I have been out and about this week visiting members in the North of England, across a range of sectors including local government. 

With snow and ice out of the way (for a while anyway) what a difference it makes to travel - a very punctual (BMI) flight out and a relaxing (Virgin) train journey back - made an extremely long day much more pleasurable. 

As always I am in awe of the challenges faced by local government contact centre operations when faced with such a diverse range of enquiries from refuse collection at one end to complex social care issues at the other.  At the end of the day we are all citizens and most of us use and depend on many of these services.  Budget cuts mean there will be continued pressure to do more for less - a theme common across all sectors, public and private.

Getting more from technology implementation, gaining customer insight and understanding how to deal with the rising use of social media by customers and employees alike are challenges faced by all including financial services and local government.

CCA members within central and local government have achieved so much in terms of more effective use of resources by adopting CCA Global Standard, sharing experiences and learning from others' success.  It strikes me that we have the opportunity to do so much more in this space by encouraging large organisations to share and collaborate on these common themes, particularly in view of the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility.  A win-win for all.