Facing Up to the Future: Four Elements of Dynamic, Personalized Services

2

Change is under wayDigital forces are reshaping people’s lives, and creating the human services agency of the future means challenging old assumptions and embracing new ways of working.

Being able to interact with government agencies easily and effectively is naturally something that appeals to people – and it is something they expect. In the UK, for example, most citizens expect at least the same level of digital service from government agencies as they would get from private organizations1.

Only by losing increasingly ineffective “one size fits all” models and developing new, smart, user-centric services can agencies meet the changing needs of today’s digital citizens. Success will depend on many factors, but here we pinpoint four actions already used in agencies around the world that can transform service delivery and meet customer demand.

Four key elements of dynamic, personalized services1. Understand your customersPart of designing dynamic, personalized solutions is knowing what people want – and how they’ll behave in certain situations. But agencies don’t really understand their users: most design their processes and services from the outside in.

There are ways to gain that crucial understanding. User experience (UX) techniques are especially valuable: agencies can use personas to segment users into categories, and can analyze user journeys to determine their behavior when they interact with services. In the UK, the Department for Work & Pensions uses its “Exemplar Services” to gather data from user feedback, and uses UX research to design services that meet customers’ needs2.

Investigate ethnographic techniques – how people participate in society, and how they interact with systems and people around them. In Denmark, for example, the National Board of Industrial Injuries has developed an employment initiative to understand the needs of those injured at work, partly by interviewing sufferers themselves3.

2. Match channels and services with needsUsers with complex needs and changing circumstances expect services to operate across multiple channels, and many agencies already design their services with this in mind.

So find out which devices and communication methods users prefer, and integrate these with demographic information.

There are numerous examples of this in action. The US’s border control agency has used a mobile app to speed up the entry process since 20144. Another mobile app, released in 2012 by Australia’s Department of Human Services, enables citizens to access specific services; by early 2013, it had been used in more than four million transactions5. And both Germany’s federal employment agency (BA)6 and France’s pensions agency (CNAV) plan extensive multichannel delivery of their services7. Social media is also useful for reaching certain users – Saudi Arabia’s Public Pension Agency has a Facebook presence, and tweets regularly to its 40,000+ followers8.

3

3. Help, don’t touch

“No-touch processing” is much sought after by human services agencies. Using integrated, rules-based solutions, it handles administrative tasks and eligibility testing without human involvement.

Customizable no-touch offerings enable different solutions for specific channels and platforms, and can be expanded to other programs. In the US, Ohio’s Office of Health Transformation provides self-service tools that enable citizens to check their eligibility for Medicaid in near real time, and the system supports more than 50 health and human services programs9. In Norway, meanwhile, NAV’s trailblazing digital pensions system has established an end-to-end automated process that gathers information about users, calculates benefits, and enables payments. The effect has been striking: in the roughly five years since the project’s launch, 17,000 Norwegians have logged on for help and advice each week10.

4. Strength in togetherness

For most of us, life is a seamless interaction between people, places and things. And so it should be with the services we rely on.

The next step for agencies of the future is to provide efficient, dynamic systems that cross agency boundaries and allow for a coordinated approach, cross-agency insights, and greater personalization. New York City’s DataBridge system, for example, merges data from around 40 organizations11. NAV in Norway, meanwhile, is using digital services to start a dialog with working people about retirement planning. This information can then be shared with educators and employment services to provide valuable support and information for those users throughout their working lives and into retirement12.

Employ a Chief Digital Officer to coordinate digital transformation and encourage cooperation between agencies. Singapore’s CPF savings plan, for example, has developed a website enabling disparate organizations to set up their own portals for customers to submit information electronically13. A Chief Collaboration Officer, meanwhile, can help government agencies to deal with internal silos and incompatible systems.

Putting it all togetherProviding dynamic, personalized services meets a demand, and can be relatively straightforward to achieve. At its heart is the ability to shake off old assumptions and ways of working, and to be confident enough to embrace new ones. The most effective transformations don’t happen overnight, but they can happen effectively and smoothly if agencies take the right steps now and face the future in a measured, practical way.

Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture. 16-1759

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions—underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network—Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With approximately 373,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About Delivering Public Service for the Future

What does it take to deliver public service for the future? Public service leaders must embrace four structural shifts—advancing toward personalized services, insight-driven operations, a public entrepreneurship mindset and a cross-agency commitment to mission productivity. By making these shifts, leaders can support flourishing societies, safe, secure nations and economic vitality for citizens in a digital world — delivering public service for the future.

For more information

Manuel Torres Managing Director manuel.Torres@accenture.com

Stay Connected

Connect with us to learn more on delivering public service for the future on Twitter

References1 “Digital at Depth: Digital technologies at the heart of public service transformation and as a catalyst for economic growth and innovation,” Accenture report [https://www.accenture.com/t20150523T033713__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Dualpub_9/Accenture-Digital-at-Depth-for-Government-Innovation.pdf].

2 Outlined in the DWP’s “Digital Strategy” document, published in 2012 [https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/193901/dwp-digital-strategy.pdf]

3 “LONG-TERM CHANGE”, MindLab website [http://mind-lab.dk/en/case/langsigtet-forandring-gennem-strategisk-partnerskab/]

4 “New Mobile Passport Control App Available”, press release on US Customs and Border Protection website [http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/2014-08-11-000000/new-mobile-passport-control-app-available]

5 “Australian Public Service Mobile Roadmap”, Australian Government Department of Finance and Deregulation [http://www.finance.gov.au/files/2013/06/APS-Mobile-Roadmap.pdf]

6 “PROGRESSIVE. FUTUTRE-ORIENTED. FOR PEOPLE.”, BA Annual Report [https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/web/wcm/idc/groups/public/documents/webdatei/mdaw/mjm1/~edisp/l6019022dstbai672072.pdf?_ba.sid=L6019022DSTBAI672075] and the BA 2020 report

[https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/web/wcm/idc/groups/public/documents/webdatei/mdaw/mta2/~edisp/l6019022dstbai437412.pdf]

7 CNAV website

8 The PPA has a Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/PensionSA/] and a Twitter profile with 49,000 followers (as of March 2016) [https://twitter.com/pensionsa]

9 “State of Ohio Integrated Eligibility System: Integrating Service Delivery and Improving Outcomes for the Citizens of Ohio”, Accenture PoV [https://www.accenture.com/t20150523T032534__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/Microsites/Documents11/Accenture-State-Of-Ohio-Integrated-Eligibility-System-v2.pdf]

10 “Norway’s groundbreaking new pension system successfully launched”, Accenture Case Study [https://www.accenture.com/t20150707T195236__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Industries_10/Accenture-12-2125-NAV-Credential-V2.pdf#zoom=50]

11 “Digital at Depth”, Accenture report [https://www.accenture.com/t20150523T033713__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Dualpub_9/Accenture-Digital-at-Depth-for-Government-Innovation.pdf]

12 “Digitizing Public Sector Services: Norwegian eGovernment Program”, Norwegian Ministries report [https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/FAD/Kampanje/DAN/Regjeringensdigitaliseringsprogram/digit_prg_eng.pdf]

13 “Creating growth through change”, Accenture report [https://www.accenture.com/t20150527T210443__w__/au-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Local/en-gb/PDF/Accenture-Retirement-Savings-Wealth-Management-Growth-Change.pdf]