Questions/Answers

The municipal landscape has evolved with rapid changes in infrastructure and more complex operating environments which are managed by a diverse group of public service agencies having different mandates, policies and operating procedures. Residents were faced with the problem of identifying the correct agency to handle a municipal issue and likewise, agencies were challenged with referring feedback (which were not under their purview) in a more efficient manner. To tackle these challenges and ensuring that municipal services delivery continue to meet resident’s rising expectations, the Municipal Services Office (MSO) was established on 1st Oct 2014, with the mandate to function as a coordination office. MSO adopted a Whole-of-Government (WOG) approach with seven agencies to enhance the delivery of municipal services. First of all, MSO developed the OneService@SG (OSSG) system as a central interconnecting platform with the feedback management systems of these 7 agencies to govern the referral and management of municipal feedback. Components include: (1) Switchboard routing platform; (2) Central database allowing access to both historical and new feedback data; and (3) Data analytics and dashboard tools to allow for sense-making and visualisations. Two OneService (OS) digital products i.e. the OS App and Portal (www.oneservice.sg) were implemented in Jan 2015 and Sep 2016 respectively to provide the public with the convenience to report feedback on municipal issues. These digital products were citizen-centric, focusing on the issues to be reported, and reducing the need for the public to identify the right agency. Feedback submitted through these digital channels are seamlessly referred to a right agency using OSSG’s switchboard routing platform. These OS digital products also include features such as: (1) A map showing submitted cases, amenities, infrastructure works based on a resident’s geo-location; and (2) Events and information (compiled from multiple agency websites) relevant to communities and the living environment.

MSO has 3 key thrusts: • Enhance the delivery of municipal services and infrastructure; • Enhance the citizen-centric and continuous improvement mindset across partner agencies; and • Promote community partnership and civic responsibility. To achieve these, MSO works with agencies to continuously implement systemic improvements to a) allow for more efficient and effective management of municipal feedback, b) enhance agencies’ roles and processes in managing municipal issues and c) enhance policies that facilitates better coordination among agencies to tackle emerging municipal issues. On the public front, MSO aims to aggregate municipal information from partner agencies and Town Councils into a single platform aligning to the vision of “One Service, An Engaged Community for a Better Living Environment”. This vision demonstrates the collective strength of MSO and our partner agencies working together through collaboration, improving processes and systemic solutions to ensure a better living environment where public areas and common spaces are well maintained, and infrastructure are well designed and implemented. MSO aims to shape a “One Service” culture of continuous improvement to municipal services delivery and citizen-centricity across our partner agencies. We also help promote civic responsibility, shared ownership and partnership amongst the residents in improving municipal services for a better living environment.

The use of the OSSG system to aggregate and analyse feedback data (obtained from all partner agencies) allows MSO to first pinpoint emerging issues in areas such as infrastructure maintenance. With the data, MSO can work with agencies to explore systemic improvements in terms of designing better infrastructure which alleviates the problem of maintenance in the long term or to even determine much needed local connectivity-related infrastructure for residents. Such efforts help to nurture the collaborative spirit among municipal agencies and push them to innovate. On the public front, residents are able to access information such as feedback data reported by the community at large using the OS App and Portal, or data concerning their neighborhoods which previously was not available. This aggregation of information and open data approach helps residents in their day-to-day decision-making, encourages the community to start using the data to benefit their own living environment and progressively nurture the community to collaborate among and help themselves, and contribute to promote inclusiveness in society.

The OSSG system enables partner agencies to manage municipal issues more efficiently and effectively in the following ways: (1) Seamless referral of municipal feedback. OSSG adopts business rules, with geospatial capabilities to seamlessly refer feedback from one agency to another. Automated email escalations to the agencies’ Quality Service Managers (QSMs) are built into OSSG based on agreed service protocols and this makes agencies more accountable for the municipal feedback they receive. (2) Joint management of feedback. OSSG provides the mechanisms and features where multiple agencies could work together in a systematic manner and to provide a joint response to a municipal feedback. (3) Sense-making capabilities. The ability to have access to feedback data (through MSO’s partner agencies) enables MSO to further analyse them and pinpoint emerging issues, correlations between issues or gaps in processes and policies. Once analysed, MSO can work with agencies to explore systemic interventions and improvements to processes or systems.

Issue: Submission of municipal feedback to government agencies and retrieval of municipal information. Seven government agencies and 16 Town Councils oversee different aspects of municipal services delivery. As such, a member of public may not know which agency to raise their issues to, e.g. stray animals in their estate, footpaths being too narrow for strollers, etc. The inability for residents to raise their municipal concerns could result in residents feeling disengaged and a lack of participation in their local governance. The OneService App allows residents to submit a municipal feedback based on issue (e.g. stray animals, leaking pipe), and it will be redirected to the correct agency in-charge of handling the issue through the OSSG system. Similarly, with so many agencies providing different services and facilities for residents, it is also difficult for residents to find out about nearby facilities, and events in the neighbourhood. Similarly, we also aggregate this information to a single place to enable our residents easier access to information. Beyond making it more convenient for residents, this could also help to support other policy agendas, such as enabling the vulnerable families to find social services offices, or helping residents find the nearest e-waste recycling points.

The app has allowed the residents to raise their concerns more readily to government agencies and Town Councils. 153,000 cases have been submitted from between 2015 – 2017, with 13,000 cases submitted in Dec 2017. The portal also helped our residents better retrieve information about their neighbourhood. In 2017 alone, the portal has recorded over 320,000 page views. Beyond the front-facing platforms, OSSG also enabled MSO and our partner agencies to undertake analytics projects to better understand municipal issues faced by our residents. For example, MSO had worked with AVA to better understand underlying causes for pigeon feeding and stray dogs. This has helped to improve the management of the issues by targeting the public education efforts for pigeon feeding, and also addressing the issue upstream for stray dogs.

(1) WOG switchboard routing – A first in Singapore. OSSG’s switchboard routing capabilities allow for improved referral and management of municipal issues by partner agencies, and builds accountability using system-triggered escalations to partner agencies’ QSMs when Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are breached. The switchboard routing was also made possible because of agencies’ coordinated efforts in integrating their feedback management systems with OSSG. On a WOG scale, OSSG is the first of its kind which had since been expanded to include the estate management systems for 16 Town Councils in Singapore. (2) Mobility – Providing feedback on the move. The OS App allows the consolidation of key common municipal issues and seamlessly refers them to the right agencies using OSSG’s switchboard routing platform. Using an issue-based approach, the OS App covers common categories of municipal issues managed by MSO’s partner agencies. Public can provide feedback on-the-go based on the issues they encounter, without having to think and find out which agency is responsible for the issue. In addition, the OS App comes with photo attachments and “pin-drop” geo-tagging functions to facilitate more complete and precise reporting of municipal issues location enabling agencies responsible to attend to the feedback in a timely manner.

This original innovation was developed based on a Proof-of-Concept conducted by the Public Service Division (PSD) and Government Technology Agency (GovTech) (then Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore), in consultation with 7 public service agencies (viz. Land Transport Authority (LTA), National Environment Agency (NEA), National Parks Board (Nparks), Housing & Development Board (HDB), National Water Agency (PUB), Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and Singapore Police Force (SPF)). Upon achieving the successful results of the Proof-of-Concept, the innovation was then translated and operationalised into a WOG system that benefit government agencies and residents.

(1) Government funding was proposed and obtained to develop the OSSG system, OS digital products (App and Portal), and the required systems integration with partner agencies’ feedback management systems. (2) For the setup of MSO, a concerted effort and direction was established to have each municipal agency second staff officers with specific areas of expertise and knowledge domains to MSO. (3) Governance structures were established at i) the top management level to steer the direction for the Municipal Services domain, ii) with agencies’ QSMs to oversee coordination on municipal issues and iii) agency Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to manage the overall OSSG system development and integration with agencies’ feedback management systems. (4) Since the start of this initiative, MSO had established a strong collaboration with GovTech given the latter’s expertise in enterprise WOG technology implementation, and design and development of digital products.

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Yes, this initiative can be replicated in other countries and cities, as OSSG is built on an Enterprise PEGA system which is commercially available. MSO had recently hosted government delegates from Australia, China, Indonesia and Myanmar for them to learn about the technology behind the OSSG system, how MSO manages to deliver better municipal services with other public service agencies and improved the lives of its residents within their living environment. Working closely together, MSO and GovTech are continuously looking at identifying best practices in which the technology used for OSSG can be adopted by other agencies in Singapore.

MSO continuously adopts the approach of using data analysis to pinpoint emerging issues and gaps which allows us to keep exploring systemic improvements or policy interventions to address resident’s needs or enhance municipal services delivery. Municipal issues are considered fluid and MSO has consistently been aware of potential disruptions in the operating landscape (e.g. shared bikes, ePayments) that have impact on residents and their living environment. MSO would study these areas carefully and to consider options before implementing the required services or policies to be sustainable and relevant to residents’ needs over a significant period of time. On the technological front, the OSSG system was developed based on a scalable, modular approach from the start where business rules and the routing platform can be enhanced and changed readily to meet the changing needs of the municipal operating landscape. To show scalability, OSSG has to date in 2018 been progressively integrated with two OS digital products (App and Portal), 9 municipal agencies’ feedback management systems and 16 Town Councils’ estate management systems. In future, the OSSG would also be able to expand its scope beyond feedback management to work on business operations technology and even with sensors and Internet-of-Things (IoT). Similarly, MSO continues to enhance the OS digital products so that the services provided (feedback reporting, transactions) are relevant and useful to residents and the community at large. MSO had put in place a 5-year product development roadmap from 2017 for OSSG and our OS digital products where we work closely with residents and the industry for inputs to keep it relevant and sustainable. On the technology front, MSO works closely with GovTech leveraging on its Government Technology Stack (e.g. applications, platforms, scalable infrastructure, common library of services, etc) to ensure that the system architecture is scalable and modular allowing OSSG to be exportable to other agencies within WOG.

The OSSG system, including the two OS digital products, is consistently been upgraded and enhanced with the latest applicable technologies. Currently in the 3rd year of operation, MSO had since further invested in additional systems enhancements to OSSG such as business routing, dashboards, analytics, data warehousing, ability to consume Internet of Things (IoT) sensors data in real time and contractor mobile apps. These helps our partner agencies to enhance not just feedback case management, but also (and increasingly) operational performance of agencies in municipal services delivery in a people-centric way, to improve the living environment to support Singapore’s goal towards a Smart Nation. Furthermore, the OSSG system and two OS digital products are designed and built to comply with Government Infocomm Technology standards and policies, ensuring that they are able to provide continued secure and uninterrupted services to the public. On the coordination front, MSO consistently partners with our agencies and Town Councils to improve services through performance monitoring, employing the appropriate engagement platforms to resolve operational issues and continuously improves collaboration with them.

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MSO tracks the following indicators: Responsiveness of Government Agencies 1. Percentage of cases that agencies cannot agree on case ownership within 10 working days. 2. Routing accuracy of cases. 3. 90th-percentile time taken to find case owner, and resolve issues for residents. Utilisation of platforms 4. % of cases submitted through digital channels. 5. No. of registered users.

MSO’s work help to promote better accountability and responsiveness between agencies. On a quarterly basis, less than 0.5% of cases are escalated to MSO where agencies cannot agree on case ownership for municipal issues. Case routing accuracy is sustained at between 85% - 90% in 2017, an improvement from 78% in Q1 2015. For the majority of the cases, agencies are now more responsive to public requests, with 90% finding their case owner within 6.2 working days, and resolved within 10.4 working days in Q4 2017, a significant improvement from 9.1 and 22.3 working days in Q1 2015 respectively. In terms of usage, the OSSG system has grown significantly in the past three years, increasing the percentage of cases submitted through digital channels from 6.0% in Q1 2015 to 26.2% in Q4 2017, with over 13,000 cases submitted in Dec 2017. There are also more than 110,000 registered users. This opens up a new channel for the government to engage the public, and listen to their concerns. By building a common platform, this enables MSO to go beyond reporting municipal issues, and to engage residents on the development of municipal infrastructure which will enable co-creation and greater participatory decision making.

1. Percentage of cases that agencies cannot agree on case ownership within 10 working days. This measures that ability of agencies to agree on potentially grey issues that may not cleanly within the jurisdiction of a single agency. A low percentage would represent agencies are clear on their roles and responsibilities, thus more responsive to requests from the public. 2. Routing accuracy of cases. Measures the ability for agencies to redirect residents to the correct case owner agency of their issues, should they receive a misdirected case from members of public. A good score on this would improve responsiveness to residents. 3. 90th-percentile time taken to find case owner, and resolve issues for residents for cases requiring referral across or joint-effort between multiple agencies. Measures the service standard experienced by most residents. 4. Percentage of cases submitted through digital channels. Measures the prevalence of use of the digital channels, instead of traditional channels such as calls, emails or walk-ins. 5. Number of registered users of OneService platforms. Measures the reach of OneService platforms.

(1) MSO constantly engages the public for their feedback on how we could improve the OS App and Portal so as to encourage greater usage, address common user pain-points and enhance users’ experience. We have achieved these through public engagement MeetUp groups and events such as TEDx talks. This also includes surveys such as the in-app Post-Case Poll where users could rate and share their experience in using the OS App and how well their case had been managed. In addition, MSO also engages our partner agencies on various enhancements to the OS App and Portal. (2) MSO todate partners with 11 agencies to tackle and resolve municipal issues in a more collaborative and systemic manner. (3) Beyond the government, MSO has also partnered all 16 Town Councils in Singapore on tackling municipal issues. More than 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats and bulk of the municipal issues today are handled by Town Councils. (4) MSO also currently works with private entities such as supermarkets and Bike Sharing Operators (BSOs) to tackle municipal issues such as abandoned trolleys and indiscriminate parking of shared bicycles. (5) MSO seeks to shape culture through working with agencies to enhance public education and manage public expectations, and working with the community to encourage community involvement and solutioning.

(1) Achieving operational excellence for municipal partner agencies and TCs in the management of municipal feedback. This would involve the development of business operations technology capability in OSSG which would allow agencies to continuously improve and streamline feedback and operations management. Where possible, agencies would automate operational processes to improve productivity. As such, agencies would undertake digital initiatives (including system-related changes) to transform the approach of delivering services and running of operations, thus paving the way to achieve effectiveness in addressing municipal feedback. MSO, as a central coordinating office, would be able to harmonise service standards across all municipal agencies for feedback closure or resolution, and refine protocols and processes to improve overall municipal services delivery. (2) Enhancing the delivery of municipal services through sensors and IoT. In view of the smart nation vision for the future, MSO can explore how the OSSG system and OS digital products can work with mass-deployed sensors and IoT devices in the future, and leverage on the aggregated data for use by residents and the community at large.