Realising Best Practice Customer Self-Service
Local Authority Electronic Service Delivery
Best Practices for Customer Self-Service Framework
Realising Best Practice Customer Self-Service
About Asidua
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Best Practices for Customer Self-Service FrameworkSelf-service and self-care investments are rampant, and their enterprise uses are still emerging. We provide a framework for customer service managers for planning and ensuring that customer self-service and customer self-care initiatives contribute to bottom-line results.
Key Challenges
• When customer self-service/self-care is not associated with differentiation, it cannot be a formidable tool for enhancing services or reaching new audiences via new and emerging channels.
• The benefits expected from customer self-service/self-care deployments are not always realized, even after extensive investments, due to a lack of focus on best practices.
• Organizations consistently struggle with increasing customer adoption of Web-based self-service deployments. Most often, the problem is not with first-time registration to use the systems, but with the ongoing use of the systems.
• Often, the knowledge maintenance component of Web customer service (WCS) is underestimated and not planned for properly, resulting in poor customer experiences.
Recommendations
• Think of customer self-service/self-care as a technique to achieve cost savings while providing great service by fueling customers' intrinsic need to try to do something by and for themselves.
• Ensure there is an opportunity to escalate to a live agent (e.g., Web chat) built into the process to ensure a seamless customer experience when deploying unassisted WCS channels.
• Determine the products that are and are not suitable for Web and mobile-based channels; the more-complex offerings might be better-suited for phone or face-to-face service delivery.
• To measure the value of customer self-service and customer self-care activities, first, survey the customer to determine the baseline of engagement metrics. After implementing, track the changes to the baseline and other key performance and productivity indicators, and plan for making adjustments and iterations to your strategy.
Local Authority Electronic Service Delivery is published by Asidua. Editorial content supplied by Asidua is independent of Gartner analysis. All Gartner research is used with Gartner’s permission, and was originally published as part of Gartner’s syndicated research service available to all entitled Gartner clients. © 2014 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. The use of Gartner research in this publication does not indicate Gartner’s endorsement of Asidua’s products and/or strategies. Reproduction or distribution of this publication in any form without Gartner’s prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Although Gartner research may include a discussion of related legal issues, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner is a public company, and its shareholders may include firms and funds that have financial interests in entities covered in Gartner research. Gartner’s Board of Directors may include senior managers of these firms or funds. Gartner research is produced independently by its research organization without input or influence from these firms, funds or their managers. For further information on the independence and integrity of Gartner research, see “Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity” on its website, http://www.gartner.com/technology/about/ombudsman/omb_guide2.jsp.
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locations:Belfast, N.IrelandBirmingham, UKDublin, Ireland
Local Authority Electronic Service Delivery
Research from Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00248650,
Johan Jacobs, 19 February 2013
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Strategic Planning Assumption
Through 2015, at least 80% of organizations that fail to orchestrate their customer self-service implementations will incur higher customer service costs and will not achieve the savings and benefits expected.
Introduction
Many organizations approach their customer self-service and customer self-care initiatives tactically by responding to immediate or urgent channel deployment requests from managers, business units and/or customers. This often results in poor product selection and wasted implementation development and deployment efforts and resources, because the enterprise does not focus on a larger or organizationwide customer self-service strategy and does not give much thought to developing a structured framework.
A siloed approach to deploying customer self-service technologies has the potential to increase the five-year total cost of ownership (TCO) by as much as 55%. An overall vision and strategy for customer self-service should include multiple parallel initiatives to measure, manage and improve the performance of related service channels; perform analytics across the various Web channels; and solicit feedback about the customer's experience when using a channel.
What is Customer Self-Service/Self-Care?Customer self-service (also often referred to as customer self-care) solutions are deployed by organizations to enable customers to conduct transactions on their own or find information via some form of Web or mobile-based interaction. There are two common methods of self-service (see figure 1):
1 To give customers access to applications (such as billing, account maintenance, online banking, online travel bookings, etc.) through a Web interface, referred to as transactional self-service. Transactional self-service solutions are typically from an ERP offering, or could be custom-built or homegrown applications. These applications are typically unique to each organization, with two organizations in the same vertical industry (i.e., finance) having completely different transactional system solutions.
Transactional self-service is defined as the processing of transactions, which is typically part of a transactional self-service or e-commerce application. A customer would typically log on to an organization's website, authenticate himself or herself, and then be able to perform transactional activities.
In transactional self-service, the customer would typically log on to an organization's website or mobile application, authenticate himself or herself, and then be provided with a number of transactional-type services to perform a variety of functions. Providing customers with access to the organization's back-office applications through transactional self-service is often as simple as "Webifying" or providing a Web interface for the applications. The most important consideration for transactional self-service is to ensure that the chosen customer self-service implementation has the necessary tools and technologies to integrate the front end it provides with the enterprise architecture and back-end transactional systems.
2 To give customers access to a knowledgebase of information via a specialized search engine and support channels (such as Web chat, email response management, video chat, etc.), referred to as Web customer service. WCS can be delivered as a suite of applications or as an individual application. A WCS product is typically a functional component of a larger solution called the customer engagement hub (CEH). It needs to integrate with existing information and other customer service solutions in the contact center. The four most common forms of integration are with customer service, call center technologies, enterprise applications and telephony components.
WCS is defined as a set of applications and technologies that enables an organization to provide customer service through Web-based service channels (see figure 1). It can be an assisted channel (Web chat or social) or an unassisted channel (virtual assistant [VA]); however, in all cases, the interaction starts on the Web through the provision of customer-enabling tools. A Web-initiated interaction could be passed to a customer service representative (CSR) if the requirement becomes complex or if there is a need for a more in-depth intervention.
In WCS, customers can either work unassisted via a Web interface to find information or support from a knowledgebase, or receive agent-assisted service, like a Web chat. Both these options have the ability to reduce the number of phone calls to the contact center.
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Source: Gartner (February 2013)
figure 1. Transactional Self-Service Versus WCS
Implementing WCS can yield a variety of benefits, with reduced costs for customer service activities being the primary objective. However, it must be properly implemented to fit into a wider customer self-service strategy, and this starts with proper planning. Gartner estimates that, through 2015, at least 80% of organizations that fail to plan their Web self-service implementations will incur higher customer service costs, and will not achieve the savings and benefits expected.
There is a fair amount of hype surrounding customer self-service deployments, with some vendors promising to deflect as much as 90% of the telephone calls that an organization receives and to service those same customers via the Web. Organizations expect to have their customer self-service systems replace costly technical support and customer service implementations, with less expensive, automated systems, and, in the process, save lots of money. However, the reality is quite different. It is often difficult to measure the actual call deflection rate, and, in some cases, not all the calls deflected from the call center will actually be serviced by the customer self-service tool. For example, some might be resolved on social networks or in peer-to-peer communities, and some might be resolved by agent-assisted services, such as a Web chat interaction.
Some assisted channels (such as Web chat) may be more expensive than unassisted channels (such as a knowledgebase
or a VA), and, in some cases, if incorrectly deployed and best practices are not followed, an assisted channel may even be more expensive than a phone call with a customer.
The biggest challenge with most customer self-service solutions arises when the transactional self-service solution (e.g., online ticket booking and online banking) does not have an equivalent Web or mobile-based supporting channel. If the customer needs assistance, then he or she often has to use the phone channel to obtain support. This approach increases the number of phone calls into the call center, as opposed to reducing that number, thus negating the potential savings.
Does this mean that customer self-service does not work? Not necessarily. It means that customer self-service does not work if it is implemented poorly. However, it can and has worked when implemented correctly. This is a sign of a maturing market, and organizations need to better understand the two legs of customer self-service (i.e., transactional self-service and WCS), as well as the proper ways to implement them. When properly implemented, customer self-service cannot only reduce the number of telephone calls, but can also effectively eliminate or decrease the rate of growth of the calls. When properly implemented, customer self-service enables organizations to save money from better customer service, reflected in proactive and automated interactions.
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Analysis
Make Sure Customer Self-Service is Needed — and WantedSurvey your customers to find out what they really want. Is customer self-service the answer to what they are asking for? If not, then consider other solutions that will better fit their demands, such as interactive voice response (IVR). Furthermore, determine whether your customers are computer-, Web- and mobile-literate. Will they know how to use the system? These questions, when answered by your customers, will identify where to focus customer self-service initiatives and strategy.
Consider the Best Self-Service Architecture for Your OrganizationArchitectural considerations are paramount when deploying a customer self-service solution, whether transaction-focused or WCS-focused. Review whether you already have a knowledgebase for your technical support or customer service organizations, because you may not be able to successfully integrate the WCS solution into your current products. Search for the method that best fits with your architecture, processes and culture. Take the following steps:
1 Develop a vision for what you want and need.
2 Work with your system architects to develop a strategy for now versus later.
3 Reach out to vendors to find the best solution to fit your strategy.
Plan for Maintenance Before DeploymentMaintenance of these customer self-service systems — especially a knowledgebase solution — can be burdensome, particularly for content management and updating, and for improving content based on usage reports. When you are trying to automate customer service, ensure that the applications and knowledgebase you provide via the Web offer the right information at the right time. This means that your systems need to be constantly updated — in some cases, even in real time. Will your systems allow for this? Do you have the necessary personnel to properly maintain the content for the knowledgebase self-service systems? Ensure that you can maintain the system in real time, or as close as possible to it, before you decide to implement the solution.
Create an Escalation ProcessCustomer self-service solutions are not perfect. On occasion, the customer will need assistance from a CSR. Plan to escalate unassisted channels (such as a VA) to an assisted channel (such as
a Web chat or a phone call) to enable the customer to escalate the interaction as needed. Find out from customers what channels they would prefer for escalation, and have them ready. Make sure that the response time and processes for escalation are clearly posted for your customers to learn, or they will abandon the self-service channels and revert to phone-based support. When you pass interactions from one channel to another, it is important to also pass along the data from or the context of the interactions, so that customers don't have to repeat themselves to the new agents they deal with.
Integrate With the Existing Customer Service ApplicationCustomer service is changing. Many new WCS implementations use a software as a service (SaaS) architecture, in which all channels are serviced equally and quickly. Implementing an on-premises transactional self-service solution without considering how to integrate a SaaS-based WCS solution will result in poor customer experiences and a disjointed self-service architecture. The current trend shows that 62% of organizations still prefer to deploy on-premises solutions for self-service, as opposed to SaaS solutions.
Create a Killer Marketing CampaignCustomers won't know about the existence of your customer self-service offerings unless you tell them about them. To achieve the expected benefits, you will need to do more than just build a killer system; you will also need your customers to use it. You must create a marketing campaign that will not only let them know about the existence of the system, but will also inform them of the benefits of using it. This can be achieved by adding text upfront in the IVR, to market the self-service solutions available as well as to specify how to reach particular content. Marketing can also be achieved by the agents each time they engage with customers, advising them that it is not necessary to phone into the contact center because there are self-service channels available.
Focus on a Great Customer ExperienceImplementing a customer self-service strategy is the first step toward a better model for serving your customers via the Web and mobile. If properly implemented, and if all the information is available equally via all channels, then customer self-service will yield a positive result for the organization and customers. It is important to evaluate each and every product and service for its suitability to be delivered via a transactional self-service solution or to be supported via a WCS channel. Not all products and services are made for the Web and/or a mobile device — matching the appropriate channel with the appropriate product and service is critical to service success.
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Realising Best Practice Customer Self-ServiceIntroductionAs an organisation which specialises in making customer
contact easier for local authorities, Asidua has spent many
years working alongside Council Service Lines and Customer
Service officers in order to better understand the challenges
they face on a daily basis. Challenges such as:
• The ongoing need to reduce the cost to deliver high quality
customer services.
• The steadily increasing pressure to comply with evolving
Government and Industry standards.
• The ever-evolving customer service expectations as citizens
become more accustomed to online shopping and account
management ‘norms’.
Asidua realises that to address these, often conflicting,
challenges councils need to take a strategic and best practice based approach to customer service. An approach which will
permit the councils to:
• Take a holistic approach to achieving their Multi-channel
Target Operating Model i.e. the processes, people, systems
and data needed to deliver excellent customer service
across all channels.
• Take a corporate approach by addressing the customer
service needs of lines of business throughout the council.
• Take a future-proofed approach that meets the customer
service needs of today, yet is easily scalable and
configurable to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
• Take a cost-effective approach by using “out-of-the-box”
functionality that can be fine tuned by trained council officers.
To adopt such a strategic and best practice based approach,
councils need to make use of modern and flexible technology
solutions which underpin the delivery of customer service.
The generic terminology for such a modern and flexible technology
solution is an Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) platform. The
traditional government definition of Electronic Service Delivery is:
“The provision of government services to the customer through
the internet or other electronic means”.
Service delivery can either be through direct provision to
the customer (self-service) or mediation, where a customer
services operator acts on behalf of the customer. The definition
of an ESD platform carries an implied requirement that, where
possible, electronic service delivery is automated.
An Industry leading ESD platform will enable councils to
realise a best-practice based Customer Self-Service solution,
allowing authorities to adopt a strategic approach to migrating
customers to use lower cost self-service channels.
Asidua offers local authorities just such an ESD platform in its
Customer Contact PlatformTM (CCP).
Realising a Council’s Multi-channel Operating ModelAn ESD platform enables councils to take a holistic approach
to achieving a multi-channel customer service vision, by
providing technology that enables the council to leverage the
extensive capabilities they already hold within the People,
Processes, Systems and Data involved in the delivery of
council services.
People
An ESD platform provides access to the information and
transactional services needed by people; including self-service
customers, mediating advisors, back office delivery teams and
service managers.
CCP achieves this through the use of modern, intuitive
web-portals that provide ready access to the information and
services required to deliver and manage service. CCP Portals
provide useful features such as:
• A searchable knowledgebase; enabling customers and
advisors to quickly find information about the services the
council offers, and find support and advice when needed.
• A Service Launch Pad; allowing customers and advisors to
easily find the service needed.
• A suite of pre-built e-forms which address many local
authority needs “out-of-the-box”, enabling users to
Source: Asidua
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figure 1. Meeting The Needs of Local Authority Stake Holders
complete transactions at the first point of contact. CCP
e-forms seamlessly incorporate key steps such as choosing
a location on a map, booking an appointment, and taking
payment all within one seamless user journey.
• An e-forms engine which is “channel aware” and reuses the
same e-forms across all methods of contact, standardising
service delivery regardless of channel. CCP e-forms guide
users through the process, capturing the precise information
needed to deliver service ‘right first time’.
• Work queues which enable delivery teams to easily access,
allocate, progress and update their service delivery tasks.
• A built-in reporting engine and report builder which allows
service managers to easily measure, manage, and improve
“end-to-end” service delivery performance.
• A “drag and drop” e-forms designer which allows trained but
non-technical council officers to create and modify portal
e-forms.
Processes
An ESD platform permits Councils to automatically drive
standardised service delivery by providing support for a
wide range of local authority business processes. This
standardisation makes it easier for a council to save money
and provide improved user experiences, by enabling more
proactive and automated customer service interactions.
CCP supports automated business processes through:
• An Enterprise scale workflow engine which is “channel
aware”, reusing the same workflow across all customer
contact channels.
• Pre-built workflows that address a wide range of common
Local Authority services. CCP workflows can readily be
configured to orchestrate all the manual and automated
steps required to deliver requested services such as:
• Creating/updating a case in CRM.
• Creating/updating a task in a back office system.
• Tracking the progress of back office tasks, reflecting
any updates in CRM and sending the customer
status messages by SMS or Email.
• A “drag and drop” workflow designer which enables trained
but non-technical council officers to create and modify
service fulfilment workflows.
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figure 2. CCP Consolidated Work Queue
DataAn ESD platform helps councils to use their data:
• More effectively - by connecting people and processes with
the data they need when they need it.
• More efficiently - by proactively driving data quality
improvements.
CCP achieves this by:
• Checking customer supplied information at the point of
capture against trusted council data sources such as the
council’s corporate gazetteer.
• Pre-loading front end service request e-forms with council
held information - saving time and preventing mistakes.
• Presenting council advisors with a single view of the
customer account on information dashboards.
• Providing authenticated customers with access to a history
of their services and previous transactions using the ‘My
Account’ views.
SystemsAn ESD platform helps Councils to leverage the investment
already made in technology, by providing the necessary tools
and technologies to integrate user facing “front ends” with the
wider system architecture and back-end transactional systems.
By using an ESD’s built in integration capabilities, a council
can readily realise a true “end-to-end” customer service
solution. By providing this integration capability an ESD
enables the council, and third-party, systems estate to realise
a true “end-to-end” solution.
CCP achieves this through:
• A Message Router - to ensure that customer requests are
delivered to the right place at the right time. For example,
the message router receives a validated service request
message from the front-end customer or employee portals
and ensures that the correct workflow for that service is
activated and has all of the required customer details.
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Source: Asidua
figure 3. CCP Preloads Information Into E-Forms
• “Adapters” - to seamlessly connect workflows with the
council’s existing system estate, and provide better access
to the information and transactions they offer. CCP offers
“Adapters” for a wide range of common local authority
systems, facilitating improved bi-directional system
communication
• “End-to-end” Tracking and Logging - which allows Service
Level Agreements to be implemented, monitored and, when
at risk of breach, escalated.
Corporate Approach to Addressing Council Service NeedsIn adopting a holistic approach to service delivery, an ESD platform
enables a council to take a corporate approach by providing a
solution that allows Councils to readily offer a “pan-council” range
of standardised services across all contact channels.
Multiple Service Lines
An ESD platform assists a council in “on-boarding” new service
areas by extending the range of supported services across the
full range of council service areas through:
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Source: Asidua
figure 4. CCP “Drag and Drop” Process Designer
Reusable Components
An ESD platform encourages and promotes a “build once, use
often” model which sees core e-form and workflow components
re-used across service areas and channels.
CCP achieves this through, for example, e-forms which use
a core set of generic, reusable “controls”. These controls can
easily be configured to suit the needs of new service areas and
request types, using the CCP web based configuration tools.
CCP provides a wide range of controls to, for example:
• Capture and validate addresses against trusted council
address sources.
• Choose locations from embedded maps.
• Book appointments from corporate calendars.
• Take payments through integration with the council’s
payment solution.
Pre-built “Service Packs”
To reduce cost and expedite business benefits, an ESD
platform typically offers “Out-of-the-Box” support for a wide
range of “end-to-end” business processes.
CCP achieves this through “Service Packs” which can be
promptly deployed to suit many Council needs. CCP “Service
Packs” comprise preconfigured:
• e-Forms – to capture and validate customer requests.
• Workflows – to drive automated fulfilment of those
requests.
• Adapters – to enable easy interaction with existing council
systems.
CCP “Service Packs” focus on a range of common local
authority service areas from Environment & Streets to
Revenues & Benefits.
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Source: Asidua
figure 5. CCP “My Account” View
Common Service Access Tools
A critical aspect of “taking on” a broader range of service areas
is ensuring that the ESD platform provides easy access to
those services for customers and advisors.
CCP addresses this challenge by providing a range of built-in
portal features specifically designed to make it easier for users
to quickly find the right service. For example, CCP provides
expertly designed navigation tools such as:
• Service Launch Pad – where users can navigate a
hierarchical view of all council service areas, carefully
structured to align with council and government service
definition standards.
• Top Tasks View – where users can access a short-list of
common service request types.
• Free Text Search – enabling users the freedom and
flexibility to quickly search for the service by its name.
• A-Z of services – where users can filter and navigate the
range of available services alphabetically.
Multiple Contact ChannelsAn ESD platform enables Councils to support a broad range
of contact channels ensuring a consistent and standardised
customer service experience.
CCP achieves this though a range of built-in features including:
Consolidated Work Queues
CCP presents advisors with a filterable, sorted and easily
navigable set of contacts and tasks for processing.
CCP work queues consolidate contacts from:
• Emails - through integration with the council’s Email system.
• SMS - through integration with the council’s SMS provider.
• Paper - through integration with the council’s EDRMS solution.
• Walk In - through the CCP Reception functionality.
• Social Media – through integration with Facebook and
Twitter Feeds.
• Allocated work tasks and reminders for this advisor e.g. a
back office request for more information.
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Channel Aware E-Forms and Workflows
CCP is a true multi-channel solution, handling customer
contacts using the same channel aware e-forms and workflows
for the type of service being requested.
CCP e-forms and workflows are channel aware and can be
configured to offer customised views and options for each
channel and service type as defined by the council.
For example, a citizen accessing the council portal using their
mobile device sees a responsive design of the portal; giving
the citizen the same CCP functionality of the desktop portal but
designed specifically for mobile devices.
CCP handles all mediated or non-mediated contacts in just the
same manner, regardless of the source channel. This means
that requests made by email or through social media sites are
handled just as if the person had telephoned the council.
Requests submitted by online customers, bypass the
mediation advisors but are handled using the same e-forms
and fulfilment workflows.
CCP fulfilment workflows process each request according to
council-defined business processes and rules designed to
specifically handle that type of service request.
Future Proofed ApproachAsidua understands the dynamic and challenging environment
where councils operate. We realise that any ESD must meet
the business needs of today, but still provide flexible scalability
options to meet the evolving demands of tomorrow.
CCP has been designed ‘from the ground up’ to provide a wide
range of scalability options to ensure that CCP solutions can
easily cope with tomorrow’s business needs.
Source: Asidua
figure 6. CCP Supports Mobile Through Responsive Design
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Features of the CCP solution which underpin future proofing
include:
Easily Maintained
CCP business processes are easily maintained by trained
council officers. CCP provides “drag and drop” e-form and
workflow designers which enable trained but non-technical
council officers to modify existing business processes and
even create brand new ones. When it comes to building new
processes, CCP gets council designers off to a flying start by
providing a suite of template e-forms and workflows which can
be easily customised to meet specific business needs.
Easily Extendable
While CCP can be easily configured and extended by trained
council officers, Asidua understands that sometimes councils
want a helping hand. CCP provides that helping hand through:
• Off the shelf “Service Packs” – a suite of pre-built e-forms,
workflow and system adapters which address a wide range
of council service needs “out-of-the-box”.
• CCP Services – with CCP, help is always to hand through
CCP services. Asidua can rapidly deploy CCP experts to
work with council officers to configure CCP to meet evolving
business needs.
Built on Industry Recognised Platforms
CCP is built on the Microsoft’s Connected Government suite
of technology platforms including SharePoint, Dynamics CRM
and SQL Server. Microsoft’s technology platforms are industry
recognised, and provide councils with the security of using
recognised products, with access to a large pool of readily
available technical skills, to support any future customisation
which councils may require.
Evolving Product Roadmap
CCP as a product is actively developed and enhanced via a
planned and published Product Roadmap. Customers can
have confidence that CCP is backed up by an experienced and
professional team which includes a:
• Dedicated product management team.
• Dedicated product development team.
• Dedicated Support team.
Cost EffectiveWhen deploying an ESD, councils must be confident of realising
business value, while keeping solution costs under control.
Source: Asidua
figure 7. CCP: Built On Microsoft Platforms
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CCP has been designed to simplify customer contact for
councils, and a core driver of this approach is to ensure that
CCP solutions are cost-effective.
Using CCP, councils will achieve their goals in shorter time
frames at greatly reduced cost. This is achieved through a
combination of the flexible range of components and options
which CCP offers including:
• A wide range of core Customer Self-Service Components.
• Pre-built business processes for a wide range of local
authority service areas.
• Low cost business process configuration by trained but non-
technical council officers.
Core Customer Self-Service Components
CCP offers a complementary suite of core technology
components which seamlessly integrate to form a multi-channel
transactional customer service platform. CCP components
provide the core customer service components including:
CCP Customer Portal: A customer facing, online information
and transactional Service Portal. CCP Customer Portal enables
online customers to access a broad range of council-held
information and transactional services in a safe, secure and
controlled environment. Capabilities include:
• Audited, role-based access, controlled by multi-tier customer
account management including federated identify.
• Configurable e-forms with a range of supporting templates
covering standard Apply For It, Report It, Pay For It and Find
It scenarios.
• Knowledgebase and Search Functionality.
• Integrated controls for payments, mapping and
appointments
CCP Employee Portal: A council advisor Service Portal
providing role-based access to a wide range of council-held
information and services. Advisors can quickly find customer
records, offer information about council services and submit
service requests on behalf of a customer. Capabilities include:
• Employee optimised access to the same e-forms shared
with the Customer Portal but providing enhanced
employee-only functionality, using standard CCP controls.
• Enquiry and Case Management support.
• Workflow driven Information Dashboard displaying
customer, location and account-centric information.
• Audited, role-based access.
CCP Enterprise: An Enterprise-scale Business Process
Management and Reporting platform which provides:
• A Message Router enabling secure and reliable “end-to-
end” service request routing.
• A Workflow Engine which enables the completion of
council-defined service request fulfilment steps – including
a “drag and drop” workflow designer and template
workflows addressing a range of local authority scenarios.
• A suite of system “Adapters” for a range of common local
authority systems enabling easy reuse of the council’s
existing systems.
• “End-to-end” service reporting using both pre-built and
bespoke reports.
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Asidua Dynamics CRM: A Local Government specific
configuration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Asidua Dynamics
CRM is designed to aid local authorities in:
• Managing their relationships with customers.
• Understanding their customers and the services they
request.
• Maintaining an accurate record of customer’s contact
information and preferences.
• Recording all customer interactions across all channels.
• Tracking progress of customer service requests from point
of contact through to successful service delivery.
• Gathering management information and business
intelligence across customers, channels, services and
performance.
CCP MDM: A robust and reliable Master Data Management
platform which provides:
• “Out-of-the-Box” loading, matching and maintenance of
customer and address data from council LLPG and Council
Tax sources into CRM.
• The ability to readily extend the indexes to provide a “Single
View” of the customer record.
CCP F2F Queue Management: Provides face to face (F2F)
queue management functionality supporting the F2F customer
contact process from reception through to advisor.
• Provides reception quick query and contact queuing forms.
• Maximises staff efficiency by using information gathered at
reception.
• Presents queue status and customer notification through
large screen displays.
CCP CTI: Provides the ability to connect CCP to the Council’s
telephony system. CCP can then automatically use data
gathered from the telephony system to:
• Automate customer search by caller number.
• Use dialled number and incoming queues to narrow
process selection.
• Use additional data entered via the telephone system to
automatically drive process or complete data entry.
Pre-built Business Processes
CCP provides the option to rapidly deploy working “end-to-end”
transactional services using CCP pre-built “Service Packs”.
CCP Service Packs provide a combination of preconfigured
e-forms, workflow and system adapters to allow councils to “hit
the ground running”. CCP’s suite of Service Packs continues
to evolve and currently includes a wide range of common local
authority business processes spanning from Environments &
Streets to Revenues & Benefits processes.
DIY Business Process Configuration
With CCP, councils have the option for easy DIY configuration
of e-forms and workflows to enhance existing services or build
brand new ones. Trained but non-technical council officers can
take on DIY configuration using CCP’s built in “drag and drop”
design tools. Council designers can reuse template e-forms
and workflows to rapidly fashion council-specific variants or
build new ones from scratch.
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AnalysisGartner provides a framework for customer service managers
for planning and ensuring that customer self-service and
customer self-care initiatives contribute to bottom-line results.
The Asidua Customer Contact PlatformTM makes it easier for
the council to achieve their Customer Self-Service vision by
addressing many of these analysis points as follows:
Analysis Point CCP Capability
Consider the
Best Self-Service
Architecture for your
Organisation
CCP provides an enterprise-scale Customer service solution which provides built in transactional self-service
capabilities. CCP also provides self-help capabilities through features such as an online knowledgebase.
CCP provides a wide range of tools and technologies to enable easy integration with the wider suite of
technology components which the council may wish to use. For example CCP Portals can easy be configured
to integrate with custom Web Customer Service components as required.
Plan for
Maintenance Before
Deployment
CCP makes it easier for council web teams to manage online content through built-in features to author,
approve and deploy council content quickly. While the underlying SharePoint platform provides an industry
recognised solution for content management, CCP layers on more value added features such as “SharePoint
Ribbon Overrides” to, for example, prevent “pasting” of non aligned formats, making it much easier to maintain
a consistent look and feel across all council content.
Create an Escalation
Process
CCP provides built in support for online customers by providing easy access to online help and advice when
required. However, if a self-service customer needs more help, CCP allows them to save their partially
competed e-form, and transfer to a mediated channel for support. A council advisor can then pick up the
partially completed e-form and progress it on behalf of the customer.
Integrate with the
Existing Customer
Service Application
CCP provides a wide range of tools and technologies to enable easy integration with the wider suite of
technology components which the council may wish to use. CCP has been designed and built using the
principles of a Services Oriented Architecture and adopts open standards design principles throughout. As a
result, CCP can be easily configured to integrate with a wide range both “On Premise” and “Cloud Hosted”
WCS components.
Create a Killer
Marketing Campaign
CCP makes it easy for the council to promote a shift to self-service channels by helping council advisors to
promote and enable citizen portal accounts. For example, when a customer contacts the council CCP prompts
the advisor to ask if the customer would like an Online Portal account. CCP then guides the advisor through a
simple suite of e-forms to create the portal account while the customer is on the phone.
Focus on a
Great Customer
Experience
CCP enables councils to focus on excellent customer service by making it easier for customers to access a
standardised and consistent set of information and transactional services, irrespective of the channel used to
contact the council.
CCP also makes it easier for council advisors by providing a consolidated view of the customer, their existing
services, and recent service requests through the Employee Portal’s Information Dashboard. Advisors can also
submit requests on behalf of the customer using the same suite of e-forms and workflows which are used by
self-service customers.
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Case StudiesAsidua has extensive experience realising ESD solutions based
on CCP for a wide range of GB local authorities. Consider for
example:
Milton Keynes Council
Milton Keynes Council is an authority responsible for many
public services provided for residents, businesses and visitors.
As part of a wider transformational project the Council was
seeking to create significant improvements in its online
e-enablement and take-up by citizens and other external users
of its services. Milton Keynes decided that to achieve this aim
it needed to invest in new technologies, including software
products/tools that would aid systems integration, in order to
drive transformational change within the Council and improve
efficiencies in service delivery.
To help achieve their e-enablement goals, Milton Keynes
has implemented the Asidua CCP solution for employees
and citizens across all channels. The project started in
environmental and highway services and is being expanded
through 4 phases to cover all customer facing services (e.g.
Housing, Registrations, Revenues and Benefits).
The initial phase of the project handles around 500 – 750
service requests per day. All of these requests are now being
passed directly to the back office system with no further
manual processes. Citizens get automated feedback when
requests are logged, closed or updated.
Over the course of the programme Milton Keynes Council is
anticipating savings of more than £2M; progress to date is on
track to exceed these savings.
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council has also recently chosen Asidua’s CCP
as their ESD platform, to support the delivery of the Leeds
Customer Access Strategy.
Leeds City Council was looking to engage a partner who:
“Understands and can contribute to the Leeds business vision
through delivering and implementing cost effective, innovative
solutions and services on an ongoing basis”.
Leeds found just such a partner with Asidua.
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About AsiduaAsidua is a specialist supplier of customer contact solutions to
GB local authorities. Our portfolio includes offering specialist
customer contact solutions that utilise: CRM based solutions,
Customer Portals, and Back-office Automation. As a result of the
experience which Asidua has gained within this sector, Asidua
has developed a tried and tested customer contact solution,
known as the Asidua Customer Contact Platform™ (CCP).
Asidua CCP is a suite of components which together make
customer contact easier for councils and their citizens. Asidua
CCP solutions make customer contact easier across a wide
range of channels including the Contact Centre, Web, Email,
SMS, Mobile, Social Networking and more.
Asidua CCP makes it easier for a council to innovate, by using an
integration led approach to providing business applications that
support customer contact. Using CCP allows a council to better
leverage the power of their existing processes, systems and data.
The Asidua CCP solution is a Local Authority specific
customisation of the following industry recognised technology
platforms:
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft SQL Server
The Asidua CCP is recognised by Microsoft as a realisation of
its Citizen Service Platform concept (now known as Connected
Government Framework), as evidenced by the case study here.
Asidua itself is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
Many GB Local Authorities have chosen to use the combined
power of the complementary Asidua and Microsoft platforms.
By doing so they have chosen a route which allows them to
use industry recognised technology platforms, combined with
the CCP architectural approach, thereby enabling them to
use Service Oriented Architecture techniques to better realise
“end-to-end” customer relationship management solutions.