HomeMy WebLinkAboutINS-12-043 - Partnership with Region of Waterloo - Shared CorpoREPORT TO:Finance and Corporate Services Committee
DATE OF MEETING:
Monday, May 28, 2012
SUBMITTED BY: Pauline Houston, DCAO, Infrastructure Services
Department x4646
PREPARED BY:
Jeannie Murphy, Manager, Corporate Customer Service
x4542
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All
DATE OF REPORT: Monday, May 28, 2012
REPORT NO.: INS-12-043
SUBJECT:
PARTNERSHIP WITH REGION OF WATERLOO –
SHARED CORPORATE CONTACT CENTRE SPACE AND
TECHNOLOGY
RECOMMENDATION:
That the proposed shared Corporate Contact Centre space and technology agreements
with the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, as outlined in report INS-12-043 be approved;
These arrangements to be set out in a Licence Agreement and Memorandum of
Understanding respectively and executed by the Mayor and Clerk in a form satisfactory
to the City Solicitor.
BACKGROUND:
Region of Waterloo Call Centre
In August of 2011, Regional Council endorsed a plan for the implementation of a Region-wide
Service First Call Centre (SFCC). Since that time, work has been underway by the Region to
implement this new initiative. The Chief and Administrative Officer for the Region and the Chief
Administrative Officer for the City of Kitchener then initiated discussions with their respective
staff teams to explore an opportunity to partner in co-locating the Region’s Service First Call
Centre in the City’s new Kitchener Operations Facility. A related opportunity was also
discussed with the Region involving the City’s possible use of the Customer Relations
Management (CRM) software the Region is purchasing for its SFCC.
REPORT:
The proposed partnership has two distinct but inter-related phases.
Phase 1
City and Region enter into a license agreement to provide space at the Kitchener Operations
Facility for the Regional SFCC. The Region would be co-located with the City’s Corporate
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Contact Centre Staff. Kitchener Utilities Operations and Dispatch Centre Staff would be
relocated to another area within KOF. Terms of the license agreement include;
10 year fixed term with options to renew
License rate of $8 per square foot plus $8 for utilities and common area expenses, rate
fixed for two years plus an escalation clause linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
for rent component and utilities for year 3 to 10, if Phase II below is not implemented
License rate will be applied to square footage dedicated to the Region plus 50% cost
sharing for common area spaces (i.e. washrooms, lunch room, etc.)
Region to pay for construction costs for renovation, prorated portion of the carpet and
installation and prorated portion of the cost to renovate space and move Kitchener
Utilities Operations and Dispatch Centre.
Region pays for all technology costs in Phase I, such as cabling, telephone and network
related costs.
Phase II
City and Region enter into a memorandum of understanding regarding shared use of call centre
software. The terms of this agreement include:
City has two years to complete due diligence and decide whether or not to exercise its
option to use the Region’s call centre software system
If the City decides not to exercise its option, the license/lease arrangement above will
continue under the terms as outlined
If the City decides to exercise its option, the license/lease fee would be discontinued and
in return the City would have the use of the contact centre software for the remaining 8
year term of the agreement
There would be no software maintenance cost for the City and no software licensing
costs (enterprise system – i.e. licensing and maintenance costs are fixed for entire
enterprise versus based on a per user format)
The benefits of the partnering on shared use of call center space and technology are both
monetary and non-monetary and accrue more or less equally to the Region and Kitchener.
They include:
Showcases a collaborative partnership between two municipalities to reduce or avoid
cost and to leverage the shared use of an existing facility and technology infrastructure
as opposed to undertaking new construction or renovation.
Opportunity to generate new revenue from an existing facility.
Should Kitchener opt to use the Region’s CRM, it would be avoiding the one time capital
cost of a call centre CRM and the ongoing maintenance costs for the term of the
agreement.
If Kitchener utilizes the Region’s CRM, the Region would not pay rent for the remainder
of the agreement which would result in a reduced SFCC operating cost.
There are other operational efficiencies and cost avoidance that would be realized if
Kitchener chose to utilize the Region’s CRM as opposed to replacing our existing system
in terms of: shared training resources for staff; ability for management staff to provide
some support to each other and share learning’s; and if using the same CRM software
customized reports and other configurations of the software could be shared.
The co-location of call centre services and the potential sharing of CRM software would
foster a greater degree of possible sharing of knowledge base information...
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Region call handling staff would be working in a similar public sector call handling
environment rather than in an isolated or unrelated work environment.
Region time and cost required to find and fit accommodation for the SFCC Region would
be reduced.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
This initiative relates to the community priority under Efficient and Effective Government. It also
addresses the strategic direction of providing services to the public that exceed expectations
and adopt standards that put people first to ensure excellent customer service.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
The potential collaboration with the Region of Waterloo through the licence of space at the
Kitchener Operations Facility and possible sharing of the CRM software system will result in
financial savings in relation to the existing budget.
If the Phase II option is exercised, there will be capital costs for the City related to configuring
and implementing the software. These costs will need to be planned for in the capital forecast.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Not Applicable
CONCLUSION:
Continuous improvement and seeking new ways to better serve customers is essential to the
high standards of service that we, as a municipal government, strive to maintain. Government
organizations, specifically municipal governments, have the closest relationship with
constituents and therefore tend to be susceptible to criticism for their non-performance in the
area of customer service.
Partnering with the Region is a positive “good news” story for our customers who do not
necessarily differentiate between orders of government. This is an opportunity to learn from
each other as well as partner staff resources on a management level. The co-location of call
centre services and the potential sharing of CRM software would foster a greater degree of
possible sharing of knowledge base information.
Customer satisfaction as well as workplace culture will be monitored and measured following
implementation.
ACKNOWLEDGED BY:
Pauline Houston, DCAO, Infrastructure Services Department
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