Address Data Saves Sedgefield Council

30 August 2007, 9:38am

......Thousands of Pounds

Sedgefield Borough Council is achieving significant savings and improving
the services it delivers to its citizens through the use of the National Land
and Property Gazetteer (NLPG). Used as a centralised address database, the
NLPG data forms a vital link between the Council’s Customer Relationship
Management system (CRM) and essential back office information management tools,
such as those used for waste and recycling. The CRM is a countywide partnership
that provides Customer Contact staff in each of the seven districts with
instant access to live service information ensuring they can answer queries from
residents more effectively and efficiently. It is estimated that these
improvements are saving Sedgefield Council alone several thousand pounds per annum
on the provision of waste services to residents.

Sedgefield Borough Council is situated in the south of County Durham in the
north east of England. Home to 87,000 residents, including the former Prime
Minister Tony Blair, the Council is responsible for the weekly collection of
waste from approximately 43,000 domestic properties and also offers a special
collection service, fortnightly recycling and green waste collections.
Understanding the importance of the local environment to its residents and the
impact of refuse and recycling on the environment, Sedgefield Borough Council
decided to deliver a pro-active, rather than re-active, service.

“The residents of the Borough are the Council’s priority,” said Lyn Smith,
GIS Officer and custodian of the Council’s LLPG data. “And we know that
collection of domestic waste is one of the most visible services we offer and is
therefore a major concern for many people,” she continued. “The decision was
therefore made to improve the service we offer as well as improving access
to information about the service.”

Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRN), part of the NLPG data, were used
to match addresses from the Council’s CRM with those used for waste
collection. This ensured consistency of data between the two systems and as every
property had a unique and standardised address, duplicates, errors and incomplete
records were virtually eliminated. The dynamic link gives Customer Service
staff instant access to information held within the back office system from a
CRM interface and has also facilitated the sharing of property related
information via the Council’s public access website “Sedgefield Information
Services (SIS)”. In addition Street Scene staff, responsible for waste collection,
have up to date and accurate property records with which to manage the
service.

“By making information about the service instantly accessible to staff we
can answer queries and service requests from residents more easily. With more
than 3,000 requests per month the efficiency gain of 30 seconds per request
that we have achieved through the use of the NLPG data equates to a projected
saving of £3,000 per annum,” said Lyn. “This saving is increased by a further
£5,000 by automating the monitoring and management of Special Collections
within the CRM workflow.”

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