30th April 2007

Southwark and Vangent win award for innovation in delivering efficiency

The London Borough of Southwark and the leading customer service company Vangent today announced that they have been awarded the prestigious Government Computing Innovation Award for ‘Best Project-Delivering Efficiency’. The award, is supported by the Cabinet Office, the Society of Information Technology Management and the British Computer Society.

The award recognises the work undertaken by Southwark and Vangent to implement one of the UK’s leading Customer Service Centres (CSC). The Southwark CSC provides 75% of council services with a 90% customer satisfaction rate. It provides them in 120 languages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has given Southwark seven figure cashable savings in Gershon efficiencies.

100 public sector organisations from across central and local government entered the awards, which were presented by government chief information officer John Suffolk at a gala dinner at Madame Tussaud’s.

Dominic Cain, Head of Southwark’s Client Team said: “The team are thrilled about winning this award, which demonstrates that leaders in public sector IT recognise the valuable contribution Southwark have made in using technology to help improve public services for our citizens"

Stephen Meyler, managing director Vangent Ltd, commented “We are very proud to have worked with Southwark to deliver what has been recognised as one of the most innovative and complete customer service solutions in the UK. Southwark has been very far sighted to have implemented this approach and it has been able to significantly boost the level of service it delivers to the community. Vangent is committed to helping councils transform to meet the many challenges they face through a combination of technology, insight and innovative business processes.”