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Title: One in three local councils say they won’t be ready for NI14 Post by: RealWire on October 28, 2008, 09:45:44 PM Woking, UK, October 28th 2008: While the vast majority of councils (82%) have started projects to measure avoidable contact, a third (32%) do not expect to have data collection mechanisms in place to meet the government’s target date of October 2008, according to new research from Rostrvm Solutions (http://www.rostrvm.com/). Avoidable contact consists of unnecessary communication between the community and its local authority and local councils’ performance on reducing this will be assessed within a new performance management framework (http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/nationalindicator) known as National Indicator number 14 (NI14).
The research conducted by Rostrvm, a leading UK call centre software (http://www.rostrvm.com/products.shtml) developer, highlights the problems faced by local authorities, the most prevalent being the challenge of collecting the data required, cited by 41% of projects. Official guidance (http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8507853#contents-1) indicates that a CRM system is the simplest method of data collection, but a third of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system users (31%) said their CRM system cannot be readily adapted to measure avoidable contact. Other problems identified by the contact centres include the ambiguity of what is required (19%), the necessity of training staff to comply (11%) and preparing the back office and service support systems to handle the extra data (10%). A further 8% would struggle due to a lack of resources and time constraints. Just 4% of the local authorities surveyed did not perceive any problems preventing them from meeting the target. Ken Reid, Marketing Director of Rostrvm Solutions, comments: “It makes good sense to reduce avoidable contact, which can be a strain on resources, effort and money for both councils and their residents. However, our research confirms anecdotal evidence that a significant number of councils are struggling with the limitations of their CRM systems, which do not easily allow the collection of data. “But it can be very simple to implement a data collection system to measure avoidable contact. For example, by using some simple software like rostrvm CallGuide (http://www.rostrvm.com/callguide.shtml), public sector and commercial organisations can support contact processes or simply record whether or not each call was avoidable.” To download a copy of the full Rostrvm report Are local authorities ready to measure avoidable contact, please visit the following address: http://www.rostrvm.com/avoidable_contact_survey.shtml To help councils and other organisations deal with this Rostrvm has also produced a guide. The guide explains how Rostrvm Solutions can quickly help organisations such as councils identify, monitor and reduce avoidable contact. It focuses on: • The value of measuring avoidable contact • The benefits of reducing it • The functionality of rostrvm CallGuide software (http://www.rostrvm.com/callguide.shtml) |