INTELLIGENT VERTICAL: GOVERNMENT
countries such as Singapore and Ethiopia.
Visitors can access services or products
required by government through self-service
channels or very efficiently through specific
departments making it easy for tourists
and businesses to spend money. There is
a correlation between those countries that
embed a culture of customer service and
those that have high-growth percentages.
economy. Keeping promises builds
trust. Once you have trust, you can get
customers to mobilise and do things they
wouldn’t ordinarily do – they are more
open to working with the organisation
and more open to change. When citizens
and customers are prepared to embrace
change, organisations can continue
innovating and improve what they bring
to market.
While not precisely quantifiable, this
connection between service and culture
ultimately impacts the attractiveness of a
country when it comes to doing business.
If it’s easy to do business, as indicated
by the World Bank Doing Business report,
then research has shown that this drives
economic growth.
Achieving this culture needs to walk hand-
in-hand with technology as it is the primary
enabler of this level of evolution. In the past,
many government departments were unable
to offer variety in location or service as they
were limited in technology and backend
capability. Today, technology has enabled
the government to expand offerings and
improve service to citizenry.
In addition, customer service technology
has the ability to help shape an economy as
it too has taken several evolutionary steps
forward. There are solutions that enable how
“
WHEN CITIZENS
AND CUSTOMERS
ARE PREPARED
TO EMBRACE
CHANGE,
ORGANISATIONS
CAN CONTINUE
INNOVATING AND
IMPROVE WHAT
THEY BRING
TO MARKET.
86
INTELLIGENTCIO
Adnan Theba, CX Sales Consulting Lead,
Oracle South Africa
people sell, how they get their message out to
market, how they service customers and how
they learn more about customer needs. There
are tools that allow for the interpretation of
those needs and others that walk hand-in-
hand with the customer through the entire
lifecycle of engagement. These are customer
experience tools and technologies that sit
under the moniker of customer relationship
management (CRM) but extend far beyond
what the name suggests.
One example of intelligent investment into
technology and citizenry is Estonia, a tiny
country in the north-east corner of Europe
that showcases how technology can change
an economy. From 1991, when it left the
Soviet Union, to today, the country used
public-private partnerships and investment
into technology to bridge the digital divide,
support citizen engagement and security
and create a culture of transparency. From
drafting legislations to initiating ideas with
parliament to participating in decision making
– Estonian citizens have access to everything
they need to make informed decisions and
participate in the future of the country.
Three factors that help drive a
service orientated economy
1. A high level of openness inspires
trust. A commodity that can change
a country’s culture and impact on its
2. Another factor is speed. When service
is embedded into a culture, speed to
market radically improves and gives the
business the ability to focus on strategy
and outsource more effectively. This
will, in turn, have an impact on the kind
of organisations a business surrounds
itself with and the partnerships
it forges – those that support the
culture of service will work with those
who share the same values and very
different models and attitudes
will evolve.
3. Simplifying processes through
technology. On the public-sector
level, imagine the knock-on effect if
administrative requirements such as
TV licenses, liquor licenses, agricultural
licenses et al were simplified and
frustrations around queues and
paperwork modified? The barrier to entry
would be significantly reduced and this
would ignite further growth, both from
the home-grown entrepreneur and the
international investor, all with a higher
degree of compliance.
It is vital that both government and
organisations become more service oriented
and digitised. There is a huge opportunity in
South Africa to follow in Estonian footsteps
and to become innovators and game
changers. To learn from others who have
made these changes, to learn from their
mistakes and to follow a digitisation process
that delivers to customer and citizen.
Partnerships and initiatives designed to
address legacy issues and ignite a service-
oriented culture should be innovative and
need to advocate for transparency. They
must improve revenue streams, grow trust,
enhance speed to market and customer
service and use technology’s capabilities to
enable effectively. n
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