People today expect exceptional service — timely and personal — from their experiences as customers of commercial organizations. Likewise, as citizens, their expectation for the same quality of service extends to government departments and agencies. Yet the vast majority of government agencies are unable to satisfy this expectation, resulting in the citizen experience gap.

State IT budget are already significant and growing, but the citizen experience gap prevails. I have had the opportunity to observe our public employees on the frontlines as they provide critical government services to citizens. In doing so, I’ve gained insight into common challenges that hinder their efforts to provide the best citizen experience possible, what they need to do to overcome said challenges:

1. Transition from legacy systems to the cloud.
   
   Legacy systems that provide support for key citizen entitlement programs such unemployment compensation are — wait for it — 23 years old on average. Changes within these rigid systems need weeks, months, or even years to transpire. Considering these systems’ capabilities (or lack thereof), it’s no wonder that the citizen experience gap persists.
   
   
   
   Private companies have been quick to adopt agile cloud-based solutions that enable innovation and exceptional customer experiences, government agencies need to catch up.
2. Improve citizen experience with speed and security.
   
   A successful transition to the cloud requires a vision, a leader, and a team. The State of New Jersey migrated their Appeals Tribunal, a legacy system, to Salesforce and the results are remarkable. It started with a vision and a leadership team that challenged the perception that cloud tools are only used by businesses. In doing so, they dispelled the notion that such technology could not be used for case management by the public sector, or that the cloud does not meet security standards. The State of New Jersey found that Salesforce can be quickly aligned to government specific processes and that it surpasses all security requirements.
   
   
   
   The new Appeals Tribunal was built using Bluewolf’s AppealsTrak solution, took only 16 weeks, and ultimately improved citizen experience, boosted employee morale, and reduced operational costs. The average time for managing an appeal decreased from 189 days to just 30 days.
3. Comply with federal standards while cutting costs.
   
   The federal government mandates that states administer entitlement programs such as unemployment insurance and human services in accordance with timeliness standards. Without modernization, a large percentage of states cannot stay in compliance. The State of New Jersey decreased time lapse of unemployment appeals by 700%, and automated reporting to the US Department of Labor to remain in compliance with federal mandates.

States need to modernize — fast. To do so, a solution that supports rapid modernization and flexibility for ongoing innovation is imperative. Learn how the State of New Jersey modernized with AppealsTrak and eliminated their entire appeals backlog. Join our live webcast to hear their success story.