United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

○ About 3,000 complaints concerning the administration of tap water supply occur every year. Complaints via telephone have increased, including questions of how long the customer will need to wait. Those responsible for complaints about water supply end up working weekends, due to the excessive amount of work, and contracted repairmen come to the tap water department almost every day to provide service. This shows that the method of providing services should be improved.
○ Civilians, officials, and contractors amassed in writing plans and records of water supply management. Since there was no system in place that allowed information sharing, work flow was crippled and delayed to the point that it took 30 to 45 days to finish a request.
○ Hence, we tried to benchmark other cities or Gun administrative districts, but none of the areas we studied were concerned with complaints related to the administration of tap water supply.
○ Therefore, we composed a task force team (TFT) to improve the handling of tap water complaints on a full scale, thus providing better administrative services to citizens through an upgraded service system wherein all concerned can work more efficiently.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
○ All the processes concerning tap water supply have been automated so that complaints need not be submitted in person to the office, but can be submitted via the Internet. This saves money in both document fees and travel expenses. This process shortened the process for submitting complaints from two day to 5 to 20 minutes, raising work efficiency by over 90%. ○ Water supply officials have made revolutionary improvements in their handling of complaints by simplifying the complicated procedures of submitting complaints, which previously required over 10 kinds of documents, to only one or two. The computerized system helps them to respond quickly without looking through stacks of documents. ○ Contractors now can submit written contracts and certificates of completed work through the Internet where previously they had to visit the office 5 times. The computerized system maximized the administrative efficiency including update site maps which the customers, the contractors, and employees can access easily. ○ This improvement earned the commendation of being quite better and customer satisfaction rose. Computerization reduces the government's budget as well as saving travel expenses and documentation fees on the part of customers needing service, resulting in the saving of 1,275,000,000 won (about 1,314,000 in dollars) a year. This is truly a grand success in work improvement.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
○ To begin improvements, Jong-yeong Lee, Jin-hee Kim, Yeong-ho Kim, et al made the resolution to try what they could. ○ First, they rearranged "the work analysis process", developed a system by creating the architecture and design of the system's core based on interviews with related workers, and finally produced the final version through feedback to user requests. ○ In the development of the system, the following people participated: Jong-yeong Lee as the general manager of SI (System Integration), Jin-hee Kim as the Supervisor of SI, Yu-bok Jo as the development PM (Project Manager), Hyeon-yeong Jo as the DB Modeler, Hye-won Lee in charge of development and education, Ju-ha Jeon as a senior supervisor, and Ji-yun Kim as the system designer, as well as others not named here. ○ "The Integral Water Supply Complaint Handling System" is made available for all Hwaseong citizens to check water fees, fee trends, make self-checks, and apply for water supply projects, thanks to separate pages for the web administrator of the Water Supply Department. Contractors can access the system through the Internet for certain lists of projects and site drawings.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
○ Based on a strategy to make convenience for all, we tried to develop a system tailored to cope with service requests from customers, contractors, and officials by using "Evolutionary Delivery", and also to raise user satisfaction by reflecting user requests posted on a special bulletin board arranged for this purpose. Evolutionary Delivery Method, a mixture of "the progressive prototype" and "the staged delivery", adopts user requirements through the development process rather than the existing cascade model in which user requirements are adopted once at the beginning of the development process. ○ To improve the way the water supply employees work, they linked various systems together such as the construction administration system, the City, Gun, and Gu geographic administration system, the City, Gun, and Gu complaint handling system, the tap water bill management system, the water supply profit management system (non-water supply profit management system), the SMS transmission system, and the electronic text messaging system, enabling those in charge of managing the systems to prevent loss of time and input errors.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
○ Prototyping: use "the Revolutionary Delivery Method" that reflects the requests of end-users via feedback by developing a system. The user interface function and screen were created before the main development. In addition, a window to verify user requests and to cope with additional needs was made via an exemplary operation. The differences in opinion were reconciled by the confirmation of end-users and the prototype. ○ Interview and Survey Items needed to verify the current work flow and end-user opinions specifically were extracted and documented from interviews and surveys. ○ In the development stage of the system, a preliminary request analysis was made according to the order of " the Revolutionary Delivery Method ", and was followed by the stage of architecture and system core, finally publishing the final version of the system. During all the processes, requests were tested to minimize faults. ○ The system was completed through these processes. However, a trial operation was introduced to reduce errors during use. For this purpose, two regions were selected for the first trial operation, followed by 13 regions for the second trial. The system is now ready to be used in the entire district of Hwaseong city beginning on January 1, 2008.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
○ Complaints from most of the employees of the Water Supply Department Since the water supply complaint handling service can now be managed by computer, the employees who were accustomed to the conventional method began to complain, claiming that if the system begins to be used on a full scale and they are not familiar with it, the processing will be slow. We encountered great opposition and a great challenge: some disagreed with our project saying, “We like what we have now. Even our work now is beyond our abilities.” Some wanted us to “make a system with artificial intelligence.” We explained to them what would be possible and what would not be technologically compatible with other systems, but they did not readily agree with us. In the process, strong opinions were exchanged with dissatisfaction in interviews and conferences. Even employees who had nothing to do with the decision dared to intervene and interject their opinions. All this almost made us give up. We never expected such great opposition. We gradually persuaded them through repeated explanations and re-education by helping them to see the benefits of the improvements. ○ Seniors and Computer-illiterates In the beginning of the new system service, seniors and computer-illiterates who did not know how to use the Internet began to complain that they could not use the system. To solve this, a special training course was provided to help them to quickly become familiar with the system and submit complaints on-line on behalf of the applicants. ○ When applying the system to the entire city of Hwaseong, it will be difficult for those who don't know how to use the computer system to follow the process. To solve this, a special training course was arranged for the employees or citizens in charge to become familiar with the use of the system.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
○ "The Integral Water Supply Complaint Handling System" was developed without a special budget. It appears that the cost of developing such a system in other local governments will run about 100 million won.(about 103,000 in dollar) ○ The particulars of the S/W and H/W are DB server, web & was server, and security software ensuring the server security. Software equipped with a spatial engine was also used. - The hardware consists of the following: Database sever for ArcSDE, Oracle, RedOwl (security software, etc.), etc. Was server (Web application server) for ArcIMS 9.0, JEUS, RedOwl (security software, etc.), etc. Web server for WebtoB, RedOwl (security S/W), etc. Array for storing the data of the Integral Water Supply Complaint Handling System Backup device for storage backup ○ Particulars of the S/W are as follows: 10g Oracle: Database software ArcSde 9.2: Engine to manage the spatial data stored in the oracle. ArcIMS: Controller for providing geographic data services on the web. Transmitting the geographic data in ArdSDE for the web service. Jeus: j2ee container WebtoB: Providing services to 80 ports, assisting the security with the outbound connection RedOwl: Server security software Secure sockets layer: Personal information protection program Easykeytec: Keyboard security program to prevent hacking, etc.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
○ The same process of handling water supply complaints is in practice nationwide. Due to backlogs in the complaint handling, applicants for services used to wait in line. Therefore, the innovative development of the new system for “Water Supply Complaint Handling” in Hwaseong City cannot but be a piece of happy news to all. ○ Considering that water supply-related complaints are handled via paper documents across the nation, having a computerized system to handle them quickly and efficiently is an urgent need. So it is only a matter of time before the effect of this system will spread all over the country. The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs has put this innovative development in its book of best practices, and inquiries of the new system and service are coming to the department from all over Korea. This advanced innovative water supply complaint handling system, an integral system, is not only an innovation of the water supply sector of Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, but also an innovation of the entire water supply sector of Korea. ○ Officials of other local governments feel that they need this system. - One Click - Integral Water Supply Complaint Handling System won the prize from the Administration Minister for National Local Government Administrative Revolution (3rd place), the best prize for Information Development Research of Gyeonggi Province (1st place), the grand prize for the Administrative Revolution of Gyeonggi Province (1st place), and over 10 local governments such as Seongnam City and Anyang City have inquired about adopting the system, arousing high interest across the nation as the first system of its kind in Korea.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
a. We obtained hundreds of feedback responses that are reflected in the new system. We analyzed the whole process with the main focus on the development of a new integral water supply complaint handling new system which is convenient and easy not only for dissatisfied customers and officials in charge but also contractors' employees to use. After development was completed, we improved the system by reflecting upon user requests obtained through various sources and came up with an innovative process satisfactory to all. This is the key factor to the successful development of the new system. b. We removed the unnecessary procedures of the process. For instance, we reduced the visits of contractors’ employees, from five times to one or two, reducing the time needed for them to complete their job, thus resulting in less time spent on the procedures. This is one of the key factors to the success in the development of the new integral water supply complaint handling system. c. Most importantly, we believe, “Innovation can be earned by perseverance without letup.” We made a bold launch to develop a computerized system to improve the water supply management system. We learned a valuable lesson that taking the first step is half the battle. Looking back, we feel we have been greatly rewarded for our efforts. We could say, it is difficult to change something at the beginning, but if we keep going without giving up, eventually, it will be great honor if we look back the change we made. We owe our success in the development of "the Integral Water Supply Complaint Handling System" to all the efforts and the trusts of our team members. We also owe the success to the establishment of the evolutionary strategy for the improvement of the water supply management process for the first time in Korea.


Institution Name:		Ministry of Government Administration and Home affairs
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Jaeyeon Park
Title:		Deputy Director
Telephone/ Fax:		+82-2-2100-3725
Institution's / Project's Website:		+82-2-2100-4225
E-mail:		parkjae8@mogaha.go.kr
Address:		Central Government Complex, #1417 55 Sejong-no, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea
Postal Code:		110-760
City:		Seoul
State/Province:		Seoul
Country:

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information