Does Your Government Correspondence System Need to “Lose Waste”?
Part 1 of 2: Addressing common historical challenges
By Jason Huntley
“Do more with less PLUS exceed literally everyone’s expectations.” No matter the industry, this lofty goal is one that organizations are increasingly challenged to achieve. But perhaps nobody has it harder than those in the public sector.
All around the globe, governments are simultaneously tasked with three often-conflicting expectations: to balance the budgets and stimulate innovation while also meeting, if not surpassing, citizens’ growing demand for service delivery. Throw in the fact that public trust in governments is continuously on the fritz—and you’ve got an absolutely-cannot-win situation for decision-makers. Or do you?
In response to the aforementioned challenge, we are now seeing the emergence of “lean government.” This improvement philosophy is all about eliminating waste—that is, all the inefficiencies within a system that add complexity and bog down processes, resulting in sub-par delivery of services to stakeholders. By taking a lean approach—one that improves the transparency, speed and quality of business processes related to documents and information—government agencies can effectively reduce and even eliminate many of the root causes of waste that have traditionally plagued them.
Meanwhile, we’re also seeing the rise of correspondence management technology (aka correspondence management technology) across governmental departments and entire organizations—easy-to-use, customizable solutions that are successfully tackling wasteful government inefficiencies and consequently proving that yes, the public sector actually can do more with less!
The key lies in intelligent workflow of all governmental correspondence. More specifically, by identifying and removing unnecessary process steps and activities, agencies can achieve two major wins: they gain better transparency into how their current processes work, and they can modify or eliminate and replace those processes to ensure a smoother, more consistent flow.
At its most basic level, document or correspondence management software makes the overall management of all pertinent government files seamless, efficient, and easy—regardless of process, location or device. Through an intelligent platform, users with secure access control can capture, digitalize and automate all critical correspondences within their organization—essentially tying them together, even across separate departments and disparate systems. Add in the ability to tag and approve tasks, audit trails, streamline search and retrieval of related activities, and facilitate the completion of tasks—and now you’ve got a lean-enabling governmental correspondence system!
The business potential for using this type of technology is extremely high for local and state/provincial governments. Consider all the uses! Workflow automation and tracking of Access to Information requests and Help Desk services. Case management of complaints or Ombudsman Office inquiries. Facilitating greater enforcement and compliance of bylaws. And much, much more.
The sky is the limit for governments where intelligent correspondence management is concerned. And best of all? Optimizing your lean government operation is not as complex, time- or resource-intensive as it may seem!