Meet my colleague, digital SARA ! Grethe Lindhe Project Manager City Office Malmö

Welcome to Malmö – a diversity of meetings and possibilities 2 Welcome to Malmö – a diversity of meetings and possibilities Photo:X-RAY FOTO/Leif Johansson  Malmö is the growth centre of the region 277,000 inhabitants Population expanding for the twenty-second year in a row 26% of the city’s inhabitants were born abroad 169 nationalities represented Young population: 47% are under 35 years of age

one of the most expansive regions in Europe 4 The Öresund region one of the most expansive regions in Europe The Öresund region covers Skåne, Själland, Lolland-Falster, Mön and Bornholm, an area of 20,859 km² 3.6 million inhabitants, 1.1 million on the Swedish side and 2.4 million on the Danish side Source: www.oresundsregionen.org

The Vision • Deal with issues and provide answers to questions 24 hours a day • More service for those who most need it -expanded e-service frees up necessary resources • e-service shall promote democracy and provide an improved dialogue between: - citizens and municipal administrations - citizens and politicians - municipal administrations and companies - between different administrations

How to start? – Citizen questionnaire on the web – FAQ from the departments (the top 5) – Workshops with representatives from trade & industry, politicians and civil servants,citizens – Measure the questions at the switch board

The result Citizen questionnare: The two primary channels that people prefer when contacting local government are the web and the telephone.

The 5 most important questions from the CitizensCentres: – Child care – Family care – Streets and parks – Elderly care – Admittance and support with computers

The result from the workshops: All communications from the City of Malmö have to be easy to understand, use simple language and provide a guaranteed response within a short time.

Questions at the switchboard Usually about family care, schools and leisure BUT; Surprisingly, after being transferred, many calls were not answered at all because the person they were trying to contact had some kind of message saying that they were out of the office, on holiday, sick, or in a meeting

The work can start! Giving priority to – Establishing a virtual assistant – Coordinating all forms in the city and making them easy to find on the web – Producing a web based application form for pre school

Expectations on the virtual assistant Internally: – Requests can be handled easier and faster – The switchboard will have less to do – Develop cooperation with other authorities with virtual assistans – Rationalization

Expectations on the virtual assistant Externally: – Citizens will get answers on the most frequently asked questions day and night – Citizens will experience that they will have better service and transparency – Citizens are not getting confused by officers who do not answer their phones – Easier to navigate on the site

SARA was born! – She was given her name through web voting – Knows ”everything” since working in the LG for many years – When she cannot answer, the visitor is given a mail alternative, which will be answered within 24 hours – When she was 1 year old – she got a voice During vacation period in summer, she will have a male deputy

A marketing channel – Changing the background every month – Visualizes the quality of Malmö – Gives the possibility to highlight events

The virtual assistant SARA is a part of Malmös branding!

Statistics 15/8 2005 – 15/8 2007 (prel.) Approx. 104.000 dialogues x 3.5 questions

How to organize 1 Main editor 12 Sub-editors Supports approx. 2.000 questions and automatically provides close to 1.000 links on our own web, and offers more than 200 on other authorities.

What kind of questions does she get – Leisure activities for children – Schools – Possibilities for leisure and training – Living – Turning Torso – Events – Hotels – Get in contact with

Examples of questions that are transferred by mail – Please help me in finding a dentist? – Are the shops open on Sundays? – How do I get to Malmö from Copenhagen?

SARA’s future – Continue to develop her database with relevant information – She can speak additional languages (English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Japanese…) – Sara will provide support in filling out difficult forms by Information Catcher – Sara will act as an hostess in the Virtual Municipality (Second Life)

Our Purpose SARA is a representative of Malmö, and we want her to be empathetic – to show that she cares. Just the way we – the officers – wants to be seen. Thank you for your attention!