Case Study: Contact Centre Replacement
Citizens Advice
Citizens Advice have over 2,500 sites, 21,000 volunteers and 8.700 staff, making it one of the largest Charities in the UK, helping over 2.4 million people each year.
The Client
Citizens Advice give people the knowledge and confidence they need to find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem. They’re a national charity and network of local charities who offer confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free.
Citizens Advice have an estimated 18,000 contact centre advisors with diverse working patterns, different skillsets and specialities.
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Citizens Advice currently support a wide range of services, including::
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Consumer
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Adviceline
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Money Advice Service & Debt
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Witness Service
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Help to Claim
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Pension Wise
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Law and Courts
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Health
The Chellenge
Citizens Advice (C.A.) we’re using an end-of-life platform provided by their incumbent supplier. The platform wasn’t resilient, didn’t provide the reporting required, nor the functionality and additionally during the pandemic where C.A. staff needed to work from home, due to limitations with the infrastructure C.A. were charged twice for each inbound call.
The challenge for the project team was to ensure a strategy which was an enabler for the business and procurement which was robust. C.A.’s business requirement is to support their 21,000 volunteers and so the right strategy and product selection was imperative for the success of the business over the coming years as more and more customer use digital and voice channels.
Historically the interaction split for clients was 80% in-person, face to face and 20% via the digital channels, telephony, email, online etc. This split has dramatically shifted due to COVID, and digital interactions now make up the majority of the service offering. Citizens Advice have stated they expect this trend to continue and therefore needed a solution which supports this shift in client behaviour.
The Project
Soniza with C.A. created a project team and advisory board who could form opinions on behalf of the business. This included representatives across all levels, from board members and managers to administrators and contact centre advisors.
We gathered the data required to create the future modelling and costs, ran workshops across the business to understand where technology was failing and where improvements could be made. We presented C.A. with four different technology strategies, including a cost benefit analysis for each option. From this we created a strategy which was agreed by the C.A. Board.
The procurement route selected was Competitive Dialogue which provided the ability to negotiate and discuss the requirement allowing for greater flexibility for the team. We created the selection questionnaire to assist with down-selecting from the large number of interested parties. We then created the tender document based on functional and non-functional requirements identified in the strategy. From the supplier responses we down-selected further to three suppliers who went into competitive dialogue.
After significant negotiation and re-scoring of the tender document, we were able to conclude as a team on the winning bidder based on our collective scoring analysis.
The Outcome
Process
Audit, Strategy and Procurement were completed with a full audit trail to understand why decisions were made
Technology
The Client can confidently reassure the business that the decisions made will support the business from a technology perspective, irrespective of business direction.
Cost Management
The solution provides the most flexibility which is ideally suited to the client requirements.
Optimisation
The client can develop the platform over time, integrating further into business applications and gaining more value for money from the investment.
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