Oracle in the city

After a short break (about twenty-four hours exactly, by this writer’s calculation), the Oracle PR stream is flowing again.

Today, Oracle representatives took the time to detail the activities of several local governments currently running recently implemented Oracle applications, including Oracle e-business suite customer relationship management, PeopleSoft enterprise CRM and Siebel CRM applications, to support 311 government information systems.

Given the informal diagnostic were Oracle programs in good old Albuquerque, N.M.; DeKalb County, Ga. (including greater Atlanta); Denver and Denver County, Colo.; Kansas City, Mo.; and New York City. New Mexico’s largest city decided to build a 311 systems from the ground up in response to overwhelming traffic on the 911 line in the Duke City. The city of Albuquerque worked with Unisys to implement Oracle’s PeopleSoft enterprise CRM. July 2005 marked the first full month of the desert city’s 311 system; in that month, Albuquerque 311 reporting over 45,300 calls incoming.

Leveraging training material based on the PeopleSoft user productivity kit, the 35 call center operators employed in Albuquerque are reporting a response rate of 99.34 percent of calls answered in under seven seconds. (Hey, that’s less than a successful ride on the bucking steer at the rodeo.) A city-sponsored survey taken this summer showed that 85 percent of citizens using the system were extremely satisfied with their experience, and 97 percent would recommend using 311 to family and friends.

DeKalb County encompasses the heart of Atlanta and claims over 700,000 citizens; the county receives 3.8 million calls annually and is currently implementing Oracle e-business suite CRM to deploy a 311 system to consolidate call centers and service information for the some 46 county government departments.

DeKalb County recently worked with Oracle and its implementation partner Unisys to go live in four pilot departments; the system out to will be rolled out to the other 42 departments gradually, and the 311 number will be turned on in March 2007, according to plans. County officials estimate that the call center will receive 1.5 million calls per year, and they wish to reduce 911 traffic by 20 percent.

The city of Denver’s greater metropolitan area is home to more than 2.5 million residents. In July of this year, Denver’s 311 system went live with Oracle’s PeopleSoft enterprise CRM, implemented in partnership with Oracle Consulting Services. As part of their 311 initiative, the county of Denver sought to simplify operations across departments. The city is establishing performance metrics to measure the effectiveness of service processes; identify and improve every department’s performance; benchmark from other top-performing organizations; and track the performance of teams and employees.

During implementation, Denver participated in Oracle’s Insight Program, an on-site session for Oracle customers, which provided the city and county of Denver with a technical integration roadmap for CRM including integration methodologies, best practices and lessons learned. Kansas City is currently implementing Oracle’s PeopleSoft enterprise CRM to consolidate call center operations.

In 1974, the city staked a claim as one of the first to implement a centralized call center to handle citizen inquiries, but the system slowly decentralized with individual departments often opening independent call centers. Implemented in partnership with Unisys and Oracle Consulting Services, the new 311 system is expected to launch late this year.

And naturally, the biggest of the big, New York City, has CRM horror stories unique to that land where “if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” Prior to 2003, it is said, when New York City’s eight million citizens wanted to contact city agencies, they needed to leaf through ten pages in the telephone book in hopes of finding the right number. New York City implemented a 311 citizen service center which leveraged Siebel CRM applications. The city selected Accenture to help integrate and implement the new call center technology, as well as to train employees.

Via 311, New Yorkers can now get an astounding range of service from reporting potholes to library hours. By calling 212-NEW-YORK, the 311 services are available outside city limits as well. The center answers calls 24 / 7 and offers the service in an incredible 170-plus languages.

New York City’s 311 system regularly receives approximately 40,000 calls per day and answers those calls in an average of less than six seconds. The Oracle system can access a database of over 10,000 content records describing government services, information and other details. Some 500,000 non-emergency calls that would have otherwise gone to the city’s 911 emergency system are diverted to New York’s 311 annually.

And Oracle? Well, heck, says company PR, “Oracle is the world’s largest enterprise software company.”