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An Introduction to Government Use of SMS

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    Notes on slide 1

    This is the order that my presentation is going to take. I’m going to tell you why Lucy Weston-Taylor and I prepared the introduction on SMS in the first place, explain its purpose, very briefly introduce the case studies that we covered in it, go over the lessons we’ve learnt, and then discuss where we’re going with this in the future.

    Something that we say here about any technology that we talk about is that it should never be used simply for technology’s sake. My work is all about helping government agencies find solutions to their issues and those solutions _may_ involve a kind of technology. But it should be about problem solving, not shiny pretty things.

    So, first of all, why did we decide to investigate government use of SMS? I mean, it’s not a new technology. Well, here’s why… Large market penetration of cellphone usage, and people are becoming used to receiving information and services over that channel, from jokes, weather forecasts to concert tickets, gig guides etcSMS has been mainstream for ten years, but it’s moved from person-to-person to open up capacity for business-to-person or government-to-person. Technology means that you don’t have to sit thumbing out thousands of messages – you can type one message on a computer and send it to thousands of people – or have it automatically pulled out of a database to send thousands of different messages to thousands of people as necessary.

    We wanted to make sure that we had examples both of texting in and texting out, as well as service delivery AND communications tools.

    The text messages feed into a data base, and if there are any alerts on that plate, users need to log in to the Personal Property Security Register (PPSR) website to view the details. Searches cost $1 each. MED really value the scheme, and see it as part of making the PPSR search service more accessible to the public. They definitely want it to continue, and would like to promote it more in the future.This is an example of service-based delivery

    Immigration New Zealand (INZ) discovered that a large number of calls to their contact centres were enquiring about the status of work permit applications.The SMS scheme takes very little to run – maintaining it is only 0.25 of a full-time employee’s time. The scheme is very cost efficient for Immigration. It costs less than $50,000 a year to run whereas the same functionality delivered through outbound calls and letters would cost somewhere between $600 thousand to a million dollars per year.- 80 to 90% of clients queried said that as a result they had made fewer calls to the call centre, 99% approved of the concept and wanted Immigration to investigate further.they won a TUANZ award, made headlines when they presented at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and have been contacted by immigration departments from other countries who are interested in starting something similar.Database set up in such a way that they can pull out information when needed, such as texting seasonal workers about worker shortages in the Hawkes Bay, or in the case of the Bangkok airport crisis they could have let people whose visas had expired know that they would be okay

    They really like it for a number of reasons. Primarily:It is efficient. Staff at Collections need to contact a great many people. SMS is a fast and easy way of doing this – it is more efficient than phone calls.It is non-intrusive. Often people don't actually want to hear from Collections, and SMS is a less confrontational way of delivering the same message. Also, some people are wary of picking up phone calls from restricted numbers, and maybe the fact that it is free to receive texts has anything something to do with it - if a voice message is left on a cell phone, it costs to retrieve it Collections think that they are achieving their goals, insofar as the higher turn out at court counts as evidence that it's working.

    - they got 1,200 texts after their first 30 second advert on television in 2005.100 thousand (valid address) texts were received in the lead up to the 2005 election, 124 thousand (valid address) texts were received in the lead up to the 2008 election (the 2008 election had a slightly longer lead up, which accounts for some of the difference). When it is not a lead up to an election, and they are not running ad campaigns, they get about 200-300 texts per month. The EEC see this facility as a really good initiative which complements their other methods for people to request enrolment forms and will continue to offer the service in the future.

    Here are the key things that those agencies liked about using SMS

    SMS is a good vehicle for short straightforward messages. Agencies may wish to use another communication channel for more complicated, long or disputed messages.

    Some departments use cell phone numbers that they have previously collected from their customers for their SMS service. Theconcernabout this practice is thatpersonalinformation held by the government is usedonly for the purpose for which it was collectedor a directly related purpose.Agencies need to check that the SMS that they want to send is directly related. Otherwise, they need to seek consent from people, or ask them to opt in.While the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 does not apply to government departments, it should be treated as a best practice document. In essence, the Act says to be clear about who the sender of texts is, and to provide a functional way for the recipients to indicate that they do not wish to receive messages in the future – a way to unsubscribe.

    It is probably the message that you want to keep, not HOW you’re sending it out, but either way, any consideration of implementing SMS services should involve your record keepers from the get go. It is also very important to consider how you’re going to be structuring your database so that those smses can be kept, and searched.

    SMS are not usually encrypted technology, and intercepted messages may contain personal information. In order to be an authoritative source of information, agencies need to make sure that their text message systems are secure. The potential for embarrassment and confusion if SMS services were hacked and inauthentic messages were sent is quite considerable – consider the impact if malicious texts were sent out claiming to be from Immigration New Zealand saying work permits were cancelled, for example. For more information, see http://www.smsspoofing.com/

    SMS is used effectively as a one-way outbound channel, or as a channel that sends automated replies to inbound messages. However agencies need to realise that in implementing a SMS service, they are opening up a two-way channel, irrespective of their intentions. Dealing with inbound messages individually is a time-consuming task, and many agencies may not have the personnel to meet demand. If an agency does not want reply to individual inbound messages, there needs to be a clear strategy for dealing with these unsolicited texts (these could be queries, comments, feedback, abuse), and these customers should be steered into using a different communication channel. It is important that text messages that are received are acknowledged in some form. Automatic filters may help to sort inbound messages into appropriate response categories.

    It is not unheard of for telecommunications companies to become overloaded, and therefore time-critical messages should have a back-up system in place.

    Conversely, it may be problematic for people who have vision problems, of course. The point is that of course you need to consider the accessibility of your services, and text messaging is a viable option for some hearing-impaired people who might not otherwise use a cell phone. Many hearing-impaired people find text-messaging to be an ideal form of communication, as no audible conversation is needed. However, those who are visually impaired are less likely to use text-messaging. As with other factors, multiple channels of message delivery therefore need to be considered.

    Like 0900 telephone numbers before them, SMS offers the opportunity for “pay to text” services, that allow charges to be put onto a customer’s phone bill instantly. MED use this feature for their $1 charge to use TXTB4UBUY, and there is the potential for other agencies to develop similar services.

    Ideally before any agency starts text-messaging their customers, they would have asked for explicit permission beforehand. In asking for that permission, agencies should also offer alternative forms of contact – email, telephone, postal service, and so forth. How will a customer’s preferred form of contact be noted?

    Agencies need to be realistic about their audience when they start offering an SMS service. They may be inundated with responses, or they may get fewer responses than expected. Either way it is important to be prepared with a backup plan for extra support, or extra promotion of the service. It can be hard to anticipate how people will respond to your service and/or communications. Which leads us nicely to…

    Your success will depend on what your goals are. Are you intending to get 5000 people to sign up? Promote a wider understanding of your core business? Reduce calls to the call centre? This will come back to the problem that you’re trying to solve by using SMS.

    Are you trying to attract new customers? Or would you like existing customers to take advantage of your service? How are you going to let them know about it? If an agency’s measures of success include a large uptake of the SMS service, it may need to be promoted, either through advertising such as the Electoral Enrolment Centre’s campaign to get people to enrol to vote via SMS, or through other forms of contact with the agency. It is important to consider the costs of promotion when preparing a budget for the promotion.

    By changing the way that one part of the agency communicates, you may be opening up a door to change throughout the whole agency. Or you may not. Either way, if you’re trialling SMS, it would be wise to consult beyond your team as it may involve others. Agency teams much consider the impact that an SMS scheme will have on the agency as a whole. Are there other branches that will need access to the scheme? Is this going to take traffic away from another department?

    Remember the fax machine? They were all hot and cool and exciting for a very brief time – and then along came email. Fax machines still exist, of course, but they’re not used all that much. Most forms will ask you for an email address, not a fax number. As discussed under 'future trends', mobile internet is becoming more popular in New Zealand. If agencies are committed to developing ways that the public can interact via text message, they should also consider how customers may want to access their services in the future.

    The \"Effective Electronic Records Management in 21st Century Government\" project was undertaken as part of the Chair in E-Government's research programme, which intends to produce research of relevance to government agencies and the IT industry. This research project follows up on previous research into how public servants within New Zealand public service departments identify and manage emails of significant and long-term value. This project will extend the research focus to other emerging records, such as SMS messages, instant messaging, video, and wikis.

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    An Introduction to Government Use of SMS - Presentation Transcript

    1. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    2. An Introduction to Government Use of SMS State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    3. How it’s going to go • Why SMS? • What the Introduction is and what it isn’t • Case studies • Lessons learnt • Where to from here? State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    4. First, a caveat: Think first about a problem you have that you need to solve. Then consider if SMS may provide a solution to. Don’t jump on the SMS bandwagon just because it is new(ish) and shiny. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    5. Why SMS? • 90% of people in NZ own a cell phone • SMS can be used for communication AND service delivery • Plenty of corporations are doing it, so it is an entrenched part of society • There is buzz around 3G, iPhones, mobile internet and so on but SMS is holding strong State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    6. About the Introduction • It is a collection of case studies and some lessons learnt • It is meant to be a starting place for agencies considering SMS • It is not a definitive guide to everything you need to know, nor is it law State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    7. Case Studies In this talk I’m not going to go into great detail, but the Introduction isn’t signed off yet, and Chatham House rule apply. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    8. Four case studies: • MED • Immigration NZ • Collections • Electoral Enrolment Centre State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    9. TXTB4UBUY (the MED) • People can text in the number plate of a second-hand car before they buy it, to check if there are any unpaid fines or the like on the car. • On average, in 2008 there were 2500 text inquiries per month. • Having the search available via text message makes it accessible when people need it the most – when they’re in car yards. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    10. Immigration New Zealand (Department of Labour) • SMS updates on work permit status • Reduces calls to call-centre = great value for money • Potential to mine data further • They have had overwhelmingly good feedback from the scheme State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    11. Collections (The Ministry of Justice) • Collections Wellington ran a pilot scheme using text-messaging to contact people to remind them that they were due in court the next day. • Attendance rates have risen from 60% to a 90% attendance rate. • SMS is a non-intrusive way of contacting people State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    12. Electoral enrolment centre • Since 2002 the EEC have let people request enrolment packs via SMS. • They receive a large response – 124,000 before 2008 election • 37% of people who signed up for the electoral roll in the last six months before the 2008 election requested an enrolment form by text. • The service is free to users with EEC paying the text costs State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    13. What agencies thought were the best things about SMS • Improved service delivery (really good feedback) • Efficient one-way communications channel • People have their cellphones with them, immediacy of messaging • Large audience, most people text • People who may not have landlines will still often have cellphones • Non-intrusive State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    14. Lessons learnt: SMS is exactly that – a short message State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    15. Privacy issues need to be considered State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    16. Get your records management team involved from Day One. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    17. Protecting the authenticity of text messages from the government is vital State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    18. SMS is a two-way communications channel State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    19. SMS services are sometimes delayed and may not be ideal for time-critical messages State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    20. SMS can be helpful for those who are hearing-impaired State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    21. Paid services delivered via SMS can be charged to the customer easily State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    22. Consider your customer’s preference for how they would like to be contacted State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    23. Have a plan for a massive response and also no response at all State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    24. How will agencies define success? State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    25. The SMS service may need to be promoted and customers may need to opt-in State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    26. The use of SMS by a government agency may have an impact beyond the team it emerges from State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    27. SMS may be superseded by another technology in the future State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    28. Where to next? 1. Read it! 2. Share your own experiences! 3. Talk to Victoria University about it! 4. Report back to groups like this! State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    29. Read it – just as soon as it’s finished The Introduction to Government Use of SMS will be available soon at these locations near you: State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    30. Introduction to Government Use of SMS available from: • The Participation Wiki: http://wiki.participation.e.govt.nz/wiki/Main_Pa State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    31. Introduction to Government Use of SMS available from: • The E-Initiatives Wiki http://initiatives.e.govt.nz/wiki/E-initiatives What is the e-initiatives wiki? This site is a library of interesting projects across the New Zealand Public Sector that you can edit. What is an e-initiative? Any project across Government, often involving some kind of information and communications technology. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    32. Introduction to Government Use of SMS available from: • Web Standards Wiki http://webstandards.govt.nz/index.php/Home_ The New Zealand Government Web Standards and Recommendations aim to help government make well- designed web sites that enable access regardless of disability, web browser, mobile device, or connection speed. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    33. Introduction to Government Use of SMS available from: • Me! joanna.mcleod@ssc.govt.nz I’m also happy to meet with you to discuss the Introduction in greater depth. As long as you contact me before June 30, that is. State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    34. Victoria University Research Effective Electronic Records Management in the 21st Century The project is led by Professor Miriam Lips with research activities by Anita Rapson and Tony Hooper. Anita.Rapson@vuw.ac.nz State Services Commission Crown Copyright
    35. Any questions? State Services Commission Crown Copyright

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