I’m sleeping, hence I can’t see – How Citizen Experience is kissing the public sector awake

The alarm clock rings. The 20s have arrived. The public sector wakes up tired and disoriented after a sleepy decade of the 10s, only having partially an orientation concerning the needs and requirements of its customers - i.e. its citizens. Citizens compare their public service experience" with mostly pleasant customer experiences in commercial interactions and transactions. The poor public sector experience is represented with contemplative usage rates. Of all officially available digital services, only 40% are utilized by citizens in Germany and the service satisfaction has only marginally improved (2012 with 57% vs. 2019 with 60%). From a citizen perspective, there are explicit expectations.

Transcript

1. I’m sleeping, hence I can’t see How Citizen Experience is kissing the public sector awake The slept through decade The alarm clock rings. The 20s have arrived. The public sector wakes up tired and disoriented after a sleepy decade of the 10s, only having partially an orientation concerning the needs and requirements of its customers – i.e. its citizens. Citizens compare their public service experience” with mostly pleasant customer experiences in commercial interactions and transactions. The poor public sector experience is represented with contemplative usage rates. Of all officially available digital services, only 40% are utilized by citizens in Germany1 and the service satisfaction has only marginally improved (2012 with 57% vs. 2019 with 60%).2 From a citizen perspective, there are explicit expectations. According to a global Accenture study3, 85% of surveyed citizens mention to expect equivalent or even superior services from the public sector by contrast with the commercial sector. Citizen Experience as the north star in the public sector? In comparison to 28 EU states, Germany is ranked number 24 in the field of digitalization of public services4. Thereby, the barriers citizens are facing are the result of missing citizen experience and service concept. The top 5 usage barriers5 in Germany are 1) unmanageable structure of online offerings, 2) lack of continuity, 3) insufficient support by authorities, 4) complicated processing / forms, 5) complex registration. With the measures formulated in the Online Access Act (Onlinezugangsgesetz), Germany intends to promote digitalization in the public sector with almost 600 use cases (35 life stages, 17 corporate situations)6 in order not to be left behind other European countries. However, the identified use cases must be examined and implemented holistically and at the same time one must turn away from fragmented incomplete processes with channel breaks. An abstract outlook illustrates how relevant it is for Germany that the use of digital self- service offerings must be thought of in a citizen- oriented way to be able to leverage their adaption. The German Civil Service Union mentions 1.2 million retirements in the public sector by 2030 and, including new hires, there is a net staffing shortfall of over 700 thousand in the public sector. The resulting capacity bottleneck and the increasing requirements in the processing of citizen interactions and transactions illustrate the need for integrated, comprehensively designed digital solutions. Applying automation (RPA, Rules-Engines etc.) and artificial intelligence within servicing can support this and provide necessary relief. Nevertheless, technologies should not drive any decision making, rather an adaptive and modular scalable service concept must serve as a basis. Digital does not stand for more servers but rather for a new paradigm of more service. Satisfying the citizen experience within the context of digitalization initiatives therefore requires moving away from obsolete “that is the way we have always implemented our processes” towards user-friendly end-2-end processes. This may also imply that antiquated legal requirements and guidelines of the last century must be modernized in the course of digitalization. Austria has impressively realized those thoughts which was confirmed by the current eGovernment Monitor 2019.7 For example, 73% of Austrian citizens already complete their tax returns online, compared to only 42% in Germany. Well-conceived online self-service solutions also provide cost-saving potential for the public sector which is suffering from chronic savings pressure. Extensive citizen enquiries can be holistically automated and resolved. Relocating channels from personal visit or written submission to an end-2-end online self-service channel relieves public servants who can dedicate themselves to other more sophisticated topics. Wake me up before you Gogo! For digital experts, an online channel shift is no longer an awakening revolutionary service innovation, however it is still largely uncharted territory for the public sector. But it is not a recognition problem but rather an implementation problem. Partially isolated and fragmented individual solutions, according to the best handicraft manner of the respective IT department and unexplained specifications of non-digitally savvy legal departments must be discontinued and replaced by citizen and user-oriented service design. Within the scope of citizen experience projects, experience has shown that the following procedure is an appropriate approach for a successful implementation and acceptance by the citizens: 1. Conduct of a joint experience download workshop series with client and customers/ citizens in order to compare the needs and determine the success factors 2. Utilizing service design to develop a citizen-oriented, lean citizen journey and subsequently going through the journey with citizens within feedback rounds, testing and adjusting in an agile way 3. Implementation of a collective experience and IT architecture workshop series to identify architecture gaps and to sketch epics on the roadmap 4. Setting up a joint and an equal emancipated project management consisting of client and service contractor 5. Implementation in an agile way 6. Change management with the aim to inform involved public servants in a timely and integrative manner and to empower and enable them with trainings 7. External communication (contextualized and personalized) with citizens to promote the value added as well as the provision of the new self-service (1) Frauenhofer Fokus: Vgl. Fraunhofer Fokus (6.3.2019): Digitalisierung in Deutschland – ein ungleiches Rennen. Pressemeldung zum Deutschland-Index der Digitalisierung 2019. https://www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/de/fokus/presse/deutschland_index_2019. Die fünf untersuchten Verwaltungsleistungen sind: Gewerbe- anmeldung, Melderegisterauskunft, Kfz-Anmeldung, Bauantrag, Wohngeldantrag (2) https://www.egovernmentmonitor.de/fileadmin/uploads/studien/2017/eGovMon2017_R Z_FINAL_WEB_NEW.pdf (3) https://www.accenture.com/sg-en/insights/public-service/living-government; https://www.accenture.com/t20160912t092658__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/pdf- 30/accenture-digital-citizen-experience-pulse-survey-highlight.pdf (4) European Commision: Vgl. European Commission (2019): Digital Economy and Society Index Report 2019, Digital Public Services; https://publicgovernance.de/media/Digitaler_Wandel_der_Nutzer_im_Fokus.pdf (5) https://initiatived21.de/publikationen/egovernment-monitor-2019/ (6) https://www.bmi.bund.de/DE/themen/moderne- verwaltung/verwaltungsmodernisierung/onlinezugangsgesetz/onlinezugangsgesetz- node.html (7) https://initiatived21.de/publikationen/egovernment-monitor-2019/ Who is Sargon Korkis? Global experienced practitioner for digital transformations with focus on creating and delivering experience led solutions to generate value adding outcomes. Background Since 2014 in leadership roles at Accenture Interactive in international projects. Prior to this 8 over 8 years at ebay Inc in global and local roles in the areas of Analytics and Business Development. Holding a diploma in Business Administration and scholar contributor in the organization of Labor & Organizational Psychology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Expertise As longtime Marketing- and Experience Expert I lead - with sharp focus on external and internal Customer Experience - complex transformation projects in the public / health and sport sector, digital marketing platform strategy and consumer goods industry. Passion Travelling to interesting spots and learning new perspectives from interesting and inspiring individuals. Connect sargon.korkis@accenture.com linkedin.com/in/sargonkorkis xing.com/profile/Sargon_Korkis H & P S I N S I G H T S V O N