By Jeremy Cox Call centers in the public and private sectors are designed and managed from a traditional mass-production perspective. This leads to problems such as customer dissatisfaction and high staff turnover. The author looks at the weaknesses of the traditional approach and argues for a re-think of design and management based on a systems perspective.
Hopes of making extensive use of digital TV to deliver public services have been dealt a blow by the latest MORI survey of take-up. MORI found that although the incidence of digital television viewers, at over 19 million British adults, is more than 30% up on twelve months ago, almost all of this growth occurred up to March this year. It was then that ITV Digital collapsed and growth in digital television viewing appeared to come to a grinding halt.The UK online Interactive Digital Television (iDTV) service on Sky was launched in April and the service has generated around 20,000 visitors a month. The Office of the e-Envoy is working to enhance the scope of the service and to develop strategic partnerships at the central, regional and local level. Suffolk County Council will use the platform to launch its own interactive digital television service. Somerset plans to launch a similar service, also via UK online interactive, later this year. It is planned to provide every part of Government with a presence on the service over a short period of time at a low entry cost. Discussions with central departments are well advanced and local authorities will be contacted shortly.
It is impossible to find a link between educational attainment in schools and the quality of local education authorities. They have a limited effect on school performance such as management effectiveness. These are a key findings in a report by OFSTED and the Audit Commission. The report is based on inspection reports in the period 1996 – 2001.Although the powers of education authorities have been reduced in past years as schools were given greater autonomy, they have an explicit the duty to promote high standards of education. They also have a fundamental role in planning the context within which schools work.
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