IBM Global Business Services

Point of View

Seven Steps That Social Security Global Social

Segment
and Social Services Organizations
Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
By Edward Blatt, Ph.D. & Chris Gibbon, Ph.D.
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
Page 2

In an economic downturn like the one the world has been experiencing since
Table of Contents
the late summer of 2008, social services and social security organizations find
themselves in a unique bind. At a time when government budgets are being
3 Develop client segmentation severely cut and staff are being laid off, many organizations find that they are
strategies to identify the diverse
needs of citizens. providing services to more people than ever before. One response to the new
5 Emphasize choice and access economic reality is to continue doing everything as before. Such an approach,
to services however, is almost certain to fail. An organization may be able to slide by for a
6 Ensure that all citizens benefit
short period with increased caseloads combined with fewer staff and smaller
from the information society
8 Increase the opportunity for budgets; but in a protracted economic decline this approach just won’t scale.
professional development
9 Enable information sharing
across government
10 Reduce fraud and abuse through
effective identity management
and effective privacy legislation
and policy
11 Establish governance measures
to support intergovernmental
collaboration and partnerships
11 A Simple Choice

The current downturn can actually provide smart organizations with

an opportunity to take a balanced view of their operations and create
opportunities for change that can help them become more effective and
efficient in the long run. In an atmosphere where many organizations are
looking to simply carry on; forward looking administrators are looking to
flourish. They can do this through innovation that helps them cope with the
new reality of increased caseloads and fewer resources. They must find ways to
get optimal value from existing programs and services, but they must also find
new ways to address the needs of staff and the demands of clients.
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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Highlights
The fundamental concept behind
citizen-centered service is that,
when it comes to allocating
services and benefits, citizen
needs take priority over
organizational requirements.
Social organizations today find themselves in a new environment with new
demands. Innovation will not only help them survive, it can help them thrive.
Here are seven steps that human services administrators can take, even in weak
economic times, to realize optimal value from existing programs and drive
innovation that can transform their organization and the contributions that
they make to society.
1. Develop client segmentation strategies to identify the diverse needs of citizens.
The fundamental concept behind citizen-centered service is that, when it
comes to allocating services and benefits, citizen needs take priority over
organizational requirements. Many governments have embraced this concept
and some, like the Canadian Federal Government via Service Canada, have
taken steps to make it a reality. Governments are taking great strides to better
understand the needs of citizens and groups of citizens, and the leaders are
designing service offerings that meet these needs. Many governments have
developed rudimentary segmentation techniques based on demographic
categories, and are providing administrative information and some services
tailored to these groups. Services accessible from Web sites, for example, are
grouped by life event categories, such as retirement and unemployment. While
still in early stages, leading governments are putting steps in place to develop
robust client segmentation strategies to define service offerings in support of
overall government desired program outcomes. And those that are moving in
this direction are finding that the client segmentation strategies help maximize
value in existing programs and services by eliminating redundancies across
organizations and reducing costs.
At the same time, many of these organizations are learning that benefits can
be realized when there is active engagement with the public. Governments
are beginning to seek citizen input and feedback into policy and program
development, as well as proposed legislative changes, through online
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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interactive portals and other accessible means. And the involvement is not just
short term. Forward thinking administrators are emphasizing the continued
involvement of citizens in policy and program development. In Australia, for
example, the government has set principles for online engagement that support
a consistent experience for everyone dealing electronically with Australian
government. In the UK, the Government is implementing new processes to
engage with citizens, businesses, and public servants. These types of efforts can
not only help to enhance existing programs and services, they can also identify
valuable innovations; all of which can improve service delivery, customer
satisfaction, and, ultimately, program outcomes.

If you are interested in moving in this direction, the first thing to do is to gain
comprehensive understandings of your current service and benefit delivery
strategy and the clients you serve. What are your priorities? What do you do
well and not so well? What is strategically important to your organization? By
first gaining a clear understanding of where you are today, you will pave the
way for developing and implementing new segmentation strategies that engage
your clients, improve outcomes, and increase client satisfaction.

By first gaining a clear understanding of

where you are today, you will pave the
What are your priorities? way for developing and implementing
new segmentation strategies that:

• Engage your clients

What do you do well
• Improve outcomes
and not so well?
• Increase client satisfaction

What is strategically
important to your
organization?
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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Highlights
The most innovative countries
including the UK, Australia, the
US, and Ireland are advocating
the delivery of service through
modern, integrated delivery
channels where citizens can
access government by any means.
2. Emphasize choice and access to services.
In leading governments, eGovernment strategies are becoming whole-of-
government service transformation visions. These strategies have a much
broader scope than strategies that are focused primarily on using technology
to move services online. These new innovative visions reveal a strong policy
commitment on the part of governments to take a more citizen-focused
approach to service delivery. They advocate taking a government-wide
approach to improve delivery, access and reach of government services.
And they creatively use technology to support this vision. Accordingly,
these overarching strategies have led to the development of specific policies
that articulate action plans regarding access to government services. The
most innovative countries including the UK, Australia, the US, and Ireland
are advocating the delivery of service through modern, integrated delivery
channels where citizens can access government by any means. They also
promote the integration of channels so that regardless of the channel of
entry, citizens can get a consistent level of service across all channels. Policies
that emphasize flexibility of choice in channels for citizens, facilitate service
delivery in remote communities, and support a variety of languages empower
citizens to become active partners rather than passive recipients of service.
And that makes them less reliant on overburdened staff who can spend their
time with clients who are more urgently in need of assistance.
If you are going to take a government-wide approach to service delivery
it is imperative that departments and organizations have a single view of
the citizen. Policies that offer choice and allow citizens to access services
and information by any means are dependent on the sharing of client
information across virtual, technological, and physical silos. Privacy, security
and governance issues will need to be addressed as will identity resolution
challenges. But the benefits are many.
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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3. Ensure that all citizens benefit from the information society.

While governments continue to evolve traditional service delivery access
policies for people with disabilities, accessibility to electronic channels has
become a particular priority around the world. Governments continue to
bring services online, and policies and legislation are being established to
ensure that the Web channel can be accessed by all. The international Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which promotes a high degree of
usability for people with disabilities, is increasingly being adopted worldwide.
In Europe, the European Commission’s i2010: A European Information
Society for Growth and Employment contains strategies to ensure that all
citizens benefit from the information society. Specific countries are expanding
on these guidelines with their own policies. In Canada, the province of Ontario
has enacted accessibility legislation that provides for the development of
standards for accessibility in both the public and private sectors. When citizens
can easily access the information and assistance they need, they become more
independent and less reliant on government.

Americas Europe
Canada 2001 Sweden 1998
United States 1990, 1998 Spain 1998, 2005
Brazil 2004 U.K. 2002, 2005
Germany 2002
Asia Pacific Ireland 2002
Japan 2004 Italy 2004
China 1991, 2006 Switzerland 2004
Australia 1996, 2000, 2001 European Union 2004
India 2005 Netherlands 2003
Portugal 1999
Austria 2006
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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Highlights
If you want to ensure that all of
your constituents benefit from the
information you have to share,
consider a universal design
approach which is all about
designing products that are usable
by the broadest possible group
of users without the need for
adaptation or specialization.
Assistive technologies alone won’t be enough because they will not make
computers and on line information fully accessible to everyone. Designers
typically focus on the characteristics of the average user. But by designing
for the average user, we sometimes create unintentional barriers to full
accessibility that even assistive technologies can’t always overcome. For
example, GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) that allow overlapping graphical
windows, clickable icons, draggable functions, and controls that are dependent
on the use of a mouse are difficult for users who are blind or with low vision;
even with accessibility tools like screen readers. If you want to ensure that
all of your constituents benefit from the information you have to share,
consider a universal design approach which is all about designing products
that are usable by the broadest possible group of users without the need for
adaptation or specialization. It takes into account differences in sight,
hearing, mobility, speech and cognition, and can benefit everyone; not just
people with disabilities.
If social programs are to succeed at making information easily accessible to
their clients and their staff, they will need to go beyond special technologies
that facilitate accessibility and look to universal technologies that are easy to
use…for everyone. Universally designed technologies will facilitate greater
involvement in the information society and enhance the overall capabilities of
your community.
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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Highlights
Recruiting and training new
staff can cost anywhere between
a few thousand dollars and
$50,000 in both hard and
soft costs. In order to retain
experienced staff and prepare
them for new ways of working with
clients, countries like Australia and
Canada, have developed internal
colleges to provide professional
development for service delivery
professionals, and have created
specific career tracks.
4. Increase the opportunity for professional development.
Organizations that are leading in innovative service transformation are moving
more and more toward citizen-centered service. And as they do so, they
recognize that services must be delivered by people committed to service
excellence. These organizations are making strategic decisions to enhance the
professionalism of service delivery agents in their organizations. But this trend
is not only about improving services to clients, it’s also about retaining staff.
Recruiting and training new staff can cost anywhere between a few thousand
dollars and $50,000 in both hard and soft costs.
In order to retain experienced staff and prepare them for new ways of
working with clients, countries like Australia and Canada, have developed
internal colleges to provide professional development for service delivery
professionals, and have created specific career tracks. Other countries are
beginning to include training and development in their overall service
improvement strategies. The end result is not only improved service delivery
and service outcomes; it also improves staff recruitment and retention efforts
by teaching new skills, creating career ladders, and providing opportunities
for career development.
Getting started begins with assessing your service delivery model — both
current and future — and aligning that assessment with the skills and
capabilities of your workforce. Once you’ve identified the capability gaps,
you’ll be able to begin creating the training needed to develop those skills
from within your organization. This approach will be less costly than bringing
in those skills from the outside, and long term both your workforce and your
clients will be happier.
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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5. Enable information sharing across government.

The policy direction of “provide personal data once, use it many times” is
not necessarily new, but neither has it been widely embraced by government.
Recently, the concept has been adopted by several countries, including
Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia. In Belgium, the Crossroads Bank
of Social Security (CBSS) was established to manage the secure sharing
of information across the 2,000 social security authorities, and this
interoperability approach has improved service delivery, reduced citizen wait
and travel times, eliminated hundreds of paper certificates and diminished
the number of declaration forms. Countries have also adopted data protection
legislation that permits the processing and sharing of information as long
as specific criteria — such as the permission of the citizen — are met. The
governance measures adopted have included the institutionalization of
data protection officers and privacy commissioners to ensure adherence to
regulations. The UK’s Information Sharing Vision Statement offers a robust
directional position on how the government will maintain the privacy rights of
individuals while sharing information to deliver better services. Legislation and
interoperability frameworks can enable the secure sharing of information. And
sharing information across government organizations — a true innovation that
has yet to be widely realized — can drive value by improving service delivery,
increasing efficiency, and eliminating redundancies.

Sharing information across organizational boundaries begins and ends with

governance, privacy and security. Once those are addressed, the technology
becomes relatively easy. These are not, however, easy issues to address which
is probably why cross agency information sharing in not commonly practiced
within social services and social security today. So if innovations like citizen
centric service delivery; flexibility and choice in access to government
services; or client segmentation strategies are your goal, the place to begin is
with information sharing. And that means addressing governance, privacy
and security.
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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6. Reduce fraud and abuse through effective identity management and effective privacy
Highlights
legislation and policy.
Various approaches are used across the world to manage individual identity
Tough economic times necessitate
for benefit and services registration as well as authentication purposes.
that organizations utilize limited
Maintaining the integrity of the benefits and services delivered is crucial to
resources as efficiently and
ensure that the right benefits have been provided to the right person at the
effectively as possible. The
right time for the intended purpose, so that fraud and abuse of the system
elimination of fraud and abuse,
are avoided. Underlying a solid identity management regime is the need for
and a strong identity management
strong privacy legislation. In Europe, the Data Protection Directive sets out a
regime will provide the foundation
wide range of rights for individuals including access, compensation and the
for accomplishing this goal.
prevention of processing. It also gives individuals rights over their personal
information. All member states are required to have legislation in place that
meets the requirements of this directive. Tough economic times necessitate
that organizations utilize limited resources as efficiently and effectively
as possible. The elimination of fraud and abuse, and a strong identity
management system will provide the foundation for accomplishing this goal.

How do you get started? With your data. Most social services and social security
organizations are data rich and information poor. They do a wonderful job of
collecting all types of data. But they don’t do a very good job of turning that
data into actionable information that can support decision making. Your data
must be driven by business needs. Otherwise it’s just numbers that may or may
not be useful. A sound master data management strategy is essential in order
to ensure data consistency and control throughout the organization. Once
your data is in order, you can put the tools in place to help reduce and
eliminate fraud.
Steps That Social Security and Social Services Organizations Can Take to Thrive in a Weak Economy
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Highlights
Don’t try to “boil the ocean”
by defining governance for
everything in IT all at one time.
Instead, identify the things that
are going to make a critical
difference right now.
7. Establish governance measures to support intergovernmental collaboration
and partnerships.
Governments are beginning to work across departments and across levels of
government, as well as with the private sector in order to leverage collective
potential and deliver transformed integrated services. This collaborative
approach provides opportunities to reduce costs, improve effectiveness, and
in the process, create new value for citizens. To allow for this collaboration
across organizations and jurisdictions, governments who have achieved
success in this area are making use of cross-agency committees and working
groups comprised of senior government officials. The UK’s Delivery Council,
comprised of department and agency heads, and Denmark’s Steering Group
for Cross-Public-Sector Cooperation are two examples of mechanisms that
support putting citizens at the center of integrated service delivery.
Don’t try to “boil the ocean” by defining governance for everything in IT
all at one time. Instead, identify the things that are going to make a critical
difference right now. It might be important, for example, to eliminate fraud. Or
maybe it’s more critical to improve access to services through new channels.
What are the hot issues that can be differentiating for your organization now?
Improve governance for these challenges first.
A Simple Choice.
In a new economic environment, with new demands, the choice is really
quite simple: innovation or stagnation. If social services and social security
administrators continue to do things as they always have, they will almost
certainly fail at meeting these demands. But with new ways of thinking about
client needs and program design, and new methods of service delivery and
administration; administrators can enhance existing programs and services
as well as create innovative new approaches to position their organizations for
long-term success. Innovation is not only possible in a weak economy,
it’s essential.
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August 2009
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