Speaking with FutureGov, Craig Humphrey, Executive Director for Integrated Service Delivery, and Gavin Atkinson, Director of Online Service Delivery, share about the strategic framework for developing the Business and Industry Portal and the key hurdles they have overcome to ensure its success.
“The Queensland Government has made a strategic decision to move away from departmental silos and toward a franchised model of service delivery in which agencies deliver services and information in a seamless, customer-centric manner,” said Humphrey.
Customer-centric service delivery
The portal brings together all three tiers of the government from the customer’s perspective - local, state and federal. Atkinson elaborates, “We repackage content and services regardless of who is delivering it. The customer doesn’t really care about which department is delivering - they just want to make a transaction with the government. That’s the primary focus we have taken.”
The portal currently offers 500-600 services, consolidated from eleven different Queensland departments, with two more departments being added this month.
The portal integrates the business, industry and investment aspects of running a business, Atkinson explains. “A business not only operates within a business environment but also within an industry environment, entailing different forms of regulation and licensing. What makes our portal different from others in Asia Pacific is that we bring all that into an integrated package, overlayed with the investor-view of things.”
The portal is broken down into segments on business, industry and investment. It started off around delivering information products, but is now moving towards mobile services and diagnostic tools. It now also includes a tool for authentication of businesses in Queensland, allowing them to safely transact with the government.
The Queensland Government’s strategic direction is also reflected in the way customers are now engaging with government. Atkinson shares, “We’ve had exponential growth in the last 18 months, moving from 3,500 to 150,000 customers a month. Fewer customers are phoning us or coming to the counter, more are going online.”
The Queensland Government has also seen significant growth in the mobile space as well - about a quarter of their customers are currently using smartphones and tablets to access the portal. The technologies that the government has put in place to manage and deliver the portal, deliver a rendered experience that suits the device used by the customer.
Silos, leadership and customer intelligence
In developing, implementing and expanding the portal, Humphrey, Atkinson and their team had to overcome a number of hurdles. The main challenge was how to start moving towards a truly customer-centric environment.
“Many public servants tend to look at the world from their department’s view. We tried to challenge that and put them in the customer’s shoes to better understand what their existing experience is online. To this, we added a picture of how that can be made a much better experience, not only for the customer but for the government as well,” notes Atkinson.
Humphrey adds, “Another critical factor for us has been having strong leadership, expertise and technical capability within the personnel in the government.”
In addition to the above, the Queensland Government also focuses on gathering and analysing customer intelligence. “Rather than coming up with something that we think is a good idea, we research and engage with our customers to see how Queensland businesses want to transact with government and why our service is useful,” shares Atkinson.
The Queensland Government has been conducting an annual customer impact survey for three years now to get feedback on the delivery and scope of services the customers are registered in. The survey also allows monitoring of longitudinal activity. In July, the portal reached its all-time-high with 86 per cent customer satisfaction. “We can demonstrate that the portal has saved over AU$ 250 million (US$ 234 million) in time and money for Queensland businesses,” informed Humphrey.
Another key interest of the Queensland Government is search engine optimisation (SEO) - 80-90 per cent of the customers start at Google when they’re engaging with the Government. The Business and Industry Portal team is actively optimising for search engines and will be increasing their reach and customer options by enhancing their SEO strategy.
Going forward
The portal initially went live in December 2010 with around 40 services, and has yet more potential to grow. “Our growth has happened over a short period of time. But the portal so far delivers only a third of the services the state government offers to businesses. We’re now looking at how we can progress over the next few years,” said Humphrey.
“The Government is planning to add another 200 services to the portal this year. Subject to demand, the portal may be expanded further over the next two to three years,” concluded Humphrey.
The Business and Industry Portal was recently awarded at Australia’s iAwards, the “academy awards” for the ICT industry.
Catch Craig Humphrey and Gavin Atkinson on Tuesday, September 17th at the FutureGov Forum Queensland, where Humphrey will be speaking on Digital Government.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Medha Basu
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 13.09.2013
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