WELLAND CONTACT CENTRE
INITIATIVE (WCCI)
EVALUATION REPORT
FEBRUARY 2006
Tim Brown
Centre for Comparative Housing Research
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester LE1 9BH
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Introduction
The aim of this report is to provide an overview evaluation of the development
and implementation of the Welland Contact Centre Initiative (WCCI). This
project has been funded under the Government’s ‘Invest to Save’ programme
and has run from 2002 to-2005. South Kesteven District Council has been the
lead authority. In broad terms, the project has focussed on the development of
an out-of-hours ‘contact centre’ as well as enabling an improved service at
peak times through transferring customers to under-utilised centres. In
essence, WCCI forms an overlay to existing and planned initiatives by each of
the five partner authorities – East Northamptonshire, Harborough, Rutland,
Melton and South Kesteven.
The WCCI project has resulted in five major outputs:-
Development and delivery of a technical platform across the Welland
Partnership authorities for the more effective delivery of services to
customers.
Basis for the further expansion of customer services through partnership
working between the key stakeholders.
Contribution to the delivery of the target of e-enabling services by the end
of 2005.
Input into taking forward the e-government customer services agenda.
Contribution to the ongoing development and delivery of priority outcomes
through local public service agreements (LPSAs) and local area
agreements (LAAs) to customer services.
Further enhancement of joint working and collaboration between the five
local authorities comprising the Welland Partnership.
This report draws together the findings from a series of studies that have been
carried out as part of the evaluation. They comprise:-
Customer services.
Social exclusion and access to services in the Welland Sub-Region.
A review of the PRINCE2 project management system that has been used
to deliver WCCI.
It needs to be emphasised that this has been an innovative project that has
important lessons for the broader policy agenda including local e-government
and customer service delivery as well as for the Welland Partnership itself.
For example:-
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Development of WCCI has been facilitated by a public private partnership
based around a unique rural local government consortium involving five
local authorities working together across parts of four counties.
It is part of a broader Welland Partnership E-Government Strategy and
has enabled the linking together of different projects.
From a technical viewpoint, it has centred on linking together a back office
system with a wide range of different front office approaches that have
been implemented by each of the partners.
It is focussed on providing enhanced services for customers in a rural sub-
region. As such it ought to be of particular interest to the Commission for
Rural Communities, DEFRA and the ODPM in achieving effective and
efficient services to rural communities.
The approach that has been adopted in undertaking this independent
evaluation has involved the following activities:-
A review of the WCCI project documentation.
Attendance as an observer at specific WCCI Project Team meetings.
Interviews with the project leader and key stakeholders.
A review of local and national reports and information on customer
services, social exclusion in rural areas and project management.
Finally, it should be noted that this evaluation centres on the development and
delivery of WCCI. Because of the timescale of the project, it has not been
possible to focus on outcomes in relation to better customer services and
tackling social exclusion in rural areas. In order to assess this aspect, a
longitudinal research study would be necessary.
Customer Services
As has already been pointed out, a major element of the WCCI project has
been to develop improved customer services. More specifically, the objectives
have been to develop systems that enable the delivery of more effective peak
times and out-of-hours services throughout the Welland area. Furthermore,
this is strongly underpinned by current living patterns in this rural sub-region.
For example, households may live in a village in one district but work in a
market town in an adjoining local authority. Existing administrative boundaries
do not reflect these current patterns.
Even so, each local authority has developed its own strategy for the
development and delivery of customer services to reflect local geographical
circumstances. For instance, Melton Borough Council has developed a one-
stop customer centre based on its main market town, while Harborough
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District Council has a strategy based on its two market towns and the other
five larger settlements.
The WCCI project provides an overlay that joins together these initiatives.
More specifically, it has involved the development of the following interrelated
detailed themes to improve customer access to services and achieve a
consistently high level of service quality:-
Bringing together multiple access channels (e.g. telephony, post, face-to-
face, and the internet) so that there is equity of outcomes irrespective of
the mode of communications.
Providing a seamless service response irrespective of the initial access
channel used by the customer and the provider of the service (who at peak
times or out-of-hours may not be the district council who the customer has
contacted).
Ensuring an adequate but basic level of service.
Building on previous initiatives such as the development of community
portals and the planning online scheme.
The WCCI project had by the end of 2005 initiated the key components
necessary to deliver these themes. These included a customer relationship
management system that had gone live in four of the five councils, and a
workflow system to ensure its successful operation.
Nevertheless there are interrelated challenges and opportunities that have
been identified in taking forward this approach to customer services. These
include:-
Linking together these themes to achieve and build on the local e-
government priority outcomes.
Building more effective relationships between this initiative and related
projects by county councils.
Focussing on customer behaviour and perceptions of service
responsibility.
Achieving high levels of completion rates and customer satisfaction levels
in a single exchange.
In particular, the key issue is that services are delivered by a wide range of
public sector organisations. Housing is a district council function, while
education and social services is a county responsibility. Health is delivered
through primary care trusts and hospital trusts. Furthermore, government
departments and arms length agencies are responsible for many services
such as employment opportunities and benefits. The WCCI project focuses
on services provided by four districts councils and one county council. A major
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challenge is therefore to take forward the initiative so that there are links to
other key public sector service providers.
Tackling Rural Social Exclusion
Tackling social exclusion in rural areas involves in part resolving issues on the
availability of services at the local level. The Government has preciously
incorporated geographical access to services as a measure of deprivation1.
The Commission for Rural Communities has stressed the significance of this
issue commenting that the quality of life for communities in rural areas is
influenced by the availability of local services 2. At the same time, there is an
increasing focus on how information communications technology (ICT) can
help to tackle social exclusion3. The definition of ICT incorporates the use of
call centres and contact centres. It is emphasised that councils should set
their own access strategies including a balance between direct internet use,
telephone and electronically supported face-to-face delivery’. From a sub-
regional perspective, the Welland Sub-Regional Strategic Partnership (SSP)
has highlighted that ‘ICT is a central part of addressing rural isolation’ and that
an important element of this is the WCCI – ‘a one-stop high level customer
interface’4.
Nevertheless, at an aggregate level, social exclusion may appear to be a
marginal issue. For instance, the Office for National Statistics Classification of
Local Authorities using the 1991and 2001 Census included all of the Welland
Sub-Region as part of ‘prosperous Britain’. Similarly, analysis of the 2001
Census by Dorling and Thomas5 shows that each of the five districts are
within the top 100 local authorities in the UK in terms of wealthy households
with two of them in the top 25 council areas.
However, analysis at a ward level has confirmed that in each of the five local
authorities, there are issues over the lack of access to services. The nature of
this issue varies in terms of intensity. For example, one ward is within the
worst 1% of all wards in England in relation to access to services, while 12
wards are within the worst 1-5%. Furthermore in each of the five local
authorities, between 20-40% of wards are within the worst 10% of wards.
The lack of access to services varies with those wards which are located
furthest away from major market towns and urban areas having poor access
to higher order services. There are also a significant number of wards that
lack access to some basic local services.
Clearly, as the WCCI project has centred on the development of the
appropriate infrastructure, the roll out to address rural social exclusion is in its
early stages. Each of the five local authorities is in the process of developing
1
DETR (2000): Indices of Deprivation 2000. London, DETR
2
Commission for Rural Communities (2005): Rural Disadvantage – Our First Thematic Study:
London, CRC
3
Commission for Rural Communities (2005): Beyond Digital Divides?: London, CRC
4
Welland SSP (2003): Economic Strategy 2003-2006- Summary: Harborough, Welland SSP
5
Dorling D & Thomas B (2004): People and Places: Bristol, Policy Press
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a strategy for delivering more effective customer services. This will require an
even greater emphasis on:-
Targeting rural communities where access to services is problematic – a
useful starting point is those wards within the worst 10% of all wards.
Promoting those services that are likely to be of particular relevance for
‘isolated’ communities e.g. access to information on a range of housing
options.
Focusing on collaboration with other service providers (e.g. county
councils and the health sector) over service provision – see previous
section.
Project Management
An important aspect of the WCCI project has been the explicit and formal use
of project management – Office of Government Commerce’s ‘projects in
controlled experiments’ (PRINCE 2).
Previous e-government schemes, such as the Welland electronic service
delivery (ESD) project, had not made formal use of project management
techniques but had delivered outputs on time and within budget. However, it
was recognised that the WCCI project represented a significant increase in
scale and complexity. For example, it has been a three-year scheme with a
wide range of sub elements including customer relationship management and
workflow as well as telephony and telecommunications.
The PRINCE 2 system has two interlinked themes. Firstly, there are the
principles and detailed elements / stages in the process. Secondly, there is
the broader overall compliance of a project. The WCCI project adopted the
first of these two themes i.e. elements and principles. For example, the project
has been subject to a business case review when and where necessary. In
addition, PRINCE 2 enabled and ensured a sound understanding and
commitment to action across each of the partners / stakeholders. It, thus,
helped to ensure that the different elements of the complex project were
delivered in accordance with the broader timetable.
Nevertheless, the WCCI project has not been able to adopt a fully PRINCE 2
compliant approach. For this to be achieved a number of interrelated
additional actions would have been necessary including:-
Ensuring PRINCE 2 is pervasive within each of the five councils and
across the Welland Partnership i.e. this project management system is
used for each and every major project.
Developing an organisational culture based on project management
concepts including establishing and regularly reviewing the business case
for schemes.
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Establishing a track record of successfully using and implementing
PRINCE 2 principles.
Providing comprehensive training on PRINCE 2 including certification for
project leaders and awareness raising sessions for a broader range of
staff.
Ensuring that there are dedicated project management staff to lead on key
schemes as well as ensuring that there is access to specialist advice on
PRINCE 2 within the Welland Partnership.
Developing a clearer relationship between PRINCE 2 requirements and
the changing external environment (e.g. local e-government and priority
outcomes) and the management of the ‘invest to save’ system.
Lessons and Challenges
The final section of this report centres on the lessons that can be learnt from
the WCCI project and challenges that will have to be addressed in taking
forward such projects. These are relevant for the Welland Partnership and
more generally for organisations interested in developing and delivering this
type of scheme. The key areas are:-
Technical Infrastructure
Managing Complex Projects
Rural Partnerships
Customer Services and Technology
Dealing with the Changing External Environment
Technical Infrastructure
The WCCI project has delivered some of the key elements of the technical
infrastructure (e.g. customer relationship management software and workflow)
to deliver a more efficient and effective customer service across the Welland
sub-region. It has necessitated the integration of a range of different
technologies and systems – some of which are ‘cutting edge’. This has, itself,
created difficulties as, for instance, the research and development as well as
the testing of the workflow system resulted in delays. At the same time, it has
been essential to link the WCCI project elements with previous rounds of
investment in ICT. The financial and time resources required to tackle these
issues should not be under-estimated.
The WCCI project has also shown the importance of a public private
partnership to develop and deliver the technical infrastructure. It comprised
five local authorities and two ICT companies.
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Managing Projects
A complex project, such as WCCI, requires a formal and explicit project
management approach e.g. PRINCE 2. In order for this type of system to
operate effectively, four features need to be built into the process and these
are:-
A commitment to pre-project planning including developing a business
case.
Continuous commitment to the use of PRINCE 2 across all partner
organisations.
Reviewing the business case on a regular basis especially as a result of
significant changes in the external environment (see below).
Emphasis on project control systems.
Partnership Working
The WCCI project has been successfully developed partly because of the
strength of the Welland Partnership. Major projects are unlikely to be
delivered within budget and on time if there is no history of joint working or
collaboration between organisations.
The Welland Partnership has been in existence since the late 1990s and has
a track record of developing policies and delivering projects that meets the
needs of this rural sub-region. The long-term collaboration between the five
local authorities has ensured a high degree of trust that has enabled rapid
progress to be made on the complex WCCI project. Moreover, the existence
of and a commitment to a broader e-government strategy facilitated the
development of the project as part of a bigger jigsaw. More specifically it built
on previous initiatives such as the Welland planning online scheme.
Customer Services and Technology
The WCCI project is an interesting example of linking together complex
technological infrastructure with an improvement in customer services. In
some respects, there is a tension between building the infrastructure and
delivering better access to customer services. In particular, there has been a
potential conflict as to whether face-to-face customer service centres should
be developed before or after the technology. Across the Welland sub-region,
different local authorities have used different approaches.
External Environment
A major challenge for any project is the ability to respond positively to the
changing external environment. The adoption of a formal project management
system (such as PRINCE 2) enables the revisiting of the business case.
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There are, however, more specific factors that have to be built into the
development and delivery of a project that is externally funded through
schemes such as ‘invest to save’. These normally have, for instance, pre-
designated timetables, reporting mechanisms and payments systems. Action
plans as part of project management need, wherever possible, to take
account of these requirements. More importantly, the external controls are
frequently geared around delivering projects on time and to budget. These
inevitably lead to a focus from monitoring and evaluation perspectives on
processes and outputs. There is little emphasis on outcomes i.e. the extent to
which projects have delivered a better quality of service to customers. In the
case of the WCCI project, the need for a longer term study on outcomes has
already been highlighted.
A further external environmental consideration has been the changing
strategic framework. In the case of local e-government, between 2002-2005
there were a wide range of policy statement, good practice guides and new
initiatives published by the Government. For example, the 2005 target for e-
enabled services was modified through the launch of the priority outcomes
approach. Such developments have implications for the delivery of projects
and raise fundamental issues about whether the business case for a project
should be revisited.
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