Argyll & Bute council enhances services with VoIP

Argyll and Bute council has turned to VoIP to provide effective communications over an area of challenging geography.

The council has set up a virtual customer service centre which allows staff to work more effectively from offices scattered around the area and its islands. The service will be rolled out across the council’s services.

The authority covers an area with over 2,700 miles of coastline. Although it has the second largest geographical area of Scotland’s councils, the population is sparsely spread in six towns and 25 inhabited islands.

The new service centre connects the council’s various offices through Macfarlane CallPlus contact centre technology embedded in a Cisco IP infrastructure.

The system has been integrated with the council’s Lagan Frontline customer relationship management system. This gives council staff access to customer information regardless of where they are based.

The Lagan Frontline software has been integrated with the council’s existing Northgate SX3 council tax system and its Civica workflow and electronic document management software.

This means that staff can change customer records through a single entry. Argyll and Bute council is believed to be the first Scottish local authority to use this system.