30.04.15
Cardiff Council embarks on digital transformation
Cardiff Council is embarking on a digital transformation to streamline services and introduce more self-service options for residents.
Over the next three years the authority is moving its IT systems into the cloud. The scheme is intended to improve customer services, streamline council processes and deliver significant cost savings.
Despite the Council facing £124m in budget cuts over the next three years it sees investing in technology solutions as an important part of its efforts to manage costs and reduce expenditure.
One of the main challenges faced by Cardiff Council is that its legacy on-premises IT system does not allow for collaboration across council services and functions, leading to inefficiencies and duplications. Working with software company SAP, the council was able to identify the factors that would generate cost efficiencies, improve integration and deliver better services to residents and partners, such as online access and greater flexibility.
The council plans to create a digital self-service portal that will enable residents to interact online quickly rather than in-person, greatly reducing administrative costs.
The new portal will be designed to ease adoption and appeal to the increasingly young population in Cardiff, which is Europe’s youngest capital with over 40,000 students.
The council’s self-service portal will be integrated into the CRM system and backend platforms, allowing the council to view the customer journey between channels – call centre, online or in-person –significantly reducing call handling times and improving customer satisfaction.
Cormac Watters, MD of SAP UK and Ireland. “We are really excited that Cardiff Council’s use of our Cloud for Customer solutions will enable the organisation to work in a far more integrated and connected way. But critically it will also support the delivery of new digital services geared to the highly-connected user, providing greater choice, more self-service options, better access and flexibility, resulting in improved user adoption and unlocking cost savings at every turn. This is essential at a time when budgets are under substantial pressure.”
In addition, the council will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the community’s needs through enhanced data analytics, resulting in better and more informed business decisions.
“The public service mandate of ‘do more with less’ is not going away, but for us, it’s an opportunity to bring our thriving city into the digital age in a way that will bring us long-term financial savings” said Ross Maude, senior enterprise architect at Cardiff Council.
“The services we provide are important for everyone from the elderly, to university students and public sector workers, and ensuring we’re still able to maintain the level and quality of service we have today despite our financial pressures is crucial. Our relationship with SAP means that together we’re able to implement an integrated cloud-based solution that brings all of our systems together allows us to focus on the growing needs of Cardiff residents.”
Work on the new systems has already begun and the council expects a successful roll-out by 2018.
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