icegov2012 proceedings

Smart
management
Smart service
delivery
Technological
factors
Organizational
factors
Governance
factors
Efficient
management
Effective
management
Transparent
management
Managerial
governance
Efficient service
delivery
Effective service
delivery
Transparent
service delivery
Governance in
service delivery
Technological
challenges
Technological
opportunities
Organizational
challenges
Technological
opportunities
Governance
challenges
Governance
opportunities
Efficient resource allocation; saving
budget; saving human resource;
business process change
Informed decision making; datadriven
management; performance
management; business process
change
Anti-corruption; integrity;
transparency; open government;
service level agreement
Interdepartmental collaboration;
external partnership; service level
agreement
Service integration; channel
consolidation; shared service
capability
Customer-oriented service;
professionalism; internal customers;
external customers
External accountability; internal
accountability; service level
agreement
Citizen engagement; neighborhood
engagement; community
engagement; neighborhood liaison
Under-equipping; cost of upgrading
back-office technologies; timing of
investment of the right technology at
the right time; the digital divide
Channel diversification; emerging
technologies; smart phone
Limited funding; limited operation;
limited staffing; cultural conflict;
interdepartmental difference
Business process change; datadriven
culture; performance-driven
culture; customer-oriented culture
Interdepartmental conflict; the lack
of a formal governing body; informal
interdepartmental collaboration;
more burden for extensive data
analysis
Relational governance; mutual
understanding; citizen engagement
3.3 Case Description
Philadelphia is one of the last cities of its size to activate a 311
non-emergency toll-free number. On the last day of 2008, the
mayor and the managing director of the City opened Philly311 as
a concrete step toward the administration’s strategic goal of
smarter, faster, and better government through customer service,
government efficiency, and accountability. The basic idea—
giving the public a direct way to request services or complain and
using their feedback to hold government accountable—was not
entirely new to Philadelphia. The City already had customer
hotlines, but there was no single, consolidated contact point. The
new 311 contact center absorbed the City Hall Switchboard, the
Mayor’s Action Center, the Department of Licenses and
Inspections’ customer line, and part of the Department of Streets’
customer line. Philly311 offers various ways to contact the City:
phone, in person (Philadelphia is one of a few cities with a walk-
314
in center), email, short message service (SMS), and social media
(Twitter).
4. PHILLY311 AND TRANSFORMING
GOVERNMENT
This section shares some of the finding from the interviews with
Philly311 officials. Overall we heard about two kinds of changes
in resulting in part from the Philly311 initiative; changes in
management and service delivery. The 311-driven changes
discussed below are expounded first in terms of efficiency,
effectiveness, transparency, and governance (See Table 6).
Table 6. Philly311: driving innovation
Efficiency � Efficient use and
allocation of resources
Effectiveness � Informed decision
making
� Data-driven
management
Transparency � Anti-corruption and
integrity
Governance � Internal collaboration
� External partnership
Management Service Delivery
� Frontline service
integration
� Shared services
� Customer-oriented
service
� Professionalism
� Internal and external
accountability
� Citizen engagement
� Neighborhood
engagement
4.1 311-Driven Changes in Management
The 311 service center is recognized as helping other departments
use their resources more efficiently and effectively. One of
Philly311’s objectives involves allowing agencies and
departments to focus on their core mission and manage their
workload efficiently (see www.phila.gov/311). Just as Baltimore’s
original motive for launching its 311 was to reduce the crush of
calls flooding into 911, Philly311 allows Philadelphia’s 911
center to devote their resources to life-threatening and urgent
situations. Philly311 also enables the City Council (the City’s
legislative body) to use their resources more effectively, by saving
their budget and staff time spent on facilitating constituent
services. According to interviewees, this has freed Council
resources, primarily the time of Council members, to other
important needs of city residents.
Furthermore, the information Philly311 provides to other
departments is driving internal business process changes. One
Philly311staff person gave an example of how Philly311 is
contributing to informed decision making in the departments by
helping them easily find hot spots.
[XX department] had a fairly random process in how
they prioritize replacement of street lights. Once we
provide data, we are able to provide GIS map. That
shows where the calls come from—hot spots. They can
visually see the clusters. Now they have a data source.
The data source actually gave them an opportunity to
say “we need to do this.” Always right places.
Interviewees consider Philly311 as crucial to their larger citywide
performance management efforts. Data pulled from Philly311 can
expose what residents care about most. This data is used to