Staffordshire Connects

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A GROUND-breaking partnership of councils has emblazoned its successes across the World Wide Web.

Hot on the heels of winning two national awards, Staffordshire Connects has entered cyberspace by publishing a video that gives information on public services while hitting a Government target.

Presented by partnership chair and Staffordshire Moorlands councillor John Redfern, the programme explains how the county's 10 local authorities have harnessed technology to provide services in convenient new ways while saving £1.8m of taxpayers' money in buying systems together.

The video has been published to all 10 websites and the Staffordshire Connects portal at www.staffordshireconnects.gov.uk.

The partnership's achievements include the largest local government implementation in England and Wales of a single Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The system gives council workers the information they need to deal with up to 80 per cent of customer enquiries at first time of asking. In the near future, it will also allow partners to accept service requests for each other.

CRM is supported by a unique Joined-up Directory which enables council employees across Staffordshire to contact each other at the click of a computer mouse, pointing customers in the right direction or taking responsibility for the service in question.

All partners operate e-Payments systems, enabling customers to pay for council services 24/7 by Internet, Automated Telephone Payment or ordinary telephone call during the day.

Now, partners are developing a joint telephony system that will allow incoming calls to be routed to the right customer service advisor and which will enable partners to take calls for each other outside office hours in shared, virtual contact centres.

The partnership's successes have earned two national awards in just six months. Last September, Staffordshire Connects outshone 160 rivals to win the partnership working category of the annual awards of the Association of Public Service Excellence.

And there was more glory last month (March) when Staffordshire Connects was one of just seven local government consortiums to secure Beacon Status in the category of Transforming the Delivery of Services through Partnerships. The partnership will share in a £3m budget to be divided among 50 Beacons nationwide to help them share their expertise with others.

Said Cllr Redfern: 'Despite our successes, we're not resting on our laurels and are developing new projects which will make services even more convenient and cost effective. For example, we're developing plans to share responsibility for services which keep our streets and open spaces clean and tidy'.