Traditional telephony plays a crucial role within municipalities and governmental institutions. Currently, it's still the primary form of communication with residents, like it is at the Municipality of Katwijk. Through a Customer Contact Center, residents reach out to the municipality and are connected to the right people within the organization. But this process doesn’t always go smoothly...
The municipality’s phone accessibility was far from optimal. The Customer Contact Center (CCC) was understaffed, the information provided to residents could be improved and complaints about accessibility were common. With advancing digitalization and an increasing number of communication channels, it was time to explore a new solution.
Steven Shukrula, ICT advisor at the Municipality of Katwijk, led this project. His mission: to design a new telephony solution. With the philosophy, “Technology is available everywhere, so it’s really about how you use it,” he certainly didn’t make this challenge easy for himself.,/p>
Steven explains, “We started this project by asking: What is telephony actually used for within the organization? Why do people call the municipality? It turned out that most calls were about civil affairs, permits, fines, passports, driver’s licenses, complaints, and information requests. Given the number of calls, we concluded that people often call for information they can’t find on the website. This information gap means that customer service agents spend a lot of time answering questions that could be addressed elsewhere.”
In addition to complaints from residents, there were also concerns from CCC staff. They were experiencing high workloads and lacked the facilities to manage them. For instance, there was a display showing queue times, but the tools needed to generate useful reports were missing. Moreover, the CCC was often not informed about the municipality’s communications, leading to widespread miscommunication.
“Katwijk's vision is to provide services that are as quick and easy as possible."
Steven Shukrula IT advisor
The new phone solution needed to be innovative, future-proof and scalable. Since the municipality was already using Microsoft Teams, a telephony solution based on Teams was a logical step to boost adoption. The close collaboration between Interstellar and Microsoft ultimately led to the decision to implement Teams Phone together.
Steven explains, “Katwijk’s vision is to provide fast and easy service. This isn’t just about information but also about accessibility and the ease with which people can reach us. Although the CCC wasn’t initially the focus of the migration to a new telephony system, we quickly realized that their role was crucial. Of course, standard telephony functions had to work well for everyone, but a CCC requires just a bit more functionality.”,/p>
For this reason, the Municipality of Katwijk implemented Anywhere365 alongside Teams Phone.
The municipality opted for a Big Bang approach, porting all telephony at once. This approach naturally carried some risk, as any issues could temporarily leave the organization completely unreachable. Fortunately, the migration went off without a hitch and the entire phone system was switched to Teams Phone within 5 minutes.
“IT management is much simpler with this solution than with our previous telephony system. Of course, it functions slightly differently and employees need to learn a new way of working, but that will come with time. The speed at which you can now make calls is especially appreciated by staff. They can also manage their own availability, which is very convenient.”
The transition to Teams Phone went smoothly. Using a few humorous videos, the transition was announced within the municipality, helping employees get used to the idea and feel genuinely involved in this major project.
After the go-live of Teams Phone, the Katwijk CCC encountered delays in calls, making departments appear unreachable, which caused frustration among both residents and employees.
Initially, the problem seemed to be related to an app used to log staff into specific queues. After several analyses, it turned out that the issue layed with Anywhere365.
Despite the smooth transition, the Municipality of Katwijk had to overcome some obstacles before Teams Telephony could be used efficiently. It was indeed a bumpy road, but fortunately, all’s well that ends well.
Residents have noticed little from this transition, other than the fact that services have improved. Complaints about accessibility and long waiting times have been resolved. Additionally, residents are no longer passed from one department to another, as employees can now quickly connect them to the right person within the organization.
Steven is very pleased with Interstellar’s role: “Richard (account manager at Interstellar) is a fantastic ambassador. He’s always available, alert and clearly sees the value of a proactive Microsoft Partner who offers more than just technology. Exactly what we were looking for! The transition to Teams Phone was the fastest I’ve ever seen!” says Steven.
The bumpy road we ultimately traveled together has been a significant learning experience for both organizations. Under the motto ‘learning by doing,’ Steven is satisfied with the collaboration and problem-solving abilities of our colleagues. An important takeaway is the need to continually emphasize and support the use of Teams, both among existing and new employees. A valuable lesson to carry into the future.
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