Summary
High Peak Borough Council has a population of 92,000 and is situated in Derbyshire. In 2007/08 the council spent £11.4 million on all council services. In 2003 the council began an organisational change programme to create better customer services and improve back office productivity at the council. This helped the council to make improvements to back office functions and back efficiency savings of £19,000 (0.2 per cent of spending on all council services in 2007/08) during SR04. The council developed a second back office change programme that should create £840,000 of efficiency gains for the council during CSR07.
The situation
Prior to SR04 High Peak BC had back office functions that were separate from front line services. Duplicated work processes led to variable levels of customer service at the council.
'Each department had their own customer facing service, so with that goes very variable standards of customer service. Also we're across three sites … and we had three very different reception areas and different business teams… so customers got to know that you went to one for one area of service. … So there was… a lot of confusion'.
Officer, High Peak Borough Council
In 2000 the council appointed a Chief Executive who wanted to establish a culture of good customer service and value for money at the council. The Chief Executive developed an organisational change programme called Network 2005 that focused upon improving back office productivity and creating better customer services at the council.
'Certainly the starting point I think was about focus on customer service and how we could do that more efficiently and get better at it.'
Officer, High Peak Borough Council
Approaches used and efficiencies realised
Network 2005
The aims of the Network 2005 programme were to:
- cut back office costs;
- increase back office productivity;
- create better customer services; and
- to make the council a 'customer first' organisation.
Integral to the programme was the creation of a dedicated call centre at the council that could process customer requests such as revenues and benefits applications at the first point of contact. The council also refurbished the existing customer contact centres at the council to provide a consistent level of service to customers.
The Business Improvement Team
The council established a temporary team called the Business Improvement Team (BIT) as part of the programme, to help with the migration of services to the call centre. The team had responsibility for developing the customer relationship management (CRM) system scripts for each service that would be used in the call centre. The team consisted of staff seconded from various departments within the council.
The remit of the BIT team changed when they realised that migrating services to the call centre required the use of business process improvement (BPI) techniques to change whole services to make them more efficient and customer focused.
'When we started building the [CRM] scripts we looked at the workflow, the information going from the front office to the back office. … We started looking at it from a completely different perspective, instead of just taking what they did in their existing services and dumping it in the call centre, we questioned everything we put in.'
Officer, High Peak Borough Council
This approach enabled the BIT to migrate more than 260 council services to the call centre from 2002 to 2006, including planning applications and customer payments. The use of BPI techniques created a number of non-cashable efficiency savings for the council during SR04, including £19,000 of savings in 2006/07 (0.2 per cent of spending on all council services in 2007/08) from increased council tax collection and the completion of 84 per cent of customer enquiries in 2006/07 without referral to specialist staff.
The work of the BIT also enabled the council to increase the opening hours of the call centre from 9 am - 5 pm to 8 am - 8 pm at no extra cost. The team worked with the call centre staff to understand their preferred working hours and established a rota that matched the extended opening hours.
'Our call centre opened nine to five and cost half a million pounds a year to run. We changed the rotas of people, knew when we were busy … knew what people wanted to work and we opened eight [until] eight but it didn't cost us anymore money. … So that is an efficiency gain … non-cashable … that was a really big hit.'
Officer, High Peak Borough Council
The work of the BIT team enabled the council to deliver the goals of the Network 2005 programme and the team became a permanent resource that strategically led on the improvement of services at the council including online transactions and website development during SR04.
Plans for CSR07
High Peak BC is intending to use the BIT Team to further develop the range of services that are available online for customers using BPI techniques to reduce back office costs during CSR07.
'As part of our new revs and benefits implementation we were looking at the customer services end of it which is all going to be web enabled … and dependent upon the level that we go at, that will move … some of the back office … into the front office. … So I think … the back office is getting smaller and smaller and more specialised'.
Officer, High Peak Borough Council
During the Network 2005 programme the council found there were further efficiency savings to be made from back office functions including procurement and the rationalisation of office accommodation. In 2006 the council launched the 'Fit for the Future' programme to:
- modernise procurement processes through introducing paperless purchase ordering and the increase of e-tendering; and
- to increase productivity through promoting home/flexible working arrangements, leading to the rationalisation of office accommodation, which will reduce the number of main council sites from three to two.
The programme is scheduled to finish during CSR07 and should create efficiency savings of £840,000.
Learning points
- High Peak BC took a transitional approach to back office efficiency during SR04.
- The council used the internal expertise of seconded staff to establish the BIT team. Subsequently the team became a permanent resource at the council.
- The BIT team used BPI techniques to redesign back office functions and transfer the functions to the council's call centre.
- The council recognised that it could create further back office efficiency gains of £840,000 during CSR07 by streamlining procurement processes, promoting home/flexible working and rationalising office accommodation.
Questions to consider for your council
- What approach has your council taken to back office efficiency during SR04?
- Transactional
- Transitional
- Transformational
- How might this case study enable you to take a transformational approach to efficiency during CSR07?
- Do you use the expertise of your staff to develop efficiency projects?
- Have you used any of the methods in this case study to create back office efficiencies?
- Would you consider using any of the methods to create back office efficiencies during CSR07?