In October 2007 Capita began
a 10-year contract with
Southampton City Council to
deliver its customer services, IT,
property, revenues and benefits,
HR, payroll and procurement
activities. The contract required
reductions in overall costs and
investment in infrastructure
across the Council while
meeting greatly enhanced
performance standards.
Southampton City Council’s decision to outsource its back office and
frontline customer services to Capita in 2007 was a bold one. It had a
clear vision for designing its customer services more effectively around
the customer, but wanted an experienced transformation partner to
help turn this into reality. The Council had little previous outsourcing
experience, and employees and unions were apprehensive. There was
citizen pressure to cut costs – without reducing services. But was this
the way to achieve it?
2 years on, the answer is clear. We took on 650 posts from the
Council: their satisfaction is evident in exceptionally low attrition
and sickness rates of under 3% and 1.7% respectively. Headcount
has actually increased as new services were introduced into the scope
of our contract. And positive union relationships reflect our open
management style and approach to people development.
Through transforming its back office, including the procurement
function, we are delivering the promised cost savings, which have
already reached £16.5m measured over the 10-year period with a
similar amount likely by next year.
Most importantly, Southampton’s citizens are noticing the difference
in improved services. The Council set a demanding range of KPIs –
well above the standards previously achieved – and already Capita is
meeting over 98% of them. Consumer satisfaction with the Council’s
principal contact points has improved. The proportion of one–stop
shop customers seen within 10 minutes has more than doubled to
84%, and the proportion of callers waiting over 30 seconds for a reply
has dropped from nearly half to under a fifth.