Government leaders embrace ‘any door’ service approach
Image via GovExecTV
By
Chris Teale
Speakers at Route Fifty’s recent Innovation Spotlight said the public sector should learn to be more human focused in how it delivers services, an effort that shows long-term value for money.
Governors and mayors alike have signed orders and mandates that their online government services be more user friendly and embrace a “no wrong door” approach.
It means that services are more streamlined for residents, and they do not need to have as much knowledge about government agencies to determine how they apply for things like a building permit, park permit benefits.
Such an initiative takes a lot of work. Pennsylvania needed to migrate more than 30,000 webpages from more than 60 agency websites to one platform. But with services sorted by life event rather than agency function, the investment is worthwhile to make residents’ lives easier, local leaders said.
“It's thinking through a constituent’s experience of walking down the street and the street light’s out, that constituent might not know if it's owned by the city or owned by the electrical company, but how do we provide them with a seamless experience to report that and make sure that they could just use the app, click a button and then the street light’s repaired?” Vanetta Pledger, chief information officer and director of IT services for Alexandria, Virginia, said during Route Fifty and GovExecTV’s latest Innovation Spotlight episode this week.
Stephen Miller, Washington, D.C.’s chief technology officer, said the city’s government is pursuing a similar approach with a unified portal to help better connect residents with its services. It cannot be up to residents to know who oversees trash pickup or business licensing, he said, when dealing with city government.
“From the resident perspective, they're just dealing with the Washington, D.C. government or the Alexandria government, they don't need to know that it's the Department of Buildings or the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection,” Miller said. “They just need to know that it's D.C. government, and it's very important that we're breaking down those barriers to create any door into the government as easily as possible.”
The effort to emphasize the no wrong door approach to government also represents an embrace of human-centered design, which solves problems by putting people’s needs at the center of the design process. Experts have said previously it means agencies can “reimagine their processes, cut through bureaucratic inertia and design services that genuinely meet the needs of the communities they serve.” Pledger said it helps governments show “empathy” for their residents and their needs and can help cities be proactive in showing residents what is available to them.
“Having those different entry points, that also helps them understand the other services that are available to them from the government that they may have never thought of,” Pledger said. “It's making sure we're focusing on that community aspect, from that human angle, making sure we're paying attention to all our areas of business. How do you have that one door, seamless experience for your community, so they can get access to food, they can gain access to information about housing, they can get access about employment opportunities?”
But it means a lot of up-front investment, which could be a tough sell in an era where state and local governments are strapped for cash and the federal grants they typically rely on to help modernize aging infrastructure and IT systems are drying up or being cancelled outright.
As they make the case for spending to their elected officials, Pledger said leaders should emphasize that technology is the backbone for all manner of city services, not just the most directly impactful areas like public safety.
“To me, technology is the strategic asset that enables all of [city] council priorities as well as best serves the community,” she said. “[For] me, it's the enabler of the government operations… Technology is in every vantage point of the government operation. I try to tell the team, we're not going to say expense, we're going to say investment, because it's using those investments to enable the services of the government.”
Miller agreed, and noted that technology is a great enabler of government, especially as constituents are not as willing to drive across town to stand in line so they can engage with services.
“There is very little that we do without technology, outside of worrying about when technology gets shut off accidentally, which does happen from time to time,” he said. “Technology is what's going to make things easier. Technology is what's going to help us. Technology is going to help us measure our successes. It's going to help us identify our failures. It's going to help us improve. Without technology, it's very hard to deliver a government service the way that people want to experience.”