In this technological age, an increasing number of constituents are accessing public sector information through their mobile devices. As the millennials who have grown up using technology in their daily lives become a bigger and bigger part of the tax base, making sure that they are reached is increasingly important. As one participant stated during a study on the effects of technology on local governments: “People want to communicate with their government using the same tools they do in their personal and business lives. It’s about using the tools they are comfortable with and doing so in a quick and convenient manner”. In the same study, 97.5% of local government professionals who were polled said that “citizen convenience” was the top benefit of mobile citizen service. Governments are increasingly going mobile, with more than a third of respondents (35.4%) planning on investing in mobile government services this year.
If your local government hasn’t yet embraced the mobile revolution, Ricoh can help. We have worked with local governments in Canada for over a decade and will supply the necessary tools to get your government up to speed. Local governments face unique challenges when it comes to going mobile, one area where this is seen is in response to Freedom of Information acts (FOIA), which are often still done manually and can take a long time and leave citizens dissatisfied with the results. Ricoh designs its solutions to be compliant with applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Ricoh’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions are constituent-centric and include automated business processes which help ensure compliance to government regulations – such as retaining records for different times according to the retention requirements.
Ricoh can digitize the process of responding to freedom of information requests by:
- Moving the FOIA request form online.
- Digitizing records so that information can be easily queried and retrieved.
- Notifying relevant parties for their signatures/comments.
- Sending the documents over email and keeping the requester notified at each step of the process.
Through this solution, a constituent can request information through a FOIA request form on their phone, receive email notifications when different steps are being completed and read the sent document on their phone. This process not only helps the constituent but the government as well. It leads to quicker response times and to less employee hours spent on looking through paper records (including potentially traveling to where they are stored). Such a data-centric system can lead to insights on which files are being requested more frequently and why this is so, and to a better overall perception of government efficiency.Ricoh provides extensive support and caters our digital solution to match your problem – integrating with existing software and hardware. Our track record of working with local governments speaks for itself and we hope that your local government will be our latest success story.
Going mobile may seem like a daunting task. We can make it happen. |
