Deloitte data analytics partner, Dale Deluca says customer-centred transformation goes well beyond just automating business processes.

"It requires first stepping back to understand the end-to-end experience from the user's perspective and using those insights to improve the experience offered to customers — and this is where data analysis can prove invaluable," Deluca says. "The question facing governments today is how to systematize and apply 'collective intelligence' to improve governance. Governments are only beginning to understand how this can be done.

"Data governance is critical to management of data assets collected from customer interactions or routine 'touch points'.

"There is no inherent value in having all that information in itself - the value is in the using of it and the actionable insights gained in mining and analysis."

The report notes many government agencies and private companies have invested heavily in state-of-the-art customer relationship management (CRM) technology to give them a single, integrated view of their customers and to maintain a mutually beneficial dialogue with them.

Previous e-government efforts largely fell short of transforming government service delivery the way many of the original architects dreamed they would.

Restoring public confidence in government capabilities to cope effectively with the challenges of governance in the 21st century, such as global competition and an ageing population, requires using customer insights to transform the way public managers perform key government functions.

Leading public and private sector organizations are using new tools and methods to answer the basic questions that need to be answered in order to service customers effectively and efficiently: Who are my customers?

Similar improvement efforts in the public sector realm can translate into increased public value — more bang for the public buck — through leaner delivery mechanisms and more effective design and provision of services, a subject to which we now turn, the report says.

Customer segmentation can help identify the channels preferred by customers for their different interactions with government and the best means to persuade them to migrate to more efficient channels.

Government can manage customer demand through proactive and targeted marketing communications and the effective provision of information at first contact, the report says.