CALL CENTRE DEVELOPMENT, CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING

Transcription

1 Report Customer First Sub-committee 26 May 2006 CALL CENTRE DEVELOPMENT, CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING 1-1. Reason for the report To integrate three of the major interlinked modernising projects into one programme to ensure a cohesive and consistent implementation. 2. Background 2.1 At the last Customer First Sub-committee on 16 February members agreed that a detailed business case for the development of a Call Centre be prepared incorporating risk assessments, option and benefit appraisal in respect of service delivery, maximisation of opportunities for partnership working, innovative service delivery and for this business case to be placed in the context of the Council s regeneration strategies and decentralisation policies. A project brief was prepared and given to KPMG who had completed the original call centre feasibility study. The feasibility study on Call Centre development had highlighted that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Business Process (BPR)was fundamental to the setup of a Call Centre. 2.2 The response from KPMG was disappointing and will be referred to later in this report. 2.3 As members are aware the Council were successful in drawing down funding from round 3 of the Scottish Executive s Modernising Government Fund (MGF3). The Scottish Executives MGF3 fund supports the development of CRM and our successful bid included funding for CRM and BPR. 2.4 According to the Scottish Executive - The Modernising Government Fund has been a catalyst for the development of new, joined-up and customer focused services which are provided more accurately, quickly and at lower cost. The current round of funding (MGF3) will develop a strategic programme to make contact between the public and councils simpler and more efficient and a national data infrastructure which can support future joining up of administrative functions and service delivery. 2.5 At the September 2005 Customer First Sub-committee members agreed to proceed with a CRM Pilot project in the Stewartry funded in the main by MGF3, using Lagan Frontline software. 3. Discussion 3.1 The Scottish Executive see Call Centres as being one of their key objectives in their modernising government agenda - improving services to the customer. 3.2 In a CRM based service delivery structure the customer is the key component in the service delivery chain. 3.3 The response from KPMG for developing the business case is disappointing. Their estimate was in excess of f60k and experience from the work they under took

2 Report Customer First Sub-committee 26 May 2006 in the first stage of the project suggests that they do not have the capacity to complete the business case at a cost and timescale suitable to the Council. While the Revenues Section of the Finance Department are shortly to commence a proof of concept telephony project, which will help inform the development of a call centre, the Council will still require external expertise to prepare a business case and subsequently develop a call centre. As previously intimated to Members there are no specific earmarked funds to support the development of the call centre business case. 3.4 CRM is crucial to the operation of a Call Centre, enabling customer interactions such as letters, telephone calls, service requests, complaints and information requests, to be linked to enable a customer view. 3.5 BPR is crucial to the success of CRM. 3.6 The three projects are all dependant on each other to deliver their potential. 3.7 Efficient Government reflects the same principles applied to the Council s modernising agenda: focusing on people; ensuring excellence; maximising choice; and getting the best value for the public pound. The right staff with the right skills and in the right numbers working in the right way. BPR plays a fundamental part in this, ensuring we look at all our processes and re-engineer our services - the customer is the key component in the service delivery chain. 3.8 A good definition of BPR - removing duplication and non-value added activities and re-designing simpler, faster and more robust processes. Frequently linked to the introduction of new technology. 3.9 The CRM pilot has uncovered anecdotal evidence of inefficiencies in business processes - staff are duplicating databases, the systems in place to help them do their job are not trusted, so they create additional records to help them deliver their services. This not only causes more work and is inefficient but also introduces the potential for errors to occur and wrong information to be stored If the Council are to be successful in delivering their 2lSt Century Government Strategy and in particular our commitment to improving Services and efficient government all three projects, BPR, Call Centre and CRM, must be progressed at the same time There is funding available out of our Customer First Programme budget of f500k which is allocated to CRM. This funding includes f250k intended to be used for BPR. 4. Partnership Working The current CRM project is funded through the Scottish Executive and officers attend national CRM meetings where best practice is discussed and shared. At a recent meeting in Edinburgh informal discussions with Scottish Borders Council intimated that they were now embarking on a similar modernising programme which includes CRM and BPR. There is therefore scope to reduce costs through sharing resources and expertise. In particular Scottish Borders are making arrangements to introduce business processing skills into their organisation so there may be an immediate opportunity to share costs.

3 Report Customer First Sub-committee 26 May Delivering the Customer First Programme The business transformation strand of the Council s developing financial efficiency strategy will be depending on the these three work streams to produce, not only better customer services but also time and cash release savings. Similarly, other strands of the financial efficiency strategy - management restructuring and policy and performance options review - will bring forward suggestions for a more integrated and focused approach to delivering customer services. Irrespective, however, of any management restructuring agreed as an outcome of the financial efficiency strategy, the Council do not have the experience and expertise to prepare a business case and subsequently develop a call centre. Similarly, although the Council has BPR expertise within the Policy & Performance Unit and Revenues Unit of Financial Services, there is no spare capacity to redeploy staff to undertake either BPR training or re-engineer the services that will be delivered through the Council s Call Centre and Customer Service Centres. 6. Financial Implications and Risk Assessment 6.1 There is a budget of f250k available from the Modernising Government Fund to support the report s recommendations. 6.2 In terms of risk assessment, part of the includes a section on risk assessment. The particular risks associated with not proceeding with the integrated approach recommended in this report are:- (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Failure to deliver part of the Council s 2Ist Century strategy; Failure to deliver on the Scottish Executive s Modernising Government programme for which the Council has received grant support; Failure to achieve the customer services improvements that would be delivered through a call centre; and Failure to identify and subsequently achieve efficiencies through Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR). 7. Conclusion 7.1 To ensure these three projects are successfully delivered it is essential that they are managed as one integrated programme of work and that suitable external expertise is procured to ensure full integration and delivery of the three work streams. 7.2 There are, however, also efficiencies to be gained in working with our neighbouring Council, Scottish Borders as detailed above. We have already developed a strong working relationship through the Broadband Pathfinder project and there is a willingness to work on CRM and BPR together. 7.3 It is therefore suggested that officers are instructed to pursue joint working with Scottish Borders on Business Process and Customer Relationship Management. This may also give rise to other opportunities for joint working. It is also suggested that officers should be instructed to procure external support to deliver the integrated project which includes Customer Relationship Management, Call Centre and Business Process. 7.4 There is a draft attached, Appendix 1, which provides initial details of the proposed programme of work. The has yet to be finalised but will include clear expected outcomes, timescales and costs.

4 Report Customer First Sub-committee 26 May Consultation The Corporate Management Team, Area & Group Managers Team, Operations Manager Information Services, the Customer First Programme Board and the ICT Board have been consulted and acknowledged the contents of the report. 9. Recommendation The Sub-committee is asked to agree that within the overall budget of f250k officers are instructed: 9.1 to pursue joint working with Scottish Borders Council on Business Process and Customer Relationship Management; 9.2 to procure external expertise to ensure full integration and delivery of the three work streams; and 9.3 to receive a report on the feasibility of joint working with Scottish Borders Council. Report prepared by Keith Percival, Consultant tel : Gordon Lawson Group Manager Policy & Improvement Tel: Date of Report: 24 May 2006 File Ref: : MG/3/3 - KP/MHrep Leslie Jardine Corporate Director of Corporate Services Council Offices English Street Dumf ries DG1 2DD APPENDICES - 1 4

5 APPENDIX 1 PROJECT DOCUMENTATION PROJECT BRIEF Project: Call Centre Development, Customer Relationship Management and Business Process Re-eng i neeri ng. Release: Date: 1 May 2006 PRINCE2 Author: Owner: Client: Keith Percival Customer First Programme Board Dumfries and Galloway Council Document Ref: Version No: 1

6 1 History 1.I Document Location This document is only valid on the day it was printed. The source of the document will be found on the project's PC in location 1.2 Revision History Date of this revision: Date of Next revision: Revision date Previous Summary of Changes Changes marked revision date IFirst issue 1.3 Approvals This document requires the following approvals. Signed approval forms are filed in the Management section of the project files. Name Signature Title Date of Version Issue 1.4 Distribution This document has been distributed to: lname ltitle I Issue Date OflVersion I Page 2

7 2 Table of Contents Page 1 History 1.I Document Location 1.2 Revision History 1.3 Approvals 1.4 Distribution 1 1 Table of Contents Purpose Background Project Definition Outline Business Case Customer s Quality Expectations Acceptance Criteria Any Known Risks Page 3

8 Project B r ief 3 Purpose To pull together the 3 current projects - Customer Relationship Management, Call Centre and Business Process into one cohesive programme, bring in the necessary expertise to help us deliver on these major projects, which are fundamental to our vision of future service delivery and transfer the necessary skills to our own staff so we can re-engineer our business processes, roll-out CRM across the Council and implement a call centre for Dumfries and Galloway Council. 4 Background The Council, as part of the third round of the Scottish Executive Modernising Government Fund (MGF3), was awarded funding to implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) across the Council. Our bid submission recognised that CRM was not just about computer systems but fundamentally about looking at how we supply our services and how we can reorganise or re-engineer them to provide better, more efficient services to our customers, i.e. Business Process (BPR). We recognised the need to select and adopt a corporate BPR methodology and ensure our staff are given the necessary skills to apply this methodology to re-engineer our services. We have been using several different methodologies to help us in our quest to reengineer our services - Vanguard Finance working with Comino Techflow to produce the as is and can do process maps when they implemented Comino Lagan process currently being used in the CRM pilot. These different methodologies have produced services that are customer focussed, more efficient and effective. We need to look at a corporate approach, which uses one methodology for consistency and allows us to train our staff to undertake our own reengineering. We recognise that we will have to buy in the expertise to accomplish this. We have been working with KPMG on the feasibility of a Call Centre for the Council. The output from the feasibility study was that is was feasible and desirable. We need to move this project along and develop a costed plan to implement a call centre. We do not possess the necessary skills to take this further and will need to buy-in these skills. In order to move the CRM project on, we have commissioned a pilot project, in the Stewartry, which builds on the work already done for the Customer Services Pilot in the Customer Services Centres in this area. The pilot will allow us to prove the concepts behind CRM, looking at how we deliver services, producing process maps, creating scripts in an industry leading CRM system. We have chosen Lagan as our partner for the Page 4

9 pilot using their CRM application FrontLine. We have made no commitment to Lagan post pilot. Financial Services already has telephony software that would enable them to setup and run a proof of concept pilot Call Centre for Council Tax/Revenue Benefits enquiries. This is a proof of concept and will give the Council some experience and feed into this new programme. When we set up the Council s Corporate Call Centre we will be able to use this practical experience. Before we start the proof of concept pilot, we will need to look at the hardware and infrastructure requirements for the telephone software and the number of users who will be involved in the pilot. 5 Project Definition This project will pull together the CRM, Call Centre and Business Process Reengineering projects into a cohesive programme, to enable the Council to better deliver on its commitment and vision of improving customer services. We will need to bring in the necessary expertise in order to skills transfer to our own staff on BPR and to help us define our needs for a Call Centre and to set one up. The project will build on the effective work already underway with the CRM pilot project and will endorse a proof of concept pilot Call Centre in Financial Services using telephony software provided by the Department of Work and Pensions. The results of this pilot will inform and help us in our implementation of the Council wide Call Centre. By pulling these 3 projects together we will ensure that we have a more consistent approach to improving customer services, the corporate CRM system will be used in all our Customer Service Centres and our Call Centre, as we transfer services to the Call Centre, the back-office/front-office split will been done as part of the re-engineering of the service and we will be adding value to our services. The objectives of this project are:- To deliver a Call Centre for Dumfries and Galloway Council To roll-out a corporate CRM across the Council, consistently in Customer Service Centres and the Call Centre, to be used by both front-office and back-office staff. To give our own staff the necessary skills to conduct BPR To adopt a corporate methodology for BPR There is a budget for CRM/BPR which will fund this project. 6 Outline Business Case We have an approved 2lSt Century Government Strategy and a Customer Services Strategy, both of these documents demonstrate the Council s aims and commitment to improve the level and choice of services to our customers. Page 5

10 We are looking at efficiencies throughout the Council, and these projects will provide clear and identifiable time and cash releasing savings in delivery - BPR makes service delivery more efficient and effective, with the potential for staff and cash release savings. A corporate approach will ensure consistency in our approach. A Call Centre takes away some of the more mundane tasks from our experts, therefore freeing up their time to concentrate on their real jobs adding real value to our service delivery. CRM gives us not only a consistent approach to how we interface with our customers but also a contact history. Our customers will no longer have to repeat their requests as we will have them logged. CRM provides the link to our back-office systems for our front line staff. We have recognised that running these 3 projects separately will not fulfil the potential to deliver on our commitment for joined up modern service delivery. They need to be treated as one programme, driven by a heavy weight Programme Manager. 7 Customer s Quality Expectations Improved service delivery 0 Consistency of service wherever that service is delivered 0 Services re-engineered to be customer focussed. 0 Efficiency savings 8 Acceptance Criteria Adoption of a corporate CRM system used consistently across all customer facing service delivery points - face to face and telephone Adoption of a corporate BPR methodology and staff trained to use this methodology Setup and transfer of initial functions into a Call Centre with a development plan for service adoption Back-Office process integration 0 Back-Office process re-engineering 9 Any known Risks Culture shift Conflicting ideas on BPR methodologies - we have in use several Page 6

11 0 Finding the right person to lead this programme 0 Time 0 Availability of internal resources 0 Initiative fatigue Page 7