Leicester Cuts Paper Processing To Drive Efficiency

Published by Paul S for Citigate Dewe Rogerson in Local Government

Background
Leicester City Council is a unitary authority serving the citizens, communities and businesses of Leicester. The city council itself consists of four departments - Adults & Housing, Children & Young People's Services, Regeneration & Culture and Resources. Each department is responsible for specific areas of the city council’s service delivery.

Challenge
Already a user of IBS OPENRevenues and after the successful adoption of IBS OPENHousing in 2006, Leicester City Council decided to extend the use of IBS software throughout its revenues and benefits departments, to offer a fully integrated DIP (Document Image Processing) and Workflow solution for over 200 workers.

Leicester soon realised the advantages of having integrated DIP/Workflow system and have now begun to extend use of IBS OPENWorkflow and DIP to users of OPENHousing as well.

The reason behind the change was that a joined-up system between council departments would provide a more streamlined service. Raj Adatia, Systems Support Manager, Revenues & Benefits Section, Leicester City Council explains: “We had seen significant efficiency gains through the adoption of OPENHousing and therefore decided to explore the possibility of identifying further gains elsewhere in the department.”

Previously the revenues and benefits departments would process documents from paper, which proved to be counter-productive to the council’s continuing efforts to make efficiencies. Raj Adatia continues: “It was clear to us that having documents in a paper form had many drawbacks and was an outdated way to operate. Searching through reams of paper to source certain information, regardless of how well maintained a filing system is, is time consuming. It could take half an hour at the beginning and end of the day just to make sure filing was in order.

To move forward and reach a level of efficiency we were happy with demanded that we embrace a new way of working. But in order for us to do this we had to implement a solution that was both user-friendly, and wouldn’t cause too much short-term distruption.”

Solution
IBS OPENWorkflow and DIP solutions were introduced to improve efficiency, accuracy and productivity, and to give staff the means to deliver a quick
and reliable service. OPENWorkflow controls the work staff carry out and its level of priority. Benefit forms, letters and general correspondence are scanned to create an electronic image which is saved on a central database.

OPENWorkflow then prioritises and routes documents to the relevant officers to action and in some instances, can automatically process items. Developed with the user in mind, OPENWorkflow allows staff to link and exchange data with standard desktop applications.

Raj Adatia comments: “The change of systems meant a huge migration of data – over 9.5 million images – 500,000 for council tax and nine million for benefits. It also involved the mass integration of 35,000 benefits claims and 15,000 business case accounts.

“We had to be confident that such a move would be in the interest of staff and residents, and would be financially beneficial for the council.”

Outcome
The migration of existing data was done in two stages. First were Council Tax and NDR, followed by Housing and Council Tax Benefits to minimise interference for council workers. Raj Adatia explains: “It was incredible. Staff went home on Friday evening and over the weekend, the migration took place. It was completed ready for staff to use the new system on their return Monday morning. The same process took place for the next couple of weekends with Housing and Council Tax Benefits.

The change of system proved both successful and popular. Raj Adatia comments: “Naturally at first there were one or two people who were reluctant to make the change. After all, this was to be a complete shift in how we were to operate. Any discontent soon subsided when staff could see the benefits of the new system. Typically staff process each work item about two minutes quicker than under the previous system, which has made a huge difference in our efforts to increase efficiency.”

With the integrated system staff are now able to email documents across different departments, so processing of data can be achieved in seconds rather than hours and days.

Cutting back on paper also means that information does not get accidently mislaid. Plus, it allows Leicester City Council to improve its green credentials and save money in renting office accommodation. “Before, we had so much paper that we had to dedicate a whole floor just for storing paper files. When you are located in the city centre, office space is sparse so the move allowed us to free-up much needed office space.

“Having an integrated system also helps free-up even more space as certain staff members are now able to work from home. In fact, we now have 30 members of staff working from home. This means we don’t need to use as much floor space, we help lesson the burden of city centre traffic, and offer workers the best possible work-life balance with the greater flexibility” said Raj Adatia

As well as streamlining the department’s workflow, and saving the council significant amounts of money, it is the residents who gain as well. Raj Adatia concludes: “In the past when a resident phoned the council to make a payment, or ask a question they would sometimes have to speak to more than one person, because each department only had information relevant to their work. So anyone phoning for example to query their council tax, child benefit allowance and housing repairs, would potentially need to speak to numerous people from three different departments. Now, a resident’s information can be viewed in one place by all relevant council staff members. This saves both us and our residents a great deal of time.”