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Tech Check

BBC – TV Licensing

Huge improvements in efficiency, with serious savings to the tune of £220m over eight years, utilising a mailroom service, managed and outsourced print solutions.

The Summary

In 2011, Right Digital Solutions won the contract to administer the BBC’s TV Licensing function for 8 years. TV Licensing (TVL) contacts, chases and collects the license fee from around 96% of UK households every year. This equates to £3.7 billion in license fees which the BBC uses to fund its programmes and services.

TVL is enjoying huge improvements in efficiency, and serious savings as a result, to the tune of £220m over 8 years. This includes the provision of a mailroom service, a managed print service and an outsourced print solution.

Right Digital Solution’s strategic review of current practises and processes enabled them to pinpoint five key areas where significant improvements could be made. Right Digital Solutions was then able to bring a number of its integrated services into play to optimise the way information and tasks flow through the organisation.

The Solution

Right Digital Solutions worked alongside Capita Intelligent Communications to migrate TVL’s mailroom services from on premise to a dedicated mailroom site. Now every piece of correspondence entering TVL is automatically re-routed. That’s around 17,000 items of mail, and 4,000 items of returned mail every day.

On arrival, all correspondence is recorded using innovative data capture technology before being forwarded electronically. New scanning hardware and innovative scanning software combine to allow for speedy same-day scanning and cheque banking, whilst all customer and transaction information is captured immediately and securely. To complete the process, obsolete documentation is securely shredded or archived.

Managed print services

Right Digital Solutions were able to reveal to TVL the true cost of their printer fleet and processes. Ageing, inefficient hardware, poor printing and scanning practises, and the lack of any SLA (service level agreement) meant the organisation’s print operations were more of a hindrance than a help to workflow.

Right Digital Solutions exchanged old hardware for new, including multifunctional devices which allow TVL staff to print, photocopy and scan straight to email. Print management software was installed with pullprinting, allowing users to authenticate themselves on a device with their security card in order to release print jobs and reduce waste. And when a problem arises, a new SLA means a response within 2.5 hours instead of 4.

Transactional print and mail

During the consultative period Right Digital Solutions identified that efficiencies could be realised and savings made if TVL were to change the way they:

  • Improved access to user services
  • Printing from mobile devices, tablets, laptops, and off campus printing
  • Print cheques

For standard correspondence, data is now delivered daily to the mailroom site direct from TVL via a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP). An automated workflow process then adds all the necessary information such as customer details, to the data to create the correspondence before sending it out via the customer’s preferred communication channel.

Printing, fulfilment and mailing of all ad-hoc correspondence is now handled within the automated centralised production facility using hybrid mail.

And printing cheques no longer presents a problem thanks to the introduction of a numberless cheque solution. The production facility holds seven cheque templates which are populated with the correct data on demand as required.

The Benefits

  1. 1Increased productivity - With time-taking tasks now redirected off-site, staff are free to focus on core business objectives.
  2. 2Improved quality and control - All customer correspondence is professionally produced ensuring branding compliance and quality control across TVL's document portfolio.
Right Digital Solutions provided us with an exceptional piece of programme work, and let nothing get in the way of successful delivery. The end result is a much improved and efficient service that supports our business beyond our expectations. An exceptional team to work with. Terry Boynes, Partnership Director TVL