How can councils master the art of juggling with

Citizens, Costs, and Channel shifts?

The government is the most important and ever-functioning sector. While the world is experiencing the impact of technology simplifying the businesses and lives, the public sector is far in the race. Since the public administrators have to be answerable to their citizens on how the money is being used, they need to think endlessly before arriving on a decision. People have to be involved, their expectations have to be considered, services have to be commissioned and delivered interactively.

Panic attacks of increased costs and low budgets in this era of austerity have shaken the traditional models of public sector working. Furthermore, sudden events like “Brexit” is giving birth to more complications as nobody can fully predict- What’s next in the post-Brexit world? New-age agile, comprehensive and automated cloud and mobile solutions are replacing the two-dimensional council websites.

At one of our recent events dedicated to digital government involving public sector professionals, we got a chance to understand their problems, receive feedback acknowledging our solutions and design a future roadmap.

Being a company that has been working closely with public sector organisations, our cost-effective products ranging from Mobile CRM for citizen engagement, Contact Centre for back-office teams and MobileWorker for the moving staff have been highly appreciated to achieve success.

Here’s a 3-step balanced strategy devised for the councils and the local authorities to jump the gun, save the money with right software and establish digital government-

Choosing the Platform

Using technology is important but using the right technology brings the actual desired results. Cloud technology has been considered as the factor to cut corners for the councils struggling to adopt the right platform. Not only does it promote channel shift, but there is a huge transformation in storing the data efficiently, securely & reliably.

Digital government is just a step away with cloud-based SaaS solutions that come with benefits like no specialised hardware installation, immediate setup, data security, reduced data handling costs, flexible pricing plans, high accessibility and centralisation of every business process. Moreover, cloud service providers like iTouchVision develop solutions that can be seamlessly integrated with all other systems. The public sector should supremely trade off their paper-based and on-premise approaches with cloud systems to take the bull by horns!

Enabling Self-Service

It’s no longer optional to engage with citizens but necessary at all levels. We have already seen many initiatives taken by different councils to engage with their citizens using online channels and mobile architecture. But, the measure of the success of such programmes depends on its acceptance by the people, which is bound to screw up the things if it does not serve the intended purpose.

On one hand, there are citizens who are more technologically savvy than ever demanding the attention and availability of public services instantly. On the other hand, the local government is still struggling to open up to new channels. Self-service tools help people to report incidents, pay taxes, bills, record complaints, raise requests, acquire information & connect with the councils using a dedicated mobile application or online channel.  This streamlines the digital government operations, reduces direct calls & complaints, encourages engagement & builds a trust-based relationship.

Empowering Employees

Tighter budgets imply a scarcity of resources, be it financial or human. It is therefore expected from the employees to be ahead of the curve and deliver the performance. However, they are not superheroes who can meet citizen expectations just like that! This puts the need to leverage technology for the public workers in a way that increases their efficiency.

Smarter systems like contact centre solution for the back-office executives enables them to handle all citizen interactions. It manages multi-channel communication from social media, calls, letters, direct visits & self-service requests in a single centralised manner. While, MobileWorker applications dedicated to the technicians going out across the cities to complete citizen requests, empowers them to spend their time in completing work on-the-go. Employees using digital access & automation techniques have shown increased productivity within 6 months by finishing more jobs in a day, no round-trips to the office, reduced fuel costs, high productivity, offline working, increased savings and high ROI!

Citizens are accustomed to the speed and convenience of service delivery; throwing unique IT challenges to the government. 21st century wants public sector and people to collaborate for smooth operational governance that values the worth of a vote! Know more from the experts about what strides should be taken to adopt a digital government solution. Share your views and we will feature it across our Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn accounts.

Make your Move now!

iTouchVision is one of the world’s leading cloud-based service provider with innovation & excellence at its base. The company has made its presence in all business verticals with its technical & operational capabilities to enhance the working of private & public sector organisations. Our products, ranging from Web-based software to Mobile applications have made their mark globally to transform the way work is completed.