Project Overview
The Queensland 132 500 Emergency Call Centre had been experiencing frequent caller drop outs during major weather events due to congestion. Intelligent Pathways was engaged to develop a mobile solution that would provide an alternative channel for the public to log requests in an emergency thereby reducing the burden on the call centre and improving responsiveness for the consumer.
In conjunction with the public application, a new application for the internal call centre team was developed to improve system availability and reduce manual processes.
Project Commissioner
Public Safety Business Agency formerly Department of Community Safety
Project Creator
Team
Jeremy Ford - Lead Software Developer
Geet Nayak - Project Manager
Gavin Bunney - Software Developer
Juraj Tocko - Software Developer
Hisham Alabri - iOS / Android Developer
August - UI Design
Project Brief
The State Emergency Services Emergency Request application provides an additional channel to the public 132 500 hotline, which had been experiencing frequent caller drop outs during major weather events (of which there are quite a lot in Queensland!) due to call centre congestion.
The solution is available as a native application on iOS or Android and HTML5 for all other devices. Dynamic dropdown lists, checkboxes, photo attachments and pre-population of address enables a higher quality of intelligence to be captured, reduces the time taken to log requests and improves responsiveness.
Elton Lockhart, the Department of Community Safety’s Information Technology Manager, said “this application provides a new way for the public to connect with us in an emergency and allows a high level of detail to be captured very quickly.”
In conjunction with the public application, a new application for the internal call centre team has been developed to improve system availability and reduce manual processes. The call centre application can take 10,000+ new requests per hour along with the team editing and deleting requests. In addition, routing of requests to relevant authorities has been automated by postcode to streamline the time taken to process requests.
“The call centre application greatly improves system performance and reduces the time it takes to log a request for assistance from 25 minutes to approximately 5 minutes” said Elton.
Project Need
The solution has greatly improved connectivity and efficiency for the public and the PSBA during major weather events.
The public are able to lodge their request much more quickly and they receive a reference number upon submission that gives them a higher level of confidence that their request is being addressed.
The PSBA are now receiving a much better level of detail about the emergency issue, including photos of damage, area of the property and hazard risks, in a greatly reduced time period. This is driving huge improvements in efficiency and responsiveness during peak times.
The introduction of the internal call centre application has also significantly improved user experience and productivity by simplifying and automating parts of the process. The time taken to a log a request has reduced from an average of 25 mins to less than 5 mins and overall system performance has been greatly enhanced.
User Experience
With time and responsiveness the most important factors identified for users in an emergency situation, a focus was given to a clean and elegant design with clear branding and call to actions.
The intuitive submission process visually guides users through the app every step of the way. Users are provided with confirmation and progress throughout the submission process and the fields are designed to be easily fillable.
The app was tested in a variety of situations to ensure it was able to have details and information entered as efficiently as possible.
The SES app is available as native apps on iOS and Android devices and as a web application for all other devices.
The app is linked to the backend systems to provide a seamless user experience and improved connectivity for the public and the QLD state government departments during times of crisis.
Project Marketing
This is a public application and the PSBA has full responsibility for marketing this solution.
Project Privacy
The solution is fully hosted on Intelligent Pathways' infrastructure in a Tier 3 data centre in Brisbane.
Data entered by users via the native mobile applications or the HTML5 web application is always over SSL (secure sockets layer).
Our servers are located in a secure environment, and only registered users are able to view their data.
Tags
Government Services
This category recognises applications developed for all levels of government services.
More Details