Netcall Signs Police Framework Agreement

RNS Number : 1924R

Netcall PLC

01 November 2011

 



NETCALL PLC

("Netcall", "the Company", or "the Group")

Netcall Signs Police Framework Agreement

1^st November 2011, Hemel Hempstead, UK - Netcall plc (AIM: NET), a leading provider of customer engagement software, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a tender for a suite of Netcall solutions with North Yorkshire Police force. The award also includes a framework agreement covering a further three police forces across the region. No financial details have been disclosed.

Netcall will supply North Yorkshire Police with a suite of call handling solutions, including ContactPortal, an automated operator service and overflow facility, to handle calls when five or more external callers are waiting, as well as Netcall's Messenger+ and Mobility solutions to provide a single, easy to administer, powerful messaging and mobility solution. 

The force's call handlers currently receive over half a million calls per year. These solutions will help the force to work towards their rigorous Service Standard, based on the principles and ambitions of the Policing Pledge and improve rates for 'first point of contact call resolution', by enabling call handlers to focus on the most important calls from members of the public such as 999 calls and reporting of crimes and incidents.  These solutions will also allow the force to better handle calls from victims of crime and vulnerable citizens.

Superintendent Glyn Payne, Head of Command and Control for North Yorkshire Police, commented: "Our top priority is to develop and deliver excellent operational policing and support services and this starts on the front line with communication. We want to make it easy for victims of crime and witnesses to stay in contact and receive ongoing information. This is achieved because around 45% non emergency calls are for named officers, staff or departments. Allowing callers to self-serve rather than wait in a queue is much more efficient for both callers and call handlers, thereby greatly improving the overall call handling experience for our callers.  The combined features of the Mobility and Messenger+ solutions will ensure that officers are easier to reach and for messages to be responded to within 24 hours by somebody who can deal with the issue, even if the officer is off shift."

Henrik Bang, CEO of Netcall, commented, "We are delighted to have secured this significant framework agreement contract with North Yorkshire Police for our ContactPortal solution. We are seeing a growing interest from this sector as police forces across the UK seek to increase the efficiency and sophistication of their call handling.  In response to budget restrictions, using automation is becoming a natural part of many customer service strategies and our public sector customers in particular have shown that automation improves customer service and creates major efficiencies.  Netcall is the most experienced provider of speech recognition solutions in the public sector and has proven the efficiency and user friendliness of such solutions. This is just one of a number of sectors which are showing a growing interest in our enhanced product suite which we believe bodes well for the future."

This is the second regional framework agreement to be signed and is anticipated to generate further contracts in the months ahead.  Netcall already provides solutions to 16 other police forces across the UK and has most recently welcomed Northamptonshire Police via an East Midlands framework to their customer base.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Netcall plc	Tel. [phone]
Henrik Bang, CEO Michael Jackson, Chairman James Ormondroyd, Group Finance Director
Evolution Securities Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)	Tel. [phone]
Stuart Andrews, James Nevin, Patrick Castle - Corporate Finance
Tim Redfern, Jonathan Wynn - Corporate Broking
Threadneedle Communications	Tel. [phone]
Caroline Evans-Jones / Hilary Millar
North Yorkshire Police	Tel: [phone]
Glyn Payne

About Netcall PLC

Netcall is a UK company quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Netcall's software product suite provides solutions for end-to-end customer engagement, incorporating call handling, callback, smart automation, workforce management and data unification. Our target markets comprise organisations of all sizes, including many blue-chip companies with global contact centre operations. The Netcall software platform helps organisations meet the growing demands of their customers and prospects whilst improving internal efficiencies, thereby increasing profitability and customer satisfaction.

Netcall's customer base contains over 600 organisations in both the private and public sectors. These include over 65% of the NHS Acute Health Trusts, major telecoms operators such as BT and Cable & Wireless and leading organisations including Interflora, Lloyds TSB, Oracle, Cineworld, Interserve, Orange, Prudential, RBS and npower.

About North Yorkshire Police

http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/home 

 

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