New Crematorium and Software Solution for Central Bedfordshire Council

| Read time: 5 mins

Oakfield Gardens Crematorium in the east of England is a new facility managed and owned by Central Bedfordshire Council. Designed with the landscape in mind, it has been designed to provide a tranquil, open space with a range of memorial options that make the most of the green space in which it sits.

We spoke with Crematorium Services Manager, Kelvin Taylor on how PlotBox’s back-office system is helping them to streamline their processes and support their eco-friendly approach of going paperless.

Please tell us about your role within the council.

As Crematorium Services Manager, I oversee what will be a team of four in the delivery of crematorium services and after-cremation memorials, as well as other items such as burials for cremated remains.

Because the site's been built for the community to come and use and not just solely for service users, strategically, as time goes on, we'll look to develop the site further.

We're quite keen to develop community involvement, for example  encouraging local people to carry out some gardening here and there. Things like that.

The site has a clear remit in terms of ecology and the environment - tell us about that.

The initial idea came about seven years ago from the question, “How can we best find other ways of serving the community? What’s missing?”.

A crematorium was suggested, and it was taken forward from there.

It then went through the usual planning applications and meetings with locals and their respective councillors. There was a delay due to Covid, and then finally we had boots on the ground last February when the site was prepared and ready for the build.

We opened in the Spring of this year.

In terms of sustainability, a lot of that had to do with planning. It's a greenfield site, so we enhanced the land over and above building a crematorium with some gardens attached.

Those enhancements include a lake which takes the drainage water, cremators utilised for minimal use of gas, waste heat from the cremators recovered to help heat the building and the water, a solar array to help power the building, and water storage on site, which helps to feed some areas of trees and shrubs.

How is that reflected in your service delivery?

We’re operating as green as we can, so we are completely paper-free here, which is helped by the way that PlotBox is set up for us.

And for everything else we do, we use as minimal resources as we can to provide the best service.

What was the council looking for in a crematorium management solution?

The council was looking for something modern, from an innovative company. They wanted cloud-based from the go, and the storage side of that, meaning they didn't have to take on that risk [of building and maintaining an on-site I.T. infrastructure].

How did you prepare for using PlotBox prior to Go-Live?

We looked at all the functionality [we required]. We don’t have a cemetery, so in that respect, we didn't have to look at mapping and plots [initially].

So, it was a case of looking through what we needed from the package and concentrating our training on those areas.

Then there were demonstration sessions, and access to your training portal - the manuals and videos that are on there, which was helpful. It's good that they're still there for reference.

Before Go-Live, we were given the demo site, and at that point, a couple of us started entering data, and working with that to create reports.

One of the things that impressed me was the ability to change the documentation ourselves and use templates, without having to go back and forth with a third party.

The ability to drop tags in there has worked well for us, and to be able to do that live without having to wait up to two weeks, is certainly one of the advantages of having PlotBox.

It has been handy for us as a new site with so many forms and admin processes - it’s been good to be able to allocate time and just get that done.

When going through that process of looking at functionality, were there any things that stood out to you?

I think for me, with experience of using other packages, the [diary] scheduling was probably the ‘wow’ one for me, providing that total access.

Other than that, the way that all the different modules work together - for example, you can simply find the deceased person and it ties together the disposal, the memorials etc.

We can tie all those elements together and see all that data in one place. That seems to work very well.

Does that help you to streamline your cremation processes?

Yes, that does work right from the booking. We've got a couple of funeral directors using the online [Funeral Director] portal, which saves them time. They don't have to phone us, they can just book.

We see it come in live, and we can authorise or agree to it. It's a very simple system for booking.

And then the data entry - [PlotBox] just asks the questions we need it to.

Obviously, we use the cloud. We only accept paperwork electronically, so we just drop that straight straight into PlotBox. Again, with ‘drag and drop’ it's effortless, rather than clicking on a file, and then having to go and find the location of where you've saved it.

Speaking of the cloud, what benefits has that given you?

It will develop over time. We're not just stuck to a PC on a desk - we can use a handheld device out in the grounds, or if we get 20 feet of snow, we can continue to offer some level of service working remotely from home - something that would be limited if our data was stored locally.

Tell us more about your Funeral Director Portal.

It’s the first time I've had an online portal for cremation bookings. In practice, as we get busier, there'll be fewer inquiry calls coming in from funeral directors.

They've now got live access to the portal on their screens. We've currently got one company that's using us a lot. As they were the first, we’ve carried out a trial with them. The trial didn't take long because it is such an easy system to use.

As time goes on, more funeral directors will be looking to use it, which we'll certainly let them do.

When we were doing some consultancy work with the funeral directors earlier in the year, pretty much all of them were asking if we'd have an online booking system.

To be able to go out with that fairly quickly was good for them, and good for us.

In what other ways has PlotBox helped to enhance your customer service?

It helps by having everything in one place, I like the workflows that can be set up.

I set one up last week for selling memorials. Usually, I would have a separate spreadsheet to monitor progress from sale through to installation. With the workflow in place, I don’t need that.

How does PlotBox help you to remain compliant?

I’ve been doing some reporting for my manager and for finance, and I find that it’s quite easy to pull out the data I need.

Obviously, the registers are a legal requirement, so PlotBox ticks that box without having to have written ledgers.

I've run some test reports for our CMA return and that seems to work very well - it’s a lot easier than I was used to. What was a couple of hours’ worth of work previously is now a few minutes.

How was the initial set-up for you?

It was quite an easy, seamless kind of set-up because we didn't have to migrate any data. 

Also, the fact that I always intended to be paper-free here - we didn’t have to collect reams of paper and then scan them in later, while worrying about where that was all going to be stored.

Having it all in one package meant that I could just go straight into being paper-free from day one. 

That’s certainly been a success.

How will PlotBox support your future plans?

We're just finalising pricing and plans for an ashes interment area – below-ground burial, and for that, we’ll be using the deeds module.

With that and other memorialisation, we may potentially look at the mapping, and in the future, the Everafter digital engagement platform will be good to help the public to come in and locate loved ones.

What has the support you’ve received been like?

It’s been great. I had to send a few messages through PlotBox on areas where I've either forgotten what to do, or couldn't find the instructions, but they've been dealt with properly.

I like the fact that you've got the chat function which then automatically becomes an email support ticket.

There are various ways to access the information you need, and it always seems to be quite updated fairly quickly, so I'm pleased with that level of service.

Would you recommend PlotBox to other cemetery operators?

I have been asked by previous colleagues a couple of times if I used PlotBox and have said yes, you need to look into it if your council is considering what they've got.

Thank you.

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