18 May 2021

Harrow London Borough Council has deployed a cloud contact centre and communications product from 8x8 as part of its digital transformation agenda to enhance delivery of essential services.

The authority said it faced challenges that were common among UK public sector organisations, such as being hampered by legacy on-premises systems that were unreliable, costly to maintain and offering limited functionality.

These technology shortcomings were further exacerbated when the council’s mission-critical “Access Harrow” contact centre and telephony system struggled to support employees and contact centre agents transitioning to remote work.

Harrow selected 8x8’s integrated cloud contact centre and communications platform to replace its legacy systems with a view to improving manageability and reliability, ensuring business resiliency, enabling an operate-from-anywhere workforce, and reducing costs.

“As we made a smooth transition into the cloud, the 8x8 delivery team was with us every step of the way, ensuring we were ready to make the switch. The level of support they provided those initial weeks made what felt like a mammoth task more manageable,” said Ben Goward, ICT director at Harrow Council. “Working with 8x8 has enabled us to adopt a nimble, hybrid approach, allowing our staff to work from anywhere while providing residents, businesses and visitors with the essential services they require.”

Working with 8x8, the council equipped its 160 Access Harrow operators with the ability to engage customers across voice and digital channels while having a 360-degree view of customer needs and interactions. The result was a streamlined employee and customer experience with advanced analytics and reporting, allowing operators to consult and collaborate with colleagues to resolve customer issues through immediate access to relevant information, 8x8 reports. 

More than one third of London’s Borough Councils now use 8x8’s services, it said.