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Dr. David Bray
Chief Information Officer , Federal Communications Commissions
SuperNova Award Category:
The Company:
The FCC regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. The FCC is an independent U.S. gov't agency overseen by Congress, the FCC is the US’ primary authority for communications law, regulation and technological innovation, focusing foremost on:
1. Promoting competition, innovation and investment in broadband services and facilities
2. Supporting the nation's economy by ensuring an appropriate competitive framework for the unfolding of the communications revolution
3. Encouraging the highest and best use of spectrum domestically and internationally.
4. Revising media regulations so that new technologies flourish alongside diversity and localism
The Problem:
Upon my arrival to the FCC, I began a series of collaborative discussions with our Chairman, Managing Director, the FCC Bureau and Office Chiefs, and all members of the FCC to listen, learn, and identify ways to modernize the Commission’s IT enterprise. These discussions resulted in a variety of existing, long-standing issues, historically thorny challenges on how FCC could improve its IT. It wasn’t long before I realized the FCC was experiencing the burden of an extensive list of legacy IT systems; included within the list of legacy IT systems was an aging 15+ year old webpage linked to a paper-based consumer complaints center that was in urgent need of modernization.
I like to think of ‘problems’ as ‘opportunities’; I encourage my IT team to feel empowered to both analyze problems and come up with solutions to meet them. This practice is most evident in how the FCC developed the Consumer Help Center solution; the new Consumer Help Center nomonclature replaces what was formally referred to as Consumer Complaints. Today’s technology environment offers a variety of cloud computing solutions, and it’s increasingly important to do your research based on requirements to find the solution that best fits your needs.
The Solution:
The new Consumer Help Center represents a shift away from a 15 yr old on-premise legacy consumer complaints system, and replaces 18 outdated complaints forms. The FCC's new consumer complaint forms allows the public to submit complaints or report issues online.
The new site, built using cloud-based customer service platform ZenDesk, makes it easier for users to select a subject to file a complaint about or find information pertaining to a certain communication category. People who submit a complaint now will be able to easily find the right section for it, as well as the ability to track the complaint in real time.
FCC got its SaaS solution at one-sixth the price of an internal system, in perhaps half the time. Under the internal model, O&M would have cost FCC $600,000 a year to maintain, Bray explained. Using the cloud solution, O&M costs are $100,000 a year.
The Results:
The Consumer Help Center makes the FCC more user-friendly, accessible, and transparent to consumers need to file complaints associated with wired or wireless telecommunication services.
FCC has been monitoring telecommunication providers for “cramming” unauthorized charges onto consumer phone bills, and information collected by this new solution is more smoothly integrated with FCC’s policymaking and enforcement processes compared to the legacy paper-based process. The system now provides faster responses to consumer concerns as well as better information to the agency on consumer issues with providers. Specifically, including the following key features:
Streamlined Process for Filing Complaints; new web-based consumer interface replaces 18 outdated complaint forms with one web portal.
24/7 Tracking of Complaint Status. You can now track the status of your complaint in real time by creating a unique log-in.
Faster Handling of Consumer Complaints. The new system will promptly serve complaints on providers, enabling them to respond more quickly to consumers.
More Transparency. The system will make available to the public and internal staff a much wider array of aggregated consumer-complaint data than in the past, and an even more robust data dashboard will be available in the future.
Enables you to give us immediate feedback on your experience, and is designed to be flexible and adaptable.
Metrics:
The new Consumer Help center represents a shift away from a 15-year-old on-premise legacy consumer complaints system, and replaces 18 outdated complaints forms. Pressure for the FCC to innovate was coming from the top down; the United States Congress tasked the FCC with making it easier for the public to interact with the government agency.
FCC got its SaaS solution at one-sixth the price of an internal system, in perhaps half the time. Under the internal model, O&M would have cost FCC $600,000 a year to maintain, Bray explained. Using the cloud solution, O&M costs are $100,000 a year.
The results:
Complaints per day: 1.5-2k
Complaints per year: 450k
Number of agents: 75
Forms Replaced By Help Center: 18
The Technology:
The FCC leveraged Zendesk for our new Consumer Help Center solution. Zendesk provides a cloud-based customer service platform which includes ticketing, self-service options, and customer support features.
Disruptive Factor:
Zendesk is an alternative to legacy products, differentiated by their ability to get up and running quickly, drastically reducing implementation costs and timelines. It’s that simple,” says Dustin Laun, Senior Adviser of Innovation for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “Zendesk does what we need it to do today and its vision ensures it’s a solid alternative in years ahead to help innovative decision makers.”
After extensive market research, the FCC chose to implement Zendesk’s customer service platform to build their Consumer Help Center and to provide ticketing support via email and web form. We also plan to replace our legacy contact center with Zendesk Voice. At an 85 percent savings to taxpayers, Zendesk is the first external-facing SaaS product the FCC has ever gone live with and marks the first step in a more radical modernization effort.
Shining Moment:
People submitting complaints can easily find the right section, as well as the ability to track the complaint live; site features repository for consumers to download data.
The solution is a modernized approach to enhancing communications between the Commission and the public. In addition to being easier to use for consumers, the information now collected will be smoothly integrated with our policymaking and enforcement processes.