Collabor8 Virtual Call Center

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

As a result of the economic downturn, county governments across the nation have been forced to cut funding from crucial programs such as human services departments, as is the case in Ohio where budgets were reduced up to 50 percent over the past four years. Over the same time period, Ohio’s county agencies responsible for delivering direct client services have seen caseloads increase by as much as 40 percent and staffing decrease by 30 percent through layoff and/or attrition. In response to this dilemma, Marion County has partnered with five other counties in Ohio to create a virtual call center that will allow the human services departments of those counties to manage the increase in caseloads. A common 800 number connects the seven non-contiguous counties and sets them up as a single call center. Calls coming into the 800 number are distributed via a unified call center solution on a round robin basis among the seven counties. Agency staff members assigned to the call center perform specific transactions on a case versus seeing a single case all the way through to determination. Through a process termed “case banking” case managers no longer have assigned caseloads, but rather work on cases as needed in real time by accessing a digital case bank. This allows counties to utilize full capacity of staff when and where it is needed. Essentially, the program combines the staff potential of multiple counties into one single entity that manages cases in real time. An investment of just under $2 million of both state costs and county costs combined indicates that this program is easily replicated in other counties and can be just as beneficial. The efficiency of the Collabor8 system goes far beyond traditional methods, as 99% of application calls are answered within 30 seconds with an average hold time of 5 seconds during any week of calls. An increase in efficiency and productivity results in a return on taxpayer investment. To date, counties have seen a 30% increase in productivity which translates to $1,530,000 per year when expressed in the cost of labor.