Atos Origin is working at the heart of tax and welfare business transformation within central government. We are a leading provider of IT innovation and services to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its subsidiary public bodies, HM Revenue and Customs, the Rural Payments Agency and other public bodies that collect and/or distribute public funds.
An accomplished tax and welfare partner
Our consultants are highly experienced in the planning and delivery of frontline tax and welfare solutions and customer-facing services.
Atos Origin recently completed the successful delivery of the DWP’s award-winning Customer Conversion Centre project. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) recognised the benefits of this project, which encouraged DWP customers to switch payment from the traditional cheque method to direct credit into personal bank accounts. As well as helping the DWP to reduce the transactional costs of benefit payments, a tangible improvement in customer service was achieved with over 10 million DWP customers switching to the more convenient direct credit service.
We are continuing to help the DWP to meet its efficiency agenda, particularly as a partner for its procurement reform programme. We work closely with Atos Origin Medical Services on behalf of the DWP to deliver medical capability assessments of benefit claimants. This service is a fundamental aspect of the evaluation of entitlement to benefits such as Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance.
At the heart of tax and welfare transformation
By working in partnership with our clients, we aim to deliver sustainable change to enhance customer services, improve staff morale and create real efficiency savings with an immediate impact on budgets.
We do this by building robust and effective partnership structures with our clients whereby:
- There is mutual and respectful challenge at senior level
- Joint working and skills transfer are a critical element of sustainable, continuous improvement
- A degree of risk and reward is enabled as part of an agreed commercial framework.
Some of the key elements of our partnership programme are captured below.
Baselining costs and service levels
Before setting out on any programme of change, it is normal to baseline existing current service levels and the budget arrangements that underpin the scope of service under review. This enables our clients to consider where and what interventions may be most appropriate and the range of benefits and risks associated with any change. An incremental programme of change can be built around such an assessment.
Change management
As part of a transformation programme, we assess the organisation’s capacity to embrace change. This will largely depend upon the culture of the organisation and the client’s experience of previous change initiatives. We tailor the approach according to the results of the ‘change readiness’ assessment. A business transformation programme will typically have a change management workstream at its heart, with the relevant principles reflected in the subsequent effort.
Procurement reform
Procurement and supply chain management is one of our core skills. We undertake category management reviews across all areas of relevant spend. Our approach to procurement is designed to generate tangible early savings, embed new models of procurement and transfer skills that will enable sustainable savings long after our engagement has been completed.
Sustainable business process change
Our programmes of sustainable business process change can enable revenue collection and/or welfare delivery to drive out savings over time, without compromising service standards. Our approach includes:
- High-level business process engineering to identify the best prospects for efficiency gains across the organisation
- Business case development to calculate return on investment and agree an implementation plan
- A joint partnership implementation team to ensure skills transfer and sustainable change
- Integrated programme management linked to a strong change management plan to ensure buy-in and stakeholder commitment.
Operational design models
Our knowledge of public service delivery processes, combined with our operational design expertise, ensures that we can support best practice customer contact and management. Public authorities need cost-effective strategies that enable the delivery of customer services through different channels and extended infrastructures. We can help to translate these visions and plans into design principles for a future operational model, including design assumptions, technology requirements and a plan that will ensure successful implementation.