The business issue:
Perhaps more than any other industry, the Public Sector is most frequently tasked with the need to do more with less. With the government's IEG (Implementing Electronic Government) target for 2005 aiming to bring all Public Sector services and systems online; the drive for local authorities and central government bodies to increase their emphasis on technology has never been greater.
SMS text messaging offers an accessible and cost effective facility for the general public to communicate with the council. For example: departments can use the technology to provide a service where people can request information through a text message, such as allowing people to ‘text in’ and alert the council to such things as road damage.
Brent Council (
www.brent.gov.uk) is currently using the SMS technology from TMC to keep customers of their Building Control and ‘Planning Services informed of the status of their applications. Vital text alerts can now be sent out to agents and applicants to update on building control and planning application decisions and completions. Brent ‘Transportation’ Service managers can now contact their engineers who are often on the move, via the SMS system, providing reference numbers for specific jobs and what the job is about.
Tony Ellis, IT Director, Brent Council commented: “The SMS technology from TMC enables us to drive down operational expenditure by removing basic admin costs such as paper, envelope and postage but more importantly - to maximize customer satisfaction. We can now keep the public informed of requests more efficiently, improve our response time to these requests and review the service we provide.”
Brent County Council:
Examples of Public Advantage using the SMS technology from TMC
- Customers can text in to report problems on highways e.g. pot holes, abandoned cars, graffiti, dirty street, overflowing bins, faulty streetlights etc.
- The Wembley Stadium Event Day Protective Parking Scheme: members of the public are kept informed of event days parking restriction at Wembley, by SMS text alerts
WHAT IS TMC SMS?
The Messaging Centre SMS service provides a fully scalable, web-based SMS platform for communication with customers, suppliers, prospects, remote personnel or anyone with a compatible GSM device.
With such a user-friendly way to communicate, it’s no surprise that so many organisations across the world have harnessed the power of browser-based SMS texting with TMC.
TMC SMS brings you an easy, cost-effective way to keep in touch;
- NO set up fee and NO minimum monthly spend
- Access the system from ANY internet connected PC
- Total control over who sends messages
- You ONLY pay for the messages you send
- There is NO contract term
- Browser-based - NO software download
- 128 Bit SSL Encryption ensures your data is KEPT CONFIDENTIAL
- ´HTTPS´ login for secure access
- Unicode - £FREE. Send text message in different scripts via Unicode
Nick Raynsford, Minister for Local and Regional Government firmly supports the drive to increase such efficiency and added: “…with the target for efficiency gains in local government of 2.5% per annum, to deliver at least £6.45 billion by 2007/8, and working with your support, more than this could be possible. If you achieve more, it is a ‘win-win’ for your authority…councils are free to use every ₤1 of cashable efficiency gain to re-invest in local services or hold down council tax.” (Source – Delivering Efficiency in Local Services)