[This is a rough, unedited crib of the actual talk given at the ALGIM 2010 Web Symposium. Also I went over my allocated time so I’ve elaborated on a few areas. If you have feedback on these notes, please write to me: mathew.sanders@gmail.com or twitter @mathewsanders.] Introduction Since the start of this year I’ve been working with the Local Government Services team at Datacom, which is a group of about 20 developers, analysts, and project managers who are dedicated to creating software solutions for local government. But my background and experience is working in ecommerce projects for companies like Air New Zealand, House of Travel, AMI Insurance, The National Bank, Telecom, and New Zealand Lotteries helping to improve their online customer experience. What I want to share with everyone today are some ideas, tools, and thinking that are established in ecommerce, and hopefully get you thinking about how they can be applied to your own projects in local government. Why move from offline to online Often we’re so focused on simply completing online projects that we forget to step back and look at the benefits of why we’re doing these projects in the first place. I believe it’s important, and healthy to step back and reflect on why we’re doing what we’re doing. In ecommerce, I think of there being three main benefits to moving from offline channels to online channels: To reach more people To operate with more efficiency To create new business models and opportunities To reach more people Here’s a Google map showing all the retail locations for Flight Centres in New Zealand. As you can see they have clusters of stores n the main centres of Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, and a range of stores scattered in other locations throughout New Zealand. They have a great network, but at the same time if you live outside one of the towns that has a store it’s very difficult to do business with them. And even if you live close to one of their stores you also have to visit them within their opening hours, which might be difficult depending on your work situation. With online channels of course you remove these barriers of time and location, and have the ability to reach anyone who has an internet connection, 24 hours a day. To increase efficiency When you interact with people through offline channels (such as phoning a contact centre or interacting in person in a store) the total cost to interact with people is directly related to the number of people you interact with. For instance, it costs about double the amount to interact with two people as it costs to interact with one, and about triple the amount to interact with three people as it does to interact with one. But online channels can follow a different pattern. The total cost does increase with the number of people that you interact with (because bandwidth and server costs will increase as you reach more people) but it doesn’t follow a linear relationship, instead it doesn’t cost much more to interact with 10,000 people as it costs to interact with 1,000 people. Something exciting happens when you think about costs as cost per interaction instead of total costs. With offline channels, you essentially get a flat rate. It costs about the same to interact with your 50th person as it does you 500th. But with online channels, the cost per interaction decreases with the more people that you interact with, eventually to the point where the cost per interaction trends towards zero. Two perspectives are important here. Economically and psychologically it becomes a lot easier to interact with people. In ecommerce this can allow for businesses to pass on cost savings to customers, or even offer free services. In local government this can allow an organisation to operate with lower cost per interaction. When you’re operating in an offline channel, customer interactions may either be consciously or subconsci

1. Applying ecommerce
to local government

2. Benefits
Why move from offline to online?
online?
1 2 3
Reach Operate Create new
more with more models of
people efficiency opportunity

3. Reach more people

4. Increase efficiency
$$$
Total cost
$

5. Increase efficiency
$$$
offline
interaction
Cost /
$ online

6. Increase efficiency

7. Freedom of choice
I want to go
to Melbourne

8. Freedom of choice
I want to get
a valuation of
my property

9. Ecommerce tradeoffs
Price
Self
service
Convenience Ease of use

10. Local govt tradeoffs
Convenience
Self
service
Ease of use

11. Channel Strategy
Don’t force
people online
But make online
attractive and easy

12. Channel Strategy

13. Channel Strategy
co-
service
model

14. New models

15. New models

16. Who moves first?

18. What to build?

19. Pets.com
Founded in 1998
$300m investment capital
Liquidated in 2000

20. How it works

21. How it works
Where can I get
building consent
information?

22. The way we think is
radically different
than the people we
design for

25. Inside out
(our natural view)
language
culture
experience
knowledge
Outside in
(everyone
else’s view)

26. research
design
delivery

27. Ask (and listen)

28. Observe

29. Explore/Refine

30. Measure
35 continue online
100
arrive 65 exit and…
give up?
phone?
visit?
}Why?!

32. people spend
more time on
other websites
than on yours

33. Interactions
Request product or service
Exchange of money
Provide information
Encourage Participation

34. Context
Request product or service
Ecommerce Local government
Order books, music, resolve or report a
or clothes. problem, apply for
Book travel or tickets consent, request
valuation…
Fun Annoying
Time on site Time on site
Up sell/Cross Sell Pain

35. Context
Exchange of money
Ecommerce Local government
Pay for stuff in Pay rates, fines, or
shopping cart registration
Fulfil a Fulfil an
desire obligation
Effort to complete Effort to complete
Change of mind Pain

36. Context
Provide information
Ecommerce Local government
News, “news”, games Parks, museums,
vacancies
Entertain or Answer a
distract question
Time on site Ease to find
Repeat visits Time on site
Ad revenue Pain

37. Context
Encourage participation
Ecommerce Local government
Create content Vote, discuss
Organise content
Trivial Complex
Participation Participation
Value Democracy

38. Context

39. Models change
1979
SONY Walkman
1984
SONY Discman
1992
SONY MD Walkman
1999
SONY Network Walkman

40. Models change
2001
APPLE iPod
2010
10 billion songs sold through iTunes Store

41. Environment changes

42. Mediums change

43. Mediums change

44. Expectations change
1990 2010

45. Roadmap
Benchmark where you are today
Define a vision & how success
would be measured
Create a roadmap that shows how
to deliver the vision in achievable
phases

46. Thank you!
you!
Questions?