News

Civica helps councils to modernise payment systems in new deals worth more than £1 million

Managed payment systems deliver cost savings, PCI DSS Level 1 payment compliance and flexible payment options for residents

Civica is transforming the way that local authorities manage their payment systems by implementing its ICON payments solution as a managed service for six councils in a series of agreements together worth more than £1 million.

The latest councils to adopt the Civica ICON managed service model are Slough Borough Council, Bury Council, Copeland Borough Council, Uttlesford District Council, South Ribble Borough Council and West Lindsey District Council. This enables their existing manual payment systems to be streamlined, secured to PCI DSS standard and operational costs reduced.

Civica now has over 180 councils benefiting from its market-leading systems to deliver a variety of payment and income management services. In all, these authorities are processing in excess of £100 million in income per month through Civica systems.

Payment processes

As a managed service, ICON transfers the risk and responsibilities of updating, upgrading and maintaining software, equipment and payment processing systems to Civica. This enables councils to focus on their core duties, such as enhancing existing services with wider payment options and enhanced customer services to their residents. Civica securely hosts all transactional information within its resilient data centres.

The ICON platform benefits all departments within a local authority, whether small rural authorities or large metropolitan boroughs. It provides a highly efficient low cost processing system that is equally suited to smaller councils that do not generate high revenues, or larger authorities serving large local populations. This is because ICON makes large-scale collection of income more accessible through its alternative payment methods, as citizens and partner organisations alike are no longer subject to traditional cash office working hours. Payments can be made with self-service channels such as automated telephone payment lines and Internet payments 24/7.

PCI DSS compliance

Councils are also under growing pressure to be PCI DSS compliant, which is becoming more costly to implement, owing to changing banking regulations and authorities’ ongoing ICT system upgrade and maintenance needs. Civica has Level 1 compliance, which allows all its council customers to outsource the risks of storing credit/debit card information on site, enhance security related to information, and cut the costs of the changing card industry mandates.

Slough Borough Council was an existing Civica customer and recently upgraded, migrating towards the ICON hosted solution. Since going live in August, Civica has processed over £1million of income for Slough, including over 6,500 card payment transactions.

Bill Timblin, chief cashier - Slough Borough Council commented: “Our council was happy to implement the Civica ICON hosted payments system in August 2010. This not only ensured PCI DSS compliance but also gave added value by incorporating Internet payments, thereby giving our clients a wider range of payment solutions. We also took the opportunity to upgrade our system to incorporate CHIP & PIN.”

Bill Loughrey - managing director of Civica Revenues and Benefits said: “Councils are under unprecedented pressure to maintain local services on a much smaller budget. Systems such as ICON streamline complex processes and offer better service options, while meeting security standards.”