Improving service delivery through state-of-the-art working environments 

In 2008 West Mercia and Whitefriars Housing Groups joined forces to create one of the largest housing and regeneration organisations based in the West Midlands.

Following a preliminary review of the new groups service delivery strategy and keen to ensure ‘quick wins’ immediately after the merger, the executives of both organisations decided to review the benefits to be realised from bringing together their respective customer contact centres. Prior to the merger Whitefriars had outsourced this service, which provided the interface between the association and tenants and leaseholders wanting to order a repair to their home. West Mercia, on the other hand, provided this service in house via a small customer contact centre located in existing premises in Worcester.

After an initial scoping exercise and testing of the business case a project group was set up to plan and deliver the integration of the two services. The group consisted of key personnel from both Whitefrars and West Mercia who were tasked to deliver the project on time and within budget and most importantly, with no diminution of service to tenants.

Delivering solutions

The team wanted to maximise the opportunity to deliver the best solution for the new organisation and recognised the experience and expertise that EC Harris could bring to the project. EC Harris was therefore appointed to oversee the work of the team, acting as a mentor and critical friend and providing high level technical advice. Our input and advice covered:

• Reviewing the validity of the business case supporting the integration programme
• Defining the specification and installation of the telephony and the ITC software supporting the customer contact centre and its interface with existing systems
• Developing Management and staff structures, recruitment and training
• Assessing the ‘scalability’ and future proofing of the project
• Creating the Contact Centre operations room design and specification
• Undertaking a business process review and redesign.

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