Right on the money!

People using their credit or debit card to pay for services online, by automated telephone payment or face to face can rest assured that the latest rigorous security standards of the payment card industry are met by the Capita system taken live last month by:

• Cannock Chase District Council
  
• Lichfield District Council
  
• Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council
  
• Stafford Borough Council
  
• Staffordshire County Council
  
• Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.

Partners have signed up with Capita for four years, having been impressed by strengths including the latest chip-and-pin technology. Staffordshire Moorlands has also bought Capita's cash receipting function.

Procurement and implementation of the new service - which succeeds a five-year contract with Civica - was project managed by Staffordshire Connects. The hardware underpinning the new e-payments system is hosted by Newcastle-under-Lyme.

By procuring the payment management solution together, the partners have paid less than by going it alone. Similarly, the partners will also benefit from lower card processing costs and reduced running costs because they will have fewer systems to maintain.