Here’s one example that Ohio CIO Gregory Jackson likes to give to prove that government agencies need customer relationship management: "Every year, citizens have to tell the Department of Revenue what their address is," he says. "But then say we inform them that their driver’s license is about to expire?that [notice] may go to an old address. People get frustrated when they have to go to court [to fight tickets that come as a result of] notices they never got."
And that’s what citizens are treated to merely for moving. More complicated processes, such as starting a small business, require extraordinary amounts of time, as budding entrepreneurs may need to visit a dozen agencies for licenses and permits before opening their doors. Even on the Web, agencies’ sites have almost
always been siloed away from each other?not just in Ohio, but in every state. The problem? Citizens think of state governments as single entities, like a big department store, but state governments don’t act that way. The highly disjointed nature of state government makes even the simplest procedure complicated, resulting in states with a dismal record for customer service.
That has been true for more than 200 years, but what’s different now is that information technology, specifically CRM, gives states the tools to do something about it. State CIOs say the same technology that private companies use to track your purchases and help salespeople suggest new products can be used to serve up all the forms an entrepreneur needs to start a business, inform poor citizens about benefits they can apply for, and make government call centers beacons of assistance.
But the obstacles to deploying CRM in government are countless, state CIOs say. Agencies don’t see the value in sharing information, and institutional hubris often makes them reluctant to learn more about the citizens they serve. State laws often prohibit agencies from sharing information with each other at all. There’s never enough money. Federal regulations that govern many state services seem to promulgate the very silos CIOs would like to eliminate.
Despite those hurdles, some state CIOs?prodded by governors who seek to revamp the way their states treat taxpayers?have launched CRM programs modeled on those in the private industry. Those making progress are doing so not by tearing down the barriers but by choosing projects with the fewest obstacles to success to demonstrate CRM benefits. Experts say the sheer scope of states’ systems requires that approach; Larry Herman, a managing director at KPMG Consulting, calls it the only workable one. Although it remains to be seen whether these early successes will build the critical mass CIOs hope for, from these projects a body of best practices is emerging that can serve as a road map for government CIOs charged with meeting a new set of demands.
