Mid Beds. Council roles out Electronic Document & Records Management

The Council has already digitised Planning and Revenues & Benefits paper documents from the last seven years and all Committee documents since 1974 into the Open Text solution, so customer service representatives and others can access all available information more efficiently and effectively from any location.

The council's 18 customer service staff now regularly deal with 12,000 phone calls a month, with an average of 150 walk-in requests and 40 incoming emails per day. Before the Open Text EDRMS solution was installed customers had to go in person to individual departments, such as planning, council tax or environmental services. Lack of immediate access to information in two different premises meant that the council was only able to respond to 3,000 calls a month with a team of 21 staff.

The Open Text system has also facilitated the council's move to a new headquarters, where there is no longer a need for a central filing room for thousands of planning files, as archived and current information is available electronically on a Storage Area Network.

Mid Beds is also ahead of its targets set by the Government as part of the Gershon Inquiry for driving traffic to its Web site, with 64,660 visitors in May, an 11 per cent increase from April figures. Having just reached its millionth visitor since its launch in 2003, the Mid Beds Web site and EDRMS is enabling more people to use self-service to find and download planning documents on the internet 24x7, driving further efficiencies. Customers also have the additional benefit of being able to access archive Committee documents through the new system.

The newly formed customer service department is now able to solve 80 per cent of inquiries in the first contact. Staff are no longer tied to a single department as they can access information across the council. Customers can now come to any location, rather than having to visit specific departments.

Clive Jones, Head of Customer Services at Mid Bedfordshire District Council commented, 'The ability to access and share all information across multiple touch points, whether in person, email, or telephone, is a cultural change for staff and for customers. The introduction of Open Text was easy, the bigger challenge was changing the processes and the way people worked. Now, EDRMS is the bedrock of our organisation, and has proved to be the first building block in enabling transformational change and driving efficiencies.'

'We have efficiency targets set by central government, but we are also determined to keep costs down for our citizens and customers, so we can maintain one of the lowest council tax rates in the country, and deliver the best possible service. Since implementing Open Text we have had very positive feedback, from staff and customers alike, as it makes life easier and more efficient all round.'

Mid Beds has now integrated the EDRMS and content management system to ensure that any new documents are automatically uploaded and available on the Web site for its customers.

Related links to this article:
Mid Bedfordshire District Council
Open Text

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