The London Borough of Newham has reduced the time
council staff spend updating systems with customer queries by
developing an interface that allows front-line employees to input
directly into back-end systems.
The challenge for the council's IT department was to reach a
point where all front-office employees could update its core
customer relationship management application using a single
interface. It also wanted to avoid the rekeying of customer
requests from the CRM application into other back-office
systems.
IT staff built and deployed the Services Online interface at a
cost of £26,000. It has enabled Newham's core Hotline database to
be updated with customer requests at the same time as the council's
CRM application.
The council said, "As a result of integration between the
Hotline database and CRM, we have reduced waste within the
reporting process. The time taken by the contact centre staff [with
this reporting work] has been reduced by approximately 338 hours
per month."
The system is also expected to lead to fewer calls being made to
the council because customers will be sent updates on the progress
of their requests automatically. Services Online can be configured
to send SMS messages and e-mails to customers at different stages
of their requests' progress.
Further time will be saved if customers use e-forms on the
council's website to submit their enquiries electronically.
The council said productivity savings in the customer contact
centre would be reinvested in front-line services.
Several council departments within Newham worked on the project.
IT provided the technology and application development skills, with
a separate team within IT, called Excellence-online, providing
project management skills based on the Prince 2 framework.
The council's customer services department contributed knowledge
of how the front-line systems were used and how business processes
operated.
At the start of the process, Newham appointed a project manager
to oversee the introduction of Services Online. The manager visited
front-office and back-office sites to understand business processes
and establish terms of reference with the project board and service
heads.
The council said, "Early involvement and consultation with all
the teams that would use the new system resulted in less resistance
to change and a greater understanding of the requirements of the
system.
"The project revealed the amount of wastage in the system and
this discovery will provide a good motivation for future
projects."
By keeping customers informed of progress with their requests,
Newham is also hoping to improve its rating under the government's
Comprehensive Performance Assessment, which monitors how
effectively councils are spending public money.