Automation & Digital Transformation

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Kent County Council boosts trading standards case management with Civica

Kent County Council is now live with Civica’s Cx, cloud-optimised trading standards software and citizen portal.

Sharing information across Public Protection teams is vital for Kent. The Council was looking for a new Trading Standards platform to handle case management for its 75,000 local businesses.

Civica’s Cx Trading Standards allows the service to have a single view of the interactions they have with a business/customer. It allows teams to be more proactive in their response and respond to enquiries quicker.

The software will help the Council meet its wider digital transformation goals, supporting its Trading Standards Service across the county to work smarter digitally and promote agile working in the field.

The system has been initially rolled out to just the Trading Standards team but as part of a wider transformation project, more of the Council’s Public Protection teams will look to adopt Cx.

With majority of licences being requested and renewed through email, Civica’s Cx Citizen Portal will allow businesses to access their licence information anytime. They can sign up, submit changes to their licences and when their licence is due for renewal, they are able to renew their licence online, providing a more seamless and efficient service for customers to engage. The platform offers improved data collection as information is automatically transferred from the portal into the back office, creating an end-to-end process which eliminates the need for human interaction.

Intelligent workflow processes offer Kent the flexibility and ability to create and edit bespoke trading standards process workflows in-house. A further critical element is the API integration which allows the Council to link with ‘Trading Standards Checked’ – a fair trader directory for trades in the home maintenance sector run by Kent County Council (KCC).

Angie Sanders, Group Development Officer at Kent County Council said: “We chose Cx software as we could implement it easily and are able to manage software updates faster. As a long-standing Civica customer, we already have a partnership approach. With Cx, we can already see efficiency improvements in our processes but it’s vital we continue to adapt the system to truly best suit how we operate.”

Emily Douglin, Managing Director, Regulatory Services at Civica added: “We’re delighted to be working with Kent to help transform digital services for both residents and employees at a time of increasing challenge and disruption to business as usual.  Through intelligent workflow and advanced reporting, the Cx Trading Standards cloud-optimised software and connected Citizen Portal will assist with increased engagement, improved income recording and help introduce better services for the future.”

Civica provides regulatory services software for more than 200 public sector organisations across the UK. This latest agreement continues strong momentum for Civica’s Cx digital platform, with Kent joining other Councils including Norfolk County Council, Devon County Council, Peterborough City Council and Durham County Council.