Ten local authorities share front-end customer system

Staffordshire local authorities are saving nearly half a million pounds a year on running costs using a single customer relationship management (CRM) system across all 10 organisations.

The Staffordshire Connects programme started in 2003 with a £5m, 10-year managed service deal with supplier Oracle. In 2004 Lichfield District Council was the first to implement the system, and the final authority will go live later this year.

The project is the public sector’s largest shared services programme for front-end systems. The model is a key element of the Cabinet Office’s Transformational Government strategy, but the focus is traditionally on administration systems such as human resources and finance.

The single front-end CRM system means that citizens ringing any of the authorities can be routed directly to the correct one, and any details need be taken only once.

The single contract saved participating councils £1.8m on procurement costs alone, says Mike Loveless, Staffordshire Connects programme assurance manager.

‘There are also operational savings of £400,000 a year across Staffordshire, which benefits local council taxpayers,’ he said.

‘And there are enormous savings in the organisations themselves,’ he said.