Liverpool partners to keep CRM in-house

Liverpool City Council was keen to overhaul its IT systems to improve efficiency and customer service.

Council chief executive David Henshaw felt an outsourcing deal would merely pass the buck to an external party.

So because the council was keen to stay involved, it entered into a partnership with BT and formed a joint venture company called Liverpool Direct Limited (LDL).

BT has so far invested more than £50m in the 10-year, £300m project. LDL is 80.1 per cent owned by BT and 19.9 per cent owned by the council.

'We are committed to becoming a leading edge local authority, transforming services in the city and revolutionising the way the Council does business,' says Henshaw. 'We are using innovative new technology to help us achieve this.'

LDL has tackled a number of key areas, including database integration, human resources intranet installation and the establishing of an electronic telephone directory.

The partnership has also introduced a new contact centre and customer relationship management (CRM) system.

LDL has increased the Council's contact centre from an 80-seat operation, open during office hours, to a 24/7 set-up with 225 seats. The centre runs off a Meridian switch with Symposium call management software.

As many as 90 per cent of enquiries are resolved at the first point of contact and abandoned call levels are down from 25 per cent to 12 per cent.

The centre was instrumental in recovering £500,000 of outstanding rent owed to the city in its first eight weeks of operation. The figure has since topped £1m.

'Liverpool's performance has improved substantially and is now seen within central government as a council that is leading the way for others,' says Rob McVicker, commercial director at LDL.