Inspectorate: communication tool

Overview

At the request of the head of the City of Skopje's Department for Inspectorate, SmartUp, through SkopjeLab, designed with Inspectorate staff an internal tool, built on Freshdesk, to log, assign and follow reports that arrive by phone and social media. Staff were trained in October 2019, and the City's project page reports 60 Inspectorate employees as users of the tool.

Inspectors often received citizen reports through social media or by phone, which made it hard to record and assign cases, and departments mainly coordinated through a messaging app, so reports that did not pass through the City archive were hard to follow. In August and September 2019 the team interviewed staff, defined the challenge, tested possible solutions, piloted the best one, then trained staff and gave technical support. The result is a Freshdesk-based task and case-tracking tool for staff, in use from October 2019 and designed for all Inspectorate departments and the communal wardens.

The challenge

Reports arriving through informal channels

Reports came by phone and social media, which made recording and assigning cases difficult.

Coordination on a personal messaging app

Reports outside the City archive were hard to follow.

Limited oversight for managers

One aim of the tool was to give heads of departments an easy overview of incoming reports and of how the department works.

Activities and methods

SkopjeLab worked with Inspectorate staff using a design process.

Research, insight & strategy. Analysed the problem through interviews with Inspectorate employees and defined the challenge.
Co-creation & innovation processes. Identified possible solutions with Inspectorate staff and tested the solution before the pilot.
Pilots, implementation & scaling. Piloted the best solution, the Freshdesk tool, with department staff.
Capacity building & learning. Held a two-day training on 16 and 17 October 2019 at the City of Skopje for Inspectorate employees, and gave technical support afterwards.
Digital platforms & tools. Set up the tool so that each report reaching the Inspectorate's Facebook page also reaches all sector managers by e-mail and appears as a tracked case. Tasks can also be assigned in the field.

Impact and learning

60 users. The City's project page reports 60 Inspectorate employees as users of the tool.

Reports reach all managers at once. Every report to the Inspectorate's Facebook page reaches all sector managers by e-mail at the same moment, and as a tracked case in the tool.

Early results. The project page described early results as positive and said a full evaluation would follow. No time savings are claimed.

Learning. At a public debate in June 2020, SkopjeLab's coordinator said that introducing positive changes needs the commitment of the whole leadership.