IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Lancaster City Council has been named a finalist at the prestigious UK Communications in Business (CIB) technology awards in the category ‘Best Contact Centre Network Project/Implementation’.

The awards are run by Communications News magazine and sponsored by a host of blue chip IT companies, including thus, O2 and nt.:Telewest. The winners will be announced on 7 September 2006.

Lancaster City Council’s success follows the creation of a new contact centre in June 2005 to improve the service delivered to local citizens and reduce the number of abandoned service calls. Macfarlane Telesystems and Lagan CRM technology was selected to drive the new contact centre and a tight integration between Macfarlane CallPlus and the Lagan solution was achieved within a single day. In a little under a year since the centre opened, abandoned call levels to the Council have fallen from 30% to only 4% - while a recent survey of 200 callers found that 99.5% were satisfied with the way their calls were handled.

Lancaster City Council is joined in the Best Contact Centre category by Orchestra, Leeds City Council and Screwfix Direct. The winner will be the one which, in the eyes of the judges, best demonstrates individual excellence in achieving benefit for the organisation concerned.

Commenting, Lancaster City Council's Cabinet member for E-Government, Coun Alex Stone, said: "We’ve been delighted by how the new contact centre has enhanced service levels for local people, as well as improved operational functionality and management information for Lancaster City Council’s customer service staff. The combined Macfarlane and Lagan solution makes it far easier to identify who owns each task, track the status of these tasks, provide visibility of the number of calls awaiting action and ensure service levels are achieved. This enables us to plan for the future with great confidence."

Autor(en)/Author(s): Gill Haigh

Quelle/Source: Lancaster City Council, 04.09.2006