As an SME or public sector organisation, your business is most likely in the process of digital transformation. This process involves taking things previously done manually through human interaction and creating a digital solution, increasing efficiency and cutting costs.
It’s a significant task, which is why many businesses bring in outside help to plan how they’re going to execute it. In essence, digital transformation involves restructuring an organisation from the ground up. Internet-based services can’t just be a ‘bolt-on extra’ (Alan Trefler, Pegasystems CEO, 2014). Everything must be reorganised to accommodate these new features. This is known as ‘Digital by Design’, or DBD.
So, what happens when DBD doesn’t make things easier for the end-users? What happens when ‘Digital by Design’ goes bad? And, as a public sector organisation and provider of these services, how can this be prevented?
What is ‘Digital by Design’?
The UK Government uses the term ‘Digital by Default‘ interchangeably with ‘Digital by Design’. The phrases relate to the restructuring of an organisation to match its digital technology.
However, this assumes that the organisation in question has already shifted how it delivers its services from non-digital mediums to digital mediums, (i.e. instead of people filling in a paper form or phoning, they interact with a digital service).
So, when the Government talks about Digital by Default or Digital by Design, it’s talking about digital services that are so straightforward and convenient that all those who can use them will choose to do so, while those who can’t are not excluded.
So, working with a ‘Digital by Design’ plan is a great idea. Done properly, it’ll increase your public sector organisation’s efficiency and productivity while reducing your costs. However, it’s often mistakenly interpreted as ‘digital at all costs’. It’s crucial to avoid rushing a new digital system, which leads to more problems and increased costs, actually making things more complicated than before.
The UK Government’s Design Principle 8 is to “Build digital services, not websites”. What this means in practice is that a digital solution should not simply be purchased because its digital but needs to deliver to a specific requirement – a service provision required by the public sector body. Here’s what the Government says:
“By digital by default, we mean digital services that are so straightforward and convenient that all those who can use them will choose to do so whilst those who can’t are not excluded.”
As you can see, this is slightly ambiguous and open to individual interpretation. However, it shouldn’t be taken to mean that public sector organisations should provide ‘digital services at all costs’. Instead, it should be read as a guideline to create simplistic, easy-to-use-and-navigate digital services where an online, cloud-based system is more efficient than the old version.
Problems with ‘Digital by Design’
By badly misinterpreting ‘Digital by Design’ to mean ‘digital at all costs’, public sector organisations risk creating software that’s inefficient, more expensive, and difficult for the end-user to use. The main problems appear to relate to a few specific areas:
- Excluding individuals with no online access– for example, elderly people without computers, tablets or smartphones may have struggled to fill out the Covid-19 Passenger Located Form (now redundant).
- Unnecessary use of digital services – while cloud-based services significantly improve many standard procedures, they aren’t always necessary. Sometimes, a human has to re-key all the information somewhere else anyway. Thus, investing in them is a waste of time and money, and the resultant product is worse than the original, as re-keying invariably introduces human error.
- Overly expensive – it might cost more to design and run a new digital system than the old one. It makes a new online method hard to justify if it’s too costly.
- Insuffient users – if the likely number of users of a service is low then not only will the development cost be disproportionate to the cost saving, but the support cost may be too high in comparison to the benefit the service is attempting to deliver.
- End users’ problems aren’t solved – for example, an AI chatbot may suggest two options to ‘solve’ someone’s query. If neither of these options work and there is no third option to contact a real person, it’s useless. Equally, some digital services are cyclical – the online form tells you phone a number, and then a real person tells you to return to the form.
- Frustrating users so they give up – Other problems here include things like:
- Asking for the same information multiple times
- Asking for irrelevant information
- Not offering the user an option that they believe is valid for their particular situation
- Making user authentication too difficult
- Unnecessary constraints, like online forms that can be completed only during office hours
- Not improving the workflow over time so the user knows you’re improving the service.
How organisations should combat problems with ‘Digital by Design’
Prevention is the best cure, as they say. In the design phase of new digital services, a strategy must focus on the end-users’ needs as much as the requirements of your public sector organisation. The resultant cloud-based system should address both equally, making things easier for you and your stakeholders.
The leading cause of problems listed in the previous section is not following the Government’s service standard (see more here). In particular, public sector organisations might fail to properly understand users and their needs and forget about “…making sure everyone can use the service”. These checks should be carried out during development and after launch, including the beta (monitoring and testing) phase.
Online feedback forms are the best way to understand the public’s opinion of your digital services. However, it’s crucial to pay attention to these and act as quickly as possible. Otherwise, by ignoring them and leaving things as they are, you’re promoting the idea that you simply don’t care.
You can avoid the perceived problems we’ve discussed on this page by focusing on ‘Digital by Design’ – not ’digital at all costs’. Online services may be appropriate for many situations, but you should always carefully plan the development and rollout to be easy to use and worthwhile.
AMDH Services Limited is an independent ICT consultant with years of experience partnering with public sector organisations. We pride ourselves on getting to know your team and your needs. We can then help you with your digital transformation process by identifying solutions which genuinely help your staff and end-users.
Could your organisation use a hand? If so, please do get in touch with an obligation-free chat about your needs. You can reach us using the form below, via email (info@amdhservicesltd.com) or on 01332 322 588. We look forward to hearing from you.
