Xentity staff has been supporting Methodology Development with ACT-IAC on Smart Lean Government – http://smartleangovernment.com. A recent GovExec article has come out, highlighting Smart Lean Government as well as the State of Colorado.
“In a data-driven world, agencies can’t afford to go it alone any more. When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, the response and recovery were considered a disaster for government as there was no clear chain of command.”
Our efforts at Smart Lean Government are in trying to introduce cross-government management and design of services across communities. Also, base itself on life events. Furthermore integrate services in design and implementation. You can see the print magazine version in PDF here or the web version (See Figure 1 below).
Below we’ve outlined the technology point of view from the State of Colorado, Office of Information Technology.
Treating Citizens Like Customers In Colorado
As a private sector technology executive, Kristin Russell [note: recently outgoing CIO] watched companies become adept at tracking customers from one division to the next and learning everything they could about them along the way. When a warranty expired, a product undergoes a recall, or a superior product came out, they knew who to contact. And they knew the best way to contact them.
When Russell became Colorado’s chief information officer, she saw something different. State agencies weren’t competing with anyone, so they had little incentive to offer great customer service. This wasn’t just bad for citizens. It was costly for government too. One agency spent $4 million annually on postage. If citizens could opt for email-only contacts statewide, that figure could experience reduced significantly, Russell says.
Russell and Colorado’s Chief Technology Officer Sherri Hammons started planning for a governmentwide customer relations management system that could recognize citizens from one agency to the next, save their addresses and personal information, and alert them to services they might qualify for. An early version, called PEAK, offers a unified portal for medical, welfare and child support services and links to the state’s new online health insurance marketplace. Russell hopes to expand the PEAK concept across Colorado’s 22 agencies so citizens can interact with government once and be done.
Xentity is excited to support both the SLG initiative. Also, to act as a service provider for the OIT in support of moving to IT. Also, to a customer oriented set of services as part of the Xentity’s recent award of IT IDIQ from State of Colorado.