Smaller egov case studies: Rushcliffe, Swale

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Smaller e-gov case studies Rushcliffe, Swale
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Where were we?

• Each office dealt with its own and avoided "not
  me"
• Because a new officer is involved, customers must
  repeat where they'd got to with their transaction
  last time.
• Delivery channels (visit, letter /email, phone,
  web) were handled separately /differently
• Didn't handle /route partner transactions
• Paper heavy processing
• Costs higher than they need be
• (Rushcliffe) one major office - several reception
  points - differing standards / need for customer
  to navigate from one reception to another -
  confusing and over complex

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Where have we got to? 1 of 4 - single front
office function, handling

• (Swale) 80 services, 50 by volume of
  transactions.
• (Rushcliffe) all revsbens, housing allocations,
  most environmental transactions, bins, waste,
  abandoned vehicles, allotments, housing
  grants,cleansing, grounds maintenance, taxi
  other licensing, electoral registration, some
  planning applications. Housing is no longer run
  by the Council, leisure services manage their own
  contacts.
• Sell on" other services.
• Can we help you with anything else eg one bulk
  waste leads to the son-in-laws fridge.
• Means longer transaction time but worth it

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Where have we got to? 2 of 4 - technology

• Front and back office (mostly) integrated.
• CRM, ACD
• (Swale) provision of Internet access to remote
  areas, tackling social exclusion
• Northgate integrated systems.
• Community based web portal
• Using PDAs in the field (eg housing rant
  assessments)
• (Rushcliffe) FAQs via Intranet
• (Now) introducing on-line forms - more accurate
  form completion - less errors - less re-work

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Where have we got to? 3 of 4 - call centre
operation
(Swale) time to transact - just over 2 mins.
Abandoned calls less than 3. Customer
satisfaction from 76 to 98 (Rushcliffe) 12 seat
call centre, also handles 400 Visits, letters,
emails per day Made efficiency savings. Improved
quality of service through effective technology
and changed staff attitudes
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Where have we got to? 4 of 4 working with
others in the public sector

• (Swale) Kent fire service use front office to
  report abandoned vehicles direct from cabs
  community portal - links to Kent County Council
• (Rushcliffe) County wide portal (soon) will give
  access to others services, will include CMS

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How did we get here? 1 of 4

• CEX
• Lead the project
• Is the project sponsor
• Chairs the project board
• Project management is by pragmatic PRINCE2

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How did we get here? 2 of 4 overcoming
opposition (Rushcliffe)

• There was opposition
• From staff "my job is threatened
• From heads of service "not how we do things round
  here, skills transfer can't happen, contact
  centre isn't competent in our highly professional
  areas".
• Overcome by
• CEX leads (and some heads did get banged
  together)
• Kept everyone informed, staff consultations
• Before each transaction type was added, did BPR
• Such as customer service week showed high
  standard of service to other staff /managers
  they could listen in to calls / observe
  front-desk service

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How did we get here? 3 of 4 change management
principles (Swale)

• Who does it effect? The entire organisation
• Re-structuring around customer needs
• Cultural change to embed customer focus
• Business process change Job re-designing
• Up skilling front office, down skilling back
  office
• Actively seek and act on feedback
• Strategy? Determine corporate strategy first
• Must be a business driven programme
• Technology used to enable changes, not to drive
  them
• Communication? Only when you are sick of hearing
  yourself will the message have only just got
  though

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How did we get here? 4 of 4 change management
principles (Swale)

• Delivery?
• Ensure senior management ownership.
• Business process mapping yields big improvements
  but time consuming, resistance to change
• Track savings and changes to organisations
  culture, structure, customer/stakeholder
  satisfaction
• Use existing skills within the organisation
• Where does it end? Never ending

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Lessons learnt?

• Senior Management ownership vital, which was
  there
• Didn't appreciate the peakiness of volumes had
  to learn how to handle peaks by implementing
  unusual work patterns
• Performance measurement and performance
  management could have been better. It now is
• Process mapping takes time and training
• Must always look for the savings
• Existing skills in the organisation find them,
  use them
• Didnt push enough on need to improve the
  service not the status quo

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Next?

• Will introduce more transactions and services
• Will introduce authentication where needed
• Will introduce case based reasoning systems
  which will reduce further tx handled by back
  office professionals
• Need to continue developing the Kent partnership
  citizens dont know who provided which services

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• Josie McGuirk, Deputy CEX and head of policy
  performance "the knowledge, skill and dedication
  of the contact centre staff who came from many
  walks of life and many roles in the council is
  impressive - coupled with good systems it means
  the service is much better and consistently so.
• Chris Edwards, Swale Chief executive We have
  achieved a state of true continuous improvement,
  the culture has changed, the customer is at the
  forefront of everything. We are searching for new
  ways of stakeholder satisfaction. This is the
  future of Local Government