
<p><strong>Overview</strong></p>



<p>As part of Melton City Council’s ongoing strategy to automate processes and capture important performance data, we utilised our innovative Insight to Action approach to delivering an extensible reporting platform that was designed with the business value first and then delivered using technology.</p>



<p>The solution was utilised by the Executive Team to capture labour movements within Departments and projects to ensure the people budget that was agreed upon at the start of the Financial Year was then managed successfully throughout the year that followed.&nbsp; This simple premise saw Ways of Working adjusted to support new workflows and processes across the Council, highlighting when a position was changed (added/removed/adjusted) or a person’s cost was altered.&nbsp; These were all governed by approvals and audit trails that were added to the final reporting.</p>



<p>All these outcomes were conceptualised within our specialised Service Design process that connects business processes to technology and allows for the Architecture to fit into the existing technical environment.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>“</em><em>We couldn’t have got this far without the amazing specification and design work done in the initial phase of the project as well. It really ensured we got off to a good start &amp; have delivered the solution the business was looking for.”</em></p>
</blockquote>



<p><strong>Approach</strong></p>



<p>Our approach consisted of three phases, Discovery, Insight, Build</p>



<p><em>Discovery</em> – Facilitated workshops and stakeholder interaction to understand the desired business outcomes and prioritise those against project capacity.&nbsp; The output of this phase was a Project Charter that aligned each group with the desired outcomes and a set of requirements.</p>



<p><em>Insight</em> – led by our Service Design framework, to-be processes were documented that established the needed inputs/outputs of each step, human actors, system integrations required and reporting data that would be captured.&nbsp; These were clearly documented and easy to follow and test and allowed the Build team to understand what was required.</p>



<p><em>Build</em> – Within our solution architecture (described below) were several moving parts.&nbsp; Our team was able to work in parallel (efficiency) building to the interfaces of the Service Design to assemble the front-end, logic, data and reporting layers within a 3-month period.&nbsp; The outputs were verified with users and stakeholders against the requirements and Service Design before being released for full use across the council.</p>



<p><strong>Our Solution</strong></p>



<p>Our solution utilised the best of the Microsoft PowerPlatform, combined with Solution Architecture and Human-centred Design.  The Design elements showed out in a concise Service Design that illustrated the desired process, outputs, systems and benefits that supported the development of a fit-for-purpose model-driven PowerApp on the Microsoft Power Platform. The model-driven Power App supported capturing of data and automating workflow to simplify business processes. PowerAutomate was used to automate the collection of events and integrate with corporate systems (via Azure Functions) to aggregate into the data layer (Dataverse) and then produce beautiful, value-driven reports using PowerBI.</p>



<p>Extensions were then added to expand the labour management to include organisation-reporting lines, approval activities and executive reporting.&nbsp;</p>



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<p><strong>Results</strong></p>



<p>The results in the first year of use were spectacular</p>



<ul>
<li>There was a 95% reduction in work with data being available in 1 day for what previously would have taken 3 weeks (and 11 spreadsheets) to compile.</li>



<li>Financially, having this information close to hand saw a multi-million dollar return by ensuring that spending was accounted for accurately as the Council operated with the right headcount to deliver services to its people.</li>
</ul>



<p>The Municipal Association of Victoria also recognised the project as the 2023 winner of the MAV Technology Awards for Excellence.</p>


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Controlling costs with insightful data


<p>Melbourne Water manages and protects Melbourne&#8217;s major water resources on behalf of the community. The organisation touches all parts of the water cycle that are essential to our way life: from providing clean drinking water, treating sewage, managing flooding, and keeping Melbourne&#8217;s rivers, creeks, and catchments healthy.</p>



<p>As an organisation, Melbourne Water wanted an uplift in customer focus. People at Melbourne Water agreed that there wasn&#8217;t enough focus on customers and what their needs were. In addition, guidance and structure to customer digital governance was lacking and the strategy and tactics were not clear enough. Melbourne Water simply did not put customers first.</p>



<p>Exco Partners were engaged to create a digital customer experience framework that is simple and practical for internal Melbourne Water people to use and that delivers meaningful experiences to customers.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Our approach</h2>



<p>Most organisations place too much emphasis on mindsets. Long lasting positive change comes almost exclusively through action (behaviours) and habit-building. Tailoring the approach for this effect, the emphasis of the Melbourne Water program was to develop and embed a select number of skills and focus on staff building them into habits where they form part of the ‘way things are done’.</p>



<p>The overall objective was to build foundational customer experience skills (including mastery skills in specialist areas) and capability uplift across the entire Melbourne Water organisation.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Our framework for customer experience uplift:</h3>



<div class="wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-2 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-exco-services-card services-card iconed"><div class="icon"><img decoding="async" src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/users-yellow.svg"/></div><h4 class="title">Make it everyones job</h4><div class="details">Customer experience is often considered the domain of front-line workers. The sales and customer staff for example. CX uplift requires commitment from everyone.</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-services-card services-card iconed"><div class="icon"><img decoding="async" src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/users-yellow.svg"/></div><h4 class="title">First build the fundamentals</h4><div class="details">Most organisations place too much emphasis on mindsets. Long lasting positive change comes almost exclusively through action (behaviours) and habit-building. </div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-services-card services-card iconed"><div class="icon"><img decoding="async" src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/users-yellow.svg"/></div><h4 class="title">Customers focus</h4><div class="details">It is important that everyone uses the customer and the customer&#8217;s objectives at a north star in their decision making.</div></div>
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<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>



<p>Exco approached this project by understanding the biggest pain points in the organisation to design a course to address those needs.</p>



<p>The first phase, Discover + Assess focused on understanding Melbourne Water&#8217;s current state, future state and how to get there. This was done by interviewing Melbourne Water employees. The interviewees were very engaged, providing invaluable insights and resources. The co-design approach meant Exco could create meaningful and targeted training modules.</p>



<p>The second phase, Synthesize + Create involved converting discovery (interviews and existing Reputation &amp; Customer Satisfaction data) into desired module content. The modules covered the learning approach, tools, habits and outcomes. These learning modules blended media, individual, group and facilitator-led approaches and incorporated activities that will build CX capability, but also be able to function as stand-alone areas of learning for participants. &nbsp;</p>



<p>Exco worked with people in Melbourne Water to deliver these materials and incorporated assignments for participants to complete between modules to keep focus. It was also agreed that leaders would give people time during their day to practice what they learnt in the modules.</p>



<p>The final phase, Test + Roll out focused on rolling out the modules to the &#8216;Early Adopters&#8217;, a group of employees at Melbourne Water that were deemed subject matter experts within the organisation. This allowed the group a chance to review the content and to further strengthen out the learning modules with participants. Exco gave a range of tools that they can use with customers and taught them how to use it and set an internal culture where they can practice this e.g. a Teams group was created so individuals can share questions.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The result</h2>



<p>Exco developed and delivered seven customised customer experience capability modules to train and coach staff across the organisation from frontline and team leaders to management.</p>



<p>Foundational courses focused on the basics:</p>



<ul>
<li>Who are the customers, and why are they<br>important</li>



<li>Delivering exceptional services</li>



<li>Open communication and engagement</li>



<li>Relationship management</li>
</ul>



<p>Mastery courses focused on:</p>



<ul>
<li>Developing sustainable strategic partnerships</li>



<li>Community Engagement</li>



<li>Turning insights into action</li>
</ul>



<p>Courseware was also enhanced with digital vlogs covering key content and train-the-trainer services were provided.</p>


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<p>Exco partners surveyed the participants after delivering the training modules. Results showed that the program was valuable:</p>



<ul>
<li>100% of respondents said they learnt something new;</li>



<li>89% of respondents rated the quality of the training 4/5 out of 5;</li>



<li>95% of respondents rated the quality of the instruction 4/5 out of 5.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



<p>Exco successfully researched, designed and implemented training modules at Melbourne Water to manage customer-facing content and services. Melbourne Water can broadcast the learning throughout the organisation to ensure lifting customer awareness and focus. Selected Early Adopters will assist in strengthening the learning content and approach to roll-out the training modules and continue the CX capability building.</p>


June 2023

Controlling costs with insightful data

Customer Experience Uplift Program