Case Studies

Ealing chooses Parrimark for one-stop booking solution

Company: London Borough of Ealing

Ealing Council realises efficiency savings and customer focus with council-wide booking solution Ealing Borough Council is implementing a new booking management system that will be easy to use for citizens and staff and realise efficiency savings for the council.

The system, from venue and event management software specialist, Parrimark Technology, will allow citizens to book and pay for a variety of services, such as meeting rooms, interpreters and leisure facilities, either directly through the internet or telephone or face to face with a customer service agent.

By introducing a single process for all bookings across council departments, the software is part of the council's vision to deliver services to citizens through multiple channels that are focused on ease of access and customer preference. It will also help the council achieve its aim of resolving at least 80 per cent of customer service requests at the first point of contact.

"We were looking for a solution that could deal with any type of booking scenario - be it booking an appointment with a social worker or booking a room for a wedding," says Mick Coppard, head of strategy at Ealing Borough Council. "There were lots of different ways of booking council services and we wanted to standardise the process to make it easier for both staff and citizens."

Coppard and his team were looking for a web-enabled solution that could integrate with the council's existing customer relationship management software and middleware. The software had to be capable of handling any booking scenario and of processing VAT.

Support and availability were also important factors. "We wanted a robust solution that would give us maximum availability as we move towards a 24/7 model of service for citizens," says Coppard. "And we wanted to ensure that if the system failed, it could be fixed quickly with good support from the vendor."

Ealing Council began researching suppliers and sought advice from fellow local authorities. It drew up a list of seven potential vendors to whom it sent a statement of requirements, and shortlisted two companies, Parrimark and the council's existing supplier. After visiting Parrimark reference sites at the House of Lords and Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council, and conducting a user demonstration in Ealing, it selected Parrimark's Events Perfect software.

"Parrimark won the contract on the strength of their product's functionality, support and attractive price," says Coppard. The system will result in a number of business benefits for the council. Firstly, it will enable the council to meet a number of e-government priority outcomes as laid down by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. These include providing online facilities for booking sport and leisure facilities and targets for improving customer satisfaction and realising efficiency savings in library, sports and leisure services.

Secondly, it will help the council to realise its vision of one-stop resolution of citizen enquiries, based on a customer service function with generalist skills. "We want to move towards a situation where any customer service agent will be able to resolve any query about any service first time, thus preventing the citizen being passed from pillar to post," says Coppard. "If we have 60 different booking scenarios, each requiring a different process using a different system, this will be impossible to achieve. So Parrimark's solution helps us towards this goal by creating a single process for bookings."

Thirdly, it will enable self-service among citizens, enabling them to book and pay for services themselves online and offering them greater convenience. Finally, it will allow the council to realise efficiency savings through a more streamlined process, using fewer council resources.

The system will go live in early 2006 and will be implemented in phases.