NEC customers come out on top in speed of processing

The speed of processing statistics for housing benefit new claims and changes in circumstance have just been released, and we’re delighted to see NEC customers performing so well. A huge part of that will be down to the dedicated people working in those teams. But when you look at the difference in the software, it comes down to just one thing; investment.

So what does investment really mean to speed of processing? 

Quite simply, it’s the money and time that goes into our software. It’s a labour of love after all. And we’re quite proud of what we can share with our customers. Our revenues and benefits software has always been a strong market contender, but NEC investment has pushed us even further ahead.

Investment in the technology 

It’s impossible to talk about the success of NEC Revenues & Benefits without mentioning Citizen Access. The self-service platform has gone from strength to strength, growing and adapting to meet the needs of our customers. What started off as the ability to let citizens claim benefits or manage their council tax online has become a platform that can manage everything from self isolation payments to empty property reviews. In the last year, 11.7 million people used Citizen Access. And in an age of people wanting to do more and more online, it fits the bill perfectly. 

And it doesn’t stop there. We have also invested in automation with organisations like the DWP enabling customers to use supplied data to automate manual processes. And we’ve developed open integration with document management systems through API layers. We have 15 years of experience in browser based interfaces, so we’re confident our customers can access what they need to on whatever device. What’s more, they can scale up or down to suit demand. And if they need a hosted solution? That’s not a problem, we have a few cloud options that will work. 

Investment in the partnerships

As much as our technology is great, one of the things we’re proudest of is our relationship with our customers. Despite the challenges everyone has faced with the pandemic, where revenues and benefits teams were right on the front line getting help to people and businesses in need, we’ve come through this with even more trust and confidence. Our customers voted an overwhelming 94% satisfaction rate for NEC Revenues & Benefits, especially drawing on the speed and transparency of our coronavirus response programme. 

One of the main things to come from our continued work with customers is the launch of the new user interface in Version 7, due out in October. It will feature new styles for the screen display, and provide a platform for future enhancements. Customers are helping with beta testing, and now we’re rolling out previews to all of our customers. So far, 100% of those polled have said they’re excited about the new user interface. And that’s really what the investment is all about. We want to see that excitement continue!

We claim our customers are good, but just how well are they doing? 

This is an easy question to answer. Mainly because the data speaks for itself. Not only do our customers make up 24 of the top 25 performing housing benefit departments in the country, but they are also constantly improving on their previous performance. For 8 years our customers have become increasingly faster and more efficient. They have even managed to shave another 0.3 days off their average processing time, taking it down to just 4 days. The nearest competitor is processing in 5.2 days on average. Not to mention competitors who have slowed down this year and increased their processing time. 

We’re exceptionally proud of how well our customers have performed. And we look forward to seeing what more can be achieved in future years with strong investment and partnership.

If you’d like to know more information about any of these stats, we’d be more than happy to have a conversation. Just drop us an email at revsandbens@necsws.com and we’ll be sure to get back to you.