GX Conversations on Service Continuity: Expert Takes In The Times Of Crisis - Christina Arizpuro
How can governments maintain continuity of services they provide to citizens, residents and businesses in these times of crisis? Listen from service pioneers, policy experts, government leaders, innovators and thinkers from across the globe.
In the last few days, our world has completely changed. In such times, it is imperative that we reach out to our experts and leaders and guides, and use their wisdom to educate and inform our people to enable them to make some sense of today and tomorrow in our areas of common interest. For government services, the first objective for any government today is to maintain the continuity of services to their citizens, residents and businesses. Most governments are responding to this in their own ways.
GX reached out to some global leaders and asked them about their opinion on service continuity and requested them to address key questions like the following:
- How do you think that governments can maintain continuity of services they provide to citizens, residents and businesses in these times of crisis, and make sure that vital services are still accessible and available? Can you outline some key actions that they could take?
- What are the key factors that governments should consider when figuring out the continuity for such services? Can you outline some key factors that will/shall drive the decision-making process here?
The responses from these leaders and experts shall be presented in this series over the next few days. In this part, we present the views of: Christina Arizpuro, Industry Executive Advisor, Public Sector, SAP (USA)
The Explosion of Public Private Partnership in Government - Christina Arizpuro
As early as I can remember, governments have discussed how to improve constituent services. Politicians have run campaigns with catchy slogans like “Get out of line and go Online”. Overnight, Covid -19 forced the Government to do just this. Like 9/11, COVID-19 is a watershed moment.
There has never been a stronger time for public private partnership (PPP) to emerge between government and the private sector to help prioritize critical government services and provide supplies. PPP is being used for the delivery of goods or services all over the nation. We have all read of car manufacturers creating ventilators for hospitals or fashion designers sewing masks for doctors and nurses working the front lines. For fiercely competitive software vendors, I have seen a collaboration of great technologies such as ESRI’s GIS running on various database platforms, mapping hot spots of cities/counties affected by COVID -19.
At SAP, we are helping customers survive in this brave new world. SAP’s mission of helping the world run better and improving people’s lives has never been more relevant than today as we confront the COVID-19 pandemic. Our customers include public health, social services, school districts and state and county run hospitals. Many of our SAP customers are adopting B2B or B2C technology they did not think was needed. The days of government procurements requiring 10 signatures on a physical sheet of paper to order toilet paper or emergency equipment have disappeared and became an automated, streamlined process.
Call centers are overwhelmed and being run with limited remote-work experience. Our government leaders are struggling to create work-from-home options which require new processes and different systems. This crisis is stretching leadership across all industries as they explore new ways of working and managing. Simultaneously, we have heard that client demand for digital delivery of products and services is rapidly growing, placing additional pressures on hard-pressed teams.
During our recent virtual industry forum, we also heard that 43% of organizations feel the need to develop more agile processes, 35% are struggling to drive positive employee engagement and 52% are challenged with creating seamless access to online systems from remote work locations.
We firmly believe that when we arrive on the other side of this pandemic many government institutions will find themselves transformed. Together with my 99,700 colleagues here at SAP, we stand ready to help you and your government on their transformational journey.
Technology companies have always been forced to respond at the speed of light to changing market dynamics. COVID-19 forced government agencies to do the same. Public Private partnerships are exactly what is needed to join forces to combat the global pandemic.
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” Henry Ford – Founder of the Ford Motor Company
To see how SAP’s specific solutions are helping government, see below.
- Qualtrics is distributing Free Employee Pulse Surveys to measure sentiment of employees who overnight started working from home. The employee pulse survey asks questions such as how are are they coping and do they have tools they need to do their job remotely. https://www.qualtrics.com/here-to-help/
- Qualtrics is offering free COVID 19 prescreening and routing to help alleviate health centers overburdened by the influx of calls. The survey helps identify trends, patterns and reports of questions or information needed. https://www.qualtrics.com/m/pre-screen.PDF
- Free Supply Chain exchanges are available from SAP Ariba Discovery. Any buyer may post their immediate sourcing needs & suppliers may respond with their ability to deliver the goods and services required. Agencies receive quick responses from suppliers who can deliver globally, to help minimize shipment delays and respond to consumer demand.
- Follow this link to view how a hospital in need of beds for patients found their answer. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-digital-is-changing-way-companies-respond-to-the-coronavirus-2020-3