Councils across the UK are well-versed in the ‘do more with less’ mantra. The pressure to save money, coupled with the drive to make existing operations more efficient, is constant, with a particular focus on IT functions and the removal of manual processes. And yet, when it comes to cost-saving opportunities, many councils are overlooking an everyday function – one where manual processes are still relatively commonplace.
Councils are tasked with sending thousands of communications in the post each week but, too often, the mailing function is rife with inefficiency. Legacy systems dating back several years are still trusted to fulfil the task and, whilst such systems will get the job done, there is no question that time and money is being wasted.
Put simply, councils are faced with two options when it comes to processing mail – either buy the infrastructure that enables the operation to be kept in-house or outsource to a third-party. Around a quarter of UK councils still operate an in-house model but, in a UK postal market that has been deregulated and open to competition since 2006, such a model often lacks the flexibility to adapt to market changes and opportunities.
Outsourcing is the other option and many councils are choosing this route. But even here, efficiencies are not always maximised. Today, forward-thinking councils are recognising that the key to efficiency and best-practice is delivering data for processing by third-party document outsourcing specialists.
Data driven efficiency
Often, when councils print and mail their own communications, manual processes result in mail items being mis-sorted or produced with difficult to read hand-written addresses. These incidents impact the efficiency with which Royal Mail can operate.
Rather than taking on the printing of their own communications and feeding these into the mailstream, leading councils are recognising the advantages of entrusting their data – for example, the information required to produce revenue and benefits communications – to mail processing specialists. Sending data for remote printing and processing has several advantages. Royal Mail awards postal discounts to businesses and authorities based on the efficiency with which it can integrate the mail it receives into its defined ‘final-mile’ delivery routes.
On receiving a council’s data the outsourcing specialist is able to quickly and accurately forecast the volume of resulting mail that it will be printing and presenting toRoyal Mail at one of its regional collection hubs. Thus, Royal Mail is able to plan ahead to ready its own delivery resources.
Third-party outsourcing specialists can also introduce efficiencies that extend far-beyond simple postal cost savings. Injecting transactional mail into the mailstream ready-sorted ensures that a firm delivery day can be adhered to, whether for smaller or larger volumes of transactional mail. This ‘day definite delivery’ is critical for organisations who need to know that a letter has arrived in order to comply with regulatory requirements and to align their staff or call centre resources with likely peaks in citizen queries.
In a local authority, applications where day-definite delivery is critical to compliance and organisational effectiveness include: council tax billing and collections; housing benefit payments; rent collections; electoral register management; business rates transactions and more.
Working with data, the document outsourcing specialist is also able to merge items that are being delivered to the same household. This not only saves the council money but also improves the image of the council amongst its citizens, demonstrating a commitment to efficiency and best-practice.
At a time when councils are seeking to do more with less, improving mail efficiency can provide a quick win. Postal communications remain the most effective way of reaching the broad majority of citizens and a growing number of councils are recognising the value of partnering with dedicated document processing specialists.
Those that have already taken this step are realising clear benefits in terms of regulatory compliance, greater efficiency in managing many of their citizen services, and improvements to both effectiveness and productivity.
Gerry Crawley is sales director at Document Outsourcing Ltd.
