Partner s Logo HANDS HELPING ANSWERS DECISION SERVICE Experiencing

Partner’s Logo HANDS HELPING ANSWERS DECISION SERVICE Experiencing the e. TEN HANDS Project Julie Warren Telecities Conference, Bologna June 29 th 2007

EU Framework 6 th Framework Programme Research and development Thematic Priority IST Information Society Technologies e. TEN Programme To • enable people to participate fully in the Information Society • stimulate & support roll-out of innovative trans-European e-services • Encourage organisations to extend their services to marginalised groups of users Theme 1 – e. Government On-line services provided by or for public administrations and services aimed at broadening participation in the democratic process Action 2 Market Validation Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007 HANDS

History 2003 -05 2005 Mid-2006 l l End-2006 l 5 NLP (Natural Language Processing) applications developed and tested under EDEN (“Electronic Democracy European Network”) scheme 2 selected for market validation under e. Ten scheme (‘Deploying Trans-European e. Services for all’) Bologna and Napier of original consortium sought new partners for HANDS proposal Napier & CEC joined forces again Hands consortium proposal successful in funding bid Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

The Consortium l Coordination: Bologna Municipality (Italy) l Technical and business development: – – l Pilot testing - Local Authorities: – – – l Enìa S. p. A. (Italy) Research & Evaluation: – l Bologna Municipality (Italy) City of Saarbruecken (Germany) City of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK) Pilot testing - Public Utility: – l Regulus by Stylo s. r. l. (Italy); EUNICS S. p. A. (Italy) International Teledemocracy Centre, Napier University, (Scotland, UK) Dissemination: – EUROCITIES – www. eurocities. org Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Project objectives To “market validate” the HANDS ‘self-service’ communication system by: Ø Investigating its administrative & economic viability Ø Refining the HANDS offer to meet target customers’ expectations and marketstandard quality. Ø identifying the conditions for its future deployment on a European scale. Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Overview of HANDS application 1. User accesses the HANDS Browse for answer service on the PB website 2. Types a question in everyday speech. 3. Enter question Answer Tree Screen displays question/answer pairs matching Review answers Need satisfied the user’s query (Answer Tree) 4. User wants more or different information 5. Uses automatic email routing Question routed to office service 6. Receive answer Receives email answer – (Address Guesser) Human interaction Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007 Address Guesser

Project plan & process WHAT Set-up Pilot site preps Project Plan Quality Plan Comms Plan WHEN Months 4 -6 Application refinements Evaluation tools design Months 1 -3 Pilot 1 Evaluation Pilot 2 Deployment Plan Evaluation Business Plan Months 7 -9 Months 10 -12 Review Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007 Close Months 13 -15 Months 16 -18

Work Packages 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Project Management User Requirements and adaptation Business Model Pilots and Validation Evaluation Dissemination Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Workflow Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Pilot constituents 4 PBs - 3 languages – 10 information domains Work, school, cultural and leisure events in the city for young people l Development projects, traffic, parking, and cycling paths l Energy saving, water use awareness and waste management l Utility company Student internship opportunities and other educational activities Italian l Scottish English l German l Pest control l Bereavement services l School Placement and Educational Maintenance Awards services IT Customer Service and Support l Statistics on population, building, enterprises, employment, labour market and business, taxes, traffic etc. l Elections: results, laws and rules, polling stations, absentee voting etc Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Intended end-user benefits l Easy access to information – (any internet connection anywhere) l Directly related to query – (system ‘understands’ query then looks for answer or routes to right person) l Sophisticated query techniques not required – (everyday language not keywords) l An additional channel for communication with PB – (more transparency betwee PB & citizens) Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Intended organisational benefits l More effective query handling – (accurate information always to hand) l Better quality of response - (informed by real user questions) l Increase in citizen/customer engagement with PB (because engagement is easy) l Reduced cost of query handling -(because highly automated) Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Evaluation Process Overall planning Installation & Training 1. Evaluation criteria Planning for testing Involving Pilot Sites 2. Observation Testing by departments 3. Guidelines 4. Data analysis 5. Interview analysis Usefulness measurement Usability User feedback Management acceptability Utility Information Retrieval Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

General test findings • The PB operators generally satisfied by the service. • Found easy to operate & did not need help (v. IT literate) • Most end users also seemed to be satisfied by the service. Only novice IT users needed help to use it • Most users said they thought HANDS was a useful service and would use it for enquiries. • Generally HANDS not seen as a substitute for traditional communication channels (e. g. searching in the Council’s website, phone calling or directly going to the relevant office). • Rather seen as a complementary tool to integrate with other channels for choice and completeness Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

General test findings cont … l Some languages (eg. German) present particular problems for NLP engine in HANDS l Improving screen design, navigations, and user manuals would make HANDS more user friendly and more marketable Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Findings re. Usefulness/Utility System liked & its potential appreciated. . . but l only as good as quality of data available to HANDS for responses to queries l Routes taken to information are diverse (email, web search, phoning up, walk-in queries) – HANDS needs to fit in with other communication channels l Organisational structure significant -(eg. central or dispersed query traffic; in-house v outsourced ICT, commercial v PA) - affects potential utility of HANDS So, to get the best from HANDS l Ensure processes in place to create FAQs and online content l Set up baseline measures to assess impact of HANDS (eg. Counts of mail, phone calls, etc) l Ensure sufficient answers in AT database to reduce pressure through emails l UNDERSTAND YOUR PARTICULAR CUSTOMERS/CITIZENS Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Findings re. organisational acceptability l Talking to managers - critical to buy-in to HANDS l Buy-in critical to HANDS potential l Stakeholders generally positive on the concept l Priorities for management – Assurance over software support l – HANDS Group l l OSS not an issue, and perceived positively in Italy Recognise PA’s commercial constraints Varying viewpoints – – – Performance summaries Website integration Bundles concept Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Other project outcomes l l l Best e. Ten project, January 2007 Very effective international partnership Excellent project management & communications Valuable learning about NLP processing, query handling, information provision, user need Valuable contribution to EU policy on development of OS solutions in international context Novel Business Model Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Any questions? Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Partner’s Logo HANDS Thank you! Pilot 2 in The City of Edinburgh Council Julie Warren

Why we participated in HANDS Strategic Fit with CEC l Customer First Strategy: a national vision of Customer Service l Efficiency and Modernisation Agendas: Smart City Strategy l Web strategy: new Council internet and intranet to deliver on-line services. l Engage with Citizens: always searching for new and better ways Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007

Strategic aims of Pilot Partners – – – The aim of the pilot is to improve the quality of information Enìa provides to customers. Enìa would like also to improve Call Centre quality of activities and – at the same time - not to reduce the number of calls received by the Call Centre. IT Customer Service and Support In this domain the target end users are the users of the IT services of IKS, the IT company of the City of Saarbruecken, who can find help and information to any problems they have with software, hardware and infrastructure in connection with the used IT components. The aim of the pilot is to improve the quality of information IKS can give to their customers and to reduce the telephone calls to the IKS-Hotline call center. Another aim is to get more statistical data about problems the users have, in order to be able to avoid them in the future if possible. Bologna Telecities Conference, June 29 th 2007