We’re getting ready to introduce a new service designed to tackle one of the most persistent challenges facing local authorities: managing high volumes of email efficiently. Developed in close collaboration with Manchester City Council, the new Inbox Assistant uses Netcall’s Liberty IDP technology to reduce manual effort and unlock further automation across Revenues & Benefits.
Manchester City Council currently receives around 12,000 emails each year from companies representing landlords and agents reporting changes in tenancy. At present, these emails are reviewed manually by an administrative team, indexed and uploaded into the council’s Document Management System (DMS). From there, a Revenues Officer processes the change of address in the Revenues & Benefits system – all without ANY automation.
Alongside this, the council handles approximately 40,000 additional emails covering a wide range of topics, including Council Tax, Business Rates and Benefits enquiries.
To address this, we looked at how automation could play its part using Netcall’s intelligent document processing (IDP) capability alongside our webCAPTURE service.
Email remains one of the most complex communication channels for councils to manage. Messages often contain unstructured information, vary widely in subject matter and need to be reviewed manually to work out the appropriate action.
This creates a significant administrative burden. Staff must monitor inboxes, interpret content and allocate work accordingly. Closing the email channel would reduce this burden, but it would simply push these queries to another channel, mainly the call centre, which is already under pressure.
The solution needed to automatically read incoming emails and categorise them based on their content.
For tenancy changes, the system will extract key information and feed it into webCAPTURE to automate the transaction fully in the Revenues & Benefits system.
For other enquiries, it will capture the relevant data, categorise the enquiry and automatically index and upload the email into the DMS for officer action. Different document types in the DMS are allocated to each enquiry category allowing Manchester to prioritise the workload based on the urgency of the email content.
Govtech’s Inbox Assistant addresses these challenges by combining Netcall’s Liberty platform of AI-driven data extraction and workflows, with our existing automation services.
How?
We’re initially focused on the Revenues & Benefits inbox, however there is scope for this service to evolve over time and extend into other council departments, delivering wider efficiencies.
This development has been shaped through close collaboration with Manchester City Council, ensuring the service delivers measurable savings and operational benefits. With go-live scheduled for early May, anticipation is building around the impact it will have; reducing manual workloads and freeing up staff to focus on priority areas such as income collection.
“Inbox Assistant was shaped through close collaboration between Manchester City Council, Govtech and Netcall, ensuring the service addressed real operational pain points and delivered tangible value. For Govtech, it demonstrates what’s possible when our services are combined with the wider Netcall platform. For Manchester, it’s a practical step towards a more automated, sustainable future.”
Graeme Maychell, Senior Solutions Specialist (Revenues & Benefits), Netcall
This is just one example of how integrated technology and collaboration can deliver practical, scalable improvements for local government. As Manchester goes live, the results will provide valuable proof of how automation can transform email management and where it can go next. Keep an eye out - we’ll be publishing the results in a few months.
Do you want to say hello to Inbox Assistant?Want to take the manual effort out of your emails and unlock further automation in your Revenues & Benefits service? Let’s talk about how Inbox Assistant can reduce workload, speed up processing and help your team focus on what matters most. |
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