Capita's 10-year back office and customer services cloud contract with Barnet Council has saved the authority £31 million and boosted customer satisfaction in the first three years, a review has found.
The greatest savings were made by cutting the cost of service delivery by £6 million a year since the contract started, while further savings were made from procurement. Additional council tax income made up for the remainder, with the cloud services enabling better rates of collection.
The audit explained customer satisfaction rates had increased from 52% to 76% over the period for outward-facing customer services, and were up to 96% from 35% pre-contract for face to face services.
"I’m pleased that, three years into the contract with Capita to supply the council’s back office and customer services, this review confirms that it has been a success," said councillor Anthony Finn, chair of the Performance and Contract Management Committee at the council.
"With council budgets under significant pressure, the fact that these services are now costing the Barnet taxpayer £6 million less each year to deliver is substantial. But I’m also pleased that Capita is meeting the agreed performance targets in the contract and that user satisfaction is going up."
The review has revealed that further annual savings of £2 million a year can be made, although some improvements will need to be made to the contracts, including the delivery of IT and estates services.
"We have set challenging performance targets and there is more work to be done in certain areas, but so far this has been a good deal for the borough.”
