The flip side of COVID-19 – Local Governments have built the foundations for the future of Citizen Services!

The Pandemic thrust Local Governments in the UK into a new operating environment.

Strange as it may seem or complicated as it may be to admit, there could be some “positives” resulting from COVID-19. Local Governments moved with agility (as a necessity) to respond to the demands of a new environment – accelerating innovations in approach and flexibility of Local Government responses that otherwise may not have become a reality.

We do not intend to overlook the Pandemic's devastating impact and many challenges over the past years. Instead, we want to focus on local government's efforts that enabled agility, innovation, collaboration, and positive impact in service delivery for communities within and across borders.

Some examples of innovation in Local Government service delivery during COVID-19 include:

• Provision of resources and information across engagement channels to support emotional well-being.
• Active collaboration between Agencies and across Counties that enable coordinated enforcement and appropriate resource allocation.
• Process automation and dynamic updates of data entries that will allow daily reporting for optimised response.

Furthermore, we have also seen how specific Local Governments have worked with relevant state agencies to collaborate in setting up vaccination centres, managing supply chains and logistics operations, managing inventory processing, and managing schedules for vaccinations – no mean feat given the complexity of supply, distribution, administration, and the associated data privacy legislation. The ability to deliver these impactful socio-economic outcomes transcend mere service delivery as Local Governments have protected the vulnerable, communities and ultimately saved lives.

The above examples are a testament to the ability of Local Governments (across the globe and specifically within the UK) to “assimilate” and to “reorganise” in times of crisis to address urgent and yet fluid service delivery priorities. Notably, the service delivery capabilities that Local Governments have operationalised during COVID-19 are a showcase of “innovation at the edge” and can be further refined and matured to balance service delivery against complex socio-economic demands that result from severe societal disruption – considering rising interest rates, the looming energy crisis, soaring inflation and the associated economic pressure on consumers and businesses who are the constituents of Local Government.

A unique position to consolidate efforts and investments (in response to COVID-19) to realise greater public value.

In “turning the corner” on COVID-19, leading Local Governments will now focus on connecting Citizen service innovations into daily operations so that they can holistically account for expenditures and citizen experiences and thus measure the value of achieved outcomes. Furthermore, the value of achieved results can also be enhanced through the ability to predict and plan for resource allocation and associated costs, thus allowing for “real-time” financial and improved organisational management.

So, the question beckons – how can Local Government organisations refine their already deployed innovation capabilities to deliver further transformation and digital maturity? The answer to that is threefold:

1. Step 1 - Enable a modern digital foundation.
2. Step 2 (Where a modern digital foundation already exists) - connect ad-hoc “edge-innovations” and associated capabilities to the modern digital foundation.
3. Step 3 (Where ad-hoc “edge-innovations” and related capabilities are already connected to the existing modern digital platform) - embed innovations into the platform to enable enduring and holistically managed socio-economic outcomes.

Shall we consider the importance of a modern digital foundation?

A core component of a Local Government’s digital arsenal is a modern Enterprise Resource Planning (‘ERP’) capability that allows for the joint execution of business processes and business analytics. Comprehensive and best-practice Public Sector specific functionality must be automated and delivered within the ERP through innovative technologies that enhance public value and reduce technological complexity. The ERP must be technology-enabled and allow Local Governments to adopt pre-packaged innovation for enhanced service delivery.

Let’s make it practical – specific Local Governments worked with relevant state agencies to implement contact centres during COVID-19, and these contact centres offered better access to essential services. Over time, Local Governments expanded the mandates of these contact centres to become the first point of contact for reporting potential COVID-19 cases and managing testing for persons unable to test through national systems. Whilst the contact centres addressed immediate citizen priorities during the height of COVID-19, many of them are still “isolated” and disconnected from the broader Local Government portfolio of services and can be considered sub-optimal in delivering holistically managed public services. However, when connected to a Local Government’s ERP, the ability to proactively manage and measure the operational impact of provided services is enabled. For example, contact centre agents can create a specific case when they receive a call to report a potential COVID-19 infection, and automatic notifications are then sent to specialised personnel (e.g., registered volunteer nurses) who create a request to visit the citizen. The visit request is translated into a visit plan that informs of the citizen details, location, date and time, volunteer nurse details, transport details (for the nurse), and details of materials to be collected/prepared for the visit. At the same time, costs are automatically gathered and recorded within the ERP. Beyond the delivery of the specific citizen service (i.e., a personal visit from a registered nurse), the actual cost of the citizen service can be recorded, whilst the service delivery is optimised through resource prioritisation, allocation, and planning!

The way forward.

This is the first in a series of blogs where SAP’s most prominent Public Sector experts will “unpack” and describe “how best to” enhance the value of already deployed innovation capabilities across Local Governments. Within this blog series - we will continue to expand upon the topic of a modern digital foundation by providing practical examples of connecting innovation to an established ERP capability.

“What” should Local Governments that “tackled” the Pandemic head-on through delivering impactful innovation (in technology and associated operating models) focus on next? Our perspective – explore “how” to embed innovation into a modern digital foundation to enable enduring and holistically managed socio-economic outcomes.

Look out for the next blog in this series where we will build upon provided examples and inform of practical approaches to operationalise innovation for longer-term public value realisation!

Sohail Carim, Jim White and Simon Carpenter

For additional insights regarding SAP's offerings that enable state and local governments to take advantage of new technologies and breakthrough innovations (to create a more proactive, automated, foresighted, data-driven, and citizen-focused organisation) - please see Ruth Eberhart's blog here: A New Government Operating Environment: S/4 HANA Cloud for Public Sector | SAP Blogs