2 September 2002

Beyond the Blinkers

By Martin Gillate

Buzzwords and phrases come and go, but the expression "silo mentality" - used to describe a blinkered, departmentalised view - seems to have stuck. Usually it's used by those in the public sector to describe, in a somewhat self-deprecating tone, the kind of thinking and behaviour they need to overcome to provide the public with the information they need, when and where they need it.

But to go beyond this way of thinking to a more holistic approach can take time and commitment. Providing huge volumes of rapidly changing information to large numbers of people can be an enormous challenge - especially if that information crosses departments where knowledge is traditionally held in different files, on individual computers and especially inside the heads of long-serving members of staff.

It seems that government contact centres now account for 20 per cent of the UK industry. But while there will always be a need for in-person or telephone contact, the Government's 2005 electronic service delivery targets have obviously put the spotlight on online access.

Of course, by now the provision of information on the Internet is fundamental - but a mere information dump is not very effective. The needs of such a vast audience are complex and varied, requiring the ability to provide specific content on an individual basis.

The most precise, compelling and meaningful information is dynamic in nature and continually updated. A knowledge base must 'learn' with each enquiry. Updated information, such as a policy change, is then automatically organised based on interactions. The most useful information is given higher priority and easier access, while less relevant items can be stored away or eliminated completely. Internet self-service sometimes gets bad press. But, for every person who wants to chat to a real person, there are others who just want a quick answer whatever time of day or night. Mostly when you want to know what day your wheelie bin will be emptied - you just want a quick and simple answer.

Self-service automation will get a bad name if customers struggle to find information - and worse still, if it does this without allowing them to talk to a human if they want to. If a user's search doesn't answer their question, customers must be able to easily escalate to human contact via email, Web form or phone. And then, most importantly, the authority or government department needs to learn from these escalated requests and update their Web site accordingly, preferably using a solution which will do this automatically.

One local authority that has already taken major steps in this direction is Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. With pit closures and the demise of manufacturing, the borough has seen considerable changes in the past decades and the council sees its key role as helping maintain the area's sense of community. It knew to help in this role, it needed to look long and hard at how the 250,000 residents of the borough could access information.

Rotherham was one of those local authorities which could, quite rightly, be accused of having the ubiquitous "silo mentality". All departments were working to the best of their efforts with their own customers in mind. This was fine, but these customers were also customers of other departments, often sharing similar issues and requirements.

In his first few weeks as chief executive Gerard Fitzgerald held road shows for the staff. The words "one council" were his mantra and he made it clear from day one that the council needed to serve the customer, not the individual departments.

At time, the council was receiving around 215,000 calls a month, which all got routed through the switchboard to specialist staff. Often highly-trained employees were spending a good deal of time answering very routine questions. The situation wasn't very satisfactory for the public either - with around 13,500 staff, callers often went "from pillar to post".

There was also the question of 24x7 cover. The Web site was receiving up to 18,500 hits a month - and 33 per cent of these came from outside "office hours". Rotherham gets many enquiries about investment in the area and although a majority of the hits were from the UK, there was also a high number from abroad - including those from the US and Taiwan working, of course, in different time zones.

As Jonathan Prew, corporate IS manager explains: "We needed to do something radical - but not something expensive or unnecessarily complicated. In common with other local authorities, income generation wasn't a major factor, so to invest in technology to better serve our customers, we needed to be smarter in the way we worked, reducing bureaucracy and addressing more issues front of house."

This all led to a dramatic new initiative called RotherhamConnect. The programme included a Siemens multi-media contact centre and a simple, but highly effective eCRM solution called RightNow® eService Centre. This technology is based on a self-learning knowledge base which can be accessed by anyone visiting the council's Web site or by staff at all council establishments.

Now RotherhamConnect's offices are open longer than normal council hours (initially from 8am to 8pm). Help-line telephone numbers are widely circulated and staff at all council establishments use the dynamic self-learning knowledge base to answer all frequently asked questions, aiming to answer 80 per cent of enquiries on the first call.

In this way, the Internet provides staff with a centralised reference point for all the council's official policy statements and giving staff guidance on answering all the most common queries so they are not having to "reinvent the wheel" every time they give an answer.

Also, visitors to www.rotherhamconnect.com can access a constantly reviewed and updated solutions database, searching by council service, keywords or phrases. Questions are organised, traced and filtered so that the more useful answers rise to the top. Users can also submit email questions, which are automatically routed to the appropriate department. More basic reports, such as potholes, can also be reported 24x7 without requiring knowledge of the council's structure.

A major indicator of results is Rotherham's recent success in the Government's Invest to Save budget. Rotherham has been one of three local authorities to share £3million of government funding to further develop a CRM approach to licences and permissions. This was backed by Siemens, RightNow Technologies, Vodafone and Microsoft.

The project has also recently been successful at the 2002 CRM Industry Awards, winning 'Best customer contact centre-led CRM project'. The judges said they were pleased to recognise that "a local council can, with the right leadership and mindset, be a true pacesetter in CRM."

Projects such as Rotherham's are in keeping with the Government's claim that "when people interact with government, they want to do so on their own terms. They want high-quality services that are accessible and convenient. People shouldn't need to understand how government is organised, or to know which department or agency does what…." *

But Jonathan Prew is the first to admit that the authority still has a way to go: "We have committed to an agenda of major change, backed by politicians and the chief executive. Importantly the staff themselves also backs it. As one of the switchboard team remarked: "This is great because it really helps us help people."

As part of its commitment, the council plans to develop its Web site to provide a "cradle to the grave" information service for the people of Rotherham. Although it already holds the comprehensive knowledge base on council services, it plans to extend this to include information and links on other local agencies and amenities such as theatres and youth information.

Which goes to show that the answer is not necessarily a CRM solution incorporating the full works. "This would have been far too expensive and unnecessarily complicated," says Prew.

Most would agree that RotherhamConnect is an ambitious and far-reaching project with many stages and considerable future potential. But already, within a relatively short space of time, the council is able to offer a greatly enhanced service which provides the public with a "one stop shop" for easy access to information."

* e-government: a strategic framework for public services in the information age, Cabinet Office, April 2002.

Martin Gillate, eGovernment consultant for RightNow Technologies has been involved in public sector IT for over 10 years. RightNow Technologies is the leading eService solutions expert, engineering business solutions that deliver rapid time-to-benefit and quick return on investment.

For further information visit http://www.rightnow.com/.