Workshop sessions: day two

1. Workshop sessions: day two • CD infrastructure • CD advisors • Quality and contract management • Referral pathways and standardised service • Discussion • Review and next steps

2. Session 1: CD infrastructure • Information capture • National telephony system • National case handling system • Knowledge base • Central data base • Public website • Secure post office • Future plans

3. Information capture • Contacts are routed geographically for general consumer advice • Energy and postal industry contacts are dealt with by a specialist contact centre • All contacts are recorded on our case handling system (CHS) • Referrals are sent via secure means to our partners • Advisors rely on our knowledge base and direct consumers to our website • Every evening the information from the CHS is uploaded to the CD data base via secure email

4. National telephony system • The single national telephone number is central to the CD service and brand • Local call rate for ease of access and to create an affordable, consistent service • Calls cost on average no more than 4p per minute • Calls routed according to the callers geographical location

5. National telephony system • A Welsh language service 08454 04 05 05 for Welsh speaking callers • A minicom service 08451 28 13 84 for consumers with hearing difficulties • Trading Standards Services (TSS) direct their consumer advice calls to their local contact centres • A voice recognition system (IVR) that prompts consumers calling from mobile phones to give their postcodes • IVR also ensures that energy and postal related contacts are routed to our specialist centre

6. National telephony system

7. National case handling system • General advice centres use a single CHS – Flare 21 • Energy and post contacts recorded on a separate bespoke system • To be effective, a CHS should: • be easy to use • be flexible • handle changes at low cost and in a timely manner • be scalable to allow for growth of data

14. Knowledge base • The central repository for advisor information • Live link from CHS to appropriate protocols • Adaptable and easy to update • Community pages for each contact centre • Contains: • Business process • Referral protocols • Signposting information • Briefing notes • Training material

19. Central data base • A central repository for all CD cases • 1,800 registered users, largely TSS • Users have direct access via a web browser • Users sign a Memorandum of Understanding • Level of access varies dependant on user • Currently holds in excess of 7 million contacts, 4.8 million of which are cases • Approximately 22,000 new cases added every week • 15,000 reports run every week

20. Central data base

25. Central data base Complaint types Complaint numbers

26. Public website • www.consumerdirect.gov.uk • Self-help information and pre-transactional advice • Provides access to an on-line web form to request advice or report a scam • Updated regularly with news and current topics e.g. Know Your Consumer Rights campaign

32. Secure post office • CD uses a highly encrypted 256 bit web based email service configured to military standard to protect: • Referrals to TSS and other referral partners • Submission of online forms • Personal data and trader complaint information

33. Future plans - network • IP-Based WAN: Supporting multi-site functionality for Voice, Data and other classes of service. • Users: 500 circa across multiple physical locations

34. Future plans – telephony (1) • Enterprise Routing - Identification, routing and delivery of all consumer interactions across Consumer Direct, based on business rules. • Network-Based Routing – Capability for multiple contact centre locations to be treated as one ‘virtual’ contact centre from which interactions can be routed to any location dictated by business rules. • Web Integration – Potential to integrate inbound and outbound voice communications with Internet applications such as real-time chat, web collaboration, and e-mail.

35. Future plans – telephony (2) • CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) – The integration of telephony with CHS enabling capabilities such as screen popping, simultaneous transfer of voice and data • Resource Management - Capabilities for planning, scheduling, forecasting and analysis of contact centre resources. • Workflow Management - Manages the life-cycle of a consumer interaction from initial contact to resolution in conjunction with CHS application.

36. Future plans – IT infrastructure • Real time environment – Remote access contact centre management & reporting • Single CHS application – Based on medium size enterprise CRM system • Knowledge base solution – Integration of knowledge base with CHS to enable quick enquiry resolution • Business intelligence solution (including data marts, data integration, analysis & presentation tools) - Specialised data stores and tools for stakeholder reporting and operations group use

37. Future plans – benefits • Seamless, consistent consumer experience • Automation of critical processes through improved, real-time management information and reporting • Flexible and highly configurable system • Provides the means to make operations information portable and support work from remote locations • Enables real-time collection and analysis of information from internal and external sources

38. Questions • Do you currently have any centrally managed infrastructure? • Who will be responsible for the development and maintenance of central systems? • Who will be responsible for technical content? • How will you maximise the impact of the data you collect?