Bedfordshire pools resources

Councils across Bedfordshire have joined together in an inventive partnership to share resources and standardise customer service.

The contact centre, which is run on software from supplier SAP, is the first phase of Bedfordshire County Council's £267m 12-year outsourcing partnership with consultants HBS Business Services.

'This project means we can share the costs and resources, and we can also bring a consistency of service far better then any individual body can provide as a stand-alone organisation,' says Bedfordshire executive member for information and systems Richard Stay.

Bedfordshire began using the system for internal services, such as the IT help desk, in December and it is now being used by citizen-facing departments, such as highways and trading standards.

'We have software channelling the calls so we can re-route from the traditional numbers for different organisations into the same contact centre. Citizens in Bedford don't care what level of council provides service, and why should they?' he says.

The contact centre has a 25-strong team based at county hall, and a virtual element with calls to other councils routed through to the central system.

The system is critical to plans to offer citizens seamless service from a range of council bodies. Other councils in the area are using the centre to provide a single, county-wide service.

'A key element is ensuring other local authority bodies maintain their own identities and keep their own staff,' says Stay.