Insights

Using Technology to meet your Customer Needs

“To improve our customer service, we needed to make the customer experience frictionless and take the unnecessary contact out of the journey, we needed to understand our touchpoints, we needed to deliver 24/7 self-service solutions, we needed to have an unrelenting focus on continuous improvement and to embrace digital transformation, and we need to automate absolutely everything.” Jeffrey Griffith, Deputy General Manager, Devonport City Council Being on the front foot meant that Devonport looked at all their processes and decided to digitise. In terms of the touchpoints at Devonport council, “we have our reception, social media, telephone, email, and our …

Lily Stokes General

25 Feb 2022

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Procurement and Contract Management for Councils

A transformative process was required because a number of challenges and opportunities were identified with regards to procurement and contract management. Previously, purchasing was done from a “tactical rather than a strategic framework.” Also, although there are commercial expectations, these are hard to enforce given that there are “very rigid government policies, acts and legislations as well as probity requirements.” There are also increasing “community expectations which can drive decision making, and the definition of value means different things to different branches,” especially for minority groups. At the same time, the council is committed to being sustainable and innovative, “so …

Neboneid Hamoo General

25 Feb 2022

INTERVIEWS

#GovInnovator Q&A: Deshard Stevens, CISO, NYC Commission on Human Rights

Deshard Stevens is a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) with over 12 years of experience managing, developing, and implementing business strategies and technical solutions while leading and managing project development, cloud strategy, and information technology teams. Deshard was the recipient of the 2018 Rising Star Award from the New York City Public Sector CIO Academy. He is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified in Risk and Information System Control (CRISC), Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE), and holds a Master of Business Administration. In his free time, Deshard is an avid runner. I am currently the Chief Information …

Paris Armstrong Digital Services and Customer Experience

16 Feb 2022

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Illuminating Tips on Risk Management

To illustrate the importance of cyber risk management, “let us to look at the fictional case study of a small business.” It might be fictional in that this particular business does not exist, but all the components of the case study are real and based in reality. The business is run by two entrepreneurs “who have a passion to move forward, producing beautiful and functional shoes.” They have been in business for a decade, with a “strong community of customers and they have wonderful relationships with their suppliers, their artists and producers.” As entrepreneurs, the two partners are always looking …

Teresa Anderson Cyber Security and Risk Management

11 Feb 2022

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Case Study Highlights : Cyber Incident Response Strategy

Apart from just providing forecasts, the BOM also “supports flood activity, cyclones, fires and all other critical weather related activities.” In many ways, “we’re primarily a data organisation, and we support a lot of critical infrastructure as well.” As such, “our data is extremely important,” and this was proven in drastic ways when “we had a major cybersecurity attack in 2016.” It is unclear exactly who was responsible, but the attack was conducted with the use of remote malicious software aimed at mining data about “who we communicate with, but also who our customers and partners are. This set the …

Neboneid Hamoo Cyber Security and Risk Management

11 Feb 2022

INTERVIEWS

Exclusive Q&A: VITA's COO Talks Government Automation, RPA, and Leadership

Jonathan Ozovek is the Chief Operating Officer of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency - or VITA; a convenient acronym if ever there were one, given the importance of information technology to all aspects of life today. Answer: The main lesson I learned is how quickly the world can change. There is a level of connectivity and interdependency throughout the world today that was not the case decades ago. The main lessons I have reinforced are two fold...first, never lose sight of what is important and do not take your loved ones for granted and second, have multiple backup plans (i.e. …

Paris Armstrong Digital Services and Customer Experience

27 Jan 2022

INTERVIEWS

People, Processes & Public Service: Executive Q&A with CalHR’s Chief of Administration, Brendan Murphy

With a career spanning nearly 20 years across both the public and private sectors – CalHR's Brendan Murphy has been a leader at spearheading effective change and ensuring that his team remain motivated and engaged. With a background spanning Finance and Emergency Management – Brendan has experience and expertise that seems tailor-made for our current crisis. Originally, I was drawn to public service to help people. I started in public safety on law enforcement and corrections assignments. The draw for me was really to keep people safe, however as I understood the system more I saw the chance to impact …

Paris Armstrong Workforce, Skills and Capability

26 Jan 2022

INDUSTRY TRENDS

The importance of investing in CX in Local Government

At the recent Diversity and Inclusion event, we heard from Suelyn Knight, Manager, Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights as she dived into how to bridge the diversity gap through allyship. These conversations may be a bit difficult or triggering for some people, but in order to truly advance the needle on these issues, within the Toronto Police Service, we are having these difficult conversations and we are showing up for our members. Hopefully that will also translate into our ability to recruit and retain members who are diverse, and who add to the very the fabric of our organization. To …

Milena Tsitovitch General

25 Jan 2022