Government institutions play an important role in serving the citizen. Therefore, it is important that these institutions begin to focus on quality and attention in service to citizens and see them as customers. For this, there are various tools that will make it possible to streamline the internal and external processes of government agencies at all levels. Such tools as the Internet, e-government strategies and CRM solutions have made some progress. In countries like Mexico, these solutions have been developed since 2001 in states like Chihuahua, Querétaro, among others, they are the first to implement them successfully. In contrast, the main failure factor when implementing CRM solutions lies primarily in the attitude assumed by employees and their resistance to change.
Introduction
CRM for its acronym in English Customer Relationship Management, is an approach that allows the organization to focus its attention on the customer to interact more effectively with him, identify his importance, retain him in the organization and prevent him from leaving with the competition (Alanís, 2004), understood as organization, whether of the public or private sector. According to studies by the consulting firm Accenture Group (2003), there is a growing trend among public government offices to treat citizens like business to clients.
The federal, state, and municipal government offices have an important role in serving the citizen, since they are empowered to provide various services. They are in charge of receiving all requests for services from the public and manually processing the resulting information. In some cases, these offices work independently of the others, causing certain functions to be duplicated, poor service, and high labor costs. At other times, citizen requests are lost or never reach the service center.
Consequently, the government must change its philosophy towards the citizen. In a certain way, it must serve citizens as clients of a private company and have clear objectives towards citizen care and service; In other words, the government is expected to work for us and with us; that is why a new approach or definition of CRM is beginning to emerge.
Moran (2004) points out that the acronym CRM is acquiring a new meaning, Citizen Relationship Management, which represents that the government is beginning to focus on the quality of service it provides to its citizens., and in turn create a climate of trust between the inhabitants and the government. Therefore, this article points out some necessary characteristics to help implement a CRM strategy in government, as well as the main benefits that will be obtained after the incorporation of this strategy at all levels of government. In addition, it is intended to conceive the current state of the use of this technology in the federal and state government of Mexico.
Methodology
The methodology used for the preparation of this article is based mainly on a bibliographic research, carried out through the Digital Library of the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, as well as the use of the Web, in order to have a more broad in terms of the topic developed.
Chapter 1 "e-government"
According to the Gartner Group, e-government or “digital government” is the transformation of the external and internal relations of the public sector, through Internet operations and communication and information technologies, in order to optimize the service provided by the government institutions; that is, to serve the citizens efficiently.
In addition to the above, according to Sotelo (2001), the transparency, performance and accountability strategies within the government will be modified so that it acts more efficiently in the provision of services and in the administration of information, reinforcing its leadership before the society.
Finally, government-business relations will also be redesigned, seeking the active and committed participation of the private sector in government modernization.
There are various e-government processes, which must be carried out throughout all government management, which are:
- Government-citizen relationship. It is based on providing services to citizens through the use of electronic forms. Government-business relationship. It consists of the basic supply that is carried out between a company and the government, in order to cover its purchases. Government-government relationship. Various services and communications are offered between government institutions, with the aim of collaborating and managing citizens' requests.
The processes described above are mainly based on the use of information technologies, mainly through the use of the Internet; obtaining multiple benefits (Sotelo, 2001), such as the personalization of services, the reduction of distances and time, productivity and efficiency, decentralization, transparency, the offer and provision of integrated services, better budget management, among others.
In addition to the above, there are new powerful tools that allow the administration of citizen care and its management, as well as control the requirements of citizens, complaints, provide information and facilitate procedures; as is the CRM tool, mentioned above, which is mentioned in more detail in the next chapter.
Chapter II "key factors and benefits of CRM in government"
Research carried out by Accenture Group (2003) indicates that the governments of different countries are actively working to achieve an effective relationship with citizens. Although CRM is a concept that little is known about in the public sector, this concept could significantly help to achieve an effective and efficient relationship that allows a personalized service to the citizen. However, in their lack of knowledge and experience in this regard, government institutions have forgotten to investigate what the customer really wants, needs, and what means of service distribution they prefer.
According to cio.com (2003), it mentions 4 steps to achieve success in a CRM implementation, figure 1 represents the steps to follow.
Figure 1. Success steps in CRM implementation
It is important to highlight that the first step to implement CRM successfully, senior managers must be involved, so that with their leadership, they assume the role of motivators and promoters of the new technology to be implemented.
In addition to the above, the CRM components that allow intelligent interaction are: in-depth knowledge of the customer, personalized service to the 1 2 3 4 Start at the top Implementation of pilot systems Get workers' commitment Obtain feedback from customer citizens, efficient service delivery, various service distribution channels and outsourcing.
If the government manages to apply these components followed by one another, it will lead to reorganize the government's service capabilities around the client's needs and benefits such as:
- Effective data management through optimized processes that will allow analyzing each particular client. Impact on the efficiency of internal processes. Clarity in internal processes. Credibility in government by citizens. Greater recovery of tax payments.
However, the aforementioned benefits depend largely on the attitude and responsibility of government employees, since most of the failures to implement a CRM strategy fall on the human factor.
Chapter III "CRM in the government of Mexico"
In governments of countries such as Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, USA, to name a few, they have been implementing this type of technology since 1999. The Australian government is the most advanced in this area. On the other hand, the Mexican government began with an initiative to implement CRM in its institutions from 2001. Recent studies by the consulting firm Select (2004), which is mentioned by Salas (2004), mention that the Mexican market of companies supplying CRM solutions is divided, as indicated in table 1, which is expressed in millions of dollars.
The previous table significantly shows that the Mexican market is led by the German company SAP and Siebel, the latter being the most used within government institutions. The Siebel company has formed an alliance with the Qualita Group, to create products such as Fidelis, which supports citizen service through different contact channels, such as e-mail, information kiosks, call centers, among others.
The governments of Chihuahua, the Miguel Hidalgo Delegation of the Federal District and the municipality of Querétaro, are users of their products. Being the government of Chihuahua one of the main cases of success in implementing CRM solutions. “The main benefits that we receive from a system like Marc @ Gob are definitely serving citizens better, bringing citizens closer to government services, that is why we are taking all the cutting-edge technology towards this goal: that citizenship is well attended by public servants ”stated Yolanda Ríos, Director of Citizen Services of the Government of the State of Chihuahua (www.qualita.com.mx).
Other states such as the State of Mexico, Morelos, among others have begun to implement certain CRM modules, without currently having a report of the benefits obtained.
Conclusions
Regarding the aforementioned issue, it is worth mentioning that government agencies require tools to monitor the service provided, seeking to easily identify the services and procedures that citizens have received and measure their quality, as well as the requested requirements. for each citizen, family, company, neighborhood or area.
On the other hand, various points of view emerge, which are mainly focused on the human factor, since more than half of the failures in the implementations of CRM solutions are due to the internal resistance of the employees of the companies or government institutions to change.
Finally, it is important to point out that companies that provide CRM solutions are increasingly focusing on the government sector and are launching new modalities at affordable prices. For example Siebel that will allow to provide this service from the Internet (ASP), whose cost is 70 dollars per user.
At the same time Microsoft has launched a version for only $ 41,184 or $ 3,800 per month, called Small Business Server, for 5 users.
This will allow companies to have a wider universe of CRM solution providers, and thus be able to choose the most appropriate one, according to their budget and needs.
Bibliographic references
Alanís M. (2004), “Notes from the CRM class at the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey”.
Accenture Group (2003), "CRM in Government: Bridging the Gaps."
Deck, S., (2003), "The ABCs of CRM", Cio.com.
Gartner Group (2004), “Hype Cycle Shows E-Government Overcoming Disillusionment”, Strategic Planning, SPA-22-1255.
Grupo Qualita (2003), "Success stories".
Moran N. (2004), “CRM for the citizen”, ProQuest, FT.com. London, pg. one.
Sotelo Nava A. (2001), “THE E-GOVERNMENT: Strategy for Innovation in the Federal Government”.
Salas R. (2004), "CRM: ten years of a philosophy", Business Technology.
