Reinventing the back office: agility in government

Anticipating and planning for future challenges are vital in the public sector. But the government cannot always know what’s going to happen next.

That’s why all levels of government need to be focused on building the capabilities that will allow them to respond to unexpected challenges as quickly as required.

And that needs to start in the back office.

Back-office functions are usually invisible to the public, so they don’t get the attention they deserve.

Government digital transformation programs tend to focus on core business apps (such as operational and financial platforms) and front-end experiences.

However, it’s usually the back office that’s managing the information needed to deliver the front-end experiences. So, even if back-office staff aren’t having direct interactions with customers, being bogged down by legacy systems, manual workflows and paper-based processes has an impact on the customer experience.

One study by Capegemini found that 60% of customer dissatisfaction can be traced back to ineffective support and administration in the back office.

An agile back office is the key to delivering seamless experiences for Australians. It allows human and financial resources to be rapidly reallocated as needs change. Additionally, it can have significant fiscal benefits, such as lower operational costs.

So, what is an agile government?

An agile government has several key traits and capabilities. It is:

• Adaptable — adjusts and pivots to meet changing needs and expectations.
• Responsive — recognises and responds to circumstances, events and trends quickly.
• Innovative — generates new ideas, as well as adopts new methodologies and technologies.
• Collaborative — works with internal and external knowledge and resources to achieve goals.
• Transparent — builds and maintains transparency to enhance decision-making across the organisation.

Automation for agility

Automation is one of the biggest enablers of agility in government. You hear about it all the time, yet it’s still under-utilised in the public sector.

That’s not to say the government has not made strides with technological advancements over the past decade. But legacy systems, manual workflows and paper-based processes are still major pain points in the public sector, especially in the back office.

For example, the South Australian Government implemented the Family Safety Framework in 2013, in an effort to provide a coordinated cross-agency, cross-sector service response to women and children at risk of domestic violence. Unfortunately, the framework’s initial paper-based processes and Excel-spreadsheet-managed systems were impacting the service delivery and victim protection.

The government recognised that the time spent on these processes would be better utilised in actioning services and helping victims move through the system quickly, without being re-traumatised by telling their stories over and over.

Given the current skills shortage, backlogs and delays, government departments and agencies can’t afford to squander employees’ time on processes that do not require human intervention at every step. These processes don’t just impact employee efficiency and productivity, they can delay or lead to the wrong outcomes for people in need.

For example, when a back-office employee is manually processing forms and applications, something as simple as ticking the wrong box or misinterpreting handwriting can prevent a vulnerable applicant from receiving the urgent support they need.

Of course, there’s no need to automate everything — it would be too complicated, expensive and uncertain. Automation that’s selectively applied to problematic areas — such as the consolidation and enrichment of data — is where the government can get the immediate ROI.

Good data management key to successful automation

Getting automation right requires good data and good data management.

The human workforce cannot manually manage massive sets of data or glean meaningful insights from them. The government needs to harness the right technology to collect and consolidate accurate and up-to-date information from all their sources, so they have a unified view of Australians.

That was one of the goals of the SA Government Department of Human Services (DHS).

Delivering against the goals of the Family Safety Framework requires extensive collaboration between stakeholders across industries, geographies and agencies — from social workers to the South Australian Police.

This was hard to do without a single source of truth. The way information was shared between stakeholders was unstructured and untraceable — making it difficult to track victims and offenders.

DHS recognised that it needed an integrated domestic violence management solution that would provide a unified, 360-degree view of victims and offenders, as well as enable data input and secure, structured collaboration.

As such, the department partnered with Canon Business Services to build a comprehensive solution with several modules, including a web-based, self-service Family Support Portal; a community portal for support agency workers; and a fully digitised case management system with enhanced reporting capabilities for various stakeholders. The platforms that were used to build the solution include Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Azure, Custom Web Apps and Power Apps.

The intelligent government

With all the data at its disposal, the public sector stands to gain huge benefits from leaning into machine learning.

There are endless opportunities to use machine learning by the government — for example, predicting extreme natural events, future demographic shifts, long-term industry trends or changes in demand for key services.

Gartner predicts that 60% of government AI and data analytics investments will be aimed at improving real-time operational decisions and outcomes, so that service delivery can be responsive and timely.

As more and more data is captured and consolidated in DHS’s domestic violence management platform, the department’s plan is to use AI to produce more advanced analytics and reporting to help victims.

Engaging with citizens to shape solutions

Governments are expected to deliver the same quality of experience they get from the private sector — that is, experiences which are intuitive, seamless and connected.

The experiences also need to be personalised, because different stakeholders have different needs and preferences around how they engage with government services and access information.

A recent PwC study revealed that 70% of Australians want to engage in the development of federal services, ranging from access to information to the opportunity to contribute.

However, less than half of Australians (43%) feel that digital services have helped them feel connected.

There’s also a need for the government to consolidate and simplify customer-facing service delivery.

As of January 2022, 46% of Australians said the increased range of channels makes the process of accessing government services more confusing than ever before.

To better connect with constituents, clients and other stakeholders, the government needs to embrace the integrated omnichannel approach that customers have come to expect from leading retail and technology companies.

This means meeting Australians where they want to be. For example, someone might want to first connect with a public service on a website or app, then engage with a staff member in person or over the phone.

Staying ahead of the unexpected

As an organisation, if you’re not evolving, you’re regressing.

In a constrained fiscal environment, leaders believe there are competing priorities for limited budgets — and reinventing the back office isn’t at the top of the list.

However, modern economies and societies require a more agile public sector that can adapt fast. And the public sector does, in fact, have the capacity to transform back offices, even at a time of uncertainty — it just requires a shift in mindset.

Ultimately, the significant productivity and efficiency improvements in the back office will flow through to better quality experiences, and better value for taxpayers.

Image credit: iStock.com/Chainarong Prasertthai