Shared Services: A New Era Of Consistency In Local Government

By David Moody, Head of Worldwide Product Development, KANA Software

It’s About Time For Shared Services

The sharing of IT services within local government is not a new concept.  However, whilst the idea has been around for over a decade, cuts and a record period of austerity has resulted in more local government shared services initiatives being delivered in the last 12 months than in the previous decade.

For the general public, we are exiting a recession and a period of economic hardship.  However, for those working in government, the effects of the recession are still underway and will continue to be a factor for years to come.  So, why have we not seen local councils working together in this way before now?  And how many more shared services initiatives should we expect to see in the coming years?
 

So What Are The Challenges?

Neighbouring councils, whilst geographically close, may well be far apart when it comes to their political alignment.  Naturally, this creates an environment of competition rather than co-operation which is actually to the detriment of the public.  It’s obviously far less cost-effective to be running two contact centres for example, with two separate IT departments when ultimately; it’s the public’s money they are spending.  This means that members of the public are left footing the bill caused by political division in neighbouring councils.

By their own admission, government bodies are fairly averse to the sharing of resources and services.  I was at a recent public sector conference where upon being asked who was prepared to share services, the room fell deafly silent.  This has more to do with maintaining ownership and control over their services than a simple objection to working together.  Many councils fear that by moving toward a model of shared services, they are losing their identity along with their ability to control standards and operational structure.

If you look at this from the customer perspective, the public don’t need to know what council region they are in and don’t really want to navigate through various departments to reach somebody who can serve their needs.  Providing a consistency of service throughout a wider region can only benefit members of the public.

Councils need to be very careful when making assumptions about the cost savings of shared IT services.  It is imperative that all councils involved are on the same page when it comes to exactly what is being shared and where responsibilities lay.  It is also important to understand and make educated predictions on traffic volumes for every channel.  Otherwise, outsourcing services based on partial or purely estimated figures may leave departments overwhelmed.

There is also a great deal of sensitivity around efficiencies which result in job cuts.  As well as legal constraints and notice periods, decisions have to be made over who loses their job and from which council cuts should be made.

The Opportunities

At KANA Software, we’ve had many success stories when it comes to the implementation of shared services.  Beyond the significant savings on resources for those involved, there are numerous benefits to both customers and council staff.  Smaller councils can partner with ‘big brothers’ to leverage the additional infrastructure and potentially expand their service offering, staff can receive additional support where required and customers can expect the same level of service as their regional neighbours.

A case in point is Charnwood Borough Council and their neighbours Harborough.  Facing a 12 month closure of the customer contact centre for refurbishment, Harborough turned to Charnwood to take over the enquiries from Harborough customers during this period.  This was a big ask as 60% of the contacts were complex  Revenue and Benefits queries  of which Charnwood had no prior experience as this service was outsourced to Capita.

The decision was made to bring Revenue and Benefits enquiries for both Harborough and Charnwood in-house.  Fortunately, the existing LAGAN software used by Charnwood provided the ability to develop scripts and workflows to guide new, inexperienced staff through complex processes in very short timescales.   The ability to integrate with the Academy benefits package meant that a claim could be opened up in LAGAN, and the link between LAGAN and the Avaya telephony system ensured a seamless end-to-end process.

7 services are now dealt with through the shared services switchboard with more in the pipeline:

• Refuse collection
• Benefits and council tax claimants (not currently covered by Charnwood)
• ASB
• Licensing
• Switch board for Harborough (1^st point of contact)
• Choice-based letting housing calls
• Payment calls

The benefits of this shared service have been very apparent:

• 53% Channel shift
• Freeing up of expert staff for more complex enquiries
• Minimal referral calls to the refuse collection back office

This proved that with the right technology, new agents can be trained to take complex calls within 4 weeks.  This has built the confidence to introduce new service lines into the contact centre.

More recently Staffordshire Connects, a partnership of 8 Councils, has adopted a ground-breaking shared services model which provides many smaller councils with affordable access to advanced contact centre service.  LAGAN Enterprise for Agent and Web has been deployed in a managed services and hosted cloud model and is the first shared services model of its kind in the UK which supports G-Cloud.  Within 3 months all of the 8 councils went live.

When managed correctly, shared services allow councils to retain their identity whilst sharing systems.  The silver lining of this challenging climate for local government is this establishment of more flexible, more consistent and ultimately, far more efficient services for the general public.

David Moody is the Head of Worldwide Product Strategy for KANA Software. He and his team have responsibility for the introduction and on-going success of KANA’s strategic solutions across all target markets, including commercial and government.