Reach - Getting people to use electronic government

The portal implementation can be successful only if people can access the services it provides. The potential efficiency and service improvement gains will only be achieved if the uptake is high. This cluster of initiatives focuses on getting people to use the New Zealand Government Portal.

Determine what the customers would like online to establish critical mass

The most effective way to encourage people to use the portal is to provide services and information that deliver immediate value and convenience to them. This means analysing what services and information are delivered by agencies, what the demand for these services is, and the cost of meeting those requirements. The subsequent supply of these services will fuel further demand.

A framework will be developed to prioritise initiatives. 'Priority areas' are those that make the most difference to customers, such as:

• where transaction volumes and user numbers are high

• where there is interaction not just publication

• where the implementation is easy and low risk

• where services can be joined up.

Work with lead agencies and develop critical mass

Quick wins can be delivered by working closely with leading agencies involved with provision of information and services to a significant proportion of the community on a regular basis. As stated above, many agencies have already started to deliver these services online. The forms and services inventory projects are designed to scope these current and future activities. We need to work with these agencies and others in the production of their information systems and services strategies. This will be done with a view to integration and consistency with the New Zealand Government Portal strategy without compromising agency business requirements.

Make information and services easy to find

Customers will need to be able to find information and services easily in a variety of ways. Key components of any portal are the navigation systems, search capabilities and menus that enable customers to find what they want. Good search systems will alleviate information overload. This will require establishment of a metadata system and appropriate mechanisms to filter and search the information. The portal should allow customers to filter by topic, audience, service type, region, and life event. The region or geographical characteristic will become increasingly important as services are customised and local government services are integrated. The portal should also provide a context-sensitive, free text search facility to cater for a known term. Making the portal easy-to-use will require continuous monitoring of its usability. The initial development should incorporate user testing on a range of mock-up systems to determine the effectiveness of filter and search mechanisms.

It is important to organise the portal around customers. The portal could provide a variety of views - and the user can choose the view that best meets their need at the time. For example, a user who is just wanting to submit a GST return can choose a service directory view, a user who wants to know about benefits can choose a functional view, someone who has just had a baby can choose the life-event view, and there could be specific views for customer groups such as disabled, aged, youth, women and so on.

Life events will span public, private and community organisations. So the life event model must include government and non-government agencies.

There are two approaches for implementing life-events :

1. the portal can have a life-event comprising a predefined set of links to online services from providers

2. the services concerned can have standard meta-data definitions/search keys which will allow the grouping of all appropriate services on demand from customer dynamically.

The most appropriate approach is dependent on the nature of life-event and the constituents who provide the support services for the life event.

Make information and services easy to use

The services and information available must be easy to use. Ease of use is determined by a combination of such factors as the quality of the links, feedback access, terminology, design, navigation, intuitive use, multiple views and good quality metadata. Ease of use will be enhanced further by two sets of standards:

• Web Look and Feel standards. The Web portal and closely aligned sites should have a similar look and feel to help establish and maintain brand. Search engines should work the same way. Information to be entered into a form should be similar in terms of what it is called and the order in which it is captured.

• Web standards. Web standards will be developed to facilitate the broadest possible access to the New Zealand Government Portal and related sites. They will incorporate technical standards around disabled access, access via slow bandwidth or text-based browsers. It will promote best-practice standards for provision of feedback and help facilities.

Provide metadata of high quality

For filtering and search capabilities to work effectively, the metadata must be of high quality. One way of achieving this is to use a controlled thesaurus. The following points should be given due consideration to enhance the quality of metadata:

• Agencies should be responsible for populating all metadata except life event and topic.

• Only authorised trained staff with the agency or portal should populate the topic, from a controlled thesaurus.

• Life events to be populated centrally from an individual perspective and incorporate services and information from both agencies, and if appropriate, from the wider community.

Develop an integrated access channel strategy

Several integrated access channel issues need resolution. These include:

• Integration of portal-based services with call centres and physical offices. It is critical that agency channels are organised to complement and support the electronic services from the portal, providing the same quality and consistency of service irrespective of the channel used. Call centres and service staff in agency offices as well as service providers could use the portal as the primary mechanism to meet customer requirements. This would improve consistency in customer service delivery.

• Integration of government agencies and call centres to provide a uniform relationship between the government and the citizen or customer. This would mean cross-training of staff and consolidation of front offices or call centres. A combination of these options is feasible. The channel strategy could be consistently extended and applied across all government agencies. Any opportunities for common infrastructure components (such as a common helpdesk for integrated service delivery across all agencies) would be leveraged.

• A multitude of electronic channels are available for the customers. Since most people will continue to have a high degree of access to phones, it is expected that call centres will be preferred channels for the medium term at least. In New Zealand, Web TV and WAP phones are in their preliminary stages of market deployment - but if New Zealand follows overseas trends, these channels will become quickly established. The channel strategy will need to consider the most cost-effective and effective means of access for different types of interactions, customer segments and contexts.