Newcastle City Council Modernizes Digital Citizen Engagement with Verint Technology

Verint^® Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNT), The Customer Engagement Company^™, today announced that it has partnered with Newcastle City Council to improve automated digital customer service for its citizens and employees, and achieve back-office efficiencies, all by using Verint’s digital first engagement management solution.

With a population of almost 300,000, Newcastle City Council receives a high volume of inbound enquiries from stakeholders. Through its digital engagement strategy, the council aims to create operational efficiencies and cost savings over the next three years, while maintaining first-class service for its citizens.

The partnership with Verint will allow the city to develop a new, one-stop portal to improve citizen access to the council’s services, simplify citizen engagement, and reduce processing times and administrative duplication. The aim is to minimise the need for citizens to access council services online through multiple portals, which creates disjointed customer experiences and drives citizens to visit separate sites or go through multiple authentication processes.

The new, modern portal being created with Verint’s digital first engagement management solution boasts enhanced usability for the council and a more connected, intuitive and modern user interface for citizens. It also will allow citizens to access information easily and securely, while the improved user experience will facilitate increased demand for digital services.

The portal is currently being rolled out internally for Newcastle City Council’s 13,000 employees with the goal of improving efficiency and communication by delivering monthly pay information, annual salary statements, staff communications, offers and employee surveys. It then expects to roll out the portal to all citizens, before further expanding to offer the 17,000 businesses and 100,000 students in Newcastle upon Tyne access to important business and student services online.

Councillor Joyce McCarty, Deputy Leader for Newcastle City Council, says, “We recognise the need for residents to be able to access their information through an easy-to-use, digital platform. Our ambition as a local authority is to become digital first and working with partners, such as Verint, is helping us to achieve this.”

Adds McCarty, “The city is very well connected. We currently estimate coverage of 97 percent for our super-fast broadband. Initially, we will be implementing the new portal internally, allowing staff to access their pay slips, benefit information and annual salary statements. Now, it will also allow them to take part in staff surveys, even when they are out of the main network—enabling more of our mobile and front-line staff to be engaged with the council.”

“Newcastle is a forward-thinking council when it comes to digital engagement, so it has been exciting to work with them to provide access to public services in more innovative ways,” says David Moody, vice president and general manager, government and public sector at Verint. “It’s very satisfying to support its plans to become one of the leading digital councils in the UK, delivering better outcomes not only for citizens but also employees, while improving back-office processes, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.”