Future Delivery of the Contact Centre - West Sussex County Council

Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources
Future Delivery of the Contact Centre
Report by Executive Director Customer Services
Ref No.
FR09(10/11)
Key Decision:
Yes
Part I – Report
Part II – Appendix
1
Electoral Divisions:
N/A
Executive Summary
The contract with Liberata to run the West Sussex County Council Contact Centre
expires on the 30 th June 2011 and new arrangements must be put in place by 1 st July
2011 to ensure we continue to provide an excellent service to customers.
The purpose of this report is therefore to seek approval of the following
recommendations.
Recommendations
That the Cabinet Member approves:
1) The recommendation to maintain the current Contact Centre operating model
whereby the County Council provides the facilities and technology in Durban House,
and a third party provides the people and management to deliver the day to day
service.
2) The commencement of a restricted procurement process to secure provision of the
people and management by a third party.
3) The contract should enable other local authorities and partner organisations within
the geographical boundaries of East and West Sussex to obtain Contact Centre
services by entering into their own contractual arrangement with the successful
bidder using our terms and benefit all parties by reducing unit costs.
4) Whilst remaining in compliance with County Council Standing orders on
procurement and contacts and the EU procurement regulations, the contract should
make provision to enable the transfer of operating any or all face to face services,
reception areas and web sites from the County Council to the supplier within the
lifetime of the contract subject to a proposal and compelling business case that is
approved by Cabinet. This should not form part of the selection criteria for this
procurement as it is only a potential aspiration and therefore insufficiently defined.
5) The duration of the contract to be a minimum of 4 years with the option to extend
up to a maximum of 7 years subject to service provider performance and the needs
of the Council.
6) The contract should be awarded to the service provider (bidder) who submits the
most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) that balances technical and quality
requirements against commercial elements to ensure the delivery of an affordable
service that is best value for money.

7) The decision to award the contract is delegated to the Executive Director,
Customer Services.
1. Background
1.1 On the 30 June 2011 the existing Contact Centre contract with Liberata
expires. New arrangements need to be up and running on 1 st July 2011 to
ensure we continue to provide an excellent service to customers.
1.2 The Contact Centre handles of the order of 1 million customer contacts per
annum, represents 37 County Council services and has been accredited to
Customer Service Excellence by the Cabinet Office. Industry benchmarks
identify the service to be amongst the best in the country.
1.3 The current contract arrangement for the Contact Centre is that the supplier
(currently Liberata) provides the people and day to day management and the
County Council provides the building, facilities management, telephony and
IT functions.
1.4 The Contact Centre project board recommend retaining the current operating
model as described at 1.3 and therefore procurement of ongoing provision of
people and management only.
1.5 The current County Council business environment is one of considerable
change in terms of the Fundamental Service Review and transition to the
new target operating model. The ability to be flexible whilst maintaining a
stable operating model for the Contact Centre were key considerations in
reaching the recommendation to stay with the current model.
1.6 Council Business Units and Customers should not notice a difference in the
services the Contact Centre provides. Employees within the Contact Centre
who currently work for Liberata will be transferred in accordance with the
Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) requirements if as
a result of the procurement process a different service provider is selected.
This would ensure that existing knowledge and expertise is maintained and
we continue to benefit from our investment in training.
1.7 The project has been approved to proceed to the delivery phase by the
Investment Appraisal Group and Change Board.
1.8 Assuming approval of this report, the tendering process is planned to run
from July 2010 to January 2011, followed by a transition phase to set up the
new arrangements ready for switch over on 1 st July 2011.
2. Consultation.
2.2 The Deputy Leader, Lionel Barnard and the local member for Nyetimber, Mike
Coleman have been consulted.
2.3 The Policy and Resources Select Committee were briefed on options and
recommendations on 4 th March 2010 by Head of Customer Services. The

following is an extract of the minutes from that meeting.
155. Resolved – That, based on the information currently available, the
Committee favours options 1.1 (outsource under the current structure) and 2
(set-up an in-house service).
2.4 The Cabinet were briefed on 11 th March 2010 with the same material as the
Policy and Resources Select Committee and provided with the Select
Committee’s conclusions. The Cabinet supported the Deputy Leader’s view
that the outsourcing under current arrangements (as is) option should be
pursued taking into account the comments in terms of future development
that should be included in any procurement specification.
2.5 A market consultation event with potential suppliers took place on 6 th April
2010. This established that there is interest in tendering for this service,
that our operating model remains viable, and further informed our
requirements for the procurement process.
2.6 Other authorities within the South East were consulted on the way they
operate their Contact Centres, to inform the options analysis.
2.7.1 On 9 th April 2010 an email was sent to contacts in the District and Borough
Councils of West Sussex, East Sussex County Council, Sussex Police and the
NHS PCT inviting them to join with West Sussex County Council to procure a
shared Contact Centre service. This invitation led to 2 of these organisations
visiting our Contact Centre operation in Durban House and the start of
discussions on how a shared operation would benefit all parties. None of
these organisations are ready to move forward with us now, however our
intention is to build in to the contract the option for services to be delivered
to partner organisations in the future and the sharing of resulting unit cost
reductions.
2.7.2 As a result of consultation with other local authorities and current service
providers to the County Council, provision should be made to accommodate
the possibility of third party service providers to the County Council using the
Contact Centre. This would relate specifically to service providers who
operate customer service desks as a requirement of the contract to support
the delivery of their services to us. This could be managed by adding a range
of options within the procurement process that the County Council would
reserve the right to take up, to reflect the changing needs of our customers
and the services that the County Council offer the community it serves.
2.8 A Sustainability Appraisal has been undertaken and the findings will be
included and integrated into the specification of requirements for the new
service.
2.9 Business Units have been consulted on their Tier Migration plans and the
implications for Contact Centre services in the future by the Manager,
Customer Information. The outcome from this has informed the specification
of requirements for the new Contact Centre service.
2.10 Functional specialists from Legal Services, Finance, Procurement and People
Management sit on the project board and have approved the content in this
report.

3. Customer Focus Appraisal
3.1 A Customer Focus Appraisal is in the process of being drafted and will be
finalised in time to for the findings to be included and integrated into the
specification of requirements for the new service.
4. Resource Implications and Value for Money
4.1 The recommended solution in this proposal is based on the service continuing
to be operated from the existing facilities at Durban House.
4.2 There are no IT application changes or investments in IT required to deliver
this contract.
4.3 The Telephony and IT Infrastructure provision currently delivered by the
County Council will transfer to the successful bidder of the IT Infrastructure
outsourcing procurement and requirements for the Contact Centre operation
have been fed into that project.
4.4 No employees within West Sussex County Council are directly impacted by
this proposal but Liberata staff may be. If Liberata do not bid for the service,
or if they are unsuccessful in their bid, Liberata employees will transfer under
TUPE to the new service provider.
4.5 In the event that more activity is migrated to the Contact Centre it is
possible that County Council employees could transfer under TUPE to the
new provider. Accordingly, while no employees will transfer from the County
Council directly as a result of this re-tender, the procurement process and
evaluation criteria, will ensure that any new provider is able to meet, and
committed to meeting, their obligations under the West Sussex County
Council TUPE Code of Practice and other relevant requirements. People
Management and Legal Services will operate as part of the Project Board and
evaluation team to ensure that this requirement is met and also to ensure
that the any proposed approach for managing the transfer of Liberata
employees to a new provider does not create any risk for the County Council.
4.6 Throughout the course of the procurement process, it is possible that
processes or activity will transfer to the Contact Centre before the new
contract is awarded. To minimise the impact on West Sussex County Council
employees, actions will be taken to explore delaying the transfer of County
Council employees in order to ensure staff do not transfer to Liberata only to
subsequently transfer to a second provider. Opportunities such as short
term secondments or temporary matrix management will be explored to
support this.
4.7 UNISON has been informed of the proposals regarding the re-tender and how
workforce impacts will be managed for the duration of the project.
4.8 External analysis of our current arrangements concluded that it delivers good
value for money.
4.9 The contract should be awarded to the service provider (bidder) who submits
the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) that balances technical

and quality requirements against commercial elements to ensure the delivery
of an affordable service that is best value for money.
4.10 There are no capital costs in this proposal and it is expected that the new
service can be procured for a sum that does not exceed the current annual
operational budget.
4.11 Details of the financial analysis of options are available to members of the
Council only in Appendix 1 (a Part II appendix), by virtue of Paragraph 3
Schedule 12A Local Government Act 1972; information relating to the
financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority
holding that information).
5. Risk Management Implications
5.1 A project team has been established and resources secured in accordance
with the Council’s Change Management Framework.
5.2 Risks will be managed through the procurement process(es) in accordance
with best practice procurement principles.
5.3 Project governance is already in place and a risk and issues log has been
established by the Project Manager that will continue to be maintained and
updated as necessary.
5.4 The incumbent supplier will be able to bid for this activity however they may
not win the business. Either outcome bears a risk
• Current supplier unsuccessful: Risk associated with transition to new
organisation. Transition planning will address this risk.
• Current supplier successful: Risk associated of challenge from
unsuccessful suppliers of openness of bid process. The project plan
includes some time for responding to FOI requests or challenges on
the selected tender.
5.5 The successful service provider will be required to have appropriate levels of
insurance in accordance with Standing orders on Procurement and Contracts.
5.6 The successful service provider will be required to comply with the County
Council’s Health and Safety requirements.
5.7 The contract that is entered into will prescribe the approach to be taken after
implementing the proposal to manage the need for any legal or financial
changes.
5.8 If the procurement process does not produce tenders that will deliver a fit for
purpose solution or within the operational cost set out in the business case
then it would be possible to bring the service in-house to ensure the service
is maintained at an acceptable cost.
5.9 If the procurement process does not deliver an acceptable outcome in the
timeframe required, then a single supplier negotiation could be pursued with
the current supplier (Liberata) for a short period to enable the issues to be
overcome and service maintained. This would be in compliance with WSCC

Standing orders on procurement and contacts and the EU procurement
regulations.
5.10 The implications of not approving this proposal would be significant and could
leave the County Council without a Contact Centre service from 1 st July 2011,
adversely affecting many customers. The realisation of FSR benefits could be
critically undermined as this is an enabling function, and there would be
political and reputational damage if the service is not maintained.
6. Crime and Disorder Act Implications
Not Applicable
7. Human Rights Act Implications
Not Applicable
Diane Ashby
Executive Director Customer Services
Simon Daisley
Head of Customer Services
Contact: Samantha May, Project Manager (01243 752759)