Capita/Blackbay improve BBC TV Licensing Service

Published 13th April 2010

CAPITA DEPLOYMENT OF BLACKBAY SERVICE CONNECT IMPROVES TV LICENSING SERVICE TO BBC AND DELIVERS TANGIBLE ROI

Field Officers increase number of visits made and increase number of licences sold
Volume of paper work reduced by 1 tonne per week
80% reduction in number of internal support calls

London, 13 April 2010: Capita Business Services run the majority of the administration and collection of TV Licensing, including the field force of Enquiry Officers. Capita has completed a project working with Global IT Service Provider CSC to deploy Blackbay’s Service Connect mobile worker software as a key component of an enterprise mobility solution to enhance the service it delivers to the BBC. The mobile data capture technology has also enabled Capita to benefit from tangible return on investment (ROI), including the elimination of one tonne of paper per week from its operation.

“Deployment of Service Connect, which runs on Motorola MC70 hand held computers, has led to Capita’s TV Licensing field operations staff increasing the number of visits they are able to complete in a day, to both private and commercial premises resulting in an increase in licence fees being collected. Our operations staff have less paperwork to deal with which has in turn significantly reduced time spent on administrative tasks by the field officers,” commented Colin Jones, Capita’s TV Licensing Field Operations Director. “Our staff quickly accepted the mobile data capture solution, which has, as far as possible, replaced our paper based systems. Many have said that they wouldn’t want to return to the old paper process.”

With over 1,200 employees working on the contract Capita’s role includes processing queries, applications and payments and maintaining an accurate licence database which identifies those addresses which are unlicensed. Capita’s TV Licensing field force of enquiry officers are expecting to complete circa 4 million visits to unlicensed premises this financial year.

“Capita wanted the mobility solution to deliver real-time visibility of its field operations staff, cut the high level of manual processes they had to carry out, replace the existing paper based system to help improve staff self efficiency, increase manager efficiency and reduce back office workload and costs,” stated Larry Klimczyk, CEO, Blackbay.

Capita’s paper based system has been replaced with work schedules being sent electronically to its field staff rather than being posted. The schedules include all relevant details of the individual or premises to be visited including past visit history. Previously records of field activity would not be available for up to 4 weeks. These are now available in minutes. Visit results and timesheet data are now automatically sent from the MC70 to Capita’s back office systems instead of being recorded manually and put in the post.

“CSC, who are leading the overall project to deliver a complete enterprise mobility solution to us, working with Blackbay and Motorola have clearly met our objectives on this project” explained Jones.

“It was necessary for Blackbay and Motorola to develop an innovative solution to meet Capita’s TV Licensing unique requirements, to meet the needs of the complexity of its business processes and the volume of data to be captured from circa 4 million visits this year. The ability to collect this much data, store it and then access it on the MC70 was a unique challenge. Our long standing partnership with Blackbay enabled us to draw on the experiences of our strong customer base already deploying our integrated solution,” said Eamon Lyons, Account Executive at CSC.

The self sufficiency of Capita’s TV Licensing field staff has increased through the automatic removal of cancelled visits from their schedules and the ability to query the licence status of a property directly with the central database.

Manager efficiency has been increased through automated reporting for teams and officers and the real-time visibility of Capita’s TV Licensing field staff allows managers to balance work load by re-assigning visits as appropriate.

An 80% reduction in the number of calls to the support team to check address/licence enquiries has helped to cut back office workload and costs with less data input having to be carried out. Previously the call centre was handling between 25,000 and 30,000 calls per month; this has now decreased to 4,000 to 5,000 calls per month.

“We can now produce reports around visits made and the resulting actions which have improved our ability to meet our service level agreements (SLA’s) with the BBC,” added Jones.

“From a financial perspective, the solution has had a positive impact on the cost of the field force. The impact on the environment has been positive as the reduction of the usage of paper in the system has led to us eliminating the use of over one tonne of paper per week,” concluded Jones.

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About The Capita Group Plc
The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions. With 36,000 people at more than 300 sites, including 60 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its clients’ services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2008 of £2,441 million. Further information on the Capita Group Plc can be found at: www.capita.co.uk


About CSC
CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled solutions and services through three primary lines of business. These include Business Solutions & Services, the Managed Services Sector and the North American Public Sector. CSC's advanced capabilities include system design and integration, information technology and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, mission support and management consulting. Headquartered in Falls Church, VA., CSC has approximately 92,000 employees and reported revenue of $16.0 billion for the 12 months ended October 2, 2009. For more information, visit the company's Web Site at www.csc.com.


About Blackbay
Blackbay delivers real-time enterprise mobility solutions enabling service and productivity improvements to Supply Chain and Field Service operations. The company has significant experience in the enterprise mobility market delivering mobile data solutions for over 16 years to a growing list of premium clients. Its core activity is mobile software application development, offering organisations significant return on investment based upon reduced costs, increased sales and improved productivity and service levels.
Blackbay, who received funding from Albion Ventures (www.albion-ventures.co.uk) a leading UK venture capital provider, is a Microsoft Gold Partner with Mobility Competency and one of only a select group of organisations to sit on the global Microsoft Windows Mobile Advisory Council.
For more information visit: www.blackbay.com

For more information contact:
Sarah Chidgey
Essential Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 1635 43967
sarah@essential-communications.com
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