Connecting with Citizens

Continued

Hands-On Demonstration
Enthusiasm for a data-driven system gained momentum in 2006, when Signori invited her BAR steering committee into a computer lab for a hands-on introduction. The top-level managers who made up the committee got a preview of the dashboard created by integrating budget data from Oracle Hyperion Planning with performance data from Oracle Hyperion Performance Scorecard. “Our sole purpose was to show them how easy this information is to get, to use, and to absorb. They didn’t need to fully understand the tool or understand how the data got into the tool,” Signori says. “We just wanted them to know how to be users of the information.”

A similar approach was taken for the CRM deployment. Early in the project, Oates and his team identified key liaisons in each department who had deep knowledge of their department’s business. In the past, work crews were often frustrated by incomplete or ambiguous work order information. By taking a stake in the project early on, liaisons were able to help configure the way call center agents asked questions. The outcome is more-comprehensive service tickets with little need for back-and-forth clarifications, making it easier for crews to do their jobs.

As key people within the departments began to see the value of the systems and understand that their department’s performance was now going to be measured in a systematic way, they became leaders in drilling the concept into every level of their organization. “From the top,” says Oates, “the mayor was saying, ‘This is a critical function for us to improve customer service and be more efficient.’ Putting all those things together made everybody take this seriously and see the value in it.”

Proof of improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of city services isn’t hard to find. In the past, one of the city’s most common citizen complaints concerned abandoned vehicles. Last year, after crunching data on the problem, the transportation department rolled out a strategy using neighborhood newspapers and flyers to inform residents about alternatives for disposal. The result has been a decrease in abandoned vehicle calls. That’s good for neighborhoods, and it’s good for the transportation department’s budget, by reducing the cost of towing and disposing of abandoned vehicles.

The Boston Public Library is another good example of improvement, says Signori. Using BAR, library managers can see changes in the way citizens get information from the library. For example, in the second quarter of fiscal year 2009 (October 1 through December 31, 2008), digital downloads of books, music, videos, and maps exceeded the goals they had set, and public wireless internet sessions exceeded target measures by almost 50 percent. Visits to the library’s newly revamped Web site fell short of the target, but overall library use had jumped, with a significant increase in the number of people using library cards, particularly among teenage patrons.

That kind of data, says Signori, is what managers need in these tough economic times. “It’s about deploying resources based on the needs of the people you serve. We’re in the human capital business. When departments are determining service levels or outcomes or results, they’re really looking at the resources they have in place to deliver those services and deciding how they’re going to deploy those resources.”

In addition to tracking department-specific service and program data, several administrative measures that track employee demographics such as attendance, overtime, and injury incidence span departments. The new BI capabilities haven’t yet been embedded in every function of city government, but for the larger departments, measuring such cross-functional administrative performance results as staffing levels, workforce composition, lost time, and absent hours per employee has been standard since 2006. That’s why the BAR system is so widely accepted, says Signori: people are used to it. Even as BAR gains traction among new users, Signori believes that the implementation will be an ongoing process. “I don’t know that we’re ever going to be fully done,” she says, “because as we improve our ability to analyze data and create standard administrative measures that help us manage the organization, we’re going to be working with departments in new ways. I hope it will be an evolving process.”