Quality Briefings for UK Government Websites 4: May 2002

Business case studies for the Web: Online transactions, Police Complaints Authority

Contents

> Introduction
> Background
> Stage 1: Strategic objective
> Stage 2: Strategic resources that may be relevant to the issue
> Further stages: Completion of remaining stages
>The case for cost saving and process improvement in the PCA
> ‘Market’ dynamics of the PCA website
> Conclusion and summary remarks

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Introduction

1.1 The Quality Briefings for UK Government Websites provide informal guidance for central government web managers. They are not policy documents, but are intended to share best practice and stimulate discussion.

• provide a structured discussion of issues in publishing information or providing transactions online; and
• highlight issues in developing a business case for resourcing or providing such services.

1.3 This case study looks at issues for a small, service-providing government body in using email to improve services. It then goes on to consider possible savings from providing a basic transaction via the Web. For many smaller service-providing bodies, resources and the impact of possible increased workloads are a key concern.

1.4 The Office of the e-Envoy commissioned these case studies from Global Strategy Dynamics who carried out the research and produced this document. Both case studies example an approach to business cases called Strategy Dynamics. This approach analyses the cumulative effects of changes to different factors over time.

• the strategic objective
• resources that are necessary or relevant
• the time-path of the performance
• the effect of flows on levels of resource
• drivers of the flows for each key resource
• mapping out the basic architecture of how all these elements change, including intangibles
• rivalry with other organisations or factors
• key managerial controls

and then create an architecture that shows the impact of changes to each aspect on each other over time. For more information about this particular approach, visit: http://www.strategydynamics.com.

1.6 The analysis is intended to highlight issues rather than provide in-depth answers. As such its figures are to be regarded as useful approximations. It is not an example of a thorough business case but does show the kinds of issues raised and one of the many methodologies that could be used to develop a case.

1.7 This case is based on a series of discussions with the web manager responsible for the website at the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) which took place in spring and early summer of 2001. All descriptions and conclusions are based on the situation as it was then. The case study looks speculatively at issues to do with the resources required for developing the website, enhancing service provision and achieving cost savings.

http://www.strategydynamics.com

Background

1.8 The current purpose of the PCA website (http://www.pca.gov.uk) is to provide information to members of the public and other interested parties. Transparency in the operations of the PCA are important to its work: it has to be seen to be an independent reviewer of complaints against the police and the website provides information in support of this.

1.9 At the time of interviewing, the site was relatively unsophisticated but gave the background to past work of the Authority and, importantly, advice on how to make a complaint. It is this last function It is this last function of the website that could bring more benefits for administration within the PCA, for the complainant and the police. 1.10 The PCA's remit is to monitor complaints referred to it against serving police officers in the 43 constabularies as well as other police forces in England and Wales. It also acts as a channel for complaints to be made directly through it as well as having a statutory duty to supervise the investigation of certain serious cases with which it must be involved.

1.11 Currently, complainants are encouraged to raise their complaint:

• through a Citizens' Advice Bureau, Racial Equality Council, a Member of Parliament, direct to the police service concerned; or
• through the PCA.

1.12 The PCA does not only deal with direct complaints from the public. There are also about 1,000 cases referred by the police services themselves which form ‘supervised investigations’. About 150 of these - such as death in custody or police shootings - are referred automatically to the PCA. There are also 850 or so cases a year that the PCA considers should be supervised by a PCA Member in the public interest. This analysis focuses more on complaints submitted direct by the public than on referred cases. 1.13 To carry out its work, the PCA has a £4.5m budget, 60 staff and 14 Members who supervise cases. The website budget is held in the IT budget which heretofore has been increased to improve electronic registering of hard copy files and in producing statistics for publication.

Figure 1. Options available on the site

1.14 Section 2 of this case study briefly reviews key points rather than following each key stage in building a dynamic business case.

> http://www.pca.gov.uk

2: Stages in building a dynamic analysis

Stage1: Strategic objective

2.1 There are several strategic objectives that could be looked at. Most obvious is the opportunity to reduce costs in the PCA by automating elements of the early stages in a complaint, especially if complainants can be encouraged to communicate by email. However, saving costs is not a principal strategic aim of the Authority.

2.2 Rather, improvement in the complaints system is the goal. To quote from the PCA 1999/2000 annual report: ‘...improve openness, reduce timescales, increase independence and enhance accountability.’

2.3 Therefore, analysis in this case focused on how the website could contribute to these strategic aims. In order to provide a focus for the approach, an interim goal was set: raising the proportion of complaints received by email to 1/3 of all complaints received by the Authority by 2003.

2.4 The strategic objectives, as noted, go far wider than this goal. Indeed, there are possible strategic advantages not only to the PCA but also to the police services which receive the bulk of direct complaints from the public. There is, therefore, a ‘micro’ strategic case, internally focused on the PCA and improving its working, and also a ‘macro’ case that looks at improved performance for the complaints system as a whole, including police constabularies.

Figure 2. Preliminary strategic objective: number of complaints in thousands received electronically

1) a lesser rate would not hope to capture any savings or noticeable improvement in services for users;

2) a greater rate may result in an imbalance of resources in the Authority which, at the time of research, were geared up to deal with traditional origination of complaints. Both these observations lead to ‘feared’ paths for the strategic objective but the degree of fear may be very minimal given that the objective is uncertain at this stage.

2.6 The stimulation of more complaints via an effective web service may be considered a good strategic goal since the resulting improvement in the speed of the complaints process could eliminate unfounded complaints more quickly, drive openness and, critically, release resources elsewhere thereby improving the quality of service in the organisation as a whole.

Stage 2: Strategic resources that may be relevant to the issue

2.7 It is apparent that the resource system for the ‘macro’ case is extensive and largely beyond the scope of this case study. Nevertheless, substantial opportunities exist for improving the efficiency of the complaints process at police force level as well as within the PCA. A draft Stage 2 resource list is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. List of relevant strategic resources

2.8 Without further research, many of these factors cannot adequately be estimated but it is likely that the intangible perception and quality measures are critical for the overall success of the PCA and the complaints system generally.

Further stages: Completion of remaining stages

2.9 Architectures for the PCA web case are outlined below but the staged approach has not been described. Rather, the focus of this case is to illustrate the types of strategic architecture that can be relevant in such situations. In a more extensive brief, an extensive, integrated and coherent architecture will emerge. Instead, several architectures of important elements of the PCA case have been drawn to illustrate the strategic opportunities. These are outlined below. For a more full review of the staged approach to a business case see the companion Quality Briefing on information publishing for the Department of Health.

2.10 During the study, it became apparent that elements of work in the PCA are currently finely balanced. The implications for the website are twofold. First, if the website helps to improve the work processes, it could make this fine balance more robust. However, it the website stimulates a greater workload, this balance could be upset.

2.11 As a simple example, the supervision by Members of complaint cases was mapped out. A number of the Members (currently five Full Time Equivalent or FTE staff) are dedicated to overseeing the casework in the complaints channelled through the PCA. Members reviewed 8,600 complaints in this way last year and other staff carried out the actual process of monitoring and conducting cases. To check the critical nature of the ‘Member Resource’, the structure was mapped with quantitative analysis as shown in Figure 4.

2.12 With approximately 9,000 cases a year to review, the workload for five Members is balanced. If the number of cases were to increase there would have to be a proportional rise in the number of Members to cope with the increased workload. This would not mean any dramatic change. Of more concern is the number of enquiries which, if increased in complexity or occurrence, would subtract significantly from the ordinary time dedicated to reviewing cases. If, for example, 30% of cases attracted some sort of enquiry follow-on work, and each enquiry took half a day of a Member's time, at least four additional Members would be required for the case monitoring process. The increasing tendency for enquiries to result from casework noted in the Corporate Plan 2000/2003 is, therefore, of concern.

2.13 This balance of resources in the PCA and, no doubt, similar occurrences, is not of immediate concern to the web manager. However, if by better use of the website and ‘on-line’ or ‘public’ processing of complaints the onus could be shifted from a scarce resource like Members, the cost of investment in the required technology might more easily be justified. Additionally, in this case, if Members are freed because enquirers are more likely to answer their own question by looking at information available to them on the website, the standard of service might coincidentally be improved both in terms of timeliness and quality of information. If the proportion of Member time devoted to answering enquiries is reduced, they will be able to give more time and consideration to processing complaints. The PCA would, as a result, better achieve its strategic goals.

2.14 Figure 5 shows the simple architecture for receipt of a complaint directly to the PCA. The rate of incidents leads to a rate of direct complaint. The proportion and stimulation of these complaints is dealt with later. The current system involves:

• logging
• creating a file
• notifying receipt
• forwarding to the relevant police service

2.15 This work could be saved if complainants were to record their complaint on a website form. Such a form could be designed to help the complainant make clear the details of the complaint in a standard format. For example, it might have a drop-down box for the choice of police force or the geographic location of the incident that then automatically selects the appropriate constabulary. Such a system would lend itself to automatic logging, personal access to a ‘how is my complaint progressing’ secure area of the website and automatic confirmation of receipt and action at appropriate stages.

2.16 The benefits to the PCA (cost saving) and to the complainant (transparency, ease and access) accrue only if people can be persuaded to follow the route marked in the diagram ‘rate passed on to police electronically’ rather than through the paper-based logging system. We are interested in determining over time how many and how quickly complaints can be switched from old to new routing. In simple cost terms, the lower processing cost from fewer traditionally handled complaints needs to be offset against the Web and ‘back office’ investment. These variable costs might be determined from the hourly effort required to process and the cost per hour of the staff to do such processing.

2.17 Unless the volumes are sufficiently high, the cost of developing the website might not be justified, or at least only justified on grounds of service improvement and transparency which are the more strategic aims. Nevertheless, the argument for such development cost can be extended to each police service that has to process complaints in a similar way before they can be ‘staffed’.

2.18 Each police force has a stated goal to reduce this type of cost by 2.5% per year and if ‘automation’ by the PCA could be brought to bear on this target, the argument for investment would be strengthened. In resource terms, the structure in Figure 5 could be repeated to show the savings for the police as a whole, or for each police force individually.

2.19 Electronic transfer of the complaint would also be quicker from the complainant's point of view and the issue would reach an investigating officer more rapidly while memories are still fresh. Estimates from figures in the PCA 1999/2000 Annual Report suggest that about 65% of supervised investigations are completed in the 120 days deadline agreed with the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service. Cutting out forwarding, postal and routine administration costs might result in cases being processed say, 5 -10 days more quickly (or much more in a full web-based complaints service). A 10% time saving would thus not just help a higher achievement of cases being completed to target but would also mean a quicker service for the cases currently within the limit.

2.20 If the process argument is extended to later steps in handling a complaint by both the PCA and the police, it could be seen where additional time and cost savings might result. Figure 6 makes a start on this somewhat more complicated architecture.

2.21 For a thorough analysis of cost benefit in improving the PCA web service, the complete structure needs to be understood, together with the savings in effort that result from electronic transmission and processing. There are likely to be many options for developing the Web, from simple form filling to complete case document handling, with corresponding levels of investment. The purpose of resource analysis would be to determine the extent of investment.

2.22 For example, if creating a complete case document system, initiated and monitored by the complainant (no doubt with restricted access to confidential information) saved processing, copying and transmission of bulky documents by post, the potential savings and service benefits might be significant.

• a complaint is raised by a member of the public and forwarded on the website;
• a reference number is generated, given to the complainant in an automatic acknowledgement by letter and/or email;
• the complaint, in standard format with all essential details present - so no re-checking with the complainant is necessary - is forwarded with minimal delay to the relevant police force;
• a PCA case officer is assigned and notified of the complaint, dates and times of receipt and forwarding;
• the police decide on appropriate action and the complaint is forwarded appropriately with a notification to PCA and the complainant;
• the action officer reviews and attaches supporting documents (scanned or recorded in to avoid paper bundles and tapes being sent by internal or external post);
• at each stage (eg referral to CPS or a senior officer) the PCA case officer and complainant are notified;
• at any time the case officer or complainant can ‘sign in’ and trace the status of the complaint;
• final action, depending on the severity of the case, is taken, recorded and a formal report is sent to the complainant by the PCA or the police.

• capture all essential information in the correct format;
• issue an automatic acknowledgement; and
• commence recording and initial file details.

2.25 The cost of such a design has been quoted at approximately £7,500 so with full implementation the cost has been assumed to be roughly £10,000 for the PCA. In 2001, their current server host supported simple webforms at no extra cost.

2.26 As mentioned, savings depend upon the proportion of complaints received via the Web. Based on the proportion of complaints received by email currently, we assume that at least 5% of complaints could be received via webforms, and that webform complaints would be costless in terms of initial processing.

2.27 The PCA have estimated that the cost of manual registration of a complaint, including the production of the relevant form letters and notification to both the complainant and the police force concerned, is £14.76 per case.

2.28 Accordingly, if the proportion of webform complaints could be increased over the next five years to a ‘target’ 1/3 of complaints, the net present value (NPV) of the web investment would be around £10,000. If the proportion could be increased to 65%, the benefit would be in the region of £30,000 (a total cash saving of about £45,000 over five years).

2.29 These figures are not spectacular but the limited nature of the investment, relative to the potential for automation, has to be taken into account. So too does the potential for the savings to be extended to every police force if the same proportion of all complaints were made over the Web. Of the 17,000 or so complaints arriving with the police or the PCA, an investment in a single webform, as described above, and hosted by the PCA might produce a return of £200,000 to the Home Office.

2.30 These example figures are worked out ‘dynamically’ by varying the proportion of web complaints over time and then taking the Net Present Value (NPV) of the difference and the webform investment. However, they do not take into account the cost of promoting any switch from paper to web-based complaining. This cost would depend on the communication strategy. If the strategy called for the revision of existing leaflets and online advice this cost might be minimal. Public expectations that information and services are available via the web will continue to rise. It could be that this increasing trend for the public to go to websites with the expectation that forms and transactions will be available, might be sufficient to reach the target of 1/3 of complaints in five years. This rate, as pointed out earlier, affects the return on any investment in the Web as a channel of working for the PCA. The graphs below show the cost and return for options discussed.

2.31 In essence, the PCA has the opportunity through its website to redesign the resource system for complaints, not just tweak and monitor it. This strays more into process improvement than strategy but the results would be strategic in terms of meeting the objectives referenced in the introduction to this case. For example, the first two stages shown in Figure 6 would be eliminated (or at least the cost and time implications of those stages would be eliminated) giving a significant decrease in timescale. Additionally, because the complaint can be traced to the last point of action, openness and accountability would be increased. Lastly, because the complainant could ‘see’ the process and would receive timely and separate communication from both the PCA and the police, the PCA's independence would be reinforced.

Market’ dynamics of the PCA website

2.32 The success of any web initiative for the PCA or the police depends on attracting people to use the new service rather than the old, whether cost or service benefits are the aim. The Stage 9 structure for rivalry can be very useful in the analysis of this.

2.33 Although not strictly competing, the PCA would nevertheless be in a race with itself to capture complainants using the new system. The basic architecture is shown in Figure 10.

2.34 Potential complainants in the future may face a choice between complaining ‘traditionally’, say by letter, or by using the Web. They may not be aware of the choice and those not aware may be more likely to try a traditional complaint first. Having created the mechanism to complain via the Web, the onus would be on the PCA to communicate this option to potential complainants. In other words, the service would have to be marketed. The analysis would have to determine how much ‘advertising’ or other communication would result in what proportion of complainants choosing a web service, at least initially. This proportion would presumably be limited by other, exogenous factors such as the number of complainants with access to and knowledge of the Web. The profile of typical complainants would seem somewhat restrictive in this regard. For some time the PCA would have to offer both conventional and electronic procedures.

2.35 Since web-based registration of complaints would be beneficial to the PCA and the complainant, action might be taken to possibly divert conventional complaints to a web-based service once the complaint has been made traditionally. This is possibly a somewhat controversial approach but analysis allows the possibility to be investigated and the benefits indicated. The picture can be enriched by considering whether other ‘market’ forces might be employed to encourage web use. Word of mouth is unlikely in this case but publicising the anonymous details of a successful web complainant might encourage others. Other factors may induce complainants following the traditional process to switch to the Web and the degree of influence of these needs to be assessed to determine the rate of switching. All this will happen against a background of growing expectations for the availability of services online. Finally, if the web service was less satisfactory for some reason, the switching might be in the opposite direction.

2.36 Any case for web development would have to take into account this rivalry and switching if it is to be proved economic. It may well be that a very limited investment in the Web - for example, a form to complete - might be economic with very modest use by complainants if use of the Web currently results in more work than less. It has been noted that complainants from overseas try to use the service and people contacting by email leave scant details that require repeated follow up by email to garner even basic information about the complainant.

2.37 It is recommended that the consumer awareness chain (or complainant awareness chain) be developed. It would explain in detail the consequences of current actions and policies, and provide confident estimates of alternatives. The benefit of answering these unknowns would be a truer understanding of the efficacy of the PCA as the champion of individuals’ issues in relation to the police. This sort of analysis would require periodic, regular attitude research with members of the public. A ‘consumer chain’ may be applied, as in Figure 11.

2.38 To understand the number of users of the Web service over time, a dynamic understanding of the numbers of people aware of the service needs to be established together with the rate at which people are becoming aware of both the PCA and the website. Clearly, if the box ‘aware of Web Service’ is empty, very few people will try the service. It may be that awareness is not sufficient and that access, trust, and preference are better indicators of web use for the PCA. Some understanding of this mechanism would undoubtedly be helpful to the business case.

3: Conclusion and summary remarks

3.1 This case study has been limited in scope. It demonstrates that the anticipated cost benefit over time can be mapped out quantitatively and the level of investment justified. The advantage of using a dynamic strategy approach would be in establishing when benefits would be achieved (under what conditions) at each level of web traffic.

3.2 Several further points can be noted. First, if the benefits of any improvements are to be realised, the role and cost of the police forces' own complaints system must be taken account of. It may not be possible for full coordination in a reasonable timescale across all the constabularies of England and Wales but if the whole process of raising and staffing a complaint can be unified and improved via intelligent use of the Web, substantial benefits arise, the least of which are sought-after cost savings. The transparency, swiftness, and efficacy of results will be the principal winners and these appear to be at the heart of PCA's corporate goals.

3.3 Second, the very fact that the PCA does seek to market itself by having a website at all will lead to a resource of people wishing to use a web service, or at least initiating complaints by email. Some investment to guide complainants taking this route would seem sensible, indeed necessary, in order to improve the service to these people and smooth the internal response to such enquirers. A simple semi-active form with drop-down boxes that also ensures ‘compulsory’ fields are completed would be a significant addition to the current site.

3.4 Third, increasing the public profile of the PCA (which is surely an aim) if successful via the Web or other means, will lead to more enquiries, complainants and closer inspection of the PCA's work by the public and other bodies. In other words, the PCA will generate more work for itself and a good understanding of the stretch of scarce resources, particularly those of Members, and as time progresses would assist greatly strategic planning.

3.5 Fourth, an understanding of how the intangible resources mentioned in Figure 3 are driven is central to the strategy of the organisation. Speed, quality of service, and complainant satisfaction can all be enhanced by an excellent website coordinated with the police and other authorities (eg CPS). Fitting the relationships together and gaining an understanding of the types and levels of investment and benefit involved can be done with detailed, quantitative dynamic analysis.

3.6 Finally, in order to reduce duplication and help provide solutions, the Office of the e-Envoy is providing central infrastructure resources such as the Government Gateway and a secure hosting service. These resources should make it easier and more cost-effective for government bodies to purchase technical solutions and provide online transactions.

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