2023 unwrapped: behind the scenes at bookinglab

As we look forward to 2024, it's time to reflect on another incredible year at the lab! 

From groundbreaking product launches to expanding our reach into new service areas and strengthening our internal capabilities — we've ticked off some remarkable milestones that have helped shape our vision and positively impact our community. 

So, join us as we celebrate the highlights of 2023. 

1: We Launched GovBook. 🚀  

Let’s kick off with the exciting launch of GovBook, our brand-new product suite designed to improve service access, boost operational efficiency, and reduce the cost to serve.

The rollout of GovBook marks a significant step forward in our mission to spearhead process innovation within the public sector, and we couldn’t be more excited about this milestone.

So, what exactly is GovBook?

GovBook is a collection of 17 (and counting) plug-and-play products designed for key service areas.

Under the umbrella of GovBook, there is a:

• Holiday Activities & Food (HAF) Programme Booking Service
• Short Breaks & Activities Booking Service
• Sports Pitch Booking Service
• Desk and Room Booking Service
• Pool Hire Booking Service
• HWRC Booking Service
• Pest Control Booking Service
• Bulky Waste Collection Booking Service
• Family Hubs Booking Service
• DofE Booking Service
• Registrar Booking Service
• Training Course Booking Service
• Market Trader Booking Service
• DBS Booking Service
• Car Parking Booking Service
• Flexible Appointment Booking Service &
• Flexible Event Booking Service

Each product is built on a market-leading tech stack, complimented by scheduling powerhouse JRNI.

The tech stack is made up of:

• A self-service module
• An administration module
• An automation layer
• A data service &
• A connector layer (API)

With this suite of modules, our community now benefits from an all-in-one platform that joins up the digital experience and automates critical workflows.

Why did we decide to productise our offering?

In short, we wanted to:

• Reduce the time to value
• Standardise (where possible) across core service areas
• Reduce the cost to serve &
• Meet the needs of specific service areas to ensure maximum impact

This new way of operating helps us do all of this and more.

This was a super quick overview of our new digital offering. But don’t worry. You’ll learn much more about GovBook in 2024, so stay tuned for some exciting announcements!

2: We Went Live With Our GovBook | HAF Booking Service. 🏃

In June, we successfully launched our Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) product. 

This solution has been a game-changer.

It has improved access for families/guardians, streamlined processes & automated mandatory reporting schedules. 

Staff now benefit from a GDS-approved process for checking eligibility and a simple, digitised way to manage credit allocations, activity management, reporting & more.   

Importantly, this allows them to focus on what matters — providing healthy food and enriching activities to the children who need it over the school holidays. 

Working with leading organisations like West Sussex County Council and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, we've facilitated over 21,000 bookings for ~5,000 children over two holiday periods.

The HAF provision has an immeasurable impact on communities across the UK, and we are so proud to play a small part in improving the delivery of the programme.

For that reason, this is without a doubt, one of our 2023 highlights!

3: We Upgraded Our GovBook | HWRC Booking Service. ♻

2023 has been another big year for our HWRC community.

To put this into perspective, in 2023 alone, our industry-leading HWRC Booking Service has facilitated over 20 million visits.

It’s also been a year of change for those working in the Recycling and Waste Management sector.

In June, DEFRA announced that residents would no longer have to pay to dispose of DIY waste unless it exceeds a ‘fair usage’ quota.

In light of the announcement, many of the councils who had previously charged for this service have declared that they are anticipating revenue losses in excess of £1 million per year.

In response to this, we’ve worked with stakeholders from over 70 HWRCs to develop a DIY Waste Booking Module that helps recoup some of that lost revenue and reduce operational costs by:

1.Giving site staff the tools they need to manage usage limits.

To ensure fair usage & accurate charges, we’ve provided site staff access to a real-time check-in app that flags DIY waste visits, highlights usage limits, and enables an instant reconciliation of the waste brought to site. 

2. Stopping service misuse and reducing tonnage.

The module we’ve developed helps site staff rollout, monitor, and enforce usage limits so that they can stop service misuse & fairly administer charges. The module can be configured to govern various classifications of the rules, including capping free usage at 4 visits, 2 x 50L rubble bags, 4 x 25L rubble bags, or less than 100L per visit.

3. Storing the data needed to accurately charge for excess waste.  

With this new module, staff get detailed reports on the frequency, amount & type of waste disposed of per household. This allows them to see who's exceeded the limits, how many times they've done so, how much they've exceeded the limits, the revenue generated & much more. 

This solution is already being deployed across our community in preparation for when the legislation goes live on December 31st.

Based on insight gathered from our community feedback sessions, we’ve also added the following features to our Gold HWRC Booking Service:

• Address lookup & out-of-borough flags 
• A vehicle of interest alert 
• Information banners 
• On-the-day bookings &
• An additional assistance function 

This new suite of features enables our community to reduce service misuse, stop out-of-borough usage, improve site access, and enhance the user experience.

Considering all of this, we'd say the work we've done with our HWRC community is another key highlight of 2023.

4: We Got Our Cyber Essentials Plus Certification. 🔒

In August, we achieved our Cyber Essentials Plus Certification.

This, in addition to our ISO27001 accreditation, underscores our commitment to maintaining the highest cybersecurity & data protection standards.

As part of this certification process, we demonstrated that we have the necessary controls to safeguard our environments from common cyber threats & prevent cyber-attacks.

Special thanks to Assure Technical for helping us to achieve this milestone.

5: We've seen our community grow.📈

In 2023, we were fortunate to welcome some incredible organisations into our community, and we couldn't be prouder. 

Here is a snapshot of some of the organisations that became part of our journey:

• Wolverhampton City Council
• Oxfordshire County Council
• Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council
• North Northamptonshire Council
• South Kesteven District Council
• The Energy Council
• East London Waste Authority
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
• SMS PLC
• West Midlands Mental Health and Learning Disability and Autism Provider Collaborative &
• Sutton Croft (in collaboration with Worcestershire County Council)

We've achieved some fantastic things together this year, and we can't wait to carry this momentum into 2024. 

So, keep an eye out for more exciting developments — the story continues!

6: We've worked with our existing community to deliver exciting new projects. 📆

Having acknowledged the new organisations that became valued partners this year, it's only right that we highlight some of the fantastic projects our existing community delivered in 2023. 

West Sussex County Council:

In December, West Sussex County Council (WSCC) rolled out an industry-leading Bed Booking Service that will maximise the utilisation of beds, automate processes, and recoup the cost of unused beds by making them available for external purchase. 

The council will use this solution across multiple facilities to increase visibility, improve efficiency, and deliver quality care to those in need.  

Kudos to the team at WSCC for not stopping there.

Their work in Youth Emotional Support Services also deserves a special shoutout!

Hampshire County Council:

We worked with Level 5 to integrate our HWRC Booking Service into Hampshire County Council's 'Our Hants' Mobile App. 

This functionality allows HCC to provide in-app access to waste disposal services, improve channel reporting, and generate push notifications for booking updates. 

Essex County Council:

As part of our ongoing work with Essex County Council, we're developing a pioneering Short Breaks Digital Service.

This service will revolutionise how families (and carers) access much-needed short break services by delivering a single joined-up experience for booking accommodation, clubs, activities, attractions, and competitions.

Staff will also benefit from managing eligibility, applications, registrations, max cards, tickets, and reporting in a single admin portal.

Kent County Council:

The amazing team at Kent County Council received a national commendation for their HWRC Booking Service Project as they were nominated for an LGC Digital Impact Award.

In 2023, we worked with Kent County Council to enhance its HWRC Booking Service by adding new features like:

• Address lookup & out-of-borough flags 
• A vehicle of interest alert 
• Information banners 
• On the day bookings &
• An additional assistance function 

This culminated in Kent generating over £150,000 in annual savings and increasing Monthly Recycling Rates by 5%.

This is just a taste of the incredible work happening in our community.

As we reflect on 2023, it's been super inspiring to see how our community has gone above and beyond to improve the citizen and staff experience.

Here's to more wins in 2024!

7: We brought our community together, led industry discussions, and spoke at some fantastic events.🤝

LocalGovCamp:

We hit the road in 2023, attending three LocalGovCamps in London, Bristol & Newcastle. 

These in-person events were a fantastic opportunity to put faces to names and catch up on all things local gov digital. 

The event in London even saw us introduce NERF Guns to service design. 

As you can imagine, it went down a treat!

As always, big shout out to Nick Hill for organising these great events! 

NCAS: 

In July, Chad Duggan spoke at the National Civic Amenity Site Conference.

In his presentation, Chad shared case studies from across our community and provided insight into what we've learned from working with over 70 HWRCs.

Big thanks to letsrecycle and ROAR B2B for inviting us to speak!

Our local gov community week:

In March, we joined forces with The Public Sector Digital Transformation Forum to host four online sessions. 

Across the four sessions, we were joined by over 190 local gov attendees to discuss a range of topics.

In session one, Jason Williams, Digital Solutions Architect at Coventry City Council, gave an insightful presentation on how CCC's pioneering digital strategy (Coventry-As-A-Platform) has improved service delivery. 

You can watch the recording here. 

In session two, Darren Persaud, Assistant Director of the Resident Experience at the LB Hammersmith & Fulham, discussed how LBHF's Resident Experience & Access Programme has improved the citizen experience & reduced costs. 

You can watch the recording here. 

In session three, we discussed the future of work in local government, focusing on how councils can prepare for the new world of work and get the most out of their internal assets. 

You can watch that recording here. 

In session four, we shared the three-step framework we've used to help 30+ councils create powerful Minimum Viable Services. 

To watch this recording, click here.

Our HWRC webinar: 

In November, we hosted over 100 Recycling and Waste Management professionals from 50+ organisations. 

In this session, we discussed all things DIY waste, including: 

• What the new legislation means for authorities 
• How the community plans to deal with the changes 
• Ways to regulate and better manage waste types 
• How other authorities will offset the loss in revenue 
• Blockers to delivering solutions &
• Our new DIY Waste Module 

Hannah Allard, Insight & Development Manager at Kent County Council, also shared how KCC has:

• Generated savings of £150,000 a year 
• Increased monthly recycling rates by 5%
• Reduced its environmental impact
• Improved the visitor & staff experience 
• Planned to manage the new DIY Waste legislation

You can watch the full recording here. 

8: We invested in our team and our technical resources. 💻

In 2023, we committed to invest in our personnel and expand our technical resources.

To that effect, we:

• Added to our support team to continue delivering a best-in-class service to our community.

• Developed our internal IT Infrastructure to stay at the forefront of technological advancement.

• Invested in training and development to give our team all the tools they need to help and advise our community.

9: We’ve strengthened our partnership with JRNI. 🤝

We’ve worked with some inspiring organisations this year, none more impactful than our technology partner, JRNI. 

JRNI is the first (and only) intelligent Customer Engagement Platform that leverages AI-powered automation to communicate with users, improve reporting, and automate workflows. 

Their credentials speak for themselves. 

They’ve facilitated over 300 million engagements, working with 800+ customers  — including Channel, HSBC, Halfords, Jaguar Land Rover, Santander, and Costco. 

That being said, we’re incredibly proud that we can bring a solution of this calibre to the public sector and adapt it to meet the complex needs of local government and healthcare. 

In 2023, our relationship with JRNI went from strength to strength. 

We collaborated on several exciting projects and received fantastic support from the team. 

With this in mind, we’d like to thank everyone at JRNI for a great year of partnership.

Here’s to building on this in 2024!   

Wrapping up:

So, as 2023 draws to a close, we'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone we've worked with this year!

Here's to another year of innovation, growth, and impactful initiatives.

Have a great break, and we'll catch up with you all soon!