The Australian Local Government Association 2017-20 Strategic Plan identifies strengthening innovation and digital transformation in local government as a strategic priority.
“ALGA’s objective is to help state and territory associations support councils to innovate and embrace technology, to improve the quality of council services and to better meet the needs of their local communities.”
Organisations such as Netflix, Spotify and Uber have helped to create an on-demand economy and streamlined what used to be cumbersome procedures. Yet our most common, daily interactions with local government remain mired in legacy systems and complex bureaucracy. This results in poor service to ratepayers and the broader community, and a gritty, difficult and often resentful relationship between residents and Council.
Citizens expect seamless, modern, digital services on demand.
At Squiz, we know the rising demand for better public services is challenging governments around the world to transform. Delivering seamless, personalised digital services, while balancing privacy, security and value, requires smart solutions that unlock value from within your organisation.
“Digital citizens expect to interact with government in different ways, and there’s a significant opportunity for government to innovate, serve and engage with the community in a better way.” Kevin Noonan - Ovum Chief Analyst and Practice Leader for Global Public Sector.
Our digital solutions for government empower you to build stronger, longer-lasting community relationships, through personalised, timely interactions and streamlined digital interfaces. All while reducing operational complexity, inefficiency and cost.
5 things you need for successful digital transformation
- Know your data capability and set clear targets
- Understand and meet (or exceed) your customer expectation
- Manage change to empower your people to work in new ways and toward a common goal
- Choose a mix of great tools and technologies to re-imagine the workplace
- Communicate clearly and frequently
Customer story - North Lanarkshire Council, Scotland
North Lanarkshire Council is the fourth largest Scottish local authority, located between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It provides a wide range of public services on behalf of 338,000 Lanarkshire residents, as well as businesses and visitors.
Many local authorities have traditionally approached digital service delivery from a departmental or service perspective, simply shifting popular services, such as reporting graffiti or missed bin collections, to the Internet.
North Lanarkshire’s digital strategy is far more visionary.
“We want the portal to give customers the same experience they get from their favourite consumer portal. That means providing secure, flexible, personalised, and branded online access to public services.” Peter Tolland - customer and information governance manager, North Lanarkshire Council.
Squiz worked with North Lanarkshire Council to implement digital customer service from a customer perspective - putting the customer at the centre of the Council’s operations to deliver connected digital services through whichever channel the customer chooses.
“All of this maximises first-time resolution, improves the use of scarce resources, and reduces costs.”
Using an innovative combination of data, processes and technologies, Squiz has been able to help the Council target long-standing issues and to deliver services in new and creative ways while driving the need to work differently and in collaboration with a wide variety of partners.
This key transformation project means that customers, staff, partners, suppliers and the wider community are now presented with one website that they can easily and efficiently navigate to access all Council services - and their journey is personalised to their specific needs.
Peter cites the example of missed bin collection to demonstrate how services will change. “In the past, our customer would have called or emailed us. If they didn’t receive a response, or felt we didn’t respond quickly enough, they contacted us again – creating another service ticket. In some cases, this could be multiplied over and over again until the missed bin was resolved.
“The Council currently manages more than 700,000 calls every year in the contact centre, and 16.5 million calls per annum in the back office. We expect much of this contact to move online over time as our customers begin to experience the benefits of end-to-end digital services.”
“Now, our customers can log in and report the missed bin through their personalised portal. Both the customer and the Council will be able to track the progress of the enquiry through to completion, as well as view all historical customer activity in other areas.
This people, data, process, technology approach has ensured that North Lanarkshire Council is now an organisation that understands data and understands how it can be used by all stakeholders to leverage innovation in processes and technology that seamlessly enables digital capabilities, transforming how customers interact with the Council.