Using Liberty IDP to automate resident parking discount scheme to achieve cost savings while delivering faster, more consistent service
The challenge
South Hams District Council has established itself as a forward-thinking local authority, evidenced by their use of the Liberty platform to consistently improve service delivery and efficiency.
After years of frozen parking charges, the council faced pressure to increase charges but wanted to support residents. The goal was to offer discounted parking rates to local residents, while maintaining standard rates for visitors. This type of scheme had never been implemented by any other UK council.
The council expected around 30,000 applications each year and faced unpredictable daily volumes ranging from a handful to hundreds. With political pressure for processing in 24 hours to enable quick access to discounted parking and a small team of six people, they needed to leverage AI-powered technology to process multiple document types, without adding any manual processing staff. South Hams turned to Liberty IDP, our intelligent document processing solution, as part of their existing Liberty platform ecosystem, which already included Liberty Create, Converse and RPA solutions.
“Councils can leverage AI-powered document processing to deliver meaningful cost savings while improving service quality. By using Liberty IDP, we avoided the need to hire extra staff and the associated overheads and achieved annual savings. We also maintain a 24-hour service turnaround, which was impossible with manual processing.”
Jim Davies
Head of Customer Improvement, South Hams District Council
The solution
“Using Liberty IDP and the rest of the platform has opened up some processes that we never considered trying to improve before. We can attack a lot more inefficiency – even processes that we previously thought would be too hard to tackle – and streamline many areas that previously had no additional support.“
Jim Davies
Head of Customer Improvement, South Hams District Council
The result
The project’s success has positioned South Hams to expand automation across additional service areas, adding IDP into their toolkit for broader digital transformation. Their pioneering approach demonstrates how forward-thinking councils can harness AI-powered document processing to overcome complex operational challenges which deliver exceptional value to residents.
Councils need not choose between cost control and service quality – intelligent automation can deliver both simultaneously.
Find out how South Hams has used Liberty platform to transform processes three times faster to drive improved CX using low-code and their contact centre and also utilised RPA for faster, more efficient working.
Impact
£120k+ Savings
avoiding hire of 5+ FTE plus associated HR, training, equipment, software licenses costs
30k Applications p/a
automated processing of applications, handling hundreds per day
Superior Accuracy
higher document processing accuracy than Microsoft PowerApps solution
Discover how Liberty IDP can streamline document processing, reduce costs, and enhance service delivery.
Baloise quadrupled its document processing automation using Liberty IDP, cutting costs, improving accuracy, and enhancing customer response times. With 65% straight-through processing, employees gained flexibility, and operations became more scalable. The journey continues toward even higher efficiency and automation.
Addressing increasing demands for AI integration and intelligent document processing in the insurance sector
