National Tax Information (NTI) has been operational since 1 July 2006. It is a contact center with a network of 4 locations under a common name separate from rest of the tax administration due to nature and scope of its actions. NTI is specialized in information activities for the taxpayers around the country as well as for the employees of the tax administration and other governmental agencies. It is supervised by the Ministry of Finance (MoF). NTI provides assistance in the tax matters for the taxpayers in the tax return period. Main objective of the NTI is to provide uniform information about tax matters under a single telephone number.
Analysis made in 2013 showed rapid increase in demand for contact center’s services. On the basis of this analysis a new location was connected to the network from 1 January 2015. Increased number of consultants and increased demand or NTI’s services (also scope of services) resulted also in the need for changes in the equipment used by the NTI.
In 2014 group of officials from NTI and MoF began preparing documents for tender for modernization of the Tax Information System (technical platform used by the NTI). As a result of the tender procedure Bałtycka Instytucja Gospodarki Budżetowej BALTICA and Pirios S.A. were awarded with a contract. Implementation of totally new Tax Information System (TIS) ended on 30 June 2015. System was put into operation on 5 August 2015.
The new system improved quality of service to the taxpayers, mostly thanks to wiser use of available resources and better efficiency of the IT system. Most visible effect for the users is shortening of waiting time. Presently system allows for 600 simultaneous connections, moreover system allows for 400 connections with automatic services 24/7/365 (voice service).
TIS allows also for multichannel services: phone, e-mail and chat. Taxpayers can use, as previously, telephone and they have option to send e-mail via webform on the Tax Portal. Answers to e-mails are sent with a new system. The new system allows also for answering questions sent directly to e-mails not assigned to the contact center. Another channel which can be used in the new system is on-line chat.
TIS makes it also possible to send text messages and that feature will be used in the future for surveys among the NTI’s clients.
One of the advantages of the TIS is possibility to analyze call traffic which in turn allows for effective management and planning of staff.
New functionalities and solutions will also ensure high quality of calls and professional service for the taxpayers offered by the NTI. Quality control module allows for identifying calls against set criteria and marking such calls for post analysis. Quality control is used to ensure quality and uniformity for answers among all consultants. Such post analysis can result in recommendation for training in order to improve knowledge and/or conversation skills. Corresponding Training Module is also available in the STI.
Technology
The system is based on recognized and well known technologies. PBX application is created in JAVA, in particular Maven, Spring Framework, Hibernate, GWT, RMI, JMS, JSP, BIRT, OSGi, SmartGWT. IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and WMF (Workforce Management system for consultants time management) are formed in the .NET environment, in particular C #, WPF, WCF, EntityFramework). Contact Center application (Automatic Call Distribution mechanism) is written in Delphi. They were used existing solutions that can be quickly implemented.
The system is both scalable and extendable. API was provided in order to extend the system’s functionalities according to needs. Moreover, MoF has direct access to the data of all system’s elements. Additional users can be added by providing access to already installed licenses or by purchasing other licenses. Virtual system resources for the system have been adjusted to actual needs. Greater number of users can be added by simply providing more calculation capacity or extra storage space.
The following services are reusable: database MS SQL 2014 (licence per core), speech syntezator, biometric engine adn voice recognition system, TTS (Text-To-Speech).
Licensing model: Windows Serwer 2012 - per socket, Oracle Linux - open, Contact Center - per user, IVR - per channel, BVV (Biometric Voice Veryfication) - per voice print, PeakOne (SoftSwitch) - per channel, WFM (Workforce Management) - per user, TTS (Text-To-Speech) – per channel.
Implementation
The project was implemented by the MoF. Tender documents were prepared by MoF in cooperation with Audytel S.A. Audytel also assisted MoF during final acceptance of the system. IT solutions were governed by MoF’s Center for Data Processing and MoF’s departments. During all stages of the project – when preparing tender documents (project description) and during implementation phase wide range of representatives of all locations were involved: Tax Chamber in Bydgoszcz (office in Toruń), Tax Chamber in Katowice (office in Będzin and Bielsko Biała), Tax Chamber in Poznań (office in Leszno and Bureau for Exchange of Information), Tax Chamber in Warsaw (office in Płock). All those units cooperated with the Contractor – consortium of companies Bałtycka Instytucja Gospodarki Budżetowej BALTICA and Pirios S.A.. During contract implementation it was necessary to cooperate with telecom operator – Netia S.A. Project was managed by MoF. Dedicated structure was established for that purpose.
Support
The TIS is under continuous IT support offered by the contractor. All system users have access to special service desk application. They can report any faults and errors encountered during work. The reports are then distributed to regional and local administrators as well as to the managers in the contact center locations. Problems are analyzed and solved in real time
Technical problems are handled by the contractor in the framework of the contract. Problems are reported via e-mail to a designated e-mail address or by phone. Network problems and hardware are solved by the services in the Centre for Data Processing.