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Connecting Wales
The shared communication & contact centre platform for the Welsh public sector
Affordable and efficient. Streamlining citizen access to services. Cost-effective access to the latest and emerging technologies.
What is
Connecting Wales?
Backed by the Welsh government, Connecting Wales is a framework which enables any Welsh public sector body to procure the latest communication, collaboration and contact centre capabilities via the cloud.
Connecting Wales is a pioneering shared technology platform for councils and other public sector organisations across Wales. It provides future-proofed access to a modern digital platform that’s both affordable and efficient, delivers cost-effective access to emerging technologies, and hands Welsh citizens more control over the services they receive and access to the information they need. The platform enables collaboration and working between councils and other public sector bodies including schools, NHS Trusts and GP services, providing a holistic service to citizens.
Using technology to transform service delivery
Connecting Wales can help Welsh public sector bodies meet the needs of both citizens and employees and deliver on their legislative obligations
Citizens now look for easy access to services both within and across the public sector, delivered via their channel of choice. Connecting Wales helps to support and enable the Welsh Government’s Digital Strategy, which prioritises digital services, digital inclusion, digital connectivity and data and collaboration, by offering citizens the choice to digitally self-serve or access support and services via our shared communication and contact centre platform.
Connecting Wales enables all Welsh public sector employees to work, flexibly, from anywhere, helping to support the Welsh government’s remote working strategy to enable 30% of Welsh employees to work remotely.
The platform supports the government’s objective that 33% of the population will be Welsh language speakers by 2050, by offering all public facing communications in a choice of either Welsh or English.
Designed in line with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, Connecting Wales is a solution designed for the long-term benefit of Wales. It assists in reducing the public sector’s carbon footprint in line with the Welsh Government’s Net Zero Strategic Plan and
encourages collaboration within and between public sector bodies to support the delivery of integrated services across areas such as health, social care and housing.
Supporting the Welsh digital agenda
Connecting Wales is an integral part in helping the public sector to deliver on the Welsh Government’s Digital Strategy targets. The Connecting Wales board is comprised of representatives from many of the end-users of the service, as well as representatives from the key organisations driving Wales’ digital agenda:
- Chief Digital Officer for Wales
- SOCITM Wales – Society for Innovation, Technology and Modernisation
- PSBA – Public Sector Broadband Aggregation
- Welsh Local Government Association Digita
1
Platform
6
Contact centres
700k+
Citizens
100+
Public services delivered
20%+
Welsh Population
24/7
Service
Benefits for Welsh public sector
Cost-of-living crisis
Supporting councils during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis as the number of vulnerable citizens in the community is on the rise, and as recruitment and retention of staff has become more of a challenge.
Meet legislative obligation
Adopt technology that helps public sector organisations meet their obligations; Welsh language, Digital Strategy, the Wellbeing of Future Generations, 30% remote workers target and the Social Care and Wellbeing Wales Act 2014.
Reducing carbon footprint
Enabling councils and citizens to become more digitally proficient, while allowing the public sector to reduce its carbon footprint and meet climate change obligations.
Meet changing citizen expectations
Respond to growing citizen demand for simplified and multi-channel access both within and across the public sector.
Increased operational efficiency
Better MI and improved benchmarking, comparable between organisations, can help drive up performance.
Cost savings & speed to deploy
With Connecting Wales you can expect typical savings of 20% with a solution that is tried, tested and quick to roll out and which sits on a global leader technology platform which gives access to emerging technologies, quickly and efficiently.
Pathway to increased collaboration
A shared technology platform removes a key barrier to the development of collaborative and regional services.
Develop streamlined processes
Use existing resources and share operational support functions, such as Resource Planning and Quality Assurance, employ real time speech analytics and agent assist to improve citizen contact.
Share scarce resources & skills
Shared access to Welsh language or limited support expertise via the shared technology platform.
Increase operational resilience
Scalable and agile cloud solution which allows speedy roll out of new capabilities and delivers disaster recovery and continuity benefits; shared services mean services can be failed-over to partners.
“This project is an excellent example of what can be achieved when local authorities and other public sector organisations work together. I am delighted Welsh Government funding is supporting collaboration across local government, allowing them to develop and use innovative technology to provide a better service to their customers and to make their staff’s jobs easier.”
Julie James
Minister for Climate Change and former Minister for Housing and Local Government
Powered by FourNet
Connecting Wales was born from discussions at the Customer Focus Wales groups which identified that much of the Welsh Public Sector was facing the same challenges of ageing, obsolete technology in the face of increasing citizen expectations and reduced budgets.
Spearheaded by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, a business case was presented to the Welsh Government who have supported and funded the creation of the Connecting Wales framework and platform.
After a competitive tender, FourNet, the award-winning digital transformation and citizen experience specialists for the public sector, were appointed to deliver the service.