First Line Support: Improving access to finance help and support for our University community

Often, the first challenge is being faced with multiple choices of different contact points and trying to identify the correct number to call; only to be told you have called the wrong number and have to start over again. So how do we remove this issue from our support lines and ensure our stakeholders have a positive experience when seeking help?

Last year the SEP Finance Transformation Team conducted workshops with various colleagues across the University. This helped identify more than twenty central contact points for finance related enquiries. Having so many different points of contact has meant the service can be time consuming and confusing for all involved, including students, staff, students’ parents, external customers, suppliers and funding bodies to name a few.

These workshops formed the basis for a proposed First Line Support Project (part of the Finance Transformation Programme), which will establish a single point of contact for finance related queries as well as improved online support materials. Straight-forward user queries will be resolved either by staff at the first contact point or via self-help. More complex user queries will be immediately passed on to the most appropriate, specialist member of staff.

 Our aim is to deliver the gold standard of enquiry management for all users of finance services recognising their diverse requirements.  I’m confident that our new team will be successful and that First Line Support is a model that could be rolled out and applied to other areas of the University’s professional support services.

Lee Hamill

The project proposal has been approved by the Finance Transformation Board and the SEP Board. The preparatory work is underway and it is anticipated that the proposed new service should be up and running by early 2019.