The challenge
Wokingham Borough Council serves an affluent demographic in Berkshire. Receiving minimal government grants means that the council must “run even leaner” whilst delivering digital services to the borough’s residents, a high proportion of which work in tech sectors and expect digital services comparable to well-known brands.
Legacy system limitations
The Council’s legacy CRM platform presented several challenges, including high licensing costs which made expansion cost prohibitive. As a result, the Council were keen to move to a low-code platform that represented both value for money and enabled the creation of user-friendly digital services. Resource constraints were another major issue, as the council struggled to retain skilled developers for that platform, as their skills led to them being lured to other opportunities. The platform’s limited agility also hindered quick service delivery, with complex development processes slowing down innovation.
Wokingham’s market evaluation showed that Netcall’s Liberty platform delivered a more compelling business case over their existing suppliers. As a unified platform that brings together low-code, workflow automation, AI and RPA, Liberty would allow the council to transform services end-to-end. The cost-effective licensing model was far more economical than paying per user. Plus, Netcall’s low-code capabilities would enable the internal team to upskill and avoid the need for expensive specialist developers. The strong community support, which provides access to a local government peer network, was a key advantage. And, Wokingham already had an established, trusted 15-year partnership with Netcall through their contact centre solution.
“Netcall has been a trusted partner for Wokingham Borough Council, working closely with us to understand our priorities and support our digital ambitions. Their team brings valuable insight into our services and helps us make informed decisions about how technology can best support our objectives.”
Sally Watkins
Director Corporate, Community and Change, Wokingham Borough Council
The solution
Wokingham began by migrating like-for-like core processes from their CRM to Citizen Hub, Netcall’s full-stack workflow automation and citizen engagement platform, built on low-code. It connects citizen-facing services with the back-office, automating workflows and unifying data across departments. The first processes moved over included waste management, garden waste services, highway maintenance requests, general enquiries and blue badge applications.
With a focus on rationalising applications across the organisation to maximise their investment in the Liberty platform, the team looks for opportunities to replace existing systems with low-code applications that improve the process and save licence fees. An example of this is a comprehensive HR CRM system which the team is developing to handle internal support tickets and integrate with existing HR platforms and processes.
The council’s four-person development team has embraced the platform. The Councils development team love the flexibility and speed with which they can develop – from concept to deployment in days. It is now easier for the council to skill-up their own development team, meaning that they have eliminated their need for expensive specialist developers, ending the recruitment cycle which used to hold back their development.
Citizen Hub provides a single platform approach, giving citizens a consistent interface with a slick and easy-to-use look and feel across services, from waste management to pothole reporting. This streamlined user experience is encouraging greater digital adoption amongst residents, allowing the council to meet the high digital expectations of their residents. The Council has integrated Netcall online forms with their third party customer satisfaction tool, therefore making sure usage levels align with satisfaction.
The team at Wokingham have learned to trust that when their Netcall team tells them that it will be quick to implement, they are true to their word. The team went from complex telephony planning discussions to full internal implementation in just a few weeks.
By upgrading to the latest version of Liberty Converse, our omnichannel contact centre solution, Wokingham are transforming service delivery. Seamlessly integrated with Citizen Hub, Converse enables consistent journeys across channels and utilises enhanced automation to deliver a unified experience.
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AI provides human-quality responses, minus the additional staffing costs. This will enable 24/7 availability, extending service hours beyond traditional office hours.
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To give citizens true channel choice, they intend to deploy AI-powered virtual assistants. These will be both external and internal facing – helping both customers and staff to access information more easily and quickly.
Wokingham takes a thoughtful and strategic approach to AI and automation. They’re maximising integrations with AI-powered platforms, using Netcall solutions wherever possible, to maximise efficiencies.
Next, Wokingham are implementing Liberty RPA to tackle and greatly reduce manual process and admin burdens on their teams.
They plan to use Liberty RPA to automatically populate third party systems when requests come in via email or web forms, significantly speeding up the process from initial request to completion, without requiring manual data entry.
They want to streamline internal services such as staff onboarding processes (starters, leavers and movers) where employees currently fill out the same information into multiple forms. They’ll use RPA to distribute the same information across all relevant systems automatically, removing unnecessary manual touchpoints and only maintaining human intervention where it adds value.
Wokingham also has Liberty Spark giving the council a clear way to capture, analyse and redesign processes, helping teams identify inefficiencies and prioritise automation opportunities before building them in low-code.
They are exploring Govtech as a potential complimentary solution within the Revenues & Benefits area. The council sees that Govtech can offer a way to address user experience issues and provide the modern, intuitive digital services their residents expect.
“Liberty puts us in control, enabling us to join up our contact centre and CRM with low-code to continually improve our customer journeys. With the proven RPA, AI and process improvement solutions at our fingertips we are in the driving seat to make our best ideas a reality – at speed and scale. The Liberty platform is like a tech Swiss army knife – we can play it into different situations and achieve the efficiencies that we’re looking for.”
Glynn Davies
Service Director – Data & Technology, Wokingham Borough Council
The result
Lower cost of ownership
of £218k compared to the Councils previous CRM
10 x Faster
development cycles – moved from concept to deployment in days rather than weeks or months
24/7 Availability
with AI automation extending beyond traditional office hours
Reduced dependency
empowering non-technical staff to build and own processes using Netcall’s cost-effective development resource, reducing contractor spend
Replaced legacy
street cleansing system delivers better user experience, supports digital channel shift and contributes to app rationalisation strategy
90% Renew online
fully automated garden waste subscriptions, previously required physical visits to shops/libraries to purchase
Channel choice
for citizens, without adding extra demand on council resources
Operational efficiency
reduced 10k HR emails per month via fully automated system, freeing staff for high value work and saving £40k
Streamlined processes
automated alcohol and tobacco licensing process, previously fully manual, contributing to £150k savings
Reduced manual handling
and administrative burdens on staff, leading to improved staff utilisation
Better staff retention
team members love working with the product, resulting in a low churn rate
Verified by Wokingham Borough Council – April 2026
Enhancing citizen experience with consistent, user-friendly digital services
Wokingham has successfully bridged the gap between limited government funding and citizens’ high digital expectations. They have achieved significant cost reductions by removing the dependency on expensive developers and suppliers, accelerated service delivery with development cycles shortened from months to days and enhanced citizen satisfaction through consistent, modern digital experiences.