An early look at how UK government could adapt to increasing use of mobile, particularly SMS messages, and support e.g. reminders for doctor's appointments

1. 1
2005 … 59
Million wireless ‘net users
in Europe
New fad?
Opportunity?
Or Risk?
Do it?
Or Wait?
m-Government
More than 70% of
UK population
have mobile phones
1 billion text
a month in UK
Hutchison 3G launch
delayed until March 03
WiFi hottest
technology of 2002
Text up from 20 billion
To 27 billion p.a. in Europe

2. 2
Possible Mobile Usage?(Alan Mather estimates only … no research involved at all)
Mobile Users
3G Users
Text users
MMS Users
WiFi Users
WAP Users
Today200220012000 2004 2005 2006
Key Points
•80% mobile usage, but 70% are pay as you go
•SMS/Text used by at least 50% of phone users
•Wifi is the next “big” mobile technology
•3G/Wifi roaming could be big corporate-use growth story

3. 3
And in amongst that …
 Every year
 1,000,000 people lose their phones
 400,000 drop them in a glass of wine/beer
 200,000 flush them down the toilet
 Of course …
 These will be the first m-government customers
 And you have to run a service that keeps track of
who has which phone, what services they want and
where they live?

4. 4
Today
 Text is the biggest opportunity … and the simplest
 Nothing new here, well proven in the private sector
 Doesn’t need big investment … many “aggregators” already
exist
 But there are some limiting factors
 Our existing e-government track record
 Our ability to integrate technologies
 If the mainframe is the limiting factor … should we give up now?
 And 65% of corporates have no mobile commerce
strategy (says Computer Weekly/Paybox)
 So are we early in the cycle?

5. 5
What’s happening today?
(we’re not too early)
Public Sector
 Pilots at local authority level,
e.g. Lancashire bus services
 Pilots in Criminal Justice, e.g.
Xhibit System
 Pilots in hospitals, e.g. Nofolk
 e-Voting pilots in local elections
 Food Standards Agency alerts
 Congestion charge payments in
London
 Content updates notified by
text on some websites
Private Sector
 Hottest thing for
 MTV, Big Brother, Capital
Radio etc
 Vodafone m-pay (pilot)
 Lastminute.com … travel
offers
 AA Traffic reports
 Weather reports
 Opera web browser for 7650
 Photo messaging (nearly)
 Japan … mobile dating!
 And ringtones, of course

6. 6
Text
 What does a text message cost to send?
 10p?
 5p?
 How about £625 per megabyte!
 And that’s if you use every single one of the 140 spaces available
 At that price, you’d better make sure it’s important!
One hundred and forty
letters. If you’re used to
writing leaflets or
guidelines, that is really
not much space. No
wonder kids 2day use
shortcuts 2 gt the pnt ax.

7. 7
Cost Justification
Figuring out an ROI for e-government is often
hard … But:
Missed hospital appointments
 £280?
Putting a letter in an envelope
 £3?
Confirming a booking
 £20?
And this is just your end of the costs

8. 8
Major Issues To Consider
(Before you take the leap)
?
 Our e-government track record is not great
 In the take-up stakes we rank behind only Hungary and
Poland
 We have 1,800 (and growing) websites … people already
can’t find what we have to offer
 People have to opt-in to mobile, it’s an intrusive service
 Why would people want e-government on a “small
screen”, when they don’t want it on a “big screen”

9. 9
Because … you offer
 Services that:
 Have high value to the customer. They are personal.
 Are time critical. They need to know now.
 Or time saving. If I tell you right now, life is easier.
 Are simple. An easy message to get across.
 That are minimally interactive. No dialogue wanted.
 And that can be accessed …
 Via the Internet
 From the call centre (for follow-ups, confirmations)
 Or direct from their mobile phone

10. 10
Minor Issues – for you
 140 characters
 Since when was government
ever brief?
 Spam
 Only valuable messages to be
sent … (really?)
 Delivery is not perfect
 91.6% deliver on time … Some
texts never make it
 It could get a bit too
interactive
 People may reply … what do
you do then?
 Do you have check points
in your processes
 Or is this a manual overhead?
 Text costs money
 You pay 5p in bulk … that can
add up
 Phone numbers change
 How do you stay up to date?
 Government is not joined
up
 What does a trusted
Government phone number
look like?
 And how many do we need?
 Phones get stolen
 What’s the worst that could
happen?

11. 11
So What Does OeE Do?
 Delivers guidelines on multi-channel delivery
 Channel policy already available … we need to do an
implementation guide
 Solves the “trusted government number” problem
 One number for government? Or one prefix?
 Promotes your efforts …
 and encourages others to do the same
 Provides an infrastructure
 Government Gateway web service in pilot

12. 12
Tomorrow?
 Health
 Urgent calls for blood
types
 Doctors giving interim
updates on tests
 Confirming your booking,
reminder ahead of time
 Local
 Report an abandoned car
… location based
 Job application matches,
auto-appointment setting
(after all, it’s no different
from online dating)
 Education
 Notification of exam
results
 Benefits
 Application received …
benefit in the bank
 Other
 More voting, polling and
instant feedback services
 Phone becomes
authentication token

13. 13
Next Steps
 Do a pilot …
 Bear the issues in mind though … Please, please,
don’t give us another 1,800 website problem
 This will quickly tell you
 Which checkpoints you need to build into your
workflows
 But m-government, by itself, does little
 It’s part of an integrated, cross-channel, cross-
department, customer-focused strategy.
 Don’t just do it because you can, do it because it
complements what you are already doing