurement?

3. Please provide relevant contact details or departmental information for these roles.

4. Does the organisation have a published digital strategy and, if so, when was it last reviewed?

5. Are there any upcoming projects relating to automation, digitisation, or transformation of mail and document processes?

6. Do you have a dedicated print and post room

7. Do you have parking services department

8. Who is the lead for parking services inbound and outbound mail contracts

Hybrid Mail

1. Yes

2. Post Team – Lincoln

3. DHL/UkMail (one company)

4. New contract - therefore no previous year’s figure

5. October 2026

6. Matt Moore

7. Procurement manager

8. Only 2nd class letters being franked by UK mail/DHL and as new contract do not have figure for last year for sending hybrid mail

9. Collection made every day Mon-Friday 3pm-4pm

10. No

11. Not currently

Outbound Mail (In-House Processing)

1. Yes Both franking and folding machines

2. Area offices Coroners Main Post room County offices Lincoln

3. FP and Quadiant

4. For Lincoln post room only ,FP £2795.28 25-26, Quadiant folding machine £12,336.16 25-26

5.The contract end date for the 3 other FP devices is August 2027.

6. Kayleigh Wells

7. The Print and Post Team

8. Information not held

9. 2 x Postbase Vision 5A AF Machines, 1 x Postbase Vision 3S Machine

10. No

11. Yes

Inbound Mail and Scanning

1. a) Letters 39,591 for Nov24 Nov-25

b) Parcels we do not monitor parcel numbers

2. No

3. Post Room

4. Yes

5. Adobe

6. Yes but not for post as this is scanned and disposed of in the confidential waste bins

7. Paula Jervis

8. Information not held

9. Paula Jervis

10. Information not held

11. Restore for any off site storage needed

12. Adobe 13. Same day

Accounts Payable

1. System is automated

2. System is automated

3. Duplicate check report ran and checked every day.

4. ERP

5. Approx 10k

6. 13 employees in Accounts Payable Team

7. Business World

8. OCR and Business World

9. 100%

10. Both

Accounts Receivable

1. 75%

2. Disputes and decision making

3. Ran on 1st working day of each month

4. Information not held 5. Approx 5,000

6. 5

7. Business World

8. No

9. Information not held

General Digital Transformation and Procurement

1. Tom Baker – Chief Information Officer

2. The Council does not have this position

3. tom.baker@linconshire.gov.uk

4. The Council is currently undergoing a full review of its Digital Strategy (Working title: 'Digital Futures') and our strategy has been substantially developed over the last few months; the draft of this strategy is currently being reviewed for approval by Council Leadership and will be published once this review and approval is complete.

5. As part of the wider, emerging Digital Strategy the Council's IT (Digital) services team have established capabilities to leverage automation, digitisation and wider transformation of many services, including those related to mail and document management.

Activities in this and all other areas of Digital Transformation, are directed at prioritised business need based on a rolling portfolio of work.