The answers municipal governments have been looking for?

September 11, 2018

Municipal governments are facing multiple, growing, and overlapping challenges. Yet, there are tools available to address these challenges that are not being used to their full potential. Market-based policies such as well-designed user fees can help reduce traffic, cut water use, and improve solid waste management, while generating revenue that can be used to fill financial gaps.

These challenges include:

Municipal infrastructure is aging and faces a growing investment gap;
Municipalities have limited ability to raise revenues. Only so much can be raised from property taxes. They also often face constraints on debt financing; and
To attract people and investment, livability is key: cities must provide job and recreational opportunities, ensure affordability, make it easy to move people and products, and protect clean air and water.

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Top 4 Considerations to Save Money When Improving Citizen Services

September 11, 2018

By checking your own internal bias you stand a better chance of Finding the best solution

We all want to better our citizens’ services but, when pursuing this goal, what can we do to ensure we are spending the right amount of money on the right plan? The only way is to look at your citizens, your goals and what you currently have to achieve the right balance between spend and results.

Here are four areas you should consider to make sure you are getting the most for your money.

1. Understand first.

· When creating any plan, the first action should be to understand the needs and wants of your target. Not all people will have the same issues as you. The only way to know is to ask your citizens, listen intently and believe them. This is particularly true when you think you have solved certain issues already.

· In modern agile technology development, the practice is to rely on the” voice of the customer”. This is to ensure when the product is complete it meets the needs expressed by the potential buyer. The same is true in finding the best solution for your citizens.

· Remind yourself that you are not the citizen. Assume that you do not really know anything about your citizens’ needs. This way you will not try to prove your bias right or dismiss some expressed citizen needs as “not important” or “already solved”.

2. Look at what you have today.

· Look at the processes you have today that are at the heart of any of the issues identified by your citizens (e.g. a citizen is not notified when an issue is fixed – perhaps because a work order is lost after a job is completed so there is no record of it being closed). Ask yourself what vehicles, tools, and processes you are using to meet your “citizen service goals”.

· Are you using your website to get information out? Do you have posters in community gathering spaces? Do you have a section every week in the local paper? Do you have a CiRM or a spreadsheet to track issues? Do you have a written policy that helps all staff to address citizen issues quickly? Do any of these create or solve the issue expressed by your citizens? These types of questions are key to success.

3. List all potential solutions.

· Improving citizen services may not require buying new hardware or software and spending a bundle on installation and configuration. A successful solution, regardless of how great it is, may very well need to be coupled with bettering an internal process. Or maybe it is a simple matter of increasing the awareness of your website or creating posters to inform citizens about how you do things and why. It might also be possible to improve services by repurposing technologies that you already have in hand (e.g. using your CRM in a unique way or changing access permissions so more people can answer the questions posed by citizens).

· Listing solutions should not be an excuse to try to make current software do things it was not meant to do. Look at the process you want to have first then find the solution that best fits it.

· Do not be afraid to look at human resource factors. Maybe the answer is to better train staff in citizen resolution or conflict management (customer service skills). Maybe you need to ensure that all staff members know your policies and how they should be implemented.

4. Consider technology solutions by task, not product name.

· List your “service goals” and rate the importance of each of one. The best way is to break down your list into the following columns: “must have”, “good to have” and “nice to have”.

· If you think that technology might solve some of the issues, list only the “service goals” you want your software to address, i.e. not what features or what brand will be the best solution.

· Remember the technology may not need to be citizen facing to increase satisfaction. It might just enable an improvement in your processes to offer better, faster and more reliable citizen services.

If you consider these four areas, you will likely find a solution with that best fits your budget, and that will have the largest impact on your citizens. By checking your own internal bias, you stand a better chance of making sure the right process, tracking and communication methods (internal or external) are part of your change, and the costs may well be less than you thought.

At AccessE11 we understand that paper systems and endless email chains are not productive when it comes to citizen services and support. There are too many opportunities for an issue to fall through the cracks, or for delays in responses to issues.

We promote instilling processes that make sense and that are easy to adopt so that everyone in the municipality can become a citizen support expert. Please visit us at www.accesse11.com to find out more.

Compliance and Preparedness

September 7, 2018

After Fernie: Ensuring Compliance and Preparedness

On August 29th WorkSafeBC released a 74-page report on their investigation into the tragic deaths of three men following an ammonia leak at an arena facility in Fernie last year.

According to the report: “Poor communication and inconsistent attention to internal auditing, inspections, incident investigation and emergency practice drills allowed for the development of hazardous workplace conditions.”

The report cites multiple Occupational Health and Safety Regulation failures by Fernie, as well as Workers Compensation Act failures by both the city and the service contractor. Fernie received the majority of the violations, including:

emergency response procedures that were inadequate or not followed—including failures to train workers and conduct drills
failure to perform hazard assessments and inspections of equipment to prevent unsafe working conditions
failure to develop and implement an exposure control plan for ammonia

You can read the full report here.

The Fernie deaths are all the more tragic because they were avoidable. Armed with the knowledge of what caused this incident, it is critical to ensure that a similar event does not happen in the future.

Unfortunately, in our professional capacity we have found that numerous ammonia facilities have inadequate emergency response procedures, infrequently reviewed or conducted emergency drills and a significant lack of exposure training and preparedness. In the majority of these cases, management falsely believed they were compliant because they had passed a technical standards inspection and had a document or two on file for emergency response. The Ontario Recreation Facilities Association (ORFA) conducted a webinar on March 29th, 2018 and reported findings consistent with our own: ammonia facility management that failed to keep emergency plans current and practiced, and a lack of competency for unattended refrigeration equipment operators—including being underprepared to deal with a significant ammonia leak.

This false sense of compliance and preparedness most often occurs because management either doesn’t know the right questions to ask, or isn’t sure what a good safety and emergency program should consist of. The situation is made worse when facility managers do not qualify or review service contractors’ programs or methods and/or rely on EMS or fire services to cover emergency protocols, which is not necessarily in accordance with legislative requirements.

Between 2015 and 2018 in North America there have been at least 23 incidents of ammonia releases, including 8 fatalities.

Anyone responsible for the safety of others around ammonia is strongly encouraged to seek professional assistance in the development of their programs and procedures. This begins with responding to the following questions:

How have you fully ensured the safety of all workers and the public in your ammonia facilities?
How are you ensuring that your service contractors have an ammonia program that is complete and compliant for emergency, maintenance and exposure control, and able to integrate with your facilities requirements?
How thorough is your exposure control plan?
How can you verify that your staff, contractors and operators are all competent in following the programs and procedures you have in place and are able to carry out an emergency response to a minor or major leak?

After the WorkSafeBC report on the Fernie incident, ignorance is not a valid excuse for noncompliance when it comes to ammonia safety. A lack of certainty or inability to thoroughly answer any of the above questions can indicate a significant risk to the occupants and users of your facility.

At Barantas, we have been building comprehensive and robust health and safety and emergency response programs since 2002. We go to great lengths to help ammonia facility managers, municipality directors and contractors appreciate what reasonable preparedness can look like.

A professionally performed audit is the only true confirmation of compliance and preparedness. Let us work with you to ensure you are taking every reasonable precaution to protect those who rely on you to keep them safe while inside your facility. By booking a professional audit today you are taking the first step in preventing an incident tomorrow.

Barantas Inc. – Is a full service provider for all your health & safety needs. See our profile

Small to mid-sized municipal guide to digital government and citizen satisfaction

August 30, 2018

by: Brad Pinch Director Of Municipal Needs – AccessE11

In small municipalities, we hear a lot about digital government and citizen experiences. We often think this is a question whose answer is just to buy the latest software and hardware.

A recent study done by PWC has once again re-enforced the principle that digital service channels improve the overall satisfaction of citizens. I don’t think that is surprising to most of us. However, before we all run out and start spending thousands of dollars building state-of-the-art citizen applications, e-commerce solutions or internal databases with portals for citizens, we should first ensure we understand why citizens are more satisfied when they have access to digital service channels. To do that we need to understand the specific problems faced by citizens that lead to a sense of dissatisfaction. Is a citizen facing technology sufficient to address their issues?

The studies of citizens (customers) indicate satisfaction is a product of actions that are evaluated on an emotional level.

Here is a brief summary of emotional needs that affect citizen satisfaction.

Empowerment – The citizen needs to feel that every part of an interaction is centered on them (customer-centric services). This speaks to our ability to provide fast/timely services, setting realistic expectations and providing a defined structure that any interaction will follow to ensure a timely and appropriate outcome.
Personalization– Citizen’s should not perceive that they are being provided a “one-size-fits-all” approach to their interaction. Any process needs to adapt to the individual and their specific circumstances. This is achieved by providing different resolution paths, empowering staff to solve simple issues on their own (one and done) and providing choices which can make the system feel more tailored. The result is a citizen who feels valued as an individual.
Multi-channel experience– Citizens want to engage with any staff or any department using the method of communication they desire regardless of the request. By funneling all inputs into a centralized system (one that all staff can see) via multichannel options (phone, voice mail, walk-in email, and web) staff and departments can ensure there are “no wrong doors” when it comes to logging or looking for solutions. This way you remove the need for the citizen to navigate your organization to get help.
Transparency– We often talk about transparency in government with regard to visibility into how tax dollars are (or will be) spent. However, for citizens, transparency must also include access to information on their specific issues, timely updates on activities that impact their individual concerns, a clear and consistent understanding of the processes and policies that apply, and being able to obtain the information they desire without needing to make a complicated request.

Citizens of smaller municipalities have the same service expectations that are available to those living in larger cities. With the right set of tools and best practices, this can often be achieved with a budget and staffing levels consistent with smaller organizational resources. By keeping things simple and focusing on the unique needs of your citizens, delivering on high service levels does not need to cost a lot.

For More Articles of interest for Municipalities please visit Insight E11 at AccessE11.com

Legacy Systems; The Old Rebuild or Reuse Software Conundrum

August 30, 2018

Why the Rebuild Route Makes Sense

Typically, in the short term, the rebuild will cost more, but over time, will cost less, provide better ROI and create potentially happier and more efficient employees.

We have created a handy ROI calculator that we use when discussing the true value of saving time and having more efficient workers. This calculator and the logic with it can be downloaded here: Software ROI Calculator.

Rebuild vs Reuse: Things to Think About

With any rebuild of a legacy solution the following areas must be addressed:

- Mobility: Employees need to access data from different handheld devices. Be it iPhone, Android or Blackberry. Today technology exists to make a solution device agnostic.
- Web (Remote) Access: Using a browser to access the data provides the most cost-efficient way for users to access data; whether it is internal users or external users. Mobile users can access the web browser to use, interact or access the new system.
- Future-Proof Workflow: By rebuilding a solution, potential technology traps can be avoided. Ideally, any system built should scope out and last for 6 to 8 years before workflow modifications are required.
- Collaboration: Gone are the days of a static web page. Companies, big and small, want some form of customer integration with their web page. Rebuilding a solution using a custom web technology will allow a web page to bolt on and be used by both employees, customers, and prospects.

Gone are the days of a static web page. Companies, big and small, want some form of customer integration with their web page. Rebuilding a solution using a custom web technology will allow a web page to bolt on and be used by both employees, customers, and prospects.

Whenever I visit a potential new customers site, I am always surprised by the age of some legacy systems. Moreover, I am surprised at how a great return on investment from the past has now turned into a system/process that is inefficient and a detrimental for employees.

If your existing system was built more than 15 years ago and is still working and being used – congratulations! You have certainly received a great ROI from past investments. But now might be the time to think about a rebuild of your solution. Rebuild before access, inefficiencies or age of hardware severely hurt your business’ growth.

Every business is unique and so is the software they need. Get your free Personal Needs Analysis today.

Service That Sells Public Workshop

Selling is becoming an increasingly important part of the frontline customer service representatives’ job, but few representatives have formal training. Our program helps Customer Service professionals develop the skills, knowledge and motivation they need for cross-selling and up-selling.

No matter what business you are in, who your customers are, or how large your business is, the fact is that everyone would like to increase their revenue without increasing the investment. Numerous companies have discovered a simple cost effective way to do this.

This program is designed to effectively overcome this reluctance and to uncover the realities of providing service and myths behind selling. We guide participants in understanding and being prepared for the transition from service to sales.

For more information, please click here

To Register, please click here

NetFore Systems upgrades its Municipal Staff Mobile Application to allowing staff to capture new issues & service requests on the fly while internet or data services are unavailable!

August 27, 2018

AccessE11, Ottawa, Canada

Home grow Canadian software developer Netfore Systems Inc., updated their popular AccessE11 Mobile Application to help increase productivity and reduce administrative paperwork for the municipal worker while in the field.

A long-standing problem that rural municipal workers face is the need for paper-based processes to record new issues or service requests while in the field because they too often have no data access. This is a productivity barrier that NetFore has addressed with the latest release of its popular AccessE11 cloud-based issue management software product and accompanying a mobile application.

“With previous releases of the AccessE11 solution, we significantly reduced the need for both municipal office and field staff to rely on paper to close the loop on managing citizen complaints and service requests”, says NetFore’s CEO Ken Workun, “however this did not completely solve the problem where a new issue is found by a work crew or a citizen raises an issue with a field worker directly”.

Understanding this issue, NetFore has introduced capabilities to add a complaint or service request from the AccessE11 mobile application even if the user has no data or internet access. “The real difference is the off-line functionality” comments Rene Villeneuve – NetFore’s Software Architect overseeing the project. “We made municipal issue management even easier by taking things one step further. When an AccessE11 user’s mobile device acquires a data signal or attaches to a wi-fi network, any new cases are automatically uploaded to the AccessE11 database”.

For By-Law officer Nancy-Ann Gauthier, the new off-line case creation feature “means that I can do my full job while on the road even when I do not have a data signal… I liked the mobile App before, but I love it now!” In the town of South Stormont Fire Prevention Officer, Nick MacGillivray finds the ability to create cases while on the road saves time and helps when a call comes to in from a citizen who has an issue with a burn permit, “I now can create the case where ever I am, in seconds, without having to go to the office or find a data signal”. Blake Henderson – Public Works Superintendent at North Stormont knows that the AccessE11 mobile application has saved loads of time and “has increased staff productivity.”

This new feature is now available as a core feature for all AccessE11 Mobile Application users.

Visit AccessE11.com to find out more.

Cyber threats and how to protect your municipality

August 24, 2018

Brad Pinch – Director of Municipal Needs at AccessE11

Often, when we hear about securing online systems against cyber-attacks the first thought is to invest time and energy into cybersecurity software. While this is important, and should not be downplayed, did you know that software alone will only defend against a small percentage of cyber-attacks?

The easiest way for someone to breach your security infrastructure is to employ the unsuspecting assistance of your users.

According to PhishMe’s 2017 Enterprise Phishing Resiliency and Defense Report, 91% of all cyber-attacks are a result of people who fall prey to Phishing Attacks. Of the remaining 9% of cyber-attacks, more than 75% are the result of other forms of “human failure” to secure information.

Phishing is an attack that begins with a very targeted email sent to your staff (and perhaps yourself), that often impersonates a service provider, colleague, family member or friend and entices you to click on a link or open a document. This action may include a request for private information that provides the perpetrator with the means to launch a secondary cyber-attack or it may launch an attack directly through the download of malicious software. Attacks can be in the form of spyware, malware, and increasingly ransomware and data theft.

Wombats Security’s – State of the Phish 2018 report– suggests that phishing attack frequency from 2016 to 2017 increased by 48%; phishing is on the rise because it continues to work. Hackers have quickly learned that it requires less energy to trick users into giving them access than it does to circumnavigate the sophisticated security systems deployed today.

6 simple steps that a municipality can do to protect themselves

Here are a few steps a municipality can take to minimize its chances of security breaches and cyber attacks.

Stay Informed and educate your team

Much of the battle against phishing and spear phishing (personalized phishing) attacks is getting users to understanding what this type of attack looks like, so they are less likely to be duped. Phishing relies on basic human conditions:

information overload and shortcuts our brains take to process the information,
a desire to help those we care for and trust of information that (seems to) come from them,
curiosity for new information.

These traits are well known to attackers and are exploited in order to get victims to click on a link or open a document. Emails look like they’re from legitimate sources: Microsoft 365, Google, Dropbox, PayPal, Adobe account, LinkedIn, credit card company and many more.

There is a great infographic called don’t get hooked: how to recognize and avoid phishing attacks from the Digital Guardian. Print it out and post it for all to see.

Keep your software up to date

Malware is being created all the time and is designed to take advantage of newly discovered vulnerabilities in our general use software. Vendors are quick to update their software, but you must update your version in order to be secure. You should regularly, or ideally automatically, update your software:

Browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc)
Operating Systems (Windows, MacOS)
Office Software (Outlook, Word, Adobe)

Call before you click

Any email from a bank or colleague can usually be responded to directly, rather than via a reply or by clicking on a link. If there is ever any doubt, call your bank on the phone (using published numbers, not one in the email), or log directly into their website directly – not from the link in the email. By not taking the shortcut, fraudulent links can be avoided.

Install anti-virus software and activate the Anti-Phishing toolbar if available

Antivirus software is designed to guard against known vulnerabilities. Even though today’s operating systems are more secure than ever, security tools look for malicious content in real time and provide an extra layer of scrutiny. And make sure you keep it updated as well.

Internet browsers can also be extended with anti-phishing toolbars. Such toolbars run quick checks on any site you visit and compare it a to lists of known phishing sites. If you stumble upon a malicious site, the toolbar will alert you about it. This is just one more layer of protection against phishing scams, and there are many that are completely free.

Implement Secure Password Policies

As hard as it is to believe, the 10 most common passwords in 2017 were:

123456, 123456789, qwerty, 12345678, 111111, 1234567890, 1234567, password123, 123123, 987654321

It won’t take a hacker long to break these codes.

Equally important though – do not use the same password for everything: If you do, and someone gets access to one system, they can often get access to them all. If you struggle to remember passwords (who doesn’t) there are many excellent tools that can assist:

These programs store an encrypted version of your passwords on your computer and conveniently provide them when you need them. This means remembering only one password.

Beware the Unknown Storage Devices

It is possible the free USB drive that is received from a tradeshow, or the one you found in the parking lot has a virus on it. Sites that sell marketing USB drives unwittingly provide ones that have viruses installed from the source in China, Russia, India, Korea and other countries (yes including the UK, US, and Canada). These were likely never checked by the company who put their information on the drive to give to you.

If a data storage device is not bought by your company or municipality from a reputable source then it should not be allowed on one of your computers, ever!

These are only a few ideas to help better protect your organization from cyber-attacks. The common element in each remains the same; people and their behavior represent the greatest risk but also provide the best defense against cyber-attacks. Any user can open the door to intruders, so ensuring everyone understands the risk and remains vigilant is critical. Investment in the human factor will pay off quickly and be more cost-effective than any other action.

For More Interesting Articles on Issues that Municipalities are facing please visit us at https://www.accesse11.com

Effective Facilitation Public Workshop

The Effective Facilitation program builds a strong foundation of knowledge in both practice and theory for facilitation success. Knowing the techniques to use and how to effectively facilitate in different situations – meetings, presentations and training sessions – in today’s environment is critical. With its focus on asking rather than telling, and listening to build consensus, facilitation is the new leadership ideal, the core competency everybody needs.

During this 1-day program, you will gain an understanding of the full cycle of facilitation. It will provide you with the resources, materials, and tools that can be used to confidently and effectively facilitate in any situation. You will also get the opportunity to practice what you’ve learned in a safe and supportive environment.

Through a mix of theory and practice, participants will learn how to:

Create a positive climate that engages and involves your learners
Deal with the unexpected – unanticipated problems and challenging participant situations
Evaluate the results of your training; learner feedback is valuable in more ways than one.

This program is designed to reinforce and develop your skills as a facilitator. Each participant will have the opportunity to facilitate a brief session on the second day of the program. This will allow the facilitator and training participants to offer insightful and real-time constructive feedback.

Please note that this workshop is a 1-Day condensed version.

For more information, please click here

To Register, please click here

Design Thinking Public Workshop

In an environment in which customer experience is increasingly becoming a differentiator, the thoughtful design of individual customer experiences, and of how multiple touchpoints work together as a whole, is too vital to be left to chance. Ultimately, Design Thinking jumpstarts an organizations’ creativity and transports them beyond the “go-to” options, unlocking new opportunities for creating shared value.

Design Thinking is an innovative, problem solving mindset for human-centered innovation and product / service development. It uses ethnography to intimately understand customers and agile development and iteration to translate findings, to insights to visualization.

During this 1-Day Design Thinking workshop, participants will learn about the Design Thinking framework. The CSPN Design Thinking framework is a codified structure to repeatedly and reliably lead teams from business strategy to customer insights and from customer insights to ideas. Through interactive activities and case studies, participants will learn practically how to contextualize methodologies, tools and processes to deliver insights that lead to customer value solutions.

As an action-oriented and practice session, this Design Thinking workshop guides participants through solution development regardless of the customer or business challenge at hand. Participants will learn how to put the framework into action!

For more information, please click here

To Register, please click here

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