Over 70% of Uttlesford District Council citizens pay council tax via Direct Debit (DD). Having reaped significant financial savings as a result of implementing ALBACSip from Albany Software, including a reduction in processing staff and a huge drop in DD errors, the council is now expanding its use of automated payments.

In common with many other councils, Uttlesford District Council has worked hard to encourage its citizens to make council tax payments via Direct Debit (DD). Indeed, over 70% of council tax payments are now made in this way. However, until recently the BACS payment process used by the council to facilitate DDs was extremely cumbersome, time consuming and people intensive. The manual process was not only expensive but also constraining the council's ability to extend automated payments into other areas.

As Martin Jimmick, Principle eGovernment Access to Services Officer, Uttlesford District Council, says, "Local government faces strict targets for improved efficiency and cost reduction. Automated payment processes for both DD and Direct Credit (DC) to suppliers and housing benefit claimants provide significant opportunities for cost savings and service improvements. To exploit the benefits of BACS payment, the council needed to evolve beyond a manual process to a highly automated, streamlined solution."

Having assessed the market, Uttlesford opted to implement ALBACSip from Albany Software to automate the BACS payment process. "ALBACSip is by far the most user friendly product, enabling even non IT literate staff to become rapidly productive," says Jimmick. The council also purchased eCONNECT to automate the delivery of remittance advice via fax or email and ALBANYverify API to enable DD bank account details to be checked at point of entry.

"Albany has helped Uttlesford District Council understand the changes that need to be made to exploit automation," Jimmick says. "The ALBACSip technology is also flexible enough to integrate easily with other key council systems including Northgate's SX3 software which supports Benefits." In the future, ALBACSip will also be integrated with Housing and CRM solutions.

One of the primary benefits Uttlesford has achieved to date has been the reduction in DD errors since implementing ALBACSip. Using ALBANYverify API to check details at the time of entry has reduced the number of unpaid DDs each month and removed the need to recontact citizens to check information.

"Prior to using ALBANYverify API the Revenue team typically had up to 30 corrections a week to check. Now that has been reduced to under 10, saving staff time and reducing council costs," Jimmick says. As a result, Uttlesford has seen a measurable improvement in the performance of the Revenues department, with new DDs now processed significantly faster than in the past.

"eGovernment targets require councils to achieve a reduction in errors, provide additional access channels and improve cost and efficiency," Jimmick says. "Uttlesford's goal is to go a step further and improve the service for the customer as well, making it easy and convenient to set up a DD with the council either online, face to face or via the telephone."

He adds, "Using verify to check the accuracy of bank details at the point of entry is critical. Without that facility the council would endure more DD errors and have to repeatedly contact customers to check information, making the cost of delivering the service prohibitive."

"Given the value of payments made and high visibility of the council service, Uttlesford cannot afford for the BACS payment process to go wrong or be unavailable. Working in partnership with Albany Software has provided enormous confidence, enabling the council to leverage a breadth of experience and best practice that has eased the transition to a highly automated payment environment," Jimmick concludes.