Building connected services in B.C.
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Lab Services is a small team inside the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). You may have heard of our team’s work operating the Exchange Lab, where since 2018 we supported programs to build excellent digital services with Agile delivery teams.
With all that we have learned, we are now reorienting ourselves and focusing on one thing: helping organizations design and deliver connected services to improve service outcomes. It’s a whole-government approach and we’re excited about this new way of working.
What connected services are and why they matter
A connected service is designed to feel seamless, even when parts of the service are managed by different programs, companies or ministries. They are built around how people actually experience systems, not around how the provider is organized internally.
Connected services can help reduce frustration, improve outcomes and save time for both the public and government employees.
Outside of government, you might have seen this principle in action when you’ve used an Apple or Android ID to sign up for apps, or used a single Meta account to log into Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
In a government context, there is a wide range of scenarios that could be improved by connected services. For example, someone moving to a new address might need to update their details with health programs, housing supports and other services. In a disconnected system that would mean repeating the same update for each individual service. In a system of connected services, that information updates across ministries, securely in the background.
When connected data and systems power service journeys that have been designed with real insight into people’s lived experiences, we can meet the needs of people in B.C. with less effort, cost and delay.
Why we need this work
Right now, many service delivery programs operate siloed from each other. This can cause delays and barriers. People in difficult situations can’t wait to access support or manage something complicated like their health or housing information.
We also hear from government staff who deal with duplicated systems, manual workarounds and unclear handoffs between teams. These gaps can slow things down, which adds up over time and makes it harder to focus on supporting people and businesses.
Coordinating our efforts around a service outcome is one way to address these issues. With the right approach and investment, we can build better foundations, improve efficiency across government, and learn how to work together toward shared outcomes.
What we’re learning and doing
Our team has always generated new capabilities for the public service through experimentation and partnership with ministries. We learn a lot from our partners!
Our first set of initiatives enabled Agile practices integrated with human centred design to apply modern service delivery approaches and use technologies not previously available to public servants.
Now, building on this foundation, we aim to work directly with multiple organizations at once to design and test solutions that make services more connected.
We’re currently partnering with the Ministries of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, Health, Citizens’ Services and Finance to scope a service outcome we can feasibly deliver with this new approach. The first service journeys we’re looking at will likely take a shared approach to service wayfinding, digital identity, notifications and eligibility.
We expect to:
- Look for the common patterns across programs and build tools that can be reused
- Help teams design services that can exchange data securely and respectfully, with people’s consent and privacy embedded
- Work alongside service owners, policy teams, designers and developers to prototype ideas and solve real problems, while applying the Digital Code of Practice
Our work is practical and collaborative. This includes sharing what we learn. We’re also working with organizations that have already made progress and demonstrated value others across government can leverage.
What we’ve completed to date
So far, our team has:
- Examined how other governments are approaching connected services from the perspectives of service design and interoperability infrastructure
- Worked with the social sector to start to understand the policy, technology and delivery landscape (including existing service design research) that informs building connected services
- Reshaped our organization to focus on this key priority, including how we engage with information and teams that will need to collaborate across Citizens’ Services
What’s next
This work is part of the government’s broader digital initiatives, but our focus is on mandate-related priorities. We are not trying to fix everything, but we know from experience that the work we do can have far reaching effects.
There is increasing excitement about this work we will continue seeking ways to optimize how we engage and share what we learn.
Look forward to hearing more from us in future blogs!
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