1. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 3
Introduction
©2014 Neopost
in association with
May 2015
Channel Shift

2. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 2
Contents
Introduction. 03
Digital Service Delivery. 04
Digital Technologies. 05
What does Digital Government Involve? 06
Enabling Channel Shift and Digital by Default. 07
UItilising Open Standards. 08
Realising the Benefits of Channel Shift. 09
Areas for Deployment of Channel Shift 10
Conclusion. 11
Next Steps / About Neopost. 11
...The pace of the
digital environment
has accelerated
the need for
change and is
revolutionising how
government and
citizens interact....

3. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost
Introduction
3
Nearly 15 years ago the first
work around e-government
was introduced, relating to the
digitisation of governmental
services. The pace of the digital
environment has accelerated
the need for change and is
revolutionising how government
and citizens interact. For example
in their Digital Strategy document
of 2012 Her Majesty’s Revenue
and Customs (HMRC) noted that
some 813 million transactions
were processed digitally each
year. This illustrates growth rates
of circa 85%. The ‘always on’
culture and the essential nature of
digitisation are factors that drive
deep and pervasive change in
how we expect to interact, in our
day to day lives.
Channel Shift or Digital by
Default is a key initiative for
both central government and
the wider public sector. Policy
dictates a drive to introduce
more digital services, on the basis
of increased efficiencies in line
with digital migration. For many
public sector organisations, as
well as increased efficiencies
and sustainable cost savings,
there is a drive to introduce
more self serve public services.
From an audience perspective
Channel Shift is designed to
focus on improving citizen
engagement and accessibility
to frontline services, as well as
improving day to day operations
and interactions with citizens
and other key stakeholders.
Whilst there is a push towards
digital migration, organisations
should be mindful of maintaining
their interactions with certain
members of their communities,
through aligned traditional paper
based methods, where personal
preference dictates this is most
appropriate.
With particular regard to public
service, what does digitisation
look like and what needs to be
done to enable such services in
the future? This document looks
to understand these requirements
going forward.
The Digital by Default policy
and the overwhelming drive for
channel shift are clearly visible
within public service. But, why
this drive and what are the
perceived benefits? There are a
number of associated benefits,
which can be categorised into a
few broad areas.
Firstly, and most unsurprisingly,
austerity has given greater
focus on the need to introduce
sustainable cost savings. Central
Government and the wider public
sector, on an ongoing basis, are
driven to maintain and improve
frontline services, but with
reduced resource and at lower
deliverable costs. When deployed
correctly, the digitisation of
public services and how citizens
interact can deliver tangible
and significant savings, thus
protecting the public purse.
Secondly, it is important to look
at channel shift in the context
of individual processes. Whilst a
‘big bang’ approach can certainly
create impact, usually a more
considered approach to individual
processes and circumstances will
deliver greater benefits over the
longer term.
The final category revolves
around change and
transformation. In order to
deliver channel shift effectively,
and certainly to maximise the
associated benefits, organisations
may have to radically rethink their
communications strategies. Of
particular importance is a need
to consider how communications
support digital processes,
particularly around self-service
propositions. Of primary
importance is investigating
how to engage with citizens, to
manage demand and direct them
to new self service channels. It
is important to note that whilst
this remains a key driver a
strategy encompassing new and
traditional media is important, in
order to maintain engagement
across all demographics with
citizens.
Continued...

4. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 4
Digital Service Delivery
The UK government has
consistently reiterated its
commitment to digital service
delivery and encouraging citizens
to interact online with public
services. This commitment is
based on the belief that digital
contact should be the channel
of first resort for citizens and
businesses alike. The commitment
can be clearly evidenced by
various policy documents and the
establishment of the Government
Digital Service (GDS). A further
aspect of the Digital by Default
programme is the £10 million
investment decision in the
Identity Assurance element of the
programme. This initiative is all
about delivering a better, faster
and safer way of citizens proving
who they are, when accessing
government/public services.
More information on this topic
can be found at the GDS website:
https://gds.blog.gov.uk/category/
id-assurance/
Outside of the Public Sector,
the UK is seeing further rapid
increases in digital delivery.
More than 54% of UK adults
now use internet banking and
e-commerce represents nearly
17% of total UK sales, according
to the Office of National Statistics
(ONS). Demographics also have
an important part to play, with
over a quarter of adults and half
the UK’s teenagers now using
smartphones.
Going back to 2006 the Varney
Report identified the importance
of removing avoidable contact and
migrating to lower cost channels
in public service. In Sir Peter
Gershon’s review of public sector
efficiency, a savings target of £21.5
billion was identified. Latterly,
the report produced by Price
Waterhouse Coopers and Martha
Lane Fox stated that each contact
and transaction switched to online
channels could realise savings of
between £3.30 and £12.00.
Whilst increasing digital services
is the preferred method for
many stakeholders, organisations
should not forget the ‘digitally
disenfranchised’ and those whose
preference is still for traditional
paper based communication.
Although changing,
demographics clearly indicate an
audience for traditional methods
still exists.
The graph (right) highlights the
variance in age demographics of
citizens who have not used the
internet in the past 12 months. The
total suggests some significant
numbers of stakeholders still
have a preference for traditional
communications.
...continued
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75+
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Source: Brand Science Results Vault
8.8m adults stated they have not used
the internet in the last 12 months
n Yes n No

5. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 5
Digital Technologies
As mentioned previously,
government is faced with
the increasing challenge of
balancing competing demands.
How can public service delivery
be maintained with ongoing
economic and financial
constraints? Efficiencies and
effectiveness can be best
delivered by matching service
models with citizen preferences
in channel. Invariably, managing
such complex demands requires
innovative approaches to service
propositions and delivery.
Modern technologies increasingly
emphasise speed and mobility.
Although driven from personal
circumstance, such attitudes will
invariable migrate to expectations
around delivery of public services.
For example, Accenture’s
Technology Vision sees “every
business as a digital business”,
pinpointing digitisation as a key
enabler of strategic change.
Such a viewpoint is highly
relevant to the public sector,
in particular the need for
government to develop
relationships at scale. There is
a requirement for public sector
organisations to communicate
with the public at large, whilst
including the ability to engage
with citizens as individuals.
Australia France Germany India United United
Kingdom States
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
n % Citizens using Digital Channels
n % Citizens Placing Importance of Increasing Digital Channels
Taking a global perspective, it is interesting to observe the varying
expectations of citizens with digital channels, in terms of the extent
they are used and expectations around further services:
Source: Accenture Research 2012
Efficiencies and
effectiveness can
be best delivered
by matching
service models
with citizen
preferences in
channel.

6. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 6
What Does Digital Government Involve?
Personalised citizen and business identifiers to
present a single customer view
Mobility and portable devices help serve citizens
with ‘anytime-anywhere’ service delivery
Analytics can help cope with Big Data and
provide greater insight in proactive public
services
Cloud based IT architecture to gain flexibility
and reduce cost
New technologies and social media to serve
citizens more effectively
Interactive governance can enable governments
to build deeper and more effective relationships
A new generation of processes and tools can
build more productive public services
Connected health uses knowledge and
technology for more efficient and effective
healthcare
Digital government can be a broad, generic term and can be
interpreted in many ways. In order to fully understand the relevance
there are a number of aspects to consider. The major aspects for
consideration are given below:

7. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 7
Enabling Channel Shift and
Digital by Default
The challenge to UK public sector
organisations, set by the digital
initiative, is simple in concept.
Going forward, public services
should be delivered in a simple
and straightforward manner, so
that those that choose to use
them are encouraged to do so.
It is important that, alongside
this, those who are unable
to participate should not be
excluded. As a result, in order to
maintain accessibility, flexible and
multichannel approaches should
be deployed, in line with agile
working practises.
Whilst the vision is clear, enabling
such a strategy may not be
quite so obvious. It is likely that
the data required to enable the
delivery of digital services is
not easily accessible. Often the
required information is contained
within complex legacy systems.
Gaining access to all the required
information could easily be
one of channel shift’s greatest
challenges.
In initiating the channel
shift journey it is paramount
to maintain focus on key
organisational objectives. With
this in mind, we can identify five
themes on which to maintain
focus:
The service user is paramount
Digital services should be
designed from the user, or
citizen’s perspective. The best
way of successful delivery is to
ensure that user engagement is
maximised. It is most appropriate
to adopt agile practises in this
area, to ensure that changing
citizen requirements are catered
for. It is equally important that
supporting business processes
are equally agile in design.
Going forward,
public services
should be
delivered in a
simple and
straightforward
manner...

8. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 8
Utilising open standards
Having digital services based on
open architecture is essential.
Such a structure allows public
sector organisations to separate
service elements that are
bespoke, from those that can be
accessed in a more commoditised
manner. The latter can often
be secured through platforms
such as compliant framework
agreements, such as Crown
Commercial Services RM1063 or,
indeed, G-Cloud.
When considering the increasing
pace of change, adopting a
device and platform agnostic
solution is vital. Services provided
through digital channels need
to consider not just accessibility
today, but likely future
preferences.
Business process transformation
is an enabler
A significant consequence of
channel shift and digital migration
is the way in which organisations
deliver. Well designed digital
services should enable productive
and cost effective business
processes, in order to ensure
sustainability.
It is well documented that digital
services can reduce the cost of
delivery, however this can be
impacted or even negated if
supporting business processes
are not suitably robust. Without
considering internal processes,
the outcome could easily be
channel proliferation rather than
channel shift. That is to say, an
organisation could add greatly
to the cost of delivery by simply
adding channels rather than
actively encouraging a shift in
usage patterns.
Integrating enterprise systems
provides benefits
For successful implementation of
digital services, any complexity
in supporting enterprise systems
needs to be invisible to the user.
It is essential that easy access
to services is in place, in order
to maintain engagement and to
improve the citizen experience.
Data can be a key component
within the user experience.
Capture and recall should be
structured so that repetition of
entry is not a requirement. For
example, previously captured field
submissions should be utilised to
reduce the access time for each
service, where commonality of
data requirements exists.
Considerations of data security,
capacity, system availability and
exception handling should all be
in place to ensure an effective
end to end digital service, with
user experience at its hub.
Accurate and timely
management information is
essential
Well managed organisations
have always used management
information to make accurate
strategic decisions. However,
in this increasingly digital age
the nature of requirement of
information is changing.
Previously, information could
be accessed using offline
reporting and associated analysis
conducted. Inherently this
approach brings with it a degree
of latency and lag. Delays of days
may be expected with paper-
based delivery services, but with
digital services delays of even
hours may prove unacceptable.
Such delays can seriously
impact citizen experience and
confidence, as well as more
organisation wide reputational
damage. With channel shift,
employees as well as systems
need to be fully conversant
with then need to react in an
appropriate and timely manner.
Effective communications
platforms play a vital role in
supporting this need.
Capture and
recall should be
structured so
that repetition of
entry is not a
requirement

9. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 9
Realising the Benefits
of Channel Shift
Throughout this paper the
potential for significant savings
has been mentioned. In reality,
there are already many specific
examples of financial benefits
and cost savings that have been
realised.
According to GDS potential
savings of between £1.7 billion
and £1.8 billion could be realised
annually, through channel shift
and digital services.
In looking in greater detail as to
how these savings are made up,
the following can be observed:
• Between £134 million and
£431 million in savings from
digital transactions in local
government.
• Consolidated digital publishing
under GOV.UK should realise
between £25 million and £45
million.
• Rationalising the government’s
digital asset estate is predicted
to save £6 billion.
Such significant sums clearly
create huge impact, but to
an individual organisation are
they relevant? For individual
organisations it is, perhaps, more
important to look at the step
benefits that can be achieved
from channel shift.
n Benefit per 1% in Digital Channel Shift
Analysis conducted by GDS has highlighted the benefits
that can be achieved by adopting channel shift:
8 million plus
1–8 million
Under 1 million
£300,000£200,000£100,000£0

10. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 10
Areas for Deployment
of Channel Shift
Channel shift and Digital by Default touch all manner of operations
and functions within central government and the whole of the wider
public sector. With particular regard to enabling and delivering
effective communications, there are a number of areas that
organisations should look to investigate.
It is imperative that organisations employ appropriate due diligence
in scoping the requirements of channel shift. It is equally important
to engage with suitable partner organisations, in order to best
understand the opportunities available.
When considering the steps to deploy a digital migration solution it is
important not to lose sight of the reason for channel shift and not just
the shift itself. Invariably improving citizen experience and delivering
effective process change are paramount.
Channel Shift Aspect Benefit
Multi channel communications Maximising citizen engagement by utilising preference
based channel selection. Shifting from paper based to digital
delivery channels will also reduce the cost of deployment of
communications. Channel considerations should include hybrid
mail delivery, SMS, web based access, social media and email.
Document digitisation By migrating to digital archival solutions organisations can realise
significant benefits. As well as the obvious reduction in paper
based storage, effective digital archiving can significantly reduce
access to citizen transactional data and hence improve citizen
experience in interactions.
Digital workflow Often individual interactions are initiated by inbound
communication. By receiving or translating such communication
pieces into digital formats the speed of response and citizen
experience can be significantly improved. Data extraction and
automated document classification can also provide additional
benefits.
Data management Public sector organisations are party to sizeable inbound and
outbound flows of data. Often, under the influence of existing
legacy systems consolidating data streams into a single meaningful
citizen view can be highly problematic. By adopting a consolidated
approach to data management organisations can benefit from
a much more holistic and accurate view of individual citizen
interactions. This can allow a practical deployment of a more
personalised perception of digital services.
E-invoicing The creation and delivery of traditional paper based billing systems
can be costly and suffer from a low speed of delivery. Migration to
digital billing platforms can provide benefits in the form of reduced
costs of production and further financial benefits through shorter
payment receipt cycles.
Compliance By creating digital workflows and migrating to digital document
management greater controls around the storage of data and
associated audit trails can be deployed.

11. Neopost : Channel Shift
©2015 Neopost 11
Conclusion
Next Steps
Channel Shift and Digital by
Default are progressing at pace.
Within the public sector policy
and direction are focused on
achieving this fundamental
change in the delivery of public
services. To deploy effective
implementation strategies,
organisations should look to
understand channel shift in
the contact of reducing the
cost of service delivery as
well as maximising citizen
experience and engagement,
through multichannel delivery
methodologies and improving the
speed of response.
Effective communications not
only play a part in channel shift
as a direct function, but also in
supporting the delivery of digital
migration as a whole.
By considering the role of
communication in isolation
organisations could miss out on
wider opportunities in delivering
against channel shift priorities.
Communication in context is the
most effective strategy to deploy.
Neopost works closely with central government and the wider public
sector in order to identify and enable the deployment of effective
process improvements around channel shift.
For more information on this topic, or other aspects of effective
public service delivery, please contact us on
antony.paul@neopost.co.uk or call on 01708 714576.
About Neopost
Neopost is one of the leading vendors of public sector citizen
engagement solutions in Europe. The Company has experience in
deploying physical, digital and digital migration solutions across the
wider public sector.
We are partner supplier to the major professional buying
organisations under Pro5 (YPO, ESPO, CBC and NEPO) as well as
approved suppliers to NHS Shared Business Services and Advanced
Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC). We have also been
awarded a place on Crown Commercial Service’s RM1063 framework
agreement for Postal Goods and Services.
...organisations
should look to
understand
channel shift...

12. Neopost : Channel Shift
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