Govtech blog

It felt like a long overdue catch up but was great to finally meet councils and R&B professionals mask-to-mask and face-to-face once again at the IRRV Annual Conference in Telford over the 6th & 7th October 2021. It was even more rewarding for having co-participated with our partner Granicus UK as we reinforce our determination to provide the best digital experience for councils and their citizens.

It’s been an extremely busy couple of months here at Govtech and we’re delighted to welcome Nottingham City Council and Isle of Anglesey County Council to the webCAPTURE community of customers. We are equally delighted by so many Govtech customers choosing to renew their hosted digital process automation services recently; so here is our September '21 customer news round-up.

Excuse the pun but, in the midst of the holiday season, the continuing significant rise in the number of Council Tax ‘change of address’ transactions we’re receiving illustrates just how many people have taken advantage of a holiday on stamp duty.

Last Thursday, 22^nd July, the team was finally able to get back together for the Govtech Summer BBQ at a local Cirencester venue, Ingleside House. It was the first company event since Christmas 2019, and for me, the first time I was able to put faces to names and be able to meet most of the Govtech family. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make it, but for those who could we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon of socialising, indulging (check out the BBQ spread), and appreciating one another and the efforts we’ve all made throughout the pandemic.

It’s hard to believe that the GDPR has been in force for more than 3 years now, having been introduced on 25^th May 2018. So, what have we learned in that time? How have we adapted?

In light of the recent letters our customers have received from the Department for Work and Pensions, we would like to clarify and provide reassurance to councils that, here at Govtech, we do not use robots or robotic processes in our service provision and delivery. Here, our Operations Director Nigel Phillips provides an explanation for Govtech customers, covering some uncertainties about the use of robots.

With our thanks to Emma Rose, Strategic Development Manager, with overall responsibility for Customer Services, Revenues and Welfare.

Early in 2020, Plymouth City Council began to implement Govtech’s webCAPTURE service, deploying a suite of Revenues forms developed in the Granicus govService customer experience platform, with full back-office integration and automated processing in the Capita Revenues system.

On 27th April, we participated in the Granicus Customer Summit and shared, with a new audience of digital transformation and IT professionals, the role digital process automation plays in digitising Revenues & Benefits, two key core service areas.

It’s been a busy year end, but we’re grateful that Bedford Borough Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Dudley Council, Dumfries and Galloway Council, Milton Keynes Council, North Ayrshire Council, Northampton Borough Council, Northumberland County Council, Reigate and Banstead Borough Council and South Ayrshire Council, have all chosen to renew our digital process automation services.

In my almost 32 years of Local Authority experience I am still intrigued to learn how important company culture is to make long lasting relationships with suppliers. If I look back at all the ITTs I worked on, both developing and evaluating, as then as a bidder, they were all designed to be scored against criteria that could differentiate the offerings and be assessed against strict objective measures; this was obviously the essential nature of the tender design and would stand up to scrutiny of rigour and fairness if challenged. But during the process how much did people’s own personal feelings towards a company’s approach or their people still influence their final decision? If it did, is this wrong or inevitable?