Introduction

The world of technology is rapidly changing, as is the way we interact with our governments. Municipal services must be quick, transparent, predictable, personalized, and dependable. In this blog post, we'll look at how the Microsoft Power Platform can help you meet these goals.

Self-Service with Microsoft Power Platform

Customers can purchase products and services from the Microsoft Power Platform website 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The platform provides a simple and comprehensive self-service experience. Customers can view the most popular products without logging in and order the product once they log in or create a customer portal login. This process is completely automated and linked to back-end systems.

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The younger generations prefer self-service over waiting for available "real" agents (who are mostly only there during business hours)!

Automated Processing with Power Platform

Gathering information from internal systems (like the municipal population register / Gemeentelijke basisadministratie) has never been this easy.
All requests can be handled by a drag and drop process builder (Power Automate) which are handled completely automatically by the Microsoft Power Platform, with no human assessment or approval. The platform enables the fast, transparent, and dependable processing of complex transactions such as permit applications and special assistance requests.

Front-end and back-end integration

The Microsoft Power Platform combines the front-end (customer interface) and back-end (employee interface) into a unified whole. The platform provides the best combination of front-end and back-end applications, allowing you to advance to the next level of service. The platform evolves in tandem with changing services to meet the needs of customers.

Chatbots to lighten the support load

The Microsoft Power Platform includes Power Virtual Agents, which can assist customers in navigating the process or making decisions. The chatbots are programmed to automatically respond to questions, and subject matter experts are notified when their assistance is required. The customer portal facilitates message and document sharing and communication.

Through Power Automate the chatbots have the power to look up information in the knowledge base in a natural conversational way. They also have the capability to communicate with internal and external systems to (for example) look up available timeslots for an appointment. All without interaction of a live support agent, and thus also available at odd hours.

Active Collaboration with the Power Platform

The Microsoft Power Platform allows for active collaboration between the customer and the various parties involved in the process. Through the customer portal, the platform provides secure communication in terms of message sharing and document editing. The platform also allows for open access, allowing other businesses or government agencies to enhance the service.

Power Platform Information Security and Privacy

Every company must of course adhere to compliancy rules and regulations like the GDPR and AVG (in The Netherlands).
Basically this means that we have to make sure we are not storing information we do not need to provide service and we should not keep information any longer than necessary. The Microsoft Power Platform has all the instruments to make adherence to these regulations a breeze. You can easily identify what information is kept per customer and where / in what system it is stored.

The Microsoft Power Platform ensures that information security and privacy requirements are met to a high standard. The platform gives the customer control over their data and ensures that sensitive information is not visible to third parties unless the customer gives permission.

Now, with the purchase of Nuance, we can even leverage voice printing (voice identification) to make sure we are only giving out information to the right person.

Conclusion

The Microsoft Power Platform provides a comprehensive solution for municipal services that are fast, transparent, predictable, personalized, and dependable. The platform integrates the front-end and back-end, provides chatbots with Power Virtual Agents, allows for active collaboration, and ensures data security and privacy. The platform evolves in tandem with changing services to meet the needs of customers.