Managing Change, the Centrelink Experience: Service Delivery in the Public Service

Managing Change, the Centrelink Experience:

          Service Delivery in the Public Service
                              Sue Vardon CEO

Centrelink was created to take the complexity of government from in-front of
the counter to behind the counter. Later in our development, the 'counter'
became the place wherever the citizen began an engagement with Centrelink
- at a physical site including a person's home, on-call, on-paper or on-line.
Our brief for reform also emphasised responsiveness and making
government more easily accessible. We are on a path to make this a reality
and electronic options play a very significant part in fulfilling these
aspirations.

Technology is constantly pushing the envelope of change whilst at the same
time providing the tools for managing the rapid pace of developments in
Information and Technology.

This paper gives a summary of how we have already harvested many of the
benefits of electronic delivery, outlines the future plans and concludes with a
few hard lessons learned and challenges yet to be overcome.

For us, the technology helps deliver today and transform tomorrow - the
theme of our current business plan and the mission of the information and
technology group within our organisation.

Behind the "counter", Centrelink offers over 70 products and services from
22 Commonwealth and State government agencies. These products and
services come to us as individually described arrangements with their own
rules and outcome aspirations. In the form they arrive they are almost all
designed narrowly and with their own name. It became obvious to us that the
first challenge in achieving responsive government was to describe these
differently, from the citizens perspective, so we now organise them through
the experience of the person who comes to us. We call it the 'life events'
framework. This framework is the pathway through which the present and
future electronic service channel is being developed.

Our present priority for improving the service-delivery framework can be
described as emphasising and integrating internal connections via the life
events front end with limited differentiation in channels for various customer
groups. Technology has been used to provide indirect services, improving
the capability of our people to deliver complex solutions quickly and for
some business to business transactions. The great potential for us is the
future development of the service options.

Governance

One of the most innovative features of Centrelink is its governance arrangements,
most notably that it has an Executive Board of Management most of whom come
from the private sector. The Board comprises the Chairman and 6 members - the
Chairman (Mr. John Pascoe), 2 departmental Secretaries from purchaser agencies,
the CEO as an Executive member, and 3 Non-Executive members from the private
sector. With the exception of the 2 departmental Secretaries, all members of the
Board are voting members. The departmental Secretaries are non-voting members
to ensure there is no conflict of interest under purchaser/provider arrangements.

      With the exception of the CEO, the Minister for Family and Community
      Services appoints all the Board members. The Board appoints the CEO.

      The functions and powers of the Board are set out in the enabling legislation.
      The Board has been concerned to ensure that comprehensive audit,
      accountability and risk management processes are in place and that they are
      regarded as being of the highest priority by management. They balance these
      issues with the need to ensure that Centrelink becomes competitive by
      reducing its prices to the levels in the private sector and improving the
      standard of service in line with the needs of customers and purchaser
      agencies.

      In the first year we completed the task of physically establishing Centrelink,
      on time and under budget. The Australian National Audit Office audited the
      project and reported to the Australian Parliament that it was best practice.

Centrelink Partnerships

The role of policy departments is increasingly focussed on policy, contract
management and regulation. The shared challenges for Centrelink and its purchaser
departments and agencies continue to be the successful handling of the following
issues:
             •   As Centrelink builds delivery mechanisms which fold together a
                 number of policy streams across portfolios, this process of itself
                 brings about greater co-ordination of policy across government;

             •   The processes for briefing ministers and supporting them in
                 carrying out their responsibilities in Executive Government and
                 within the Parliament;

             •   The nature of the support Centrelink provides to portfolio
                 Secretaries in the Budget process and the policy development
                 processes more broadly;

             •   The development of more appropriate contracts and associated
                 specification of outcomes and performance measures;

             •   Joint approaches to product design and business process
                 re-design;

             •   The design of processes to formalise relationships and resolve
                 conflicts; and

•   The cultural change required both within the leadership groups
           and at the policy and delivery interfaces to a focus on alliances
           and partnership as a foundation for contract management over the
           long term.

       Centrelink Service Delivery Model

The Centrelink service delivery model is customer centric and based on the
events that our customers may experience in their lives, rather than just the
particular payment or payments for which they may be eligible and for which
they have obligations.

Centrelink has for some years offered a range of servicing options in the
electronic service delivery arena.

Indirect Services

To ensure that people who have been granted a payment of benefit on time,
in a year, we make 232 million payments electronically through 350
financial institutions.

One of the fastest growing services we provide is called Centrepay, a
voluntary option to have deductions taken from those payments to pay
essential bills such as rent. In the last year we made 4.6 million direct
deductions for these housing and utility payments.

Triggers from our database issue 100 million letters enclosing health care
    cards, advice of changes to payments and review requests.

    Customer Service

    The people of Australia have the choice of talking with officers directly in
    Centrelink offices or our agents, mobile workers can visit them or they can
    ring on the phone. The whole of Centrelink's customer service sits on a
    Technology platform which is ranked number 4 across the country for the
    size of its Information Technology network distributions.

    On a typical day, I&T support:

• 55 000 business function points in 14 million lines of code (primarily
COBOL and Model 204);

•    Delivered through 8 000 functions on 3,200 screens;

•    To 31 000 desktops (4th largest in Australia and 400 LAN servers;

•    In 1 000 sites;

•    Which means that 13 000 user concurrently;

•   Generate 12 million online transactions each day (3rd largest in the world)
with an average response time of less than 3 seconds and a systems availability
of 99.9% in business hours;

•    Updating 9 000 information items per customer;

•    On 14 million customer records (9th largest in the world);

•    As well as 8 000 batch jobs;

•  Using more than 8 500 terabytes (that's 25 million megabytes) of
knowledge data each week.

The rate of change is increasing each year and Centrelink is in the unique
position of servicing over 22 business clients. So at any one point in time I&T
is usually working on 29 releases concurrently, resulting in approximately
1,500 releases each year. There are 28 Centrelink Call Centres in Australia. In
early 1998 we created a national, virtual centre operation by:

•   Linking the then 17             Call   Centres   together     on   a   common
telecommunications platform;

•  Improving call handling significantly through enhanced call routing and
queue management;

•    Accessing leading edge technology and support services through outsourced

platform management.

To move forward into the new Online service delivery environment required of
all Federal agencies by government and to position Centrelink to be at the
forefront of developments, the following directions in our telephony strategy
are now ready for development:

•   Computer Telephony Integration - integrating the telephony and computer
technologies to provide new customer self service choices and to bring new
tools directly onto the desktop of Centrelink's customer service officers;

•   Interactive Voice Response - moving beyond the clunky "press options 1,
press option 2, please hold" response facility to opportunities opened up by
voice recognition, greater matching of customer needs to Centrelink staff skills
and leading towards integration with web-based services;

•    Inbound and outbound strategies - moving beyond just waiting for calls to
proactively contacting customers on a personalised basis; this mans fewer
letters and more direct contact, at times suiting customers.

Centrelink is starting in 2001/2002 by putting in place:

•   Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) into its Call Centres;

•   New tools to assist staff; screen pop (presenting customer information right
on the desktop) and soft phone (literally putting the phone into the computer to
improve process);

•   Enhanced call routing and performance reporting.

In the next two years there are other initiatives going beyond simply having a
customer wait in a queue, to being matched through skills based routing to an
experienced customer service officer, who is focused on their situation.

Customers have access to touch screens in Centrelink offices, on which they
use Australian JobSearch facilities provided electronically by Department
Employment Workplace Relations & Small Business.

Supporting the Customer Service Officer (CSO)

The Customer Service Officer faces an interesting array of decision information
and rules changes. Considerable resources have been spent on developing
software applications which make their life easier.

Some have been about improving the front end of a process to eliminate forms,
to incorporate assessment tools and to provide a comprehensive checklist of all
the options available to the customer.

It has become clear that I&T has more potential to support this decision making
and there are three very important projects well advanced to do that.

•   Our very comprehensive electronic reference suite, which replaced paper
manuals pre Centrelink, is now being fitted with new search engine providing
instant access to policy and practice advice. Uses the principle -' write once -
publish many'.

•    A new front end called Accessing Centrelink will stream customers through
life events into service choices and solution and will direct people to decision
support. If we know them, details will be automatically populated. This will
replace 450 forms - but only with an intelligent system behind it.

•   In conjunction with Softlaw, we are delivering the Edge Project, a decision
support system that will guide the CSO through the technical rules and provide
likely answers to questions of eligibility. The complex families area is nearly
complete and then we will move onto retirement.

Remote Servicing

Staff and our remote members have online, real time access to all services, both
from their office and from their mobile laptops, via dedicated lines and satellite
communication modes to some of the remotest parts of Australia such as
Maningrida. They also have access to an extensive Intranet and an extensive
satellite communication network connecting all of our offices. The
GartnerGroup has recognised this as close to best practice.

Business to Business

Centrelink is in the process of converting its major suppliers to an electronic
commerce system. We also provide organisations with the ability to confirm a
customer's identity and eligibility for concessions. This electronic confirmation
facilitates ease of service delivery for organisations such as state departments as
well as a growing number of local government bodies.

In other arenas, Centrelink is discussing more efficient ways of interacting with
businesses and education institutions. We exchange data with 160 such
organisations. Data matching with Tax and Corrections are some examples.

The recent decision of the government to create the Family Assistance Office
(FAO) through a trio of sites, Centrelink, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and
the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) meant that we had to develop an
extranet to enable ATO & HIC to access information from Centrelink FAO
system for enquiries. In building the extranet, 80 new pieces of technology
(both hardware and software) were developed.

In terms of actual delivery, the following statistics give you some idea of our
service and transaction base, on an annual basis. To or on behalf of our 6.4
million active customers, we:

•   make 232 million payments electronically through 350 financial institutions

•   send 100 million letters

•   carry out 116 000 home visit reviews

•   book 6.5 million appointments

•   receive 20 million incoming calls

•   take over 30 million hits on our website

•   deliver 4.6 million direct deductions for housing and utility payments in the
past year

•   exchange data electronically with 160 organisations

•   offer online access to Australian Job Search through 300 touchscreen kiosks
located in Centrelink customer service offices.

Customer Self-help

This year, there have been 30 million hits on our web site which is available in
41 different languages. Half a million publications and fact sheets have been
downloaded at the same time and 14 thousand forms are downloaded each
month.

Customers can use the Interactive Voice Response option to fast track through
simple enquiries on their personal details or talk to an operator.

Over 3 000 people per week are communicating via e-mail access via the web
site. This is not an advertised service. We have two call centres which reply by
telephone as we are yet to finalise issues of identification. Even if we can
allocate secure pin numbers, this is a labour intensive option we do not wish to
expand. We are happily operating a level of encryption equivalent to the banks.

Our preferred option is to increase the range of fully automated transactions, for
example, customer self-service update of personal data and self-service
lodgment via telephone or Internet.

The Future Plans....

•  We will continue to build on the basics of customer service but will
emphasise customer relationship management;

•  We will manage channels better to suit expectations and to maximise the
cheapest channel;

•   We will use new technologies where appropriate after careful thought not
just because they are there;

•   We will remove the 2/3 of process which is not value added before we make
big investments;

•   We will be 24X7 using automation where possible but the level of service
will vary;

•   We will develop - external connectivity capability enabling government
policy reform which shares service delivery with the non-government sectors -
as the I&T specialist would say we will be boundary free;

•     We will promote further e-business;

•     We will use our capability to reduce the digital divide;

•     We will not force the on-line channel onto our people who are not ready for
it;

•     We will aim for seamlessness.

Centrelink has to maintain its reputation for its operational excellence as a
trusted guardian of private and personal information. We see service delivery as
the right services provided to the right customer through the right channels.

It is unacceptable to provide a flashy web site and call that service, we need
greater depth. We are taking a cautious approach, focusing on building the
foundations for those capabilities which we really need. This is our most
precious asset. Our cautious approach has paid off to date as we watch others
invest in technologies which are not ready and which cause consumer distrust.

We have started with our customers, examining some of the main issues to
determine their demand for services and how those services are delivered.
There is a strong balance between what is convenient for the customer and cost
effective delivery. So a good channel management strategy is fundamental to
our business.

The essential questions for the development of an effective channel
management strategy:

•     What do people think they want?

•     What do people actually want?

•     Does the channel match the transaction?

•   Can we afford it or have we the capability to deliver it?

•   What external constraints are there?

Our regular Value Creation Workshops help us to assess this. These sessions
are run through our Customer Service Centres and are based on the concept of a
focus group. The information gathered from customers in this forum is
invaluable and has informed our management since the beginning.

Channel Management

A good channel management strategy takes into account the new costs and
complexities involved in new channels and mixing channels. It anticipates the
latent demand and ensures the capability is in place on a 'just in time basis'. And
of course, the management of channel use, customer uptake and problems
encountered is a foundation stone for customer relationship management.

Centrelink's Channel Management Strategy

•   Understands the customer

•   Delivers the service

•   Integrates new channels with the business

•   Manages the multi-channel transaction

•   Is ready for new costs and complexities

•   Anticipates latent demand

•   Monitors progress and problems

Aligning Channel, Process, Customer and Risk

The key elements of service in 2005 for Centrelink customers will be access,
choice, value, integration, connecting and brokering. Much of how we will
provide these services will be based on the use of technology. One of the key
differences is the connectivity to a full range of services provided and
brokered by Centrelink, applicable to the individual's circumstances.

We will operate as a value network, having established partnerships and
alliances with a range of providers in the human services sector and will have
extended our reach into associated industries.

Re-engineering the Business Process

On this we have been influenced by Marion Broadbent, VP R&D for Gartner
- who spoke of the move from bricks and mortar to 'bricks and clicks'. The
big challenge for Centrelink is transforming the organisation into a "bricks
and clicks" customer-centric culture, because we have realised that
everything changes: e.g. strategy, management, business processes,
performance measures, organisational structure, technology use, people, and
capabilities.

We have learned that we have to plan first and act fast. We have to do things
on different planning horizons simultaneously, immediate and strategic
developments. On the immediate horizon are initiatives such as the roll out
of the Web Post Office to deliver letters electronically to students instead of
via the post, electronic lodgment of continuation forms, and establishing
information on every service in Australia to the whole non-government
community using Community Concessions.

On the strategic horizon are those initiatives which take longer to build. To
this end, we have developed and continue to expand, Centrelink Online
which exploits the value of existing systems and delivers connectivity to
anyone, anywhere, anytime for individual customers and corporate clients.

Synchronising the immediate and strategic initiatives will establish the
platform for the future. At the same time, we have embraced risk
management as a core capability with a willingness to articulate risks and
monitor and manage those risks on a regular basis.

Within our portfolio of e-initiatives, we are looking for:

E-creations - initiatives which transform the organisation eg. Expert system
support for life events, community connections, portals, proactive customer
support through the use of outbound dialer technologies.

E-enhancements - initiatives which sustain customer interaction and
satisfaction eg. Automatic customer referrals, Accessing Centrelink to
streamline access from 450+ forms into 1, e-mail, video conferencing across
the entire network with remote customers, computer and telephony
integration, fully automated self service options.

E-efficiencies - initiatives which support business on a daily basis eg.
E-procurement, Enterprise Information Portal, Infolink employee self service,
Centrelink Education Network.

Lessons and Challenges

We have learned that we need dynamic and cohesive leadership, with the
Chief Information Officer as a key member of the Executive - an executive
who acts as advocates for collaboration and organisational change, shaping
organisational structures and process and promoting the concept of one
business. For us this has meant increasing the understanding of the non I&T
Senior Executive Service by regularly providing them with sessions on I and
T.

Our I&T people have had to learn to speak in language that others including
the CEO can understand.

We have to manage the tension between innovation and the search for
excitement and the discipline of sustainable execution. Centrelink has to
operate as 1 business with cultural, strategic and operational alignment
between all parts of our business and in particular recognising I&T as a
strategic partner and service provider. This means that when big projects like
streamlining processes or the welfare reform agenda are being discussed,
I&T people are there from the beginning as equal partners.

There are challenges intrinsic to computer use which effect a great many of
our customers and which broaden the digital divide. Some examples:

The accessibility of computers due to cost or location

If a computer can be located, the constant updating of programs and software
creates problems with "keeping up" with technology.

Lack of computer knowledge and skills - due to a range of issues.

Using computer technology doesn't assist with existing literacy/numeracy
problems.

We have learnt that as tempting as it is to open an interactive Internet
channel, the resources required to service it are prohibitive. We have to go
self service.

We have under used our capability for using technology to enhance policy.
Information about the transaction will be as important as the information
passed in the transaction. Captured by the thousands, this information
provides rich data for policy making. We will provide much more value
added service when we utilise our data bi-products.

When seeking efficiencies and standard consistent processes the 'build once
use many' principle is applied. Many of our innovations today are founded on
the infrastructure of yesterday. All our business capability, now and in the

future - today and tomorrow is underpinned by the enhanced Centrelink On
Line i-net infrastructure. We have connected our legacy, or 'heritage' systems
to 'middleware' which can receive and interpret incoming enquiries from any
device - PC, kiosk, telephone, palm pilot - conduct the transaction by
accessing the right data-base (either Centrelink's, or a partner) and send the
answer/data back out again. It enables seamless service because all our
channels rely/rest on it and so multi-channel servicing (without the customer
starting all over again) is easy.

Responding to change means we have to change - constantly.

We know that we need defined governance and business processes which
ensure a clear understanding of decision points, clarity of individual
executive accountabilities, and the roles of partners and suppliers for
individual initiatives.

We understand the importance of knowing, thinking, and planning before the
plunge and we take developments in small chunks, constantly monitoring
progress, and learning as we grow.

Conclusion

The Australian Government has recently reviewed the way that welfare is
currently delivered and has proposed a number of reforms. Centrelink is the
key player in this reform process and the moves being promoted to deliver
better service and solutions across the industry provides an opportunity for
Centrelink to position itself as an integral part of the human services
industry.

The e-business revolution is having a significant impact on Centrelink. As
with many other organisations we must be prepared to work the options in
crafting a role for I&T that satisfies our obligations to our customers and
clients whilst delivering the Governments' Welfare Reform priorities.

Centrelink (as a partner with several other Government organisations) is an
organisation that has a high rate of systems change - we have one of the most
responsive IT shops in the world in comparison with many other complex
organisations. This forces us to look at alternative means of delivering faster
whilst ensuring the quality and consistency of our information and business
products and anticipating the optimal way to manage change across a range
of business partners.

There are opportunities emerging for a broad range of alliances and
partnerships with community and private sector organisations to expand
reach and create value with speed and confidence.

The next generation of projects under consideration will see us move to Full
Electronic Commerce whereby Centrelink will be able to deliver full
seamless integration of services to customers across all channels irrespective
of program sources. This development will ensure our complete flexibility in
service delivery and, whilst providing the vehicle for exploiting the benefits
of the e-revolution, it will also lessen the impact of change.

                            Source: http://www.ausdaily.com.au/ 04/11/2002