Local government contact centre platform reaches Go Award finals

 

A pioneering Welsh local government initiative, which could see all councils across Wales sharing digital services in future, has been shortlisted for a top innovation award.

Connecting Wales/Cysylltu Cymru launched in January this year. Led by Vale of Glamorgan Council, it was developed by the award-winning provider of cloud and managed services to the public sector, FourNet.

The shared contact centre platform has been chosen as a finalist in the Procurement Innovation of the Year category, at the Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards 2020 Wales.

Rob Thomas, Managing Director at Vale of Glamorgan Council said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted at the GO Awards, and proud to be leading on this exciting project which provides a platform for increased collaboration across public services in Wales, maximising use of resources and ensuring that we continue to deliver excellent services for our citizens.”

With initial funding from the Welsh Government, Connecting Wales has created a framework agreement for a shared platform which will enable councils and public sector organisations across Wales to share communication, contact centre services, skills and best practice that is available to all 22 local authorities as well as all other Welsh public sector bodies.

Hosted and organised by BiP Solutions Ltd and supported by the Welsh Government, the GO Awards Wales celebrate excellence and innovation in all aspects of procurement, recognising outstanding achievement from the public, private and third sectors.

Richard Pennington, managing director at FourNet, said: “This is an exciting time for Connecting Wales. We went live less than a month ago, and we are confident that many more councils and public sector organisations will see the benefits of the collaboration opportunities it brings. Digital partnerships offer great technology efficiencies and it’s encouraging to see Welsh local government grabbing this opportunity to enhance their services, while reducing costs.”

The first council to sign up to Connecting Wales is Vale of Glamorgan which, with Wrexham Council, has been spearheading the drive for shared contact centre services across Wales, at a time of squeezed public sector budgets. Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is also signed up.

Connecting Wales provides access to a modern digital platform that’s both affordable and efficient, and hands Welsh citizens more control over the services they receive and access to the information they need. The shared platform also enables the development of effective collaborative working across the public sector and is delivered using PSBA, the public sector network for Wales, funded by Welsh Government and connecting all councils in Wales.

The shared service has been designed to play a key role in supporting councils in implementing the Welsh Government’s objective of encouraging access to public services in the Welsh language. Connecting Wales allows councils to share staff with Welsh language skills on a regional or national basis either in the same contact centre or remotely.

Connecting Wales currently has 125 contact centre agents but this is expected to rise to more than 2,000 across local government as more organisations sign up.

 

For more information please contact

Tim Reid – Media and PR office

Mobile: 07720 414205

Email: treid@fournet.co.uk

 

About 4net 

FourNet has been named as a supplier to the Crown Commercial Service through public sector frameworks including G Cloud 11 and Network Services RM3808.  As well as Connecting Wales, FourNet provides services across the whole of the UK public sector including central and local government, the emergency services, social housing, health and education.

Under the ANTENNA service brand FourNet provide a hosted, managed service to central Government Departments including No 10, The Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, Scotland Office, Northern Ireland Office, DExEU, the Chief Whip’s Office, the IPCO and UK Export Finance, Crown Commercial Service, Department for Culture, Media and Sport and UK Financial Investments, FSA and others.

To find out more about 4net, visit http://www.FourNet.co.uk