Public Sector Organizations: Measuring The Happiness Of Your Citizens

As a public sector organization, your desire to improve service to citizens is most likely what drives your desire for innovation. So naturally, if you’re pursuing a digital transformation initiative, it should be focused on one main objective: Return on citizenship (ROC).

Return on citizenship is a similar concept to return on investment, and is best described as, “the amount of social value that citizens receive in return for their tax dollars.” Many public sector organizations are focusing on maximizing return on citizenship because, in the eyes of the taxpayer, it’s all that matters.

Maximizing Return on Citizenship

One way to streamline and improve your service to citizens is to embrace the concept of digital government by evaluating IT solutions that can potentially streamline your services, data sharing, security, processes and decisions. Public sector innovation is enabled by IT solutions that facilitate interactions between a government and its citizens. Implementing an ERP system provides an organization with the opportunity to rethink and redesign inefficient processes and deliver a higher return on citizenship.

Innovation Essentials

Project Management Oversight (PMO)

An independent PMO office can oversee your software implementation and hold software vendors accountable to the functional requirements outlined in the initial contract. A PMO office also can provide quality assurance to ensure that each deliverable aligns with organizational goals and expected benefits.

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Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V)

An IV&V team can help your organization with requirements validation and project plan adherence. Releasing a separate RFP for this type of oversight will help your organization select an IV&V team that is truly independent and able to take an objective view of deliverables and results.

Organizational Change Management (OCM)

An organizational change management plan that addresses communications and training can go a long way in preparing your employees for change. In the public sector, change management encompasses external buy-in as well. As “end-users,” citizens must be informed of coming changes.

Requests for Proposal (RFPs)

While your organization may be drawn to the lowest bidder, there are other, more important, factors to consider: 1) An RFP should cover all of your organization’s unique requirements, 2) Release separate RFPs for selection and implementation to ensure the selection of the best implementer.

On-par With the Private Sector

Public sector organizations are under increased pressure to provide convenient service to citizens, as citizens have come to expect the same level of service and responsiveness from the government that they do from private entities. It’s not surprising that an increasing number of public sector organizations are focusing on process improvement and enterprise systems in order to achieve a high return on citizenship.