How Salesforce can transform the public sector with the citizen as the central axis

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted key deficiencies in the ability of public organizations worldwide to act in a responsive, agile and efficient manner in day-to-day processes. The closure of government offices turned public employees into a remote workforce overnight, which in turn drove an unprecedented increase in demand for digital remote services. 

Covid-19 then became the catalyst for a digital transformation that the business world has adapted to more quickly than the public sector, which has been left behind. In fact, the private sector has raised the expectations of today's citizens, who want government services that are easily accessible, transparent and fast. 

A significant fact is that in Spain, for example, 54% of the population claims to have used some type of digital service from the government, although only 29% say they feel that digital public services are of quality, according to a report requested by Salesforce from CensusWide in 2022, almost two years after the start of the pandemic. 

Without a doubt, the consequences of avoiding digital transformation in public institutions can be incalculable and the benefits of applying it are evident. 

In this article, we will discuss what public institutions need to offer a citizen-centered service that meets their needs and the main benefits of this digital transformation in the public sector. And we will do so with the help of one of the main alternatives to do so, Salesforce, and how its implementation in public institutions can change the day-to-day lives of citizens. 

How can the Public Sector 'focus on the citizen'? 

Focusing truly on the citizen, something more is required than an improved and expanded digital presence. The challenge is to build a platform that provides that agile, fast and transparent service to the citizen from any contact channel they use, and that in turn offers public employees access to data, tools, and processes from anywhere. 

Only 29% say they feel that digital public services are of quality

In this sense, Salesforce emerges as an alternative capable of offering that platform designed around the citizen and what they need and whose main capabilities we detail below: 

• Offers a complete citizen record: citizens are, after all, the customers of public institutions. Public service management platforms must offer a unique view of the citizen, which brings together all information about a citizen and all stakeholders, including interactions and points of contact, applications and profile attributes, among other data. 
• Facilitates the case management, requests, incidents process: the agency's relationship with stakeholders generally takes the form of requests or "cases". Cases represent licenses, grants, benefit requests, maintenance, complaints, and other processes and functions that are of interest to citizens. 
• Offers a multi-channel platform: the future of the Public Sector is also multi-channel, considering the large number of channels available for citizens' interaction with public organizations: social networks and text for instant communication, online portals and self-service applications, not to mention telephone calls and emails. 

Just as in the private sector, the possibility of offering connected digital experiences, unifying channels, and guaranteeing workflow in all Public Administration organizations are priority issues. 

• Allows collaboration: cases opened by citizens often involve more than one department, even several to several public organizations. In this sense, efficient collaboration is crucial to provide an agile and comprehensive service to the citizen. 
• Great capacity for integration with other systems and tools: to have a 360º citizen record, it is necessary to extract information from other systems and services, in addition to having a platform that integrates all those systems and that is established as a single data management platform. In addition, it is a flexible and scalable platform, capable of adapting to changes and future perspectives of organizations. 
• Offers a complete data perspective: once the data is available in a single view, it is useful and necessary to understand it in a way that generates trust in decision-making. 

Offering connected digital experiences and guaranteeing workflow are priority issues

Main benefits of Salesforce implementation in the Public Sector 

1. Improves citizen experience 

Using a CRM like Salesforce, government organizations can integrate multiple citizen engagement channels and data systems into a single view, thanks to the 360 degree view it offers of them. 

This translates into a higher level of satisfaction among citizens, who know they can interact with public institutions as they can with private entities. Similarly, public employees can provide better and more personalized service when everything is connected. 

In addition, tools such as Tableau CRM can help public officials analyse data and, as a result, make better decisions. 

2. Increases data security 

Salesforce provides specific functionality that enables government entities to be more efficient and keep their data more secure. Instead of hosting data on multiple isolated systems, which increases the surface area for potential cyber-attacks, everything can be consolidated and protected on a single platform. 

In addition, Salesforce AppExchange hosts a large number of native applications that run within the secure Salesforce environment. Government organizations can extend the functionality of Salesforce without having to worry about losing control of their data. 

3. Allows to adapt to the evolution of jobs and the expectations of public employees 

With the increase of remote work and dispersed teams, it is important that public organizations provide their employees with tools that foster the types of collaboration and serendipitous innovation that usually result from in-person interaction. 

With Salesforce, public administrations can provide employees with easy access to the applications and data they need to perform their work effectively from anywhere. With a secure and unified platform, the right workflow and hyper-automation, public organizations will improve the experience of employees and citizens. 

In fact, Salesforce and Slack position themselves together to be the virtual hub of public companies, where people, tools, data and processes can come together to drive work. 

4. Lays the foundations for the future 

The pace of change is accelerating. Government entities need flexible and scalable systems that are ready to pivot and scale at any time as today's problems become tomorrow ones. 

Conclusion 

Whether generated by the global pandemic, by changes in citizens' experiences and expectations, or by flexible work policies, the public sector is facing an inevitable digital transformation process. With numerous challenges ahead, public organizations have the opportunity to reinvent services, process, engagement, and citizens' experience, as well as their own employees. 

Izertis is a leading digital transformation firm and Salesforce partner. We help our clients implement digital solutions that transform the way they connect with their customers. If you want to learn more about Salesforce, contact our team for more information.