Case Studies

The Citizens Advice Bureau

The Citizens Advice Bureau in North Hertfordshire were looking to replace their three separate telephone systems with one multisite solution.

The project had a number of goals:

• A single client number with which to access the telephone advice service across all three offices.
• The facility to provide advice not only, as previously, via face-to-face appointment, but also by telephone.
• The provision of unique contact numbers for key members of staff, in conjunction with a hot-desking “follow me” ability –enabling calls to be routed to the correct person, first time, irrespective of which site they are currently located; no re-dialling or intervention from an operator required.
• Free inter-office calling.
• Conferencing capability to facilitate inter-office multi-party comunication. This should have the capability to include calls originating from the public telephone network.
• Voice mail - replacement of the outdated, “tape-style” answering machines currently in use, and provision of a message service for staff and advisors.
• Resiliency to the the failure of any single office node.
• ‘Auto-attendant’ features to allow clients to re-direct themselves to the correct service point if they have misdialed.
• Remote voicemail access, to aid homeworking.
• Reduction of the number of telephony invoices, preferably to a single invoice.
• Reduction of the number of discrete telephone lines across the district.
• Reduction of monthly call charges.
• Upgradeability - the capacity to enable technologies such as Voice over IP, SMS, etc. as future investment with no major infrastructure change needed.

Selection of the most appropriate technology was vital to the project. It had to meet or exceed a number of criteria:

• Cost – As a charity, money is restricted.

• Small physical size - to fit into existing office space.

• Support Analogue and Digital PSTN lines as well as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

• Support multi-site working.

• Be expandable in both telephony capacity and number of sites supported.

• Have visible and viable plans for extension in scope beyond the boundaries of the initial project.

The Future Voice and Data solution was the first UK Citizens Advice Bureau to implement a multi-site telephone system including VoIP to link the offices including a centralized call centre for telephone advice.  A number of proposals were evaluated before Future Voice and Data were selected.

The system implemented across the three offices was designed to give maximum flexibility and to have some resilience to failure. As implemented, the system has a Nortel BCM50 at each office interconnected by Virtual Private Networking (VPN) over a DSL connection to the internet. Each VPN is currently configured to carry 4 Voice over IP channels between sites. At the main office in Letchworth there are 4 ISDN 2e circuits connected to the PSTN giving 8 separate input/output channels, providing twenty DDI Numbers and two 0845 Numbers. The Letchworth office also hosts the Call Centre package on its BCM50. The offices at Royston and Hitchin each have a single ISDN2e circuit configured, providing redundancy for incoming calls and as the primary connection for outbound calls. The extension number plan is harmonized across the sites, with each site having its own range of numbers – 2xx for Letchworth, 3xx for Royston, etc.

In operation, the client calls the 0845 enquiry number and is routed to the BCM50 at Letchworth where, via the auto-attendant and Call Centre applications, the call is routed to any extension within the three offices at which an advisor has ‘logged in’ to provide telephone advice (a process involving one press of a soft key or a three digit Feature code on the handset). On termination of the call, the advisor has a configurable ‘wrap up’ time to complete data entry for the client before being offered another call.

The second 0845 number is used to provide access to the administrative functions of the bureau again via the auto-attendant. In this case, the auto-attendant routes the call based on the attended hours template to present the call to the ‘most likely’ end point. The caller can also select an office or a function by following the voice prompts.

Out of hours, or when the office is busy, the attendant gives an appropriate voice response.

The DDI numbers give direct access to managers and other key staff, and also support a fax service at each office. VoiceMail is set up for all staff who require it.

Any extension can contact any other, across all three sites, by dialing a single three digit number from the converged numbering scheme.
The District inherited a mix of direct exchange lines, dedicated fax lines, and multiple disparate phone systems - all served by three separate telephony service providers. Each office had a separate timetable, telephone number and procedure for accepting telephone enquiries from citizens; this resulted in inefficient use of available resource across the three offices, confusion and disappointment for many citizens unable to make that vital first contact.

It was important that we could get the project moving with basic ISDN functionality from day one, but with rapid progress into inter-site VoIP traffic and then to support VoIP trunks as the technology matured. At the project initiation meetings there was much debate about the changing dominance of newer technology on the younger sector of citizens, to be effective over the planned life of the project (5 – 10 years)
The new single centralized contact number has significantly reduced the frustration involved in contacting the bureau for advice. At least one office within the group is available for telephone enquiries in AM and PM sessions during weekdays, and, as client details from the central CAB database system are also available, the service provision is seamless from the citizens’ perspective.

Separation of the non-enquiry calls onto a separate number has allowed the administrative staff to focus on their own tasks without interruption by acting as an operator.

Provision of DDI for some key staff has had enormous benefits in two areas:

• Citizens Advice Bureau funders and major suppliers now find it much easier to contact the named individual they want to contact or leave a personal voice message. In the past this has been a major source of aggravation, particularly during busy periods. One unexpected effect is that their perception of the service CAB provides has improved, resulting in a better reception when the bureaux next seek additional funds.
• Staff providing advice on Housing and Money problems can now establish a direct link for their current clients providing a closer ‘one to one’ link and further freeing the lines for new enquiries.

Since the project has stabilised and become an integral part of the way the service runs, we have been able to review how we could make further improvements. Results from a survey by the CAB parent organisation show that an increasing proportion of citizens see the phone as the first point of contact with many organisations, whereas previously the dominant first contact was by a personal visit to an office and waiting to be seen. Since that time problems have become more complex and require more time (and documentation) to reach a satisfactory result. With this in mind, through use of the provided solution, the CAB are now trialling a triage approach to phone enquiries, quickly identifying those who will need to visit the office, and the relevant documentation and make an appointment. The remaining calls are further categorized into those who can be dealt with quickly and others who can be passed on to ‘back office’ advisors.

The new telephone system has improved the number of enquiries we can handle (up 42% in the first year!) and reduced the number of “we couldn’t get through to you” complaints. The new telephone service is now so heavily used the CAB is in the process of reviewing additional line and advisor capacity to deal with this growth in demand.

The target to reduce the cost of lines and calls, and consolidate the number of bills, has also been met. Instead of some 21+ separate invoices for telephone services, we now have 3 with a cost reduction of 20% compared to that of previous years. The consolidation uses approximately the same number of lines, but the CAB now utilises them much more efficiently.

The solution we provided for North Herts CAB has already won a Laureate from the Computerworld 2008 Honours Program for innovative use of technology to benefit society. A major unanticipated benefit for CAB was the publicity gained from receiving the award. Future Voice and Data, Nortel and the CAB raised the funds to send two delegates from the CAB to Washington, DC to collect their Laureate, and have since held an event to publicise their international recognition and the award received to the local community and press. This has enabled the North Herts CAB to secure additional funding and increased budgets this year, when surrounding CAB districts have had their budgets cut due to the current financial climate. Return on investment was higher than expected too: the high volume of calls between sites were now free, reducing total spend per quarter from £2700 to just over £1000. Furthermore, the entire project came in at 15% under budget. The cost savings mean that the solution will pay for itself, whilst providing a better service to the general public, in just over 2.5 years.

The North Herts CAB receives the core funding for its service from North Herts District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.  It receives further support for individual services from various other organisations. 
Due to the success of the project we have now provided the very same solution to many of the CAB locations in the Hertfordshire area.

"Future Voice and Data have given good support and customer service which has helped us to get the most out of the telephone service. Working with a great number of part time staff and volunteers it was important to us that the telephone system offered flexibility and be easy to use. We are reliant on volunteer support for the management of technology within the organisation and therefore need to ensure that the system is stable and robust. We believe that this system has given us all we need for the organisation and our clients, outreaching our expectations."

Sally Sailsbury
Bureau Manager
North Herts District Citizens Advice Bureau