How the United Kingdom Delivers Customer-Centric Government Services
A modern network and integrated databases make it easier for citizens in the United Kingdom to get social services. Our columnist, Charlie Feld, talks to U.K. Department for Work and Pensions IT Director General and CIO Joe Harley.
Mon, June 01, 2009
CIO —
Charlie Feld: Your department is bringing a 21st century, customer-focused model to serve the citizens. What was the impetus for this change?
Joe Harley: We tend to deal with some of the less fortunate in society, people that have lost their jobs and are looking for work, disabled people who need support, older people and children. These customers deserve good government service. Sir Leigh Lewis, who heads the DWP, and his executive team wanted to put the citizen at the heart of how we deliver services. The concept was to break down the walls between the departments and provide outstanding, responsive service. We adopted a position that there is no "wrong door" for the citizen. They won't be told, 'That's not our department's business, go somewhere else.'
Additional interveiws with Charlie Feld: J.C. Penney's Recession Investment Strategyand How Agile Development and Virtual Teams Help the Fed Set the Economy's Course.
It is a big challenge to do that because we have to have a single view of the customer's information, regardless of the channel in which the customer interacts with us. It could be an online channel, a telephone call, it could be face-to-face at one of our offices.
Charlie Feld: That seems like common sense but extremely difficult to justify and execute. How have you approached the business case?
Joe Harley: We had to streamline the organization and take out real costs. That is still a work in progress. Over the last three years, we have taken 30,000 jobs out of the system and saved £1 billion—including a 30 percent cost reduction from IT.
On the IT side, there was an infrastructure that was facing obsolescence. So in terms of the modernization agenda and the drive toward efficiency and innovation, we really needed to renew our entire infrastructure, including all telecommunications, to position us for the modern era. In addition, it was crucial that we engaged our key suppliers, mainly EDS and British Telecom. They have helped us reduce our data centers from seven to two, including our award winning Green Data Center.
We have a converged Internet protocol network that is engineered for the security and privacy demands of our sensitive information. We had to have a new network so that we could "consolidate" our contact centers into a virtual one and route calls all around the country, depending on the skills of the agent, the location and the demand in each of the areas.
Much of our cost reduction is driven by our citizens' desire to use the Web for more and more self-service. We are leaning on the key business processes of the department to realize substantial savings and improved customer service.
