Warrington Borough Council
Warrington Borough Council is improving accessibility for customers by introducing online booking and payment facilities, while simultaneously improving administrative efficiency. Warrington is a leading player amongst UK local authorities seeking to meet the broad modernisation agenda for e-government, and has selected ClarityLive for Leisure online booking software for the task. Warrington achieved this highly cost effectively, utilising Government funding available to support e-government policy objectives.
- Customers can access, book and pay for many services online
- Council retains high degree of controllability
- Different access levels allocated to different user types
- Online customer payments seamlessly integrate with council's financial system
Client
Warrington Borough Council (WBC) is a unitary local authority in England's north-west, providing wide ranging public services to the local population of around 193,000 people. WBC has invested heavily to drive e-Government Interoperability Framework (eGIF) initiatives and meet the policy targets in the Government's 'Priority Outcomes' paper, including the mandatory requirement for online booking facilities for sports and leisure facilities.
Brief
The 'e-Government' agenda requires local authorities to build effective e-services for their customers, and to demonstrate progress in a number of key priority areas. Whilst many local authorities have introduced Clarity e-booking capabilities for public leisure and library facilities, Warrington wanted to go further. The council saw an opportunity to vastly improve its online services through an integrated solution that would enable it to offer customers a wider range of council services online. The opportunity for local authorities was particularly timely, with Government funding available to support the implementation of e-government initiatives.
WBC wanted a secure, browser-based solution with the flexibility to book (and where relevant, pay for) various resources including appointments with councillors, meeting rooms and equipment, services such as wedding ceremonies, and events including seminars and training courses. The system needed to control availability according to time and capacity, to combine a collection of requirements within a single booking, to allow customers to make payments, and to control access according to a user's status.
Solution
ClarityLive for Leisure provides exactly the flexibility and control that WBC requires. A user permission hierarchy allows unregistered users to browse selected information, whilst registered users are categorised into three main groups, each with an appropriate level of information access:
- External users (general public, local businesses, etc)
- Internal users (council employees and elected members)
- Administrators (internal users authorised to create resources and manage their availability).
System administrators are able to configure and manage resource access. For example, meeting room availability and booking slots can be defined, or the maximum number of places on a training course determined. Flexible pricing structures are also possible, so that service charges reflect demand and other factors, and planned price changes can be prepared for in advance.
One of the reasons for WBC's choice of the ClarityLive e-bookings module was usability. Roy Pearson, Warrington's IT Director, comments,
“I was very focused upon ease of use through the tender and evaluation process, and this was a key factor in opting for the Clarity solution.”
For all types of user, Clarity's expertise in creating enhanced customer interactions is evident, with an exceptionally intuitive, straightforward and user friendly interface.
Benefits
Warrington Borough Council has radically improved its service to customers, providing a comprehensive online search facility so users can quickly and easily see what resources are available, and make their own bookings and payments. System flexibility and controllability ensure that the council maintains security, whilst giving customers unprecedented online access to information and bookings.
Where fees are payable, the system has a real time, secure self-service payment facility, which integrates seamlessly with the council's financial system. Again, customer service is improved whilst WBC's administration costs are reduced. These benefits are enhanced through standard and customisable management reports, including detailed audit trails of all online bookings.
Warrington is meeting the Government's modernisation requirements, and has a state-of-the-art online bookings solution, improving the customer experience and increasing administrative efficiency across a broad range of services.
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