Transforming Agencies with Machinery of Government Changes

Machinery of Government (MoG) transitions can create massive disconnects between people, process and technologies as agencies create more collaborative departments that deliver services in a more efficient and effective way. Working out how to keep staff connected, productive and making decisions based on the collective knowledge of the new organisation is challenging yet very rewarding.

Objective has partnered with many agencies enabling them to successfully transform from siloed disparate departments into a consolidated agency, achieving higher levels of performance, we’d like to offer a few insights to the journey.

Understanding the user’s needs, objections and wins and developing a change management program to transform from the current state to, what is usually, a decentralised information management model, is critical. It is the starting point to enabling your high performing teams to be innovative and agile in delivering effective and efficient public services. And bear in mind the “super users” of your applications have a different level of skill and expectation than 99% of the system users in your organisation. Key points to consider:

• Develop an operating model that enables effectiveness and efficiency of all information assets whilst maintaining strong governance. Focus on user centric functionality that is flexible and inclusive and makes them more consistent and accessible whilst improving collaboration.
• Ensure all staff understand the benefits and changes to processes and systems and are appropriately trained to perform their responsibilities.
• Deliver productivity improvements by leveraging new product functionality and business processes to enable operational outcomes.
• Develop standards and measures across knowledge and information processes that ensure key activities support adoption and compliance while improving performance.
• Promote outcomes from early adopters, community satisfaction, environmental savings and reduced paper storage and handling costs as benefits of the changes.

A shared version of the truth is needed to support decisions, processes and staff satisfaction

ECM consolidation, or a shared version of the truth, provides the basis for decision making and process improvements that the agency is aiming to achieve. These information assets are universally appreciated, managed, protected and secured in the same way as financial, human and physical assets are, and there needs to be a clear understanding of the accountability, responsibility, processes and policies for managing the assets.

For staff to experience high confidence, not frustration, when working with information, they need access to information in a timely fashion, knowing it is the only, correct and complete version and in a state where the information can be re-used, repurposed and relied upon to make valued decisions.

An effective ECM provides much more than ensuring compliance with record keeping legislation. It also improves business processes and provides an easy to use capability for staff to collaborate and make informed decisions. In creating your shared version of the truth in a consolidated agency, the following need to be considered:

• A central information repository is needed to improve collaboration across the organisation to promote and support more informed decision making.
• The single platform for the whole enterprise can be accessed anywhere and at any time, and information can be shared with external parties in a controlled, governed and secure way.
• A platform that provides the capability to migrate content from existing legacy EDRMS applications into one central repository, thus removing the risk of duplication, and enabling a ‘single version of the truth’ environment

Create a frictionless transition to applications

Once the applications have been selected and a high-performance architecture developed to deliver enterprise wide information and process governance, the agency needs to reduce the hurdle of adoption by making the transition to new applications and interfaces natural, or frictionless. A well-designed ECM solution supports the transition by ensuring governance is a by-product of business process rather than enforced by managers. For example, while Objective ECM has comprehensive EDRMS capability, the focus of the solution is to provide a frictionless user experience with seamless information and process governance including:

• A highly intuitive user experience designed to increase adoption throughout the organisation available anywhere and on any device.
• Integrating ECM into key business systems so teams may work in the applications they choose with governance managed discreetly in the background.
• Pre-defined automated business processes designed to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

MoG changes might be disruptive to staff for several reasons, yet in our experience, many agencies see it as an opportunity to improve the way their teams engage with information to support communities and to rethink the way users use the applications. These applications have improved dramatically since they were first implemented yet most agencies haven’t changed their approach to information management in years. By working through the changes from a user experience point of view first and working backwards to the right technologies, agencies can take a modern approach to information governance and with increased adoption, efficiency and user satisfaction.

With a modern and shared version of the truth for all in the new agency, everyone can do a better job. Now that is exciting for the staff, community and those of us developing, delivering and supporting ECM applications.