We are taking a fresh approach to how we design and deliver services to provide an efficient and consistent customer experience for Dorset’s residents. To do this we have three work strands:
- implementation of a new customer platform helping us to move to a ‘customer always, digital first’ approach
- establishing a ‘One Council Front Door’ to provide a good, consistent customer experience
- reviewing our Out of Hours provision
This blog focuses on our customer platform work, which we have started to implement and will change the way we use data and systems across the council.
The platform will:
- join up our customer information
- provide customers with an account to access services
- will be designed around customer needs
- and will automate as many services as possible
The complexity of the work is becoming more apparent each week due to making good on our commitments in the Local Digital Declaration to collaborate and re-use capabilities, and the nature of a platform approach resulting in multiple pieces of work all at different stages.
What have we achieved so far?
Developing the customer platform isn’t something that is going to happen overnight, the last 12 months have been focused on putting in place good foundations and developing our own knowledge and understanding of the Digital Place product so that we can do more for ourselves.
So far, we’ve moved the Dorset Council website and the Public Health Dorset website onto the platform. We have been working with members of the public to test the main council site to see how easy and quick they are to navigate and will continue to make improvements based on this insight and other data we have access to about how they are used.
One of the first councils to do so, we have started to publish the councillor register of interest details on the website. The process has now moved from a manual one to a digital one, which is more efficient, open, and accessible to residents. Councillors across the unitary, town and parish councils (300 organisations) can update their own information which reduces the resource required across several teams.
We’ve started to analyse existing online forms and have identified 68 online services provided through Dorset Direct our contact centre that will move onto the platform as a priority due to high use. We will start to plan this transition in phase three, using the opportunity to make sure they are designed consistently and well to maximise self-service uptake.
Lots of work has been taking place in Dorset Direct to understand how we will implement the customer contact management system which supports the transition to a digital-first delivery model.
What has been happening this month?
As part of trying to implement a product management approach at Dorset Council, the product owner for our presentation layer has produced a roadmap using Microsoft Azure Devops and established a design group to help with decisions to inform improvements of the core functions of the Content Management System (CMS).
A new microsite has been created for the Fostering service, utilising basic e-Form functionality from the platform – more information to follow next month. Discovery has started on Dorset newsroom and blogs, with the goal to streamline many of the processes for uploading content and hopefully migrating this onto the platform.
We are working with our platform supplier Placecube and their other customers, to not only share developments and knowledge of the system but share the cost of developing new functionality. This has resulted in five councils (Rugby, Northumberland, Kingston, Sutton, and Dorset) partnering to bid for Local Digital funds of £350k to help improve the product, particularly the online form and workflow capabilities.
The discovery phase for consultation and engagement led by a member of the communications team has come to end, an open afternoon to look at the insights was received well by colleagues and councillors. This will be a key enabler to changing the way we work with communities.
What are our learnings?
We chose the Placecube Digital Platform because it would position us well for the future, enabling us to respond easily to change and emerging technology to move to proactive delivery models. We wanted to take advantage of the low code elements of the platform to enable us to implement digital services more quickly, but we have learnt that enhancements were needed, which is why we are appreciative of Rugby leading the Local Digital work. We are seeing the results as Placecube demonstrate enhanced features in show and tell sessions, every two weeks.
As the platform develops and we look to onboard more services, the complexity of the authentication and verification required to lay the appropriate foundations for future development to meet the needs of different services is becoming more apparent. In future phases of work, we will need to build in capacity for continuous improvement as well as start new pieces.
The programme is complex, and we have introduced delivery management. Through combining our use of the design councils double diamond for user-centred design with agile delivery, we have learnt we must see the design phase as an important part of the delivery and remind ourselves of our values and principles rather than focus rigidly on method.
What’s next?
We divide the platform work into six-month phases to enable us to respond to organisational priorities and ensure we remain agile. We are now working on phase two which contains a number of sprints, by Summer 2022 we aim to have implemented:
- customer contact management in our call centre Dorset Direct
- the beginnings of the customer account
- integration with the elections service
- a website to support the foster care recruitment campaign that can evolve for other fostering services
- replacement newsroom and public facing blogs
- an approach for consultation and engagement across the council
- an approach that rethinks how we provide directories of service to better support early intervention/self-help across the council
- the ability for businesses to receive automated quotes for waste removal
- a dashboard showing how online services on the platform are performing as we onboard services onto the platform
In adopting the Local digital declaration and a platform approach, we have learnt what it takes to be truly digital. Whilst the solution outputs are important and valuable, we are also increasing our digital capabilities and making ourselves self-sufficient and more able to respond to change in a world where change is constant and fast-paced – supporting us to better meet our customer expectations in the digital age.
This all sounds ambitious, necessary and overdue but I don’t see a timeline to all this innovation. Is there one and if so let’s see it so we can all see what targets you’re setting yourselves in your apparent aim of putting the taxpayer/elector/resident first.
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your comment, this is indeed an ambitious project. We have over 450 services that we would like to see on the Customer Platform, which will take some time. We work in six-month batches as we need to be flexible in our planning so that we can respond and adapt to situational and environmental factors. Currently, we have temporarily reprioritised work to support the government response to the Ukraine crisis, although are now starting to plan the Autumn phase of the Platform and will continue to release blogs to keep people informed of our progress.
Our primary focus is to make sure we are putting residents first so we are listening to their feedback and are committed to delivering the best outcomes for the diverse range of people living in, working and visiting Dorset. Our ambition is to create easy to access online services, providing choice and convenience for all customers, businesses, and visitors whilst creating capacity to support our most vulnerable people.
Our modern customer experience will look to join up customer contact channels, systems and data so that our customers can access a personalised online experience across a comprehensive range of services. This will provide a proactive approach in keeping people up to date through their preferred contact methods, with progress of requests and enquiries being proactively sent.
The Customer Platform is the enabler to a wider programme of change as part of the Customer Strategy which is being drafted at present. This will provide the roadmap for the future delivery of services onto the Platform and is an ambitious programme of change over the next five years. We will share more information on this in the coming months.
Thanks,
Ashleigh