Embracing digital transformation to realise £millions in operational savings

With a target to save nearly £80 million over five years, Walsall Council embarked on a bold strategy to transform operational efficiency. We’ve been with the Council as its strategic partner every step of the way - and a Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM platform is one of the final components.

This successful implementation gives the Council the tools and capabilities it needs to dramatically improve customer experience for its 280,000 residents. It also delivers a vital boost to employee engagement by equipping customer service agents with the tools they need to serve residents more efficiently. Combined with a transformed operating model, the organisation is on track to realise its savings target by 2025.

The context: laying the strategic foundations

Like many local authorities, the Council was delivering different services via different directorates, creating inefficiencies and frustration for service users and employees alike. Complex planning for the delivery of hundreds of different services across the region was still handled largely manually.

Working closely with the Council’s senior leaders, we developed a vision for a modern, digital organisation, with services designed around the customer. The key ambitions for what became Walsall Council’s Proud Transformation Programme were enshrined in three simple measures to:

• enhance the customer experience for residents by developing intuitive, connected digital services and bringing together customer service agents in a new centralised customer service centre
• improve employee engagement by ensuring Council staff have the modern technology they need to do their jobs effectively
• achieve service efficiencies and performance gains by deploying new digital solutions to coordinate and schedule work and release measurable benefits.

The challenge: achieving a successful Microsoft Dynamics delivery

Four years in, with our strategy and transformation remit fulfilled, the Council had achieved over 50% of its targeted savings. It was at this point that we were asked to lead the delivery of the new Microsoft Dynamics platform. Other associated aims were to enable Walsall Council’s in-house technology team to design and build new digital services independently in future while maximising the use of out-of-the-box technologies and repeatable processes to increase speed of delivery and maximise value.

Our alliance with Microsoft, combined with our strong relationships in the Council, made us the right team for the challenge. We assembled an experienced team, drawing on our managed services capabilities alongside our engineering teams to deliver at pace while remaining within the Council’s financial envelope.

Over the next nine months, we and the Council were effectively a single team. This close working was instrumental in enabling the knowledge transfer that would allow the Council’s technology team to continue the transformation beyond our involvement.

Our solution: Creating the building blocks for transformation

The new Microsoft Dynamics platform sits above specialist systems, such as those for Council Tax, Environmental Services and Planning Services, to enable residents and other users to access end-to-end digital services via a consistent and intuitive interface. The new centralised Customer Service Centre provides a single view of customer interactions, so service agents can deliver a seamless experience. Data insights from the platform enable the Council to manage services more efficiently.

Standard modules for key functionalities, such as providing proof of identity, booking services, making a payment or confirming an address, will be the building blocks for digital services that will eventually span the Council’s entire operations, from managing adult social care to locating and repairing potholes.

The first 16 services are already launched. These include: reporting fly tipping, booking and paying for new bins, reporting missed bins, arranging bulky waste collection and reporting abandoned vehicles, which were some of the highest volume customer interactions.

The partnership: Playing a critical role

Carol Williams confirms the role played by PwC in successful transformation. “As part of our Proud Transformation Programme, PwC played a critical role in our customer service transformation and digital technology implementation. The results have been outstanding, with increased efficiency for our staff, increased satisfaction for our customers, lower total cost of ownership and savings aligned with our expected targets.