Ian Brook while speaking to eGov monitor discusses the government's transformational vision and explores how the private sector can help the government achieve its vision.
The Government has recently launched its vision of how technology should enable governments to transform the way it operates and provides services to citizens. Siebel has been involved in various transformational projects in the public sector in many countries. Based on Siebel's experience, what are your thoughts on the UK government's vision to transform public services?
Siebel welcomes the strategy set out in the Transformational Government initiative.
It builds on the lessons learned to date in modernising the way that the government delivers services to its citizens, both in the UK and globally. In particular the New York City 311 non-emergency phone service, and recognises that technology is the key enabler to make radical changes possible, making the government easier to access for citizens, yet at the same time delivering service efficiencies and savings.
Siebel also welcomes the fact that the strategy is based upon the needs of the citizen, and focuses on front line staff. It is directing all government departments towards a citizen centric approach to delivering services, which is at the heart of truly innovative service delivery.
The benefits offered by a shared service approach are significant, but key challenges exist in getting departments working together, and balancing data sharing with data protection legislation.
What role do you think the private sector (especially IT suppliers) can play in helping the UK Government achieving its vision to transform government and developing an information society? How is Siebel looking to add value to the public sector transformation process both in central and local government?
The Public Sector must evolve to improve the speed and efficiency in which it provides its various services. The traditional agency centric approach, where each division within the organisation functions separately, has led to unsynchronised channels of communication, inconsistent business processes and unaligned employees. Disconnected applications, and therefore data, only perpetuates this problem and is a constant source of confusion, and frustration, for both citizens and public sector workers. Ever tightening budgets, programme uncertainties and rising case loads also reinforce the need for change, forcing government agencies to address their inefficiencies and integrate their processes, systems and data.
In addition to the problem of misalignment, public sector agencies have started to recognise that the various parties with which they interact, whether constituents or local businesses, now wish to communicate through a variety of channels. To improve the quality and speed of public services, agencies must utilise these channels and offer the public the opportunity to communicate through whichever is most convenient for them, be that online, on the phone, by post or fax or even face-to-face. Most importantly, there should be a system in place to record each interaction, recognising the individual at every point of contact and by whatever method of communication. This standard of customer service will increase efficiency and, as a result, the confidence of the various parties with which it communicates.
The Private Sector has long dealt with these problems and can bring a great deal of experience to the Public Sector if allowed to do so. The Private Sector generally, and IT Vendors specifically, have necessarily needed to provide excellent service to survive and thrive as commercial entities and much of the competitive environment in which IT Vendors operate, can be fundamentally useful to organisations which have traditionally been monopolistic and which now have the desire to provide equal levels of customer service as the Private Sector.
Can you give us an insight into Siebel's approach to working with SME's on public sector projects and highlight some examples for us?
Nearly all Public Sector projects involve partnership and consortia. This invariably adds further complexity and potential risk to any project that might be undertaken. To ensure cost is contained and risk is minimised it is vital to ensure that requirements are fully understood before projects commence. The exercise of articulating a specification of requirements itself can lead to potential delays in projects starting and the danger of escalating costs to cover the delay.
Siebel almost always works with partners when entering Public Sector projects (SMEs and multi-national partners) and it is our standard 'modus operandi'. This means that projects can benefit from the lessons learned previously and overall Public Sector can benefit from the cost and efficiency gained from taking 'standard' 'off the shelf software and applying it to other problems.
Ultimately, it is the general public that will force these projects that re-act and deliver more quickly (and to budget) A report from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the UK entitled ‘Citizen Engagement and Public Services, Why Neighbourhoods Matter’ (8 February 2005) exemplified this point by stating that people’s expectations have risen with their incomes and changing lifestyles. “People expect that the improvements which they are seeing in market-based services – such as telephone and Internet banking…should be available in the public services”. It goes on to explain how technological development has been a major contributory factor to rising expectations; it claims “people now expect services to reflect the efficiencies that technology can bring…”
One of the projects that have been mentioned in the Transformational Government document has been the New York City's 311 programme and the impact it has had on public services of the city. As Siebel was the main supplier of the programme, can you give us a high level overview of the 311 programme and focus on the partnership that Siebel has been able to develop with NYC?
New York City has 8 million residents (an extended population of 25 million), 350,000 employees and previously 40 city agency call centres, as well as numerous offices and organisations. In the past if a problem arose it was not easy to know where to go, who to ask or what to do. Mayor Bloomberg made the demand for a 311 service in New York and now:
- Citizens are put directly in touch with City Government without having to understand the organisational complexity of where to get help and how the required services are to be provided.
- The City is provided with real-time data on all service requests and complaints. This allows them to plan and provide service to their citizens based on actual need and requirements.
- The City efficiency and responsiveness has realised a marked improvement due to automation and integration of many systems.
- Citizen interaction is improved with fewer busy signals in departments and delays getting through to the right person
- New York City has better employee satisfaction with call centre consolidation allowing staff to see problems through to conclusion
Finally, what suggestions would you like to highlight to policy makers and other public sector professionals with regard to the government's ambitious transformation agenda?
Public sector organisations need solutions which align their various divisions and jurisdictions and have the ability to offer services across multiple channels of communication. Comprehensive knowledge management tools enabling rapid problem resolution, a central point of contact for the citizen to access government information and services, analysis of key service indicators and performance and real time integration of data across systems are also imperative to this evolution.
CRM technology, is addressing this changing market, allowing agencies to achieve a performance-driven style of government. For example, Citizen Response enables governments to communicate with citizens who can receive immediate assistance regarding government services, follow-up on outstanding service issues and obtain critical information in times of crisis.
The technology
Technology has a major role to play in the changing public sector market. Using systems like Siebel’s Universal Application Network (UAN), CRM providers are helping local authorities and government agencies to integrate the services they provide. Applications such Siebel’s Customer Data Integration (CDI), IBM’s WebSphere and Microsoft’s BizTalk create an integrated IT infrastructure, uniting the disparate business processes crucial to the overall operation of public service delivery. For example, Siebel’s CDI facilitates the integration of all back office legacy systems such as the customer information system, eligibility and payment rules, financial management, payment and account transfers, contribution management and tax registration, risk profiling and fraud detection and evidence handling. Application independent and supported by most of the leading integration vendors, the UAN allows public sector agencies to integrate a diverse environment of packaged, legacy and custom applications so staff can access information across many different sources and divisions.
Effective communication and response
Providing staff with the tools and infrastructure necessary to respond to the vast number of inquiries they receive each day is fundamental to public sector evolution. When addressing best practice, competition from the private sector and the legislative forces driving change, such as the Modernising Government Agenda and the looming eGovernment deadlines in the UK, there are four specific areas which require attention. These include incident management, case management, targeted outreach and analytics.
a) Incident management
Public sector agencies require the capacity to route incidents to the appropriate division or individual as well as escalate as necessary by opening either a single or multi-agency case. For work order management, agencies also need the ability to create a closed loop service for citizen requests or for location specific service issues, such as filling potholes.
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) experienced problems handing the 215,000 calls it received each month from its 250,000 local population. Citizens requiring information on topics ranging from refuse collection to education had to be routed through the Council’s switchboard to specialist staff. This system made locating the correct department for a particular incident difficult. Amid this complexity, many of the Council’s services relied on paper-based records and processes making it unclear which incidents had been resolved, how individual services were being delivered, which services were most in demand and how much they cost. Calls were being directed to the wrong department and incidents were not dealt with or managed effectively.
Deploying Siebel’s Public Sector application as part of its ‘Rotherham Brought Together’ venture, an initiative to create a more citizen-centric connected service, the Council now links its various services to provide a single point of contact for all inquiries. Calls are routed directly to the appropriate division across an updated technology infrastructure and the Council maintains a single electronic record of inquiries.
One of the first services to be launched on the new system, ‘Street Pride’, allowed citizens to call or SMS a single number to report incidences such as broken paving stones, graffiti, illegal dumping or damaged park benches. The call centre advisor can note the incident on the Siebel screen and uses GIS mapping to view the precise location. The flexibility of this system allows RMBC to extend this granularity of information as far as the locations of individual park benches. The call centre agent determines the severity of the incident, automatically notifies the Council repair team which reports back when the incident has been resolved. Agents can provide citizens with an accurate status of the repair at any point in time.
Effective call routing and real time intelligence on the status and progress of particular incidents allows RMBC to manage citizens’ queries in a more informed manner. The systems multi-division capabilities accommodate more complex queries allowing for both single and cross agency cases.
b) Case management
For more complex service issues, extending beyond individual incidents or inquiries, public sector agencies need to adopt systems which provide comprehensive case management capabilities. Administering and recognising all citizen interactions including service histories, benefit plans, claims, payments and case documentation through one application provides the type of quick and efficient customer service citizens have come to expect in the public sector.
Agefiph, the French agency responsible for facilitating the employment and retention of workers with disabilities, used to take weeks to compile funding applications, assess claims and administer funding. Its antiquated systems and business processes were slow and labour intensive making it difficult to assist the 200,000 professional citizens subsidised by Agefiph annually. The benefits case management process required staff to search through multiple documents and systems to find the information needed for application assessment, approval and payment.
With the objective of creating a single system for managing the complete relationship lifecycle with citizens, employers and partners, Agefiph deployed Siebel Public Sector for its benefits case management. Offering a single, complete view of all parties involved in financing and subsidising disabled professionals in the workplace, the new system enables the organisation’s 280 staff to share information across its 18 regional offices.
When a subsidy is requested, contact centre agents can automatically compile and dispatch an application form. When that form is returned with the relevant documentation, automated workflow channels direct it to the appropriate assessment team. Once the claim is checked for compliance and eligibility, the system’s predefined templates automatically send notification of claim approval or a request for further supporting documentation. In addition to case management, the system can also be used for follow-up activity including closing claims and audit trails. Agefiph has achieved a 40 per cent reduction on the time it takes to make a decision on 80 per cent of its claims and is now able to notify recipients in 24 hours instead of 7 days.
By adopting end-to-end case management capabilities, public sector agencies can emulate the levels of customer service in the private sector and respond to citizen’s enquiries more quickly.
c) Targeted outreach
In today’s increasingly competitive environment, public sector agencies need to be more knowledgeable about the publics they serve than ever before. Using information gathered from the citizen inquiries they receive, agencies can segment their constituencies and implement campaigns to increase awareness and service effectiveness. CRM technology applications allow public sector organisations to contact beneficiaries, reduce programme costs and, as a result, improve customer satisfaction.
The ‘Street Pride’ initiative at RMBC not only speeds up the resolution of incident reports, such as graffiti or illegal dumping, but for the first time in its history provides the Council with the citizen and service intelligence needed to proactively improve service delivery and identify efficiency opportunities. For example, RMBC can now ascertain which areas are hotspots for abandoned cars and report them to the police, who can then step up patrols in that area. Local schools can join with the government to launch anti-vandalism campaigns in areas where the most incidents are reported. Street wardens can modify their routes to take in areas where graffiti is more prevalent. Additionally, the Council can proactively promote theatre and other local events through email or SMS to inform citizens.
Using information from citizen inquiries, CRM applications allow agencies to initiate proactive campaigns to provide improved local services and rectify problems before they need to be reported.
d) Analytics
Measuring service performance and increasing accountability for government services are crucial in the drive towards industry best practice. Working across a UAN, where public sector divisions, systems and data are integrated, will provide a complete view of operations, empowering government officials to identify and analyse specific agency performance and service delivery. Analytics offered by CRM applications allow the public sector to make well informed decisions about service delivery to hold agencies accountable for poor service.
For charities like The American Heart Foundation (AHF), one of the world’s premium health organisations for heart attack, stroke and related cardiovascular disorders, understanding how each dollar raised is acquired and spend is vital. Its fundraising activities require a detailed understanding of the individual donors, volunteers, schools and businesses who donate their time and money in the fight against heart disease.
To address this need, the charity is monitoring and measuring programme effectiveness with Siebel Analytics. Using information captured in its daily interactions with customers, AHF can view and evaluate the results of its outreach activity. For example, it now monitors the dollar contributions secured by activities at various schools and business. If it becomes apparent that these contributions are falling short of goals, the charity can realign resources to ensure every effort is profitable. Providing the organisation with a clear view of which areas are providing a successful ROI and those which are proving unprofitable, ensures the AHF is investing in effective fundraising programmes and minimising waste.
The future
The evolution of outdated agency centric public sector organisation, where citizens struggled to obtain services in a timely and responsive manner, is fuelling the adoption of integrated IT infrastructures and synchronised channels of communication. Utilising systems which connect processes and data, providing a complete view of the organisation and customer, allows public sector agencies the capacity to improve customer service and overall efficiency.
In today’s market, public sector agencies are receiving pressure from many different parties. A more demanding public with the need to communicate along a variety of channels, a government setting more ambitious targets with decreasing budgets and fierce competition from the private sector means agencies must make efficiency its top priority. Technology is allowing these improvements to be made, improving citizen response rates and revenue generation for both local councils and government agencies.
