The 2017/18 Capital Programme included funding for a business case for additional phone licences for the Community Safety Hub (CSH.)
This would remove the limitation of the current Cisco 101 solution by providing all staff within the CSH with a ‘standard’ licence to enable them to be recognised by the system.
It is now proposed to implement an Intelligent Call Handling Solution, which would use voice recognition software to route calls based on name, department, service, or any other identifying descriptor associated with an area of the organisation.
Public and internal calls can be managed separately. Specific individuals, teams or roles, which Cleveland Police would not want accessible directly by members of the public, can be excluded. Intelligent Call Handling Solutions will integrate into the existing telephony technology to increase and
better manage voicemail messages. Solutions will include the ability to escalate individuals’ or team voicemails if not responded to within a pre-determined timescale.
An additional module to the Intelligent Call Handling Solution is the Intelligent Callback. This allows a caller in a queue, the option to request a call back rather than waiting on the phone. The system will then retain that queue position for the caller, calling them back when their call reaches the top of the queue.
Evidence gathered from other police service deployments confirms a significant reduction in call volumes within the control room, enabling more efficient and effective call management.
The introduction of a call back system would provide a mechanism for managing peaks in demand and drastically reduce call abandonment rates.
This would provide strong evidence to HMIC that Cleveland Police is making significant progress in resolving areas of concern and provide an enhanced level of service to the public.
The proposed solution would also act as an enabler for potential future introduction of additional digital communication channels with the public as it provides a technical platform upon which additional modules can be deployed.
Proposed changes to the 2017/18 capital budget are as follows:
- Release of the £85k capital budget for the CSH phone licences as the scheme is to be replaced.
- Request of £85k capital budget for the Intelligent Call Handling Solution – An intelligent call handling solution, which uses voice recognition to route calls based on name, department, service, or any other identifying descriptor associated with an area of the organisation.
Additional £16k to be provided through revenue contribution to capital
Decision DRF-2017-62044. Changes to 2017/18 Capital budget (application, 139kB)