NEW APPROACH TO DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

With around 90,000 residents, Hastings Borough Council’s revenues and benefits team manages more than 43,000 council tax bills and 17,000 discount claims each year. Hastings made the decision to make a big improvement so selected NEC Document Management with Email Connect.

Browser-based, easy to use and with direct integration to a wide range of back office systems, NEC Document Management makes high-volume document management a breeze. Dealing not only with physical paper, but also with electronic mail, the Email Connect solution extends these benefits to the mailbox, automatically indexing emails, where there is a recognisable reference, to cut out vast amounts of manual work.

Hastings went live with both solutions in September 2019.

AUTOMATIC EMAIL INDEXING

Before Email Connect, managing around 100 enquiries a day was a labour-intensive task. For each email, staff would print it, find the right reference number, affix a barcode sticker showing the right claim reference or account number, scan it and upload it to the document management system.

Now, emails are automatically indexed to the admin officer’s area with the reference numbers in the right place, requiring only a quick online review before they go to the right work queue. Any replies from customers used to be printed and uploaded, but now they go straight into the system.

Where a customer has added the wrong reference, it’s an easier fix here too. Previously only the admin officer who dealt with the enquiry could correct it, but now all users of the revenues and benefits system can make the change.

Team Leader Matthew Dyne believes this has eliminated 90% of the paperwork associated with managing emails.

SMOOTH TRANSITION TO NEC DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT 

Matthew worked with NEC’s experienced consultants to deliver a smooth change. First they tested the system and the new procedures with groups of staff and then delivered the right training in advance of go-live.

Now, NEC Document Management is being used to great effect by staff across revenues and benefits, customer service and internal audit. Mathew has personally seen the difference in his work as a duty officer. Previously, he would have to manually remove certain records to avoid overpayment. But now the built-in routines ensure the right data has priority.