Dacorum Borough Council Selects Talisma Multi-Channel CRM for Superior Customer Service and E-Government Drive.

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Local council tackles e-government targets by providing citizens with Multi-channel contact

Talisma(TM), a provider of Multi-channel CRM solutions, announced today that after a successful three month pilot this summer, Talisma has been selected by Dacorum Borough Council to e-enable the services it provides to its customers. Talisma's Multi-channel CRM solution will support the council in meeting e-government targets of providing customers with a one-stop-shop for information by the end of 2005. Using Talisma, Dacorum Borough Council will integrate all of its communication systems to provide its customers access to a full range of council information, at any time, through a range of communication channels, including in person, self-service, email, chat, and phone.

Dacorum Borough Council provides a wide range of services for over 137,000 residents in the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring in the UK, and surrounding villages. The introduction of Talisma has accelerated the council's move towards e-enablement of its services with the goal of resolving 80 percent of inquiries at first contact before the e-government deadline of December 2005.

Using Talisma's Multi-channel CRM solution, officers at the council's newly created one-stop-shop contact center will have all the necessary information at their fingertips when customers contact them. This includes instant access to previous or ongoing inquiries, regardless of communication channel, as well as real-time information from other council systems that can drive first time resolution of inquiries. Additional features such as CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) and intelligent routing will ensure that inquiries reach the right person quickly and efficiently.

"Our customer service team handles in excess of 1,000 inquiries and requests from Borough residents each day. We selected Talisma's Multi-channel CRM solution to help us deliver a superior level of service to our customers and give them wider access to the council's resources in time for the e-government deadline," said Karen Tarbox, Head of Customer Service at Dacorum Borough Council.

"Our partnership with Dacorum Borough Council demonstrates Talisma's expertise in customer centric solutions for government entities. With Talisma, the council will be able to improve its service by introducing more services online and providing a truly citizen focused council. Our Multi-channel CRM solution can be implemented quickly and cost effectively by integrating existing legacy technologies, and can evolve as councils expand their services, allowing them to achieve e-government goals through minimal capital expenditure," said Craig Gordon, Managing Director of Talisma Europe.

Two key factors in the selection of Talisma by Dacorum Borough Council were Talisma's open architecture and ease of integration: "It was important that the system we chose would continue to expand with the needs of the council and could be managed effectively in-house," commented Judith Richardson, eGovernment Manager at Dacorum Borough Council. "Talisma's extensive Software Development Kit will allow our own in-house developers to continue to integrate council systems as the project progresses."

About Talisma

Talisma is a leading provider of the Talisma Multi-channel CRM. It integrates the power of email, chat, real-time collaboration, and telephony applications with a mature, robust Multi-channel interaction management platform, comprehensive analytics, and a fully integrated system-wide knowledgebase and customer database. Talisma's global customers include AOL, Aviva, Citibank, Coast Capital Savings, Cold Water Creek, Daimler-Chrysler, Dell, DHL, HGTV, Intuit, Mary Kay, Microsoft, MWB, Sony, Sprint, T-Mobile, Talbot's and Tupperware. For more information, visit us at www.talisma.com.

About Talisma for Local Government

Talisma's solution for Local Government provides citizen centric and property centric inquiry and service request management. Local Authorities, Councils, and Departments within Local Government can use Talisma to manage a 360-degree view of all citizen communications -- regardless of the access channel -- within an easy-to-use and highly configurable user interface, thereby providing equal, consistent, and excellent customer service to the community.

About Dacorum Borough Council

Situated in west Hertfordshire, Dacorum has the highest population of all Hertfordshire's Boroughs and Districts, with 137,799 residents. The borough is a mixture of strong urban and rural identities, including the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring as well as a number of villages from Long Marston in the west to Flaunden in the south-east. The recent Comprehensive Performance Assessment rated Dacorum Borough Council as a good and improving council.