Use Mobility to Unlock User Experiences in Government

Hail a cab, book a hotel or order your next pizza — these everyday activities can be done with the tap of a finger and an app. But, while most businesses try to keep up with the speed of digital life, government services can sometimes feel like they’re being left behind.

“For the most part, government services need to catch up right now,” says Bryan Coapstick, director of mobile innovation at HP Enterprise Services. “Mobile is simply changing how people want to interact today. And, when we look at the mobile experience overall, we mean all the things that can meet our immediate needs.”

In the future, Coapstick says government will focus more on mobility to build citizen-centric and engaged user experiences. Whether it’s a public facing service, or an application used to improve efficiencies inside an agency, developing a mobile strategy can go a long way toward improving the user experience overall, he says.

Coapstick and his team recently demonstrated how emerging applications could assist agencies in meeting their mission. The team developed a demo application focused on healthcare that is capable of tracking fictitious infectious diseases in real-time as they spread. It demonstrates how apps could assist agencies when a health crisis happens. It combines mobility, data and cloud technology to identify areas where the public may be most at risk of coming into contact with an infectious disease.

“This is digital government by design,” Coapstick says. “First, we’re trying to understand what the user really needs. Then, we’re designing the digital experience to meet those needs.”

Many agencies are rethinking their mobile strategy right now, Coapstick says, and it’s due in-part to a younger, digital-first generation that’s pushing for greater flexibility and productivity in their lives. This desire for enhanced connectedness and efficiency is carrying over to the workplace.

A recent survey showed that more than 86 percent of millennials are connected by two or more mobile devices, and 64 percent are connected by three or more devices.

This wired generation also has a changing view toward the way they view work. The notion of “traditional working hours” — the 9 to 5 — is quickly becoming outdated. In fact, 70 percent of those surveyed said they prefer flexible working hours, outside office environments. Mobility can be used not only to enhance customer satisfaction, but also to improve the employee experience.

“Federal employees need a level of mobile flexibility that allows them to increase productivity,” Coapstick says. “Mobile apps that are workforce oriented will help to make this happen.”

The U.S. Army is working to develop a mobile application that will help to improve the recruitment process. The Army, in partnership with HP, is building a prototype application called electronic Total Asset Visibility, or eTAV. The technology can assist field recruiters by mapping and organizing appointments using GPS. The application is designed to assist in scheduling and screening potential soldiers, and it has the potential to free up recruiters, who dedicate a good amount of time to administrative tasks.

“When you think of mobility, whether it’s the customer or employee experience, you have to be thinking about the problem that the user wants to solve,” Coapstick says. “You reach the solution from the vantage point of that problem.”

See how agencies are rethinking their user experience through the process of mobility; Download this HP newsletter  — “The Digital Transformation of Government by Design” — which includes Gartner research.

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