How do you transition from a labour intensive, paper-based system to a more effective, online way of working?

As Kent County Council’s (KCC) Kent Freedom Pass was growing in popularity, the Growth, Environment and Transport team were recruiting extra staff to assist with the re-keying of this information in to their system. Introducing a system where the applicant is responsible for the integrity of the data input in to the system, as well as integrating a secure, online payment mechanism meant that Kent County Council were able to reduce their temporary staffing levels by 50% during peak application times.

The Kent Freedom Pass; now Young Persons Travel Pass and 16+ Travel Card, enable young people within Kent to cost effectively travel around the county all year round. KCC were running a costly process, in terms of time and resources as well as accepting payments via cheque and re-keying application forms in to their system. They needed an online application form system to make the applicant responsible for the integrity of their own data and a secure payment mechanism to reduce the time taken to produce the Kent Freedom Pass.

 

The Challenge

Our ICT Applications team worked closely with KCC’s Growth, Environment and Transport team to understand their challenges and design an online process to replace their existing process. The entire solution is compiled of two C# .Net websites, a C# .Net web service and an SQL 2014 database, utilising WorldPay Integration for secure payments and an administrative back office system.

New applications require the input of applicant details, alongside the upload of a photograph to be printed on the final pass. Renewal applications are available to applicants that have previously held a pass but the supplied data is considered not updateable. Two factor authentication is enforced at the start of the renewal process to ensure that the applicant data is secured and stored in the system that produces the pass.

The back office system allows the business to control user access, as well as the pass types and pass products, so that only the relevant passes are available for application at any given time. Data from the back office application is then exported and reconciled against WorldPay ensuring that the data processed by the Finance department is correct.

The Results

The implementation of the online application process has resulted in higher data integrity, secure financial transaction processing, higher levels of customer service and quicker processing times. 75% of applications now taken for a Young Persons Travel Pass and 50% of 16+ Travel Cards are via the online form. In addition, there has also been a reduction of 50% temporary staff during peak application times reducing costs for the department

More Case Studies

Industry insights

Icon for Take more breaks: No strings attached

Take more breaks: No strings attached

The below insight has been written by Mark Scott, CEO at Cantium Business Solutions:  With millions of people now working from home, many will be unsure about what is expected of them during the working day. As a long-time advocate of remote...
Read more

OUR SERVICES

Icon for HR for Public Sector

HR for Public Sector

Take advantage of our award winning fully Integrated HR, payrol services, pensions payroll administration, grievance and disciplinary and more.
Read more
Icon for IT for Public Sector

IT for Public Sector

Fully managed IT services, support and comprehensive technology solutions. Qualified IT engineers to deliver solutions tailored to your business.
Read more
Icon for Finance for Public Sector

Finance for Public Sector

Using a high-level customer service ethic and intuitive IT systems, our financial services range from making payments to the effective recovery of debt.
Read more
Brand Call to Action Image

We collaborate with your team to create a bespoke HR, IT or finance solution that works.

Find out more, speak to our team.