Public Institutions: Case Study

Public services improvement - Modernising a township administration

The issue:

The local township initiated a Quality Improvement program that aimed at improving the service level of the township to its citizens and businesses. One of the challenges was to modernise communication tools and flow of information/documents within the administration. Indeed, the city officials wanted to gain more visibility as to what requests or complaints were lodged by citizens and wanted to be able to address those requests/complaints in an efficient and professional manner. They also wanted to be able to drive and trace actions all the way to resolution and the answer provided back to the requestor.

The approach:

Three key projects were then started with the support of PwC. The first one was the introduction of an electronic document management system (EDMS) and new procedures to facilitate the electronic flow of documents (such as incoming letters) and an electronic agenda for the local parliament (eCollege). The second project aimed at modernising the network infrastructure and the services the informatics department offers.

The third project aimed at redesigning the city's website to reflect the city's ambitions and provide some interactive services over the Internet.
Throughout the project, PwC provided independent advisory services and assisted the township officials regarding the organisation, methodology and technical advice for those key projects. The role of PwC was to: identify and formalise the needs, write specifications, assist the city officials in managing public tenders, advise and assist the city throughout the implementation of the new system by the system integrator and assist in change management. A third party provider was in charge of the technical implementation.

The outcome/benefits:

Today, it takes on average half a day for any city official to be notified that a request for services requires his / her attention. This is a significant improvement compared to the time it took before the introduction of the electronic document management system and the new electronic procedures. The official is now able to trace all the requests for services that he/she is responsible for. The official is able to delegate tasks and specific actions to experts to process the request. From the citizen's point of view, he is treated as a client. He receives an acknowledgment the same day, with the name of the processing agent and reference number for traceability purposes. The processing is much quicker for the citizen and more efficient for the administration.