You are here: silicon.com > Software > SOA/Web Services

SOA/Web Services

Tewkesbury cleaning up waste with SOA

Case study: Streamlining with service oriented architecture saves £50,000

Tags: payment, crm, council, soa

By Tim Ferguson

Published: 16 January 2009 14:35 GMT

Tewkesbury Borough Council has turned to service oriented architecture (SOA) to streamline the way it deals with customer requests.

The council has been working with middleware company Software AG to integrate its bulky waste collection database with its customer relationship management (CRM) system and Government Gateway e-payment system.

As a result of the work, customer service agents can now enter data in the CRM application, which is then fed through to the other related systems.

Agents now only have to access one application - previously staff had to enter details into all three systems meaning requests took longer to process and temp workers were needed to input data.

Speaking to silicon.com, the council's IT manager Graham Quint said: "It was long-winded and time-consuming for customer services as well as the customer."

It was long-winded and time-consuming for customer services as well as the customer.

The council estimates the SOA technology has saved around £50,000 in resource costs as it has reduced the number of temporary workers needed to enter data.

Although there was little resistance to SOA from the organisation, Quint said: "The biggest challenge for us as an organisation was actually just getting our heads around it - being able to understand how to carve up your business processes into usable chunks."

"We're always looking for current technologies [and] ways of thinking, and basically trying to get the maximum out of technology we can to support the business," he added.

The council has also been able to use SOA work for the renewal of payments for garden waste collection and the ordering of rubbish bins.

Council CRM manager, Malcolm Ashdown, told silicon.com: "That's one of the benefits that we've found of the SOA - the reuse of sequences within the technology."

In the near future the council plans to use SOA to more tightly integrate its revenues and benefits systems and create a more personalised service where people can view their council tax and benefits online.

  1. Zones
  2. Management
  3. Networks
  4. Software
  5. IT Services
  6. Hardware
  1. Verticals
  2. Public Sector
  3. Financial Services
  4. Retail & Leisure

  • Jobs
ICS Floorwalker

An exciting new opportunity has arisen for an ICS Floorwalker at a prestigious London Council. s Programme team and be responsible for providing on ...

Technical Officer

Experience/Skills * Experience within a council tax and/or benefits control team. Working Knowledge of the Academy and/or Northgate Applications * ...

Jnr Graduate Software Support / developer / Test Banking London

The role will be a mixture of the following: verification of requests completed, Transmission and pckagaing of Turnover requests to Windows, UNix and ...

Agenda Setters 2009
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.





Quick Sitemap Links: