Harlow Cuts Paper with Workflow and Document Image Processing Solution from IBS OPENSystems

Published by Paul S for Citigate Dewe Rogerson in Housing and also in Bill Payments, Local Government

Annual savings of at least £30,000 achieved
Customer service and staff morale boosted

Overview
Harlow Council is a District Council that provides services such as refuse and recycling collection, housing, environmental health, electoral registration, planning and building control, parks and leisure. The town has around 80,000 residents in 37,000 households.

The Council underwent a Comprehensive Performance Assessment reassessment by the Audit Commission in July 2007 and was rated as a "Good" Council in November 2007.

The Challenge
Prior to 2007, Harlows revenues and benefits department operated from four separate locations one for its contact centre, one for benefits processing, a third location for revenues and a fourth location for archived records. All paper-work was stored in the benefits processing building which resulted in huge volumes of paper for filing, and high instances of documents being mis-filed or hidden.

This meant that customer enquiries simply couldnt be dealt with efficiently and with a caseload of over 9000, this was unsatisfactory. It took time and excessive resource to track down relevant documentation and in most cases, calls couldnt be resolved instantly and the customer had to be called back at a later time. Furthermore, Harlow required resources solely for filing and retrieving documents which was inefficient.

This process also resulted in a lack of performance information. There was little insight or understanding into the processes surrounding document retrieval and filing, therefore it was difficult to identify specific bottlenecks and improve processes.

A lack of retrospective information to create a single view of the customer also hindered Harlows ability to manage its benefits processing effectively.

The sheer volumes of paperwork and manual systems for retrieval and filing also resulted in an untidy office which was not conducive to a positive working environment.

A combination of these challenges meant that Harlow required a solution which would enable it to process documents quickly and effectively; view performance information easily; and map workflow. Through achieving these improvements, Harlow would be able to maximise resources and deliver an enhanced service to its customers.

A New Way Forward
Harlow was already seeing benefit through using OPENRevenues from IBS OPENSystems and had no hesitation therefore in approaching the team about its Document Image Processing (DIP) and Workflow solution.

IBS OPENSystems DIP and Workflow solutions were evaluated against another third party solution and selected based on a number of factors. Firstly, IBS OPENSystems DIP and Workflow solutions were designed specifically for the needs of local authorities and understood the dynamics of Harlows environment, therefore demonstrated an almost intuitive capability for the departments needs. DIP and Workflow were also cost effective and straightforward to implement which, combined with Harlows confidence in IBS OPENRevenues, meant IBS OPENSystems was the natural choice.

Following a short implementation the solution went live in July 2007 to coincide with a major office move which saw the department merge to just one location. At the same time, new dual-screen PCs were implemented to take advantage of the new DIP and Workflow systems.

21st July 2007 was selected as the cut off date for all users to be trained and live on the new system and this objective was achieved without any hiccups.

Donna Mason, Revenues & Benefits Manager, Harlow Council, comments:
IBS OPENSystems guided us through the process change necessary to maximise the benefits of the system and ensured that we took incremental steps to see benefit without risking the disenfranchisement of users. They advised us to keep it as simple as possible to ensure a smooth transition and then switch on functionality on a gradual basis as users became more familiar with the system.

The implementation was very quick and came in within budget. It involved delegates from various teams who were trained by the IBS OPENSystems team and within just a few weeks all staff loved the system and couldnt believe that it hadnt been in place for longer. Many have since contributed ideas and feedback and the new system has had a secondary benefit of being a great morale booster.

Weve also seen major benefits to the bottom line to the tune of £30k per annum, as well as huge improvements in our customer service.

Looking to the future, Harlow plans to continue to work in partnership with IBS OPENSystems to derive greater functionality from DIP and Workflow as well as adopting OPENExec from IBS OPENSystems which will drive greater efficiencies in the payment of housing benefits.

Donna Mason concludes:
While we are immensely proud of the improvements we have achieved in this project, we are not resting on our laurels. We are looking forward to working with IBS OPENSystems to develop innovative ways of delivering high levels of service to our customers.

ends