Three government agencies paving the way for OPEX
Three examples of how OPEX is achieved in government by leveraging chatbots and micro-purchase technology
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Considering that governments work with the largest customer bases in the world, their citizens, it stands to reason that they would benefit more than most from effective operational excellence (OPEX) initiatives.
Here we look at some examples of government agencies that have stood up to operational challenges and developed effective initiatives to ensure excellence for their citizens.
For more insights on how government agencies are driving OPEX, register for PEX Live: Operational Excellence in Public Sector
Improving customer engagement at the DVLA
Our first example of OPEX in government comes from the UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). The DVLA set out to optimize average call handling time and increase webchat completion efficiency to improve customer engagement and satisfaction. The agency handles more than 1.1 million phone calls and 100,000 webchat enquiries every month, so it was no small task.
The DVLA decided to leverage automation to develop a chatbot which could offer self-service for customers and reduce chat and call volume for agents.
The chatbot was initially applied to assist customers dealing with transactional failures but due to its success has since been rolled out across all agency services for frequent enquiries from customers.
The chatbot reduced average handling time from eight to two and a half minutes. It also effectively lowers overall traffic as 25 to 30 percent of enquiries are answered without the need for an agent. The chatbot has achieved a 90 percent customer satisfaction rate for the project.
Related content: Market update: OPEX in government
Unifying housing data at GSS
Housing is a devolved policy area in the UK with more than 20 departments and public bodies publishing statistics. As a result, the landscape of housing data had become exceedingly convoluted when the Government Statistical Service (GSS) decided to take action.
The approach of the GSS was to form a housing and planning statistics working group which included teams from a range of government departments and the devolved administrations. The aim of the group was to share insights with the goal of developing a series of web-based interactive tools that would collate housing statistics into a central repository and make them searchable by users.
User feedback for the initiative has been positive and it has also been nominated for a GSS excellence award, with the tools being cited as exemplars in adhering to government principles regarding the distribution of statistics.
Optimizing software contracting in US government
Our final example comes to us from 18F, a digital service innovation team embedded in the US government. The problem the team was tasked with solving was to simplify software contracting for government agencies in the US as it has traditionally been a long and arduous process.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation, which sets the rules for procurement in the US government, is nearly 2,000 pages long and is incredibly complex and difficult for employees to navigate. For this reason, government employees would struggle to understand how they can buy services that they need in an agile way, without long-winded procurement processes.
In response to the challenge 18F launched its micro-purchase platform which serves as an auction bidding system for open-source software for government agencies. It utilizes a legal flexibility known as “micro-purchase authority” which allows for small credit card purchases for government officials.
The platform allows agencies to avoid the lengthy and cumbersome procurement process that is typically associated with software contracting in the US.
Have you noticed your own government delivering any OPEX initiatives? Let us know what they are in the comments below.
