Agenda item

The panel to undertake the first gateway review of the following service plans:

·          Customer Services

·          Service Transformation and IT

·          Democracy

·          Human Resources and Organisational Development

Copies of the relevant service plans have been distributed to members of the panel as background papers.

As an introduction to this and the following item, it was explained to the panel that the current service plans were titled “Access and Customer Services” and “ICT Services” whereas the 2007/08 service plans would be for “Customer Services” and “Business Transformation and Information Management”, as a result of the management restructure.

The Customer Services Manager then proceeded to give a presentation on the Customer Services plan.

·          The telephony centre had been set up in August 2005 and customer relationship management (CRM) software was in use for a range of services and already proving its value. Other services were also dealt with by the telephony centre but were awaiting business process re-engineering (BPR) to enable delivery via the CRM.

·          The introduction of Allpay had reduced cash handling and the banking hall function as planned.

·          The customer service centre would be opening in November 2006.

·          Further work to be carried out included the transfer of remaining services from the back office, delivery of equal service in the area offices, fully embedded customer service standards throughout the authority, increased training with the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) and improved rates of telephone calls being dealt with at first point of contact.   

·          To achieve this the service needed to carry out ongoing BPR, with work on Revenues and Benefits starting in November 2006, an ongoing review of services already delivered via the customer service and telephony centres, a recruitment drive for ICS training and awareness raising throughout the authority.

·          In relation to Gershon savings, efficiencies had been achieved through BPR and transfer of staff from back offices but specific figures were not yet known.

·          Spend was currently matching budget but an increased salary budget would be required for 2007/08 to reflect the integration of customer-facing back office staff.

·          Three areas had been identified to reduce risk: smooth transition to the customer service centre, multi-skilling of advisors across all services and realisation of self service aspirations.

Members discussed the presentation with the officer and made the following points.  

·          Information on Gershon targets needed expanding. The panel was concerned that anticipated progress was not sufficient.

·          Some members of the panel did not like the word “weaknesses” in the SWOT analysis section of the plan. The officer was asked to explain what was being done to address the ‘problems’ and threats highlighted in the service plan. He therefore outlined: developing skills set with staff (our biggest strength), significant training, multi-skilling and communication. This would be reflected in the new service plan.

·          In relation to the service’s mission statement, the officer was asked how rural areas were being addressed. The officer replied that targets within the current year included working towards the same quality of service within area offices. This would be continued in the future plan including work towards increasing community access points, improved web access and face to face. BPR had enabled front line staff to access customer information thereby increasing the quality of service overall.

·          In relation to the performance indicator to answering letters, some members considered the target to not be challenging enough, although others thought that the quality of response needed weighing up alongside this target.  The officer explained that it was cheapest for the council to do business by telephone, then face to face and then letter. The customer service centre was designed to answer customer queries at the first point of contact.

·          The telephone response target was for corporate customer-facing telephones, not the switchboard or telephony centre. The latter was operating at very high standards and the former lower standards were being addressed through a telephone protocol.

In relation to the “Access” element of this service plan, the Service Manager for Business Transformation and Information Management made a presentation, as this now fell under his remit.  

·          The CRM in the customer service centre had been a key piece of architecture for various projects. A lot of work had been done on integration with back office systems so that back offices did not have to duplicate work from the customer service centre.

·          BPR skills had been developed in house rather than using consultants.

·          Further work needed to be done to achieve full BPR in back offices, all services to be delivered by CRM, target of telephone calls of 80% to be received by the customer service centre and further work on the electronic document records management systems (EDRMS).

·          To achieve this, BPR of revenues and benefits would start in November 2006 (this would ensure that all information from customers was captured first time), EDRMS across all areas, continued transfer of services to the customer service centre, realising of efficiency savings via BPR.

·          Gershon savings would be achieved from BPR , transfer of services and improved customer service.

·          Spend was matching budget and for 2007/08, the access budget would be combined with ICT.

·          In relation to risk, there was a need to ensure that there was a return on investment of BPR activities, adapter capability for back office systems, retention of skills and a smooth integration process.

In response to members’ questions, the officer clarified various points:

·          Financial information reflecting that the service was within budget would be available at the next gateway review.

·          There was little benchmarking information for this service. A balance scorecard in the plan did reflect the value for money of the service.

·          Community portals might be transferred to the council’s main website and problems experienced with accessing planning information online should be resolved.

Conclusions:

(1)  Gershon savings for Customer Services (including the “access” element of this plan) to date to be calculated and reported at Gateway Review 2.  

(2)  Finance information of budgets and spending to be presented at Gateway Review 2.