NORTHERN BEACHES COUNCIL STREAMLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS

The Council represents over 250,000 residents in northern and holds connectedness, inclusion and quality service among its guiding principles. Formed in 2016 by the integration of the , Manly and Warringah councils, this new local government is committed to adding value to the welcoming and vibrant life of the Northern Beaches and earning the trust and respect of the community.

CHALLENGE AN INTUITIVE SELF- AN OPPORTUNITY TO SERVICE CUSTOMER FACILITATE CLEAR PORTAL COMMUNICATIONS

While the With the help of ASG, Northern Beaches Before the merger of the three local made quality service and connectedness Council has implemented an intuitive councils residents, visitors and councillors a firm underlying principle of their self-service portal called OneCRM, that faced challenges when trying to interact approach to serving the community, gives a holistic view of interactions to online with their local government. The residents found that interacting with both customers and staff. Based on formation of Northern Beaches Council the council was not always easy. The the Salesforce Communities platform, in 2016 provided the perfect opportunity integration of Pittwater, Manly, and OneCRM gives customers a digital user- to create a clear channel to facilitate Warringah councils left customers and friendly, hierarchical knowledge hub communications between customers staff in need of a single knowledge that guides enquiries to the relevant and council staff that could be used on management solution so enquiries knowledge areas, with an integrated case any device at a time that suited could be handled consistently and creation tool that feeds requests to the our customers. more effectively. necessary council department. OneCRM is integrated with Technology I, where people and properties are matched to the name and address register and requests are pushed to the right team for resolution. Updates from Technology I are passed back to Salesforce in a simple, integrated manner. Future phases include tighter integration with Technology I and providing customers with more information on the services they currently receive, along with future self-service opportunities.

“Our community are calling for better online and digital services. The OneCRM system provides just that, giving Council the opportunity to be valued and trusted through providing more efficient access to our services” Mark Ferguson, CEO, Northern Beaches Council

1 asggroup.com.au A SYSTEM TO CONSOLIDATE PUBLIC SERVICES IN ONE PLACE

Northern Beaches Council engaged with ASG to work together to build a new self-service customer knowledge hub, that would give their customers direct access to the information they needed. The council was responding to feedback from residents, provided by the recently conducted Community Digital Transformation survey. It identified the need for a new knowledge management system for customers that consolidated public services and departments. With the council firmly committed to connectedness and delivering high-quality service to their customers, the new OneCRM self-service hub was conceived – and ASG was ready to help guide the project.

OneCRM is an intuitive customer interface that empowers the council to share ENABLING knowledge with customers and allows customers to provide feedback and raise KNOWLEDGE cases with the council. Case creation forms are available to customers, enabling them to provide information directly, and also ensures inquiries are routed to SHARE WITH the correct department. Updates on progress are also provided to the customers CUSTOMERS in real time. The ability to report problems means a reduction in call volumes, allowing council staff to spend more time on customer satisfaction.

OneCRM allows the Northern Beaches Council to guide their customers through REDUCED the enquiry procedure, providing information in real time about the best course of HANDLING TIME action for any problem, allowing customers to often find the answer to their issue online thereby preventing unnecessary case creation. Case creation and delivery are AND REWORK automated to ensure that when cases are raised, the correct department picks up each new case, reducing handling time and rework, in turn reducing customer call volumes.

Since OneCRM launched, Northern Beaches Council has seen an immediate A REDUCTION reduction in call volumes, assisting the council to answer calls within their 30 IN CALL second commitment. The solution has been a revelation for the council, taking them on the first of many steps to improve their customer interactions and strive VOLUMES for connectedness, enabled by a system built with the customer at its heart. Customers now have more centralised information, and a direct line to the council, enabling them to deal with the organisation when it suits them. Stage two is scheduled to launch in January 2018 with the potential to move other core business areas – such as online payments – onto the platform. Northern Beaches Council and ASG have realised the vision for a more connected community.

“This is a ‘best of breed’ customer engagement centre that had significant experience creating customer experience integrates with existing information systems and gives us the systems in the public sector and they were able to understand ability to get to know our customers better. We now have the many and varied stakeholders we aim to satisfy.” a single view of how they interact with our many different services. It was obvious working with the ASG team that they Nathan Rogers, CIO, Northern Beaches Council

ABOUT ASG ASG is the genuine alternative in the Australian IT services market offering a complete digital transformation service from infrastructure and managed services, through to business and IT thought leadership. With global reach, breadth of capabilities and sheer determination, ASG is deeply committed to driving outcomes for our clients’ success. ASG is part of the NRI Group.

2 asggroup.com.au