Greater London Authority
SUMMARY
Novacroft’s bespoke Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme portal helped the Greater London Authority to deliver its superfast broadband plan using existing resources and meet challenging government take-up targets. The portal enabled businesses to apply easily, speedily and securely online and receive grant vouchers electronically and the GLA to benefit from the efficiencies of an automated application and verification process.
If this city is to remain the greatest place to do business in the world we need to ensure that all of our businesses can access the very fastest broadband available so that they can become super-connected and supercharged
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
THE CHALLENGE
The success of the GLA’s superfast broadband plans hinged on the effective roll-out of its Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme. As well as having to get SMEs signing up at the rate needed to avoid losing funding – and losing face when take-up in each city was made public by the government – the GLA also faced the challenge of freeing up already stretched teams to capture data, undertake credit checks, keep businesses engaged with the application process and regularly report results back to Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).
THE SOLUTION
We tailored our ‘white label’ online application solution, which incorporates a streamlined back-end verification process and sits behind clients’ own websites, to meet BDUK’s requirements – within a tight and politically-sensitive timeframe. We subsequently fine-tuned the solution to further simplify and speed up the process and make it more appealing to busy SMEs. Novacroft’s Contact Centre also handled all calls from applicants.
THE BENEFITS FOR BUSINESSES
As well as experiencing a suitably superfast digital introduction to the superfast broadband scheme, the capital’s SMEs appreciated that:
- They could apply online when and where they wanted
- The process was simple, fast and slick
- They received regular automated application status updates via SMS
- They had easy access to knowledgeable advisors
- Delivery of their voucher was electronic and immediate
- They were given automatic direct contact with suppliers to speed up the installation process.
THE ADVANTAGES FOR THE GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY
Novacroft’s solution helped the GLA to manage the scheme effectively and efficiently and:
- Hit take-up targets by encouraging and enabling the required volume of voucher applications
- Automate credit checks and validation to reduce resource requirements
- Outsource customer care to a team with the time and technology to answer queries
- Release resources to focus on working with suppliers and getting results
- Improve budget use through the system’s one-off licence fee
- Produce broadband penetration maps as evidence of the scheme’s impact
- Quickly and easily generate progress reports for BDUK.