Lagan in the Great White North

Belfast, Ireland-based Lagan is moving into Toronto before the end of the year in order to pick up more of Canada’s 311 business. In Canada, 311 phone numbers are reserved for municipal services inquiries in a system that has been established in Windsor and Laval. Britt Oldenburg has been named director of business for Lagan’s Canadian interests, bringing to the position her experience with the setting up of Motorola Canada’s own 311 business there in 2002.

Oldenburg states that approximately thirty-five large Canadian municipalities are prime for 311 service and that Lagan’s CRM solution is potentially well-adaptable to the Canada market. She claims that the Lagan U.K. municipal model can serve as basis for Canada’s business- and citizen-based services. “I think our timing is good here,” said Oldenburg. “Most of the major municipalities are studying 311 in some shape or form. [Almost] all of them have some project underway.

Hopefully by now we’re at a point in the sales cycle where they’re actually looking at CRM solutions.” Earlier this month, Lagan announced their move into providing CRM solutions for Hartford, Conn. The company currently lists over eighty municipalities as clients, including Minneapolis, Minn. and Yonkers, N.Y. in the United States, and Birmingham, Blackpool and Newcastle in the United Kingdom.