Agenda Item 2b: Improving the Resident Experience with Forms — original pdf

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Improving the resident experience with City forms Daniel Honker, Soolin Withrow, and Andrew Do Communications & Technology Management Community Technology & Telecommunications Commission January 8, 2020 Today’s presentation Three efforts to improve the resident experience with City services. 1. Prioritizing City services to bring online and make more accessible 2. Bringing forms online 3. Redesigning forms for a better resident experience 4. Next steps and policy issues Today’s presentation Three efforts to improve the resident experience with City services. 1. Prioritizing City services to bring online and make more accessible 2. Bringing forms online 3. Redesigning forms for a better resident experience 4. Next steps and policy issues Overview of the Service Access project Previous briefing to CTTC in June 2019 Project goal: To expand access to City services for the Austin community by redesigning and bringing services online What we’re working on: 1. Inventory of paper-based and manual City services 2. Recommendations on priority services to redesign and bring online 3. Resources for digitizing and automating services citywide Why we are creating an inventory of services Online Access to City Services audit, 2017 Recommendation: “Ensure that the City offers as many city services online as practical by developing an inventory of services that should be offered online.” Commitment: Inventory services citywide that should be brought online and/or need significant improvements related to usability or accessibility. What is a “service” for this inventory Example City services 1) Transactional: involves the exchange of goods, services, or information 2) Form: collects information through a template or application 3) Community-facing: not internal City business processes Factors we are considering to prioritize services to redesign and bring online Impact Accessibility Complexity How important the service is to residents and to the City’s Strategic Direction. What barriers people may face in accessing and using the service. How straightforward the service would be to redesign or put online. We should focus on redesigning and digitizing high-impact City services. We should prioritize services that have the clearest need for more accessibility. We should try for a balance of high and low complexity services -- not just prioritize the simplest services. There are 10,000+ PDFs on austintexas.gov. 500 of these are forms for City services. Today’s presentation Three efforts to improve the resident experience with City services. 1. Prioritizing City services to bring online and make more accessible 2. Bringing forms online 3. Redesigning forms for a better resident experience 4. Next steps and policy issues Departments using the new online form tool Why we are implementing online forms for our residents? ● Accessibility ● Improve response rates ● Ease and cost-effectiveness of editing and updating forms ● Online forms are good for the environment and help us be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us, as well as save us real-life storage space and money. The Process: Identifying the client’s needs Austin Water Utility – Truck-mounted Water Read Submission Form •This is currently a manual process via a paper form and email and not as reliable or accessible as an actual online form which can provide proper proof of submission and convenience. Before: After: Impact on Time Efficiency & Cost Saving ● Average time spent on current form administration 2-4 hrs per day for 1-2 weeks per month due to the manual data entry and comparisons. ● Based on the average City of Austin employee salary that costs $26,079 (average) annually. ● The new form is anticipated to shave off 75% off that administration time due to automation which will be a saving of $19,559.47 (average) annually. More Forms we have created Affordability Unlocked Application for Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department Request for Fire Incident Report for Austin Fire Department Cooling Tower Sub-meter Calibration Certification For Austin Water Utility Warn Central Texas for Homeland Security Today’s presentation Three efforts to improve the resident experience with City services. 1. Prioritizing City services to bring online and make more accessible 2. Bringing forms online 3. Redesigning forms for a better resident experience 4. Next steps and policy issues Impact on Equity Impact on Equity "Muscadin calls the website 'one of the year's biggest advancements' simply having this information easily accessible, and allowing complaints to be made through the same site, is a huge improvement on prior APD and Police Monitor practice." Rewrite - Service Page Content Rewrite Service Page ContentA Form Needed Rewrite - Service Page Content Rewrite Service Page ContentA Create Paper Form Prototype Create Paper Form B ● The paper prototype is there to alert you to complexities and potential issues. ● Don’t try to make it perfect Today’s presentation Three efforts to improve the resident experience with City services. 1. Prioritizing City services to bring online and make more accessible 2. Bringing forms online 3. Redesigning forms for a better resident experience 4. Next steps and policy issues Next steps (Jan - Feb 2020) online (Jan 2020) 1. Complete the service inventory and review for top priority services 2. Start offering the form design workshop citywide as a step in bringing forms 3. Continue buildout of online forms and measure benefits for efficiency and outcomes for residents (this year) 4. Identify and address policy barriers to redesigning and bringing forms online (this year + beyond) Integrating forms into process guides on Austin.gov Process guides on Austin.gov Policy issue: Digital signatures Needs: Constraint: Next steps: ● Use electronic and digital signatures ● Accessible ways for residents to “sign” documents ● Using digital signatures on legally binding documents (ex: forms, contracts) might require Council approval (per Texas Code Ch. 2054) ● Law Department is reviewing the issue for a recommended approach. ● CTM will work with partners on the internal policy, guidance, and tools.