CABINET. 12 January 2006 PROCUREMENT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT COMPUTER SOFTWARE. Report of the Assistant Chief Executive (CH)

Transcription

1 CABINET 12 January 2006 PROCUREMENT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT COMPUTER SOFTWARE Report of the Assistant Chief Executive (CH) RECOMMENDATION That Cabinet 1 confirm the approach to implementing the strategic priority Accessibility of services: extending and improving the ways people can receive our services through prioritising the improvements brought together in the COMPASS programme 2 select Lagan Technologies Ltd as the preferred supplier of customer relationship management software. Summary The Council has a challenging programme to improve the way it manages contacts with local people, especially by telephone. This programme, which has been named COMPASS (Customer Oriented Management of Processes, Access Services and Support), brings together into one programme the different initiatives required to achieve this improvement. The COMPASS Programme Board has undertaken a major procurement exercise to choose the best supplier of CRM (customer relationship management) software on the basis of quality and cost. This report summarises the overall programme, the procurement route taken to select a suitable IT supplier, and the financial implications. Statutory Powers Local Government Act 2000 Part 1 Local Government Act 1999 S.2 Local Government Act 1992 S. 111 Introduction 1. Customer focus is one of the Council s values. For several years, the Council has been considering how to improve service to customers, and in

2 particular, to tackle criticisms of telephone contact with Council staff. Surveys of personal callers to the Civic Offices and questions to Viewpoint in 2003 and 2005 showed that, from the customer perspective, there is most room for improvement in telephone contact. This is reinforced by statistics on telephone answering. 2. At the same time, the ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) set e- Government targets for improving customer service, including: Systems to ensure effective and consistent customer relationship management across access channels to provide a first time fix for citizen and business enquiries i.e. using a common database, which holds customers records, to deliver services across different channels, and enabling joined-up and automated service delivery (R27) Integration of customer relationship management systems with back office activity through use of enabling technologies such as Workflow to create complete automation of business process management (G24) Establishment of a single business account (G8). (The words and numbers in brackets refer to the ODPM Priority Service Outcomes for e-government.) 3. One of the Council s strategic priorities for 2005/06 is Accessibility of services: extending and improving the ways people can receive our services. 4. To implement this strategic priority, the Council has developed a challenging programme to improve the way it manages its contacts with local people, especially by telephone. This programme has been named COMPASS (Customer Oriented Management of Processes, Access Services and Support). The COMPASS programme in outline 5. COMPASS brings together into one programme several related activities. One stream consists of purchasing and implementing new IT software for customer relationship management, for workflow (allocating tasks to be done), and for electronic scanning and storage of documents. Another is to review how work is organised and to look for more efficient ways to process it ( business process review ). 6. COMPASS is much more than an IT project; but the level of change needed needs improved IT systems incorporating CRM and Workflow. 7. Based on Viewpoint findings and statistics on telephone answering, COMPASS has designated the telephone as the priority channel of communication to improve.

3 8. The COMPASS approach is based on previous decisions by Members that the Council should not create a new customer call centre in one location, but should look for ways to improve customer call handling within each unit. 9. Learning from experience in other authorities, COMPASS decided on an incremental approach, where new systems are introduced unit by unit on a rolling programme, with an incremental introduction of new processes within each unit. 10. The programme will affect everything the Council does. The first services to benefit from the change should be those where improvement will have the biggest impact. The decision is therefore to prioritise Environmental Health, Direct Services, and the Single Business Account aspect of economic development. Reception and switchboard will be included in relation to calls for these units at this first stage. 11. Revenue and Benefits and Development Control will be next in priority for implementation. The COMPASS vision 12. Based on the joint officer/member Access to Services study and subsequent debates, this vision has been developed for customer access in Eastleigh: A quality service honest and open response standards of service agreed and met customer-focused, meeting customer expectations identified in Access to Services research all calls get through and not just to switchboard; no voic calls dealt with first time seamless; no need to tell the same story over and over again, and no need for repeated contacts on same issues across a range of interactions easy to contact time and location choice of ways to contact us An efficient service Better use and sharing of resources Shift of work from professional to support staff Improved performance monitoring Improved performance management, for example of standards Better information management - tracking and sharing information CRM and workflow procurement the story so far 13. Once the outline of the programme was clear, the next step was to identify the IT systems required to implement it, starting with CRM. In February 2005, the Council therefore joined a consortium of Councils (Portsmouth, Southampton

4 and Bournemouth) to invite software suppliers to tender for the supply of customer relationship management software. A joint tender document was issued on behalf of the consortium. 14. The Council had meanwhile been concerned about lack of capacity to manage the programme of change. In January 2005, Eastleigh Borough Council self-referred to the ODPM to ask for their help in enabling the Council to meet the e-government targets that were causing the most problems. Customer access was high on this list. 15. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister allocated the Council the support of a consultant from IDeA and 100,000 extra funding, three-quarters of which was for customer relationship. The e-government Board decided to delete the vacant post of e-government Programme Manager, and to create a threeyear post of Change Manager to lead on the customer access project and related ICT systems. 16. June 05: Jo-Anne Heathcote started work for the Council as Change Manager, and was allocated the support of two newly appointed business analysts in IT Services to form a project team. The COMPASS Programme was created, and an approach to supplier selection was agreed. 17. July 05: The E-Government Board decided that the COMPASS team should use consultants to assist with further specification of CRM requirements in order to help the Council to move forward. The COMPASS team maintained close liaison with the Council s legal officers and the Procurement Officer, to ensure that proper process was followed at every stage. 18. Aug 05: Consultant partners NCC Group appointed. 19. Sep 05: NCC Group worked with the COMPASS team to gather the Council s requirements and to add these to the consortium specification details. 20. Oct 05: The additional CRM requirements were issued to the six CRM suppliers who had responded to the consortium s invitation to tender. Responses were received from three of these suppliers by the end of October. Of the other three, one had been acquired by another and could no longer bid, and two chose not to continue with their bids. 21. Nov 05: Evaluations of proposals, demonstrations, reference site visits and technical references were used to short list and select. Service Unit staff were involved throughout the evaluation phase, along with Finance and Audit representatives. 22. Dec 05: The COMPASS team carried out budget evaluations and analysis of suppliers pricing proposals. The team reported to the COMPASS Board on 15 December 2005 with financial analysis and impact assessments. Detailed analysis of the costings provided by the three suppliers who tendered showed that over a five year period, the difference in price was very small. This meant that the quality of the product and confidence in the supplier were the significant features in the Board s choice.

5 23. The COMPASS Board agreed to recommend that the Cabinet appoint Lagan as the preferred supplier. The view that Lagan were the best tenderer was unanimous from the COMPASS Team and from all the unit staff who were involved in demonstrations and site visits. Other Councils who use Lagan were complimentary about both the programme and the company, and significantly more enthusiastic than those using Lagan s strongest competitor. CRM and workflow procurement - the next steps 24. Subject to Cabinet approval, the COMPASS team will engage with Lagan and commence contract negotiations and a phase of detailed planning. Before signing the contract, the COMPASS Board will review the detailed plans, risk and impact assessments and revised financial analysis. 25. In order to prepare for this phase of detailed planning, the COMPASS team has assessed the impact of the changes of systems and culture on service units and customers. The team conducted impact assessments throughout December to establish the amount of change required to ensure a successful roll-out of CRM. A high level plan has been drafted to establish which Units will be involved between January and December The summary roll-out plan takes into account: (a) (b) (c) each unit s busy periods in terms of staff availability and operational workload how to achieve other benefits such as meeting the needs of units whose existing computer systems need to be replaced Unit s enthusiasm for being involved in the programme at the outset. 26. Computer systems alone will not improve either customer service or efficiency. As each unit moves from using their existing systems to using CRM, it will work with the COMPASS team to look for ways to improve service and structure itself in a way that increases both the number of customer contacts and activities it can handle, and the quality of the service that it provides. All Phase 1 and Phase 2 units have committed to restructuring themselves to form a front office and back office arrangement to achieve this. 27. The roll-out timetable is Phase 1 Units using CRM by May 2006 Environmental Health potential to improve the delivery of their services and availability of resources within the Unit to get the project moving. Economic Development to prepare the Unit for the introduction of the Single Business Account and the potential to develop the way that the Unit delivers its services. Phase 2 Units using CRM by December 2006

6 Direct Services potential to improve delivery of key services, improve cross-unit working with Units such as Environmental Health and Planning, increase in number of enquiries resolved at Town Centre Office. Revenue & Benefits potential to improve delivery of key services, sharing of non-sensitive information with other Units, increase in number of enquiries resolved at Town Centre Office. Development Control - potential to improve delivery of key services, improve cross-unit working with Units such as Environmental Health and Planning, increase in number of enquiries resolved at Town Centre Office. Return on investment 28. Improved service quality: the COMPASS programme is driven by the identified need to improve customer service, especially in telephone contact. The first year of a similar programme at a comparable neighbouring District Council, Chichester (starting with Housing, Planning and Building Control) led to unanswered calls reduced by 91%, and calls forwarded to voic reduced by 85%. 29. Uncashable gains: the programme will lead to a re-allocation of work so that officer time is used more efficiently. In Chichester, for example, benefits included: The number of calls to the back office reduced by 85% Approx. 25 hours per week made available in back office enabling home visits. Less customers requiring appointment with professional officer because enquiries are resolved by the customer service officer who answered the call; result waiting time for appointment reduced from up to 4 weeks to next week Reduced appointment times due to comprehensive data capture prior to appointment. (Source: IDeA Strategic Support Unit) 30. Cashable gains: Because the programme has adopted an incremental approach, detailed savings can only be estimated process by process, and it will take a long time for their cumulative effect to be known. The Council should achieve less manual processing of data and the end of double keying; less time searching for lost files (57% of local government professionals waste one day in 20 looking for old s, according to a survey at SOCITM conference October 2005); devolution of many customer enquiries from senior to more junior staff; fewer repeat calls/visits/letters from the public; less paper; better management of information creates the possibility of targeting frequently asked questions/frequent users / frequent problems; better identification of under-performance by people or systems. 31. The gains will be tracked and recorded as they emerge so that the Council can assess the overall return on investment.

7 Relationship to the overall e-government Programme 32. Up till now, investment in new IT systems has tended to be approached on a project by project basis, recommended by individual services. COMPASS time prioritises IT investment to meet a corporate key priority and to improve service delivery across the Council. The budget isn't for purchasing or installing new IT software, but for transforming the way the Council deals with the public. Financial Implications 33. The Council Executive approved an additional 350,000 for e-government in September 2004, which included provision in the overall programme for CRM and associated software. The capital and revenue costs identified in Appendix 1 can be met from existing E-Government budgets (including a sum of 76,000 from the additional 100,000 from the ODPM). 34. For the four years 2005/06 to 2008/09, the overall e-government Programme capital available to spend is just under 2 million, plus a notional 75,000 return on investment. 35. The forecast overall capital cost of the COMPASS programme over the same four-year period is 923,000, 45 per cent of the e-government capital programme. With an overall revenue spend forecast of 181,000, this gives an average annual total of 276, Allocating this to COMPASS leaves enough e-government capital to fund other e-government projects which are already in the pipeline, including (for example) Building Control, finalising the decriminalised parking enforcement system, e-procurement, computerising the management of the Direct Services fleet of vehicles, improving the IT links with Itchen Valley Country Park, computerising land charges records, and replacing out-dated computers. However, it leaves little for capital expenditure not currently forecast in the e- government programme. Risk assessment 37. The COMPASS Team and Project Board carried out a detailed risk analysis at the start of the process, and will refresh this in January and regularly thereafter. Very careful and detailed work on selection has minimised the risk of selecting the wrong CRM system or of not following proper procurement procedure. Involvement of staff reduces the risk of software being installed and then not used to improve services. Conclusion 38. Improving customer access is a Council strategic priority, the citizens panel prioritises improving telephone access, and the Government set e- Government targets for customer service. The COMPASS programme has been carefully planned to meet these needs with a rolling programme of change. The purchase of a good CRM IT system is a necessary element of

8 Civic Offices Leigh Road Eastleigh Hampshire SO50 9YN the overall programme. Officers have undertaken a careful procurement exercise in order to choose the recommended supplier. CHRISTINE HOLLOWAY Assistant Chief Executive Date: 10 January 2006 Contact Officer: Christine Holloway Tel No: christine.holloway@eastleigh.gov.uk Appendices Attached: 1 Report No ACECAB1 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 SECTION 100D The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report or an important part of it is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report: Consortium Invitation to Tender, February 2005 Request for further information to tenderers, EBC, October 2005 Minutes of the COMPASS Board December 2005 e-government budget