Case Study: Penrith City Council

Penrith City Council required a cloud-based, omnichannel solution that was customizable and could better integrate with its existing systems while delivering more comprehensive reporting capabilities. Implementing CXone delivered a level of flexibility and simplicity that was necessary to support Penrith City Council’s complex contact center environment and drive efficiencies across its operations.

01 Before

Supporting continued growth

Penrith City Council grew its contact center environment from a two-person team covering five business areas supported by a switchboard to a 25-person strong contact center supporting 26 different business units and fielding 1,100 calls on its busiest days. Subsequently, Penrith City Council wanted to transition to a more comprehensive solution that would deliver better integration between its systems and support more complex reporting that was tailor-made for its specific business needs that would also provide remote access for its agents.

02 Desire to change

Support citizens from anywhere

Penrith City Council’s existing telephony solution was-on-premises, which didn’t reflect the Council’s objective of being a cloud-first organization to deliver enhanced flexibility for its agents. This need was emphasized when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Council to pivot to remote work, which was complicated by its incumbent contact center solution.

To modernize its operations as part of its digital transformation journey, Penrith City Council identified the need to transition its contact center to a cloud-based, omnichannel solution that would empower its agents to work from anywhere and provide essential support to residents. The contact center optimization project was nominated by the Council as a priority to enable its ICT strategy going forward.

“Penrith City Council is a cloud-first organization, making it essential that the contact center and its underlying telephony reflect that. Transitioning from an on-premises contact center solution to CXone is a critical step in Penrith City Council’s digital transformation journey and one that makes the Council more agile than before.”

David Parry

Customer Experience Manager
Penrith City Council

03 NiCE solution

A cloud-based, omnichannel telephony platform

After a rigorous assessment process involving a variety of key stakeholders across its operations, Penrith City Council identified NiCE CXone as the ideal solution. The Council engaged NiCE and its implementation partner, Generation-e, to help it transition from its outdated telephony system to CXone.

As part of the assessment process, NiCE and Generation-e demonstrated how the CXone solution would work in a day in the life of Penrith City Council. Central to this demonstration was the solution’s comprehensive reporting capabilities and streamlined workforce management scheduling system. Penrith City Council selected NiCE CXone because it was an intuitive application that aligned with how the organization runs.

04 Results

Comprehensive reporting delivers opportunities for growth

Since deploying the NiCE CXone solution, Penrith City Council has achieved greater ability to narrow its focus and drill down deeper into the types of calls and interactions its contact center receives.

With the benefit of comprehensive reporting, CXone lets the Council’s contact center team more easily identify trouble spots and areas for improvement, as well as help coaches and team leaders target training for specific staff improvements.

Team leaders and supervisors can also leverage CXone to deliver better call coaching and training for agents. The system lets Penrith City Council’s contact center team allocate calls to staff for self-review and coach review. This has led to more nurturing training across the Council’s contact center operations.

Penrith City Council’s contact center agents can also use the CXone solution to better manage their scheduling, with agents easily able to see their scheduled breaks and shift times. CXone also empowers team leaders to more efficiently manage team schedules and rosters, while leveraging reports and data analysis to identify trends to support scheduling for peak periods. With this support from CXone, Penrith City Council can make more data-driven decisions about staffing levels and resourcing using the information available from its system.

CXone also lets the Council see at a glance where it is potentially overservicing on call types that could be passed through to other departments, ultimately delivering a greater level of efficiency to the Council and better support to its residents.

05 Future

Expanding business use and increasing headcount

Following its CXone implementation, Penrith City Council has identified a need for a dedicated data analyst to assess its available data and help support the contact center’s operations. This has helped the Council better solve challenges that arise with the support of comprehensive data and reporting, leading to greater stability across its operations.

With CXone, Penrith City Council also plans to increase its use across the business. The Council plans to deploy a customer relationship management (CRM) solution as well as leverage the benefits of automation to support self-service for citizens across its operations. CXone’s capabilities ensure that it will integrate seamlessly with the Council’s solution, helping it deliver frictionless citizen experiences now and into the future as it continues to strengthen its contact center operations.