Our experience

Setting the scene

As the world rapidly becomes more digitized and citizens' needs are changing, local governments are looking for solutions to help them keep up. 

Citizens recognise the benefits technology can bring to public services: availability of public information, ability to settle matters online and simplified procedures. They are interested in actively exerting influence on their local government to ensure city services reflect their needs.

But many governments are struggling to simplify procedures, reduce costs and minimise workload for administration employees, while also managing an increasing number of citizen requests and increasing complexity of cases. They are facing the challenge of providing a truly citizen-centric, personalized experience to their clients: citizens. 

With more than 600,000 citizens, Wrocław was receiving over 100,000 requests a year via the Call Center channel. Out of this number, a large portion were simple requests for information on either procedures (documents issuing, permits etc.) (45%) or on office functioning (opening hours, addresses etc.) (40%). Only a small percentage of the total requests, less than 0.5%,  involved reports of city infrastructure malfunctions. 

The Wrocław city council wanted to empower citizens to take responsibility for their city, extend available communication channels and replace personal interactions with automated resources, especially for repetitive functional requests. 

How we helped

The PwC (IT Services) team implemented a full-scale CRM system for the Wrocław City Hall. Embedded with the Wrocław public administration’s IT system, the CRM included web-portals, a tracking map and a platform for phone requests.  

The City Hall wanted to provide the administration with the best CRM available, but were constrained by strict public tender requirements. As a business advisor, PwC’s agility in operation and daily contact was crucial in sticking to the demands. 

The web-portals collected all citizens’ requests from contact forms, chat platforms and surveys, while a dedicated server stores and shares data to accurately track the location of incoming requests and incidents reported by the citizens. The CRM system gives the public administration employees access to the complete personal data of citizens, the ability to retrieve data from the source system, and a chronological view of the citizen’s interactions with the office and the cases created on the citizen’s request. 

To align with Poland’s strict data requirements, PwC delivered a process for gathering citizens consent and encouraging people to share their information in order to gather complete data. 

The reporting function of the new CRM system produces statistics reports and tracks outputs that help measure performance, such as work time and workload of employees, prioritization of projects, number of interactions and cases and their status, as well as relationships with external institutions.

Impact and potential

The project integrated data gathered by the public administration in one place, which allows for more efficient exchange with the public institutions and saves time for both the administration and citizens. The solution brings together complete citizen’s personal data and detailed records of all cases created in the system at the citizens’ request. Having an outlook on a citizen’s previous enquiries and categories of requests, the public administration will be able to more effectively and efficiently respond to client’s needs. 

The CRM’s integration with the City Councils’ Geographic Information System also allows for quicker administrative solutions to citizen issues. Because the agents are clearly able to identify the physical location of any problems and infrastructure malfunctions that are reported, they can quickly respond and gather geographical data for future analysis. 

CRM solutions also improve the communication with institutions, making it possible to complete the enquiries digitally from the comfort of one’s own home. This simplifies the procedures and makes them more inclusive to those who otherwise may find it difficult to physically be at the institution’s desk, approachable and cost effective. As society continues its digital transformation, there is room for the system to also develop. 

Citizens’ involvement in creating the smart city of tomorrow in Wrocław became easier, efficient and effortless for both sides. Locating the customer at the heart of decision-making processes aligns services to the needs of citizens and develops their neighborhoods to what they envision.