Regulatory Renaissance: Tech Trends Redefining Public Sector Services in 2024

Introduction

In 2024, the landscape of digital public services is undergoing a transformative shift driven by technological advancements that promise to enhance efficiency, accessibility, and citizen engagement. As public sector regulators increasingly rely on digital solutions for regulatory case management, three prominent technological trends are poised to redefine how these services operate: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Geospatial Technologies, and Extended Reality (XR). Drawing insights from the latest survey conducted by Socitm, the Society for Innovation, Technology, and Modernisation, this article delves into how these trends shape the future of digital public services, particularly in regulatory case management systems.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Revolutionizing Case Management

AI has emerged as a game-changer in digital public services, offering unprecedented capabilities to streamline processes, improve decision-making, and enhance regulatory compliance. According to the Socitm report, AI-powered algorithms are increasingly integrated into case management systems, enabling regulators to automate routine tasks, analyse vast datasets, and accurately identify patterns or anomalies.

Related: Is it time to adopt an automated workflow within your inspection management system?

  • Automation and Efficiency Gains: AI-driven automation revolutionises case management workflows, reduces manual intervention, and expedites regulatory processes. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, regulators can automate repetitive tasks such as data entry, document classification, and compliance checks, allowing staff to focus on high-value activities that require human judgment.
  • Predictive Analytics for Smarter Regulation: AI-powered analytics empower regulators to anticipate emerging trends, detect potential risks, and proactively enforce regulatory compliance. By analysing historical data and real-time inputs, AI algorithms can identify patterns of non-compliance, predict regulatory violations, and prescribe targeted interventions to mitigate risks effectively.
  •   Enhanced Decision Support: AI-enabled decision support systems are augmenting the capabilities of regulatory professionals, providing real-time insights, recommendations, and risk assessments to inform decision-making. Whether assessing the severity of a compliance breach or determining the appropriate enforcement action, AI algorithms enable regulators to make data-driven decisions with greater speed and precision.

    Case study: Why the phased approach of adopting an inspection management software is a good tactic?

    Read it to understand:

      • The advantages of modular digital transformation
      • The vital architectural practices and technologies that enable modular transformation
      • How a regulatory agency in the UK is benefitting from a modular approach with Canalix.

    Download now.

    Geospatial Technologies Revolutionizing Regulatory Oversight

    Geospatial technologies, encompassing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Location Intelligence, are pivotal in enhancing regulatory oversight, spatial analysis, and geospatial data management. Socitm’s survey highlights the increasing adoption of geospatial technologies within public sector regulators, leveraging spatial data to improve regulatory enforcement and decision-making.

  • Spatial Data Integration: Geospatial technologies enable regulators to integrate spatial data layers into their case management systems, enriching regulatory insights with location-based information. By overlaying regulatory data onto interactive maps, regulators gain a spatial perspective of compliance activities, enforcement actions, and regulatory risks across geographic regions.
  • Spatial Analysis for Risk Assessment: Geospatial analytics empower regulators to conduct spatial analysis and geospatial modelling to assess regulatory risks, identify non-compliance hotspots, and prioritise enforcement efforts. By visualising regulatory data in a spatial context, regulators can identify spatial patterns, correlations, and spatial relationships that inform targeted interventions and resource allocation strategies.
  • Mobile Field Operations: Geospatial technologies enable regulators to leverage mobile applications and location-based services for field operations, inspections, and compliance monitoring. Equipped with geospatially-enabled case management tools, regulatory inspectors can access real-time regulatory data, capture geotagged evidence, and conduct on-site inspections more efficiently and accurately.

Related: The Importance of Contextuality in Effective Regulatory Oversight

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Conclusion:

As we navigate the complexities of a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the convergence of AI, geospatial technologies, and extended reality reshapes the future of digital public services and regulatory case management. By harnessing the transformative potential of these tech trends, public sector regulators can enhance operational efficiency, improve regulatory outcomes, and foster greater citizen engagement in 2024 and beyond.

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How do self-inspections improve the regulatory environment in 2022?

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In 2022 regulators have to deal with uncertainties more than ever – global pandemics, budget cuts, and resource shortages. Flexibility is the key to overcoming the increasing uncertainties. Many regulators are adopting self-inspections within their inspection programs and policies as a tool to employ flexibility in their battle with uncertainties.

What are regulatory self-inspections?

A regulator usually adopts a self-inspection program for inspectees with a good track record of compliance and a low-risk level for potential hazards. Those entities can perform inspection checks by themselves while the regulator maintains complete visibility over the inspection procedures and controls their standard. The results are optimised costs, better resource scheduling and agility.

How do self-inspection add value?

Canalix helps regulators adopt remote inspection and self-inspection programs. The regulators benefit from self-inspection innovations by saving time in the travelled distance and optimising the costs of inspections. The inspected entities benefit from speedy processing of inspection checks and resolving issues that need fast resolution. But there may be many other reasons that turn regulators’ sight towards remote inspections. Below we’ll list 6 of them.

Why are self-inspections the future?

 

1. Self-inspections help government agencies cut costs

Regulators and other government agencies can significantly reduce operational costs by adopting self-inspections. The adoption of self-inspection solutions by Canalix customers is usually associated with an average of 40% improvements in efficiency connected with reduced manual work, faster resource scheduling, and better resource utilisation that ensures that inspectors are always focused on the work that matter the most.

Related: How government agencies can reduce costs in 2022?

Canalix is an inspection management software that works as a modular platform. It can be adopted in a sequenced way – each module at a different stage, by following the tactical goal to identify the area of operations that can be transformed first to achieve the most significant optimisation result. Then by adopting other modules, the digital transformation can scale and therefore, a further modification of processes be performed. Since the inspection software modules are in the cloud, Canalix provides a service model that enables government agencies to remove inefficient or manual processes and speed up the delivery of inspections.

2. Better allocation of costly resources

Canalix, as a self-inspection platform, gives apprehensive visibility to regulators of the pending inspections with the highest risk. The AI engine automatically calculates the risk score of the low-risk inspections and triggers a self-inspection workflow for them. At the same time, costly resources like inspectors can be allocated to the jobs that matter the most, e.g. with the highest risk score. This inspection management mechanism improves resource allocation and helps high-risk inspectees enhance their compliance and safety standards, and low-risk inspectees receive significant autonomy.

Related: Where do remote inspections and resource optimisation meet?

3. Predictive risk

Regulators can monitor repeat occurrences for the same risks and point our areas to inspectees who need special attention to prevent future hazards. This improves efficiency because regulators don’t have to investigate for problems but know where the risk is by looking at the self-inspection data and pointing it out to the inspectee to mitigate it.

4. Improved inspection data quality = improved inspection management

One of the perks of using inspection management software to perform self-inspections is the availability of real-time data. When inspectors receive their data digitally, the quality of data is better; therefore, monitoring risks and tracking inspection performance enable inspection teams to handle potential threats and improve safety more efficiently.

self inspections

Related: Why real-time data is important for inspection management?

5. Stronger collaboration

Real-time data also empowers regulators and inspectees to collaborate more efficiently during self-inspections. The Canalix clients from the regulatory sector report that self-inspection collaboration via the inspection management platform reduces the time needed to complete actions during inspections. That enables inspection teams to move on to the following tasks in their to-do list faster than before.

6. Self-inspection software implementation is easier than ever

Canalix is a modular inspection platform, so it’s easy to adopt the self-service inspections by integrating it into an existing inspection management system. In contrast, adopting a self-inspection procedure was a challenging and time-consuming initiative just a decade ago. There’s the technology and opportunity to implement self-inspection programs quickly and effectively. 

Case study: Reduce operational costs with inspection scheduling software

Read it to understand:

    • The advantages of modular digital transformation
    • The vital architectural practices and technologies that enable modular transformation
    • How a regulatory agency in the UK is benefitting from a modular approach with Canalix.

Download now.

How can Canalix help you with self-inspection software implementation?

Canalix puts the power of an advanced AI engine in the hands of regulators who wish to implement our self-inspection module. With this technology, regulators enable their inspectees to mitigate risks before they emerge. Aside from the efficiency benefits, this digitised inspection process grants significant cost-optimisation benefits for the regulators and empowers their inspectees to predict potential problems.

Contact us to learn how our self-inspection software can be integrated into your inspection case management system.

Read also: How to improve the engagement level of self-inspections?

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How to reduce rework and downtime for costly resources in inspection management?

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For regulatory agencies, the investment in highly qualified inspectors is perhaps the most valuable. However, this investment may lose some of its value if there are scheduling issues. That’s why many regulators choose to invest also in good inspection software as a solution to optimise operational costs and cut spending caused by frequent rework or downtime in qualified inspectors’ schedules. So there come the question: how to reduce rework for inspectors? And also:

How do downtime impacts operational costs?

How reducing downtime can help regulatory agencies optimise their spending? If your regulatory agency has only one highly qualified inspector with certification in Explosives, it will be more expensive for you to have his schedule filled with time gaps. If, because of the time gaps, the inspector doesn’t spend the entirety of his time on work that matters, catching up at the end of the month will be more expensive and may hurt his productivity. If the efficiency of processes starts suffering because of lousy scheduling, a new inspection check may be required much sooner than planned. So the price of a single inspection check may become more pricey than initially planned.

On the other hand, with a well-built inspection scheduling software ( one that makes optimal schedules with minimum travel time between jobs), the efficiency of the process can be improved, and the necessity for rework and overtime work minimised. That will ultimately lead to lowering operational costs. And last but not least,  by not having to conduct emergency rework and overtime, the regulator can use more opportunities.

resource scheduling software

Simplify the resource scheduling procedures

If the inspection scheduling process has issues, it’s normal not to have expected results. Desk workers can give feedback on the problems they have with inspection scheduling. One of our clients is a national regulator in the UK. They asked for feedback from their workers, and that’s how they realised that the inspection scheduling process requires the automation of repetitive tasks.

After adopting our resource scheduling software Jobtimizer, their scheduling managers sped up their work and reduced the errors in their tasks. Download our case to see how our resource scheduling software Jobtimzier helped a regulator reduce time spend on manual scheduling with up to 75%:

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: How a regulatory agency cut costs with resource scheduling software?
          • reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
          • increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
          • fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
Download the case study.

Follow the compliance standards.

When conducting an inspection check, inspectors must follow compliance standards and measure the risk for future hazards to get an accurate risk score. That is valuable data that may play a significant role in scheduling future inspection checks. If the risk score is low, the follow-up inspection may be scheduled further in time or appointed as a remote inspection. But if the risk score is high, the following inspection check may have to be scheduled sooner.

If the inspector is handling the inspection checks with tons of paper, it’s easy to miss an essential procedure and forget to check a box in the inspection checklists. Our client avoided these issues by using our inspection management platform Canalix and conducting inspection checks with a tablet. By giving inspectors the required tools and system, they can easily follow and maintain high compliance standards.

Faster response on emergency requests

Sometimes an emergency event may require an inspection check earlier than scheduled. In these instances, our tool Jobtimizer triggers automatic scheduling that prioritises the emergency request over other appointed events, and automatically reshuffles the rest of the schedules to avoid conflicts.

Use the right inspection management system

Not every resource management software is a good fit for a regulator. Government agencies have specific needs, and using a particular purpose-built inspection management software is always better than using some generic, customisable solution. The right inspection software can help regulators automate repetitive tasks and record and store data in the right way that can further be used for visualising patterns and other data.

The data collected by inspection management software like Canalix can help you keep track of how many inspection checks were completed for a period of time and observe how your government agency managed to cut costs with time.regulatory case management software

Why Jobtimizer is the right resource scheduling tool for your government agency?

Jobtimizer is a stand-alone module to the Canalix Inspection Management platform. Jobtimizer provides a configurable and extendable AI-based scheduling engine that allows scheduling constraints and business priorities to be defined.

Constraints can be classified as ‘Hard’ where they need to be fulfilled and ‘Soft’ where it’s desirable that these are met, but not a must for a schedule to be viable. The emphasis or importance placed on a soft constraint is defined by providing each constraint with a score. A typical example of a hard constraint is ‘resource availability”, “availability of required equipment”, and “qualifications or skills” required to perform the job. A typical example of a soft constraint would be job priority, FIFO, and total distance across a scheduled work program.

Book a demo here.

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How your government agency can reduce costs in 2022?

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One of the public sector’s biggest struggles today is transforming services and freeing themselves of legacy systems and workflows. Are they winning this battle? And how do they do it?

The digital transformation vision

Government agencies, local government administrations, and other public organisations are bearing big weight when it comes to digital transformation. They have to keep up with the vision of how public services should be delivered while facing constant pressure for reducing costs and do more with less. This challenge, however, is creating opportunities for innovation.

Canalix is helping government agencies to get the advantage of the available innovative solutions. Since the constant pressure for cost optimisation in the public sector is making public sector leaders more interested in adopting platforms as solutions that could address a variety of workflows and services, Canalix is designed to respond to these particular public sector demands. That enables organisations to progress in digitising their processes and keep up with the evolution of technology.

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: How a regulatory agency cut costs with resource scheduling software?
          • reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
          • increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
          • fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
Download the case study.

Why using a cloud platform is better for a government agency?

Government agencies like the regulators can automate and scale operations such as inspection checks on Canalix – a single inspection management platform. Since the platform is modular, it can be adopted in a sequenced way – each module at a different stage; by following the tactical goal to identify the area of operations that can be transformed first to achieve the most significant optimisation result. Then by adopting other modules, the digital transformation can scale and therefore, a further transformation of processes be achieved. Since the inspection software modules are in the cloud, Canalix provides a service model that enables government agencies to remove inefficient or manual processes and speed up the delivery of inspections and work that matters the most. 

The inspection software of Canalix provides dedicated modules for different solutions – regulatory case management software, self-inspection and evidence submission, AI resource scheduling, grant management, automated compliance assessment, inspection marketplace, etc. Furthermore, with the platform’s AI engine, Canalix delegates most of the repetitive tasks to be done automatically by the AI engine. 

Long story short, with Canalix, government agencies can:

  • Gain cloud service
  • Minimise risks and reduce costs
  • Simplify services via self-submission and self-service portals
  • Speed-up inspection delivery
  • Improve productivity
  • Optimise the work patterns
  • Connect their employees intelligently.

What challenges public sector leaders can overcome with Canalix?

With Canalix, government agencies can upgrade their legacy systems with easy-to-use modules in the cloud to drive efficiency across processes within the organisation. With these solutions, government leaders can tackle these common challenges:

1. Challenges with the complexity of modernising the IT

  • upgrade outdated work processes
  • Modernise a legacy system and start automating and prioritising tasks
  • Eliminate time-consuming manual work and boost productivity.

2. Challenges with the visibility of data 

  • organisations can quickly check the cause of a problem when the performance of tasks suffers and ends in issues such as overbooking, rework, etc.
  • Government agencies can have a central source of data across departments and improve communication and connection between employees.

3. Challenges with the costs

  • By quickly identifying issues and improving potential weak points in service delivery, government agencies could reduce the expenses.
  • By providing cloud solutions to the end-users, the agencies don’t have to suffer the negative impact of assigning whole teams to troubleshooting problems that can emerge on-premise.

Success story

Here is a remarkable story of how a Canalix client kicked off their digital transformation strategy with a modular resource scheduling solution only to scale later to use a complete platform of inspection software solutions. 

The modular digital transformation approach allows organisations to optimise beyond resource scheduling. In other words, combining different modules will enable organisations to enhance their efficiency even more. 

Success story of adopting inspection software module “Marketplace”

After our client transformed their inspection scheduling operations with Jobtimizer, they decided to continue their digital transformation journey with another module – the marketplace module. The goal: to further enhance the efficiency and productivity of the inspection process.

The marketplace module enabled our client to integrate a digital workspace within their existing inspection management system. Within this workspace, our client’s staff was able to post details about pending inspections. Imagine it as a data pool with tasks. Access to these tasks is ensured through a secure portal to external agents who can take over jobs and complete them on the client’s behalf. Each task file has a unique ID, requirements, and due date for inspection check. Only agents with the required certification can take and complete corresponding tasks.

The outcome

The marketplace module allowed our client to expand their operating models by outsourcing low complexity tasks to external agents. That enabled their internal costly case resources to focus on critical tasks and jobs that matter the most. First, our client managed to transform their resource-constrained scheduling process into a more optimised version. Then, with another module, they adopted a new operating model to focus their case resource’s time only on work that matters the most. Both modules delivered quick wins, and our client is now planning further digital transformation with other modules.

Read more about how your government agency can tackle the issue with resource-constrained scheduling.

Are you interested in adopting new operating models with quick wins? Contact us here.

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Case study: Cutting costs with automated job scheduling software and further optimisation

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Digital transformation can hardly bring a quick fix for teams’ productivity and operational costs if an inefficient process is just covered with a layer of technology. Тhe nature of these initiatives is strategic and affects many parts of an organisation – people, systems, processes. Sometimes, to get the desired quick fix, organisations need to update the technology and the process itself. So ultimately, the quick fix turns out to be in not such fast motion. But it doesn’t mean it can’t be successful if approached right.

That is the tactical move one of our clients – a national regulator, learned when they deployed our automated job scheduling solution Jobtimizer. It helped them automate repetitive tasks like job scheduling with RPA technology. The result was that they managed to secure efficiency improvement without replacing entire systems. But at the same time, they laid the ground for further optimisation initiatives. This tactical modular digital transformation approach targeted an area from the operations cycle with a huge impact that would subsequently facilitate further process optimisation. Our practice with regulatory agencies enabled us to make the right suggestion at the right time so our client can start their digital transformation journey from a well-thought starting point. At the same time, we helped them plan the following points from this journey ahead of time.

inspection platform modules

Assessing the existing work model

As a national regulator, our client’s core processes are within the inspection management field. They are performing their services with a network of inspectors with different skillsets, certifications and locations. When inspectors are allocated to various jobs, they have to inspect the job site to determine whether it complies with the public safety standard and assess the risk of future hazards. Depending on the outcome of the check, the inspection site is marked low-risk or high-risk for potential accidents.

The regulator conducts approximately 800 000 inspections each year. Their back-end officers are responsible for the inspection schedules. When the caseload is too big, the regulatory agency employs third-party inspectors (external workforce), which results in higher operational costs. Inspectors are using tablets with inspection checklists for the type of inspection they have an appointment for. When they complete the check, they upload the inspection data to the cloud server and generate an automated outcome report sent to the inspectee.

Optimising the inefficient inspection job scheduling

Even though the inspection process functioned with automated rules that guaranteed the inspection execution according to the regulatory requirements, there were a lot of manual processes involved in it. Our client receives thousands of inspection requests every day, and then an employee manually assigns inspectors to inspection jobs based on their availability. Inspectors often had to travel in and out of the same town within the hours of a single day. That was harmful to their productivity, motivation, and impacted operational costs because of the growing spending on fuel for travelling.

job scheduling software

Our client was aware of the inefficiency of this manual type of job scheduling. They knew that the possible solution was within the field of digital transformation and inspection scheduling. That’s why they decided to transform their processor with a job scheduling software that takes constraints likes availability and location to map more efficient schedules where inspectors take the smarter route. Before taking this step, an inspector had to go to and leave the same town twice for a single day because of inconvenient scheduling; with Jobtimizer, they didn’t have inefficient schedules anymore. This transformation itself removed a significant burden off the inspectors’ shoulders.

The further need for process optimisation

job scheduling tool

Our team regularly reviewed the optimisation data our client shared. They managed to optimise the weak points with job scheduling, but another problem in their inspection process was still brewing. The backlog of inspection cases gradually grew, and they had to hire external inspectors to meet the rising number of inspection requests after the pandemic’s outbreak in 2020. Even with our intelligent job scheduling assistant at hand, our client faced increasing difficulty managing the caseload and its balanced distribution.

Step 2: from job scheduling optimisation to changing the entire inspection model

The growing workload and the limited resource meant that our client had to update their inspection management system, not just the job scheduling part. The road ahead for them was to enable inspectors to focus on high-risk inspections and allow the low-risk inspection requests to be self-served.

Since we already had experience with other regulators that transformed their inspection management system with self-service modules, we knew that the risk-based inspection methodology would work with them too. Our client purchased Canalix to change their inspection management system entirely by adopting a self-service module and remote inspection program for low-risk and middle-risk cases. The advanced AI engine automatically scores the risk and complexity of each inspection request, and the high-risk risk cases are allocated to inspectors for the on-site check. In contrast, the low-risk jobs are redirected for completion via a self-submission portal. Since Jobtimizer as a job scheduling tool is built to work flawlessly with Canalix, our client had an easy time adopting Canalix.

inspection scheduling transformation

Why start with a tactical modular digital transformation and not replace the entire system from the very beginning?

Replacing an entire system requires rethinking technology, replacing systems integrated to other core systems, and holding years of data to be migrated. In other words, it’s a costly and time-consuming endeavour. Automation can deliver efficiency improvements and work with existing components, so it was the smart and right starting point for our client’s digital inspection transformation journey. The case with Jobtimizer as an RPA technology enabled them to automate repetitive operations like job scheduling while meeting pre-set goals, criteria, and priorities.

Do you want to get deeper insights into how Canalix helps regulatory agencies to cut operational costs and improve productivity? Download the free case study now!

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: OPTIMISING THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN REGULATORY AGENCY
          • reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
          • increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
          • fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
Download the case study.

 

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The essential KPIs for inspection management software

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For inspection team leaders in regulatory agencies is essential to track the KPIs of inspection performance. Those are the metrics that allow managers to track the performance of inspection teams and check whether the pre-defined objectives are met. Inspection KPIs are the indicators that define the success of operations in the inspection process. By tracking their values, team leaders can assess whether the inspection program is working well or something needs to be changed to meet the regulator’s goals in terms of costs and performance.

Is there a universal list of essential KPIs in inspection management?

There is no universal list of KPIs. The inspection performance indicators vary based on the inspection process in different regulators and what kind of resources it involves – field inspection technicians, inspectors for on-site checks, remote checks, technical equipment for special inspections, etc. Inspection team leaders have different responsibilities depending on the regulatory sector, and KPIs vary. So let’s look at the most common roles in the inspection process and the KPIs that are essential to be tracked with inspection management system.

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: OPTIMISING THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN REGULATORY AGENCY
          • reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
          • increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
          • fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
Download the case study.

KPIs for Inspection Scheduling

The time needed to appoint an inspection schedule

Inspection scheduling may be a very time-consuming endeavour. Using resource scheduling software for inspections is to improve productivity. In that sense, the more inspection jobs being assigned to an inspector for an amount of time, the better. When regulators switch to an inspection management software from a paper-based process, one of the most essential metrics they should track is scheduling an inspection and whether it is done faster than the old ways of work.

Related: Digital optimisation in inspection services

Time to first contact on high-risk inspection requests

What if many low-risk jobs are blocking the timely processing of high-risk inspections? The time needed to make the first contact from the regulatory agency’s end to the inspected entity is crucial for high-risk cases. If the inspection software has the required data and a reliable engine that can assess the risk category of each job in the backlog correctly, then the time to first contact on high-risk inspections can be made faster. Two things are needed to track and improve this KPI:

    • A self-service portal when inspection data is captured
    • AI engine that automatically assesses the risk category of each inspection request and automatically assigns an on-site check by an inspector to the high-risk ones

Related: Best practices in risk-based inspection management

Travel time between inspections jobs

When regulators are sending inspectors to do jobs that are too far away from each other, it means that:

1) their time is not utilised well

2)the agency is losing money due to ineffective scheduling

3) the inspector’s productivity is declining.

Making the most optimal route for inspectors and automatically reshuffling resources in case of a last-minute schedule change is a reliable tool to minimise the travel time between inspections. This is a KPI that must be tracked for inspection scheduling optimisation. 

 

route otpimisation software

Essential KPIs for Inspection Managers (desk workers)

Inspection utilisation time

What if inspectors spend time on manual tasks – like filling paper checklists – that eats their time and prevent them from completing enough inspections for a day? The time needed for task completion should be tracked to improve utilisation if some tasks take unexpectedly longer than required. Giving inspectors mobile devices to capture details like photos and video and directly upload them to the cloud can improve their time utilisation and reduce unnecessary manual tasks.

Related: Implementing resource scheduling in the inspection workflow

KPIs for on-site inspectors, remote inspectors & field technicians

Customer surveys

The citizens are the end customer of public sector operators such as regulatory agencies. Brief customer surveys are a great way to evaluate whether any transformation inspection-wise improves the quality of inspection service for the citizens. If the surveys show that citizens are satisfied with the inspection service, it’s a good indicator that things are working. If not, it might have something to do with other KPIs, such as response time, timely kept schedules, etc. 

Related: How our inspection software customers achieve significant ROI?

How Canalix transforms the world of regulatory inspections?

Inspection completion rate

If the number of inspections being completed for a month is growing over time, performance is good. If not – then time utilisation should be paid attention to. 

Failed inspection attempts and repeat visits

If an inspector has too many failed inspections in his schedule, probably he should be assigned to lower complexity inspections, or his profile should be checked if he has rightfully set qualifications. When the trends show that the performance is below average – a double check should be made on the inspector’s profile and on the inspection data that is being captured. If data quality can be improved, then perhaps the inspector won’t have to do repeat visits.

Related: 6 reasons why regulators need resource scheduling software for on-site inspections

How does inspection management software make KPI tracking easy?

Cloud, AI and high-configuration technology can make it a lot easier for regulators to track their inspection KPIs. The right mix of technology can serve as a comprehensive solution to:

  • Connect different data sources without having to shuffle piles of paper.
  • Track, analyse and understand inspection data in a way that will enable us to form a strategy and make decisions faster.
  • Automate inspection reporting that is understandable for its intended audience. 
  • Achieve a new level of resource optimisation

Related: Why real-time data is vital for inspection tracking?

Inspection management software for better inspection scheduling and resource utilisation

It’s easy to write and talk about tracking inspection KPIs and their importance. But when it comes to transforming old legacy systems into digital inspection systems, things look scary. That’s why Canalix offers end-to-end inspection management solutions that enable them to track essential KPIs to identify weak spots and potential for optimisation. With tools to reshape resource management, travel routes, schedule optimisations etc., regulators can start walking their rode on the way to better inspection service with the necessary cost optimisation. 

Book a demo with us today! Or ask us for a free 15-min product tour.

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5 inspection scheduling software features that help regulators cut costs

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Adopting cost-efficient inspection models is more relevant than ever for regulators and will keep its rising trend in 2022. Public sector regulators often ask us about cost reduction strategies for inspection operations. Our answers are quite often related to optimising inspection scheduling. That’s why we decided to publish our most given recommendations on what should be expected by inspection management software in terms of cost optimisation.

What is inspection management software?

There are many good inspection software definitions. But what defines Canalix most accurately for our customers is:

The inspection platform serves as a job scheduling and inspection optimisation tool that improves the inspection process, from completing tasks faster to making more efficient inspection schedules that ensure more intelligent management and less expensive operations.

This definition of Canalix as an inspection platform works well for regulators with on-site and remote inspection programs. Also, it helps them to evolve and embrace new remote models like self-inspections for low complexity inspection requests. The user-friendly interface and cloud-based nature are facilitating the adoption of Canalix as a cost-reduction solution to regulators.

 

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: OPTIMISING THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN REGULATORY AGENCY
          • reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
          • increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
          • fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
Download the case study.

Which areas in the inspection process endure the most major optimisation with Canalix?

  • Connectivity

All of the participants in an inspection have access to the inspection platform where they can communicate and find the latest and greatest attached to each task.

  • Inspection scheduling

Make inspection schedules for seconds with the most optimal resource allocation. If the inspection program endures a last-minute change, all resources are reshuffled to find the most optimal planning.

  • Decision-making

Having all of the inspection data in one place gives valuable insights for decision-making. The inspection team leader can make important decisions faster. And even make a long-term plan with clear goals set ahead.

  • Costs

The employing of various inspection optimisation solutions in one platform ensures many opportunities for cost reductions. It pretty much delivers optimisation of everything connected with the finances in a regulatory organisation.

 

There are various areas in which inspection software can change things for the better. But of course, there are also a variety of inspection models across different regulatory sectors that have their specifics. That’s why it depends on how much of the potential of an inspection platform like Canalix can be employed to achieve a maximum positive outcome.

A ready to use inspection platform is excellent news for regulators making their first digital transformation step. But it must go together with a degree of customisation to achieve the desired efficiency level. That’s why Canalix provides inspection software with expert help configuring the solution specifically for the customer. Looking for such expert help should be affirmed as a general recommendation when we talk about adopting new inspection management technology.

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How Canalix transforms the world of regulatory inspections?

The inspection software features that make the difference

Inspection Tracking 

The inspection tracking software feature makes it easier to monitor and track the high-risk cases and their potential risks. First, because the digital format allows inspection teams to monitor inspections over time with just a few clicks, they don’t have to dig in a pile of paper. Monitoring risks with a historical perspective provides inspection teams with more information they can use for decision-making.

Real-Time Data

By doing inspections faster, the regulator can ensure safety more efficiently. It’s all due to a variety of factors. But the collecting of real-time data is one the most important ones. With real-time data on one platform accessible by decision-makers and other regulatory enforcement actors, the regulatory sector can quickly transform inspection models to fit better the cost reduction goals.

AI-enhanced inspection scheduling

Digital inspection platform like Canalix is like case management software, inspection scheduling software and resource allocation software working together on the same platform. Regulators don’t have to use three different solutions that don’t work well together. They can have a working platform that eliminates time waste by entering data twice to two separate digital platforms. That’s excellent news for achieving effective inspection scheduling and disruption-free inspection planning.

Mobile / remote inspection capability

The mobile capabilities of Canalix enable inspectors to use their mobile devices while performing digital inspections to capture photos or videos and attach them to the inspection file in the cloud. With inspection software in the cloud, inspectors can upload additional files on-site. If they have to go back to the office to update their inspection file later, the efficiency may suffer. Enabling inspectors to provide further context while making inspections gives inspection teams the power to react to critical inspection-related data on time. 

Inspection optimisation with improved inspection route planning

Making an inspection schedule where inspectors spend minimum time travelling between inspection jobs is hard. But with the AI engine, Canalix helps inspection teams to reduce their time spent on travelling. That enables the inspector to focus better on inspecting and spend less time travelling. That’s a way for regulators to achieve a new level of cost reduction and reduce their carbon footprint. 

resource management tool

How can Canalix help you if you’re a regulator?

The inspection digitalisation experts of Canalix have vast experience in serving regulators by delivering custom inspection software solutions. We can optimise the inspection workflow of regulatory inspections with attention to detail. Request a free 15-min product tour here and start your cost optimisation now

Start your cost optimisation initiative today and fill the form below by telling us more about your goals:

 

 

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From digital transformation to digital optimisation in inspection services

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The global pandemic brought a new normal and slowly started pushing regulators and their inspection services to a new digital reality. The long term effects of this crisis change are yet to be defined, but it made one thing sure – technology is the future of regulatory inspection services.

The pandemic boosted the digital changes in the public sector, but it also revealed that these changes started way before the pandemic swamped the world. So that makes two things that public sector IT leaders must acknowledge:

  • that the debate whether regulators need digital transformation is over;
  • public sector institutions must work together to accelerate and optimise the use of technology to bring public services closer to the public.

To optimise the use of technology, regulators must not only merge technology with inspection services but also ensure that it’s done in a manner that will make them resilient in times of changes and challenges. 

Based on the changes that were brought by the ongoing global pandemic, it’s evident that technology transformed many public services. The regulators had to transform their inspection models so that they can deal with the growing backlog of inspection requests in terms of limited capabilities to perform inspections due to social distance requirements, etc. 

How Canalix transforms the world of regulatory inspections?

The digital transformation conversation before the pandemic

For the public sector regulators, the conversation about digital transformation was on a relatively early stage before the pandemic. But the crisis changed that and now everything happens faster than before. Regulators had to change their pace and start transforming overnight. The fast change directed their focus to the use of cloud-based saas inspection software – a convenient type of solution for the urgent necessity of the new reality.

Those who successfully transformed their regulatory inspection services before the pandemic, moved their operation workloads in the cloud and scaled their inspection models for the digital world with workflows for remote inspections or self-submission portals for self-inspections. Since many regulators saw growth of inspection requests during lockdowns and after lockdowns, these kind of changes enabled them to continue their oversight function effectively.  They were able to score the complexity of each inspection request and assign self-inspections to low complexity requests and on-site visits by an inspector on high complexity cases. In other words they had the tool to react to the crisis and respond with adapted inspection service model.

Whether regulators were ready or not for this kind of change, it happened and it is here to stay. So what’s going to happen in the next couple of months in terms of digital transformation in regulatory agencies? The answer is digital optimisation. 

The digital optimisation conversation after the pandemic

Saying that the conversation about whether regulators need digital transformation or not is over doesn’t mean that the regulators achieved digital maturity and mastered the power of digitalisation to perfection. It means that it’s not a question anymore, it’s an integral part of regulatory inspections. In other words, digitalisation and inspection services are going to be intertwined from now on and regulators need to find the way to optimisation in technology usage and deployment.

The pandemic as a stress test for the digital adoption go inspection software

Even though billions were spent on digital transformation in the public sector before the pandemic, most of the initiatives in the regulatory sector were in constant progress aiming to change the data infrastructure, moving operations to the cloud and leveraging on AI for different use cases – automatically assessing the complexity and risk level of cases and assigning the most optimal inspection routes. However, the challenges that accompany the transformation of an old legacy system made these initiatives take significantly longer. Therefore the progress often was slow. 

The lack of urgency made institutions reactionary towards changes. Their digital transformation efforts were seen only as a reaction to the changing habits of their customers – the public. The pandemic situation brought urgency into the digital transformation strategy of many institutions including regulatory agencies. The regulators themselves recommended institutions to examine their disaster recovery plans and prioritise coordination with their technology and cloud providers. The pandemic brought regulators not only to the realisation that digital transformation is urgent, but it also provided a path from transformation to optimisation and digital acceleration of regulatory inspections.

Lessons for the inspection services after the big pandemic stress test

The pandemic has shown that regulators can grow their efficiency in the reality of the new normal. So what are the key considerations for IT leaders and CIOS from regulatory agencies? For regulators technology optimisation is linked to the efficiency of their oversight function. The way to acceleration and optimisation for them goes through inspection data analytics tools, AI systems and resource management tools that enable them to scale and continue to provide their critical oversight functions. The harmony between technology and inspection services is yet to be found, but the acceleration for that to happen is turned on. Canalix is an inspection software platform that is built to address the urgency of the new post-pandemic reality and the challenges it created for regulators. Contact us to help you with your digital acceleration strategy now.

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Route Optimisation: The benefits of reducing travel time between jobs

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Travel time optimisation is one of the most crucial steps to keeping operational costs under control while expanding their scope with the volume of the same resources. It usually starts with applying a route optimisation solution to find the perfect work optimisation formula. Route planning for complex schedules with hundreds of resources assigned to different entities is tricky. That’s why serious thought is required in optimising complex work models and keeping costs and inefficiencies under control in the meantime.

So how can we save time, money and effort by optimising the total travelling time between field jobs?

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: How a regulatory agency cut costs with resource scheduling software?
          • reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
          • increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
          • fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
Download the case study.

Route optimisation 

When we talk about optimising the travelling time between jobs, we mean applying a route optimisation solution for finding the most cost-efficient route from point A to point B and point C, D, E, etc. And if needed, we change the order jobs to fit more completed tasks in a day.

Google maps can indeed do (and has done) route optimisation for almost every person with access to the internet. But when we mean complex jobs like field inspections and managing hundreds of teams, we should start looking to end-to-end work optimisation systems. And that goes far beyond the functions of google maps.

Related: Where do resource allocation optimisation and remote inspections intersect?

The hidden benefits of route optimisation

We already said why it is crucial for companies to use route optimisation – to reduce efforts, costs and time. But there are also hidden benefits that are nonetheless important. To name just a few of them:

  • Improving field service for the end customer: increasing the number of daily completed jobs is going to shorten the response time. Therefore it will bring more satisfied customers. 
  • Improving employee productivity: reducing the travelling time of inspectors, technicians or other entities to enhance their focus and motivation.

We already said that it takes more than google maps to optimise complex operations with many variables. If we have to plan ten different field inspections today to 10 locations, we will have to open a file, fill in the details, and assign the tasks to relevant inspectors.

Manually designing a conflict-free schedule will be a very time-consuming endeavour. But throwing all of this data into an electronic inspection management system and then leaving the AI engine automatically to make an optimal schedule will take seconds.

route otpimisation software

What science is used for efficient inspection scheduling with optimised routes?

Certain factors define how long an inspection will take – the complexity of the case, the distance between a job and an inspector, the available technical devices (if needed), the location of the warehouse (if there’s such), the inspector’s skill set, etc. Based on these factors, is created a route between the ten inspection jobs and the assigned inspectors.

This example serves as a good case for regulators and organisations performing field inspections to understand how route optimisation can help them. Their specific objectives often require error-free inspection scheduling to send qualified inspectors to relevant jobs with minimised travelling time. The skillset is a crucial variable in the route optimisation formula. Based on our expertise with regulators, we refined this formula and offered it as a successful model to our customers from the regulatory sector. Read the case study now.

But when we talk about resource optimisation in other industries, the business objectives will be different. New variables must enter the equation to find the most suitable route optimisation formula. Canalix dedicated a significant amount of time developing a suitable proof-of-concept to mirror a real-world scenario. That’s how we help our new customers find a working route optimisation formula that serves their business objectives. Request a product tour here.

How is route optimisation implemented into field operations?

Canalix offers a resource scheduling software to help field service providers with route planning and safety management. Our track record includes regulators that successfully use our solution as an inspection optimisation tool. Book your free demo with us today if you want to learn more about our resource optimisation system.

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Debunking 4 Myths About AI Technologies

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“The robots will replace humans and there will be no jobs for people”. In the distant past the unknown was a source for imagining evil powers that threaten everything that humans created. Today the new technologies serve as the new unknown and we create myths about them too. The myths have always been here to help us invent villains. But with more knowledge at our hands, we also got better at debunking them.

AI technologies are making its way in all levels of governments and enterprises today. That’s why it’s more and more important for CIOs to understand the value of AI without making wrong assumptions, based on myths. Are you ready to bust a few myths about AI with us?

Let’s start with myth #1:

AI can replace human thinking?

Artificial intelligence is called artificial for a reason. It can replace human intelligence up to a point. AI can learn how to execute tasks, but if the conditions of this task change, then AI will fail. To say that AI will replace human thinking sounds more like a Terminator movie plot and less like reality.

AI can learn things independently of human touch

AI technologies do not learn on their own. They need human control. The AI needs updates, constant integration of new knowledge, etc. That’s why when choosing an AI boosted software service, CIOs must pay close to attention to the technological state of the product they will use.

Related: Guide for finding the best inspection management software

AI makes decisions independently of humans

AI is data & rules-driven technology. Rules are defined by human experts. While the AI can independently solve simple tasks, based on pre-defined rules, sometimes there is complexity that is far beyond the capacity of AI. This is where human involvement is needed. We have a perfect example for the way AI can transfer the decision-making to a human party:

Let’s imagine that a citizen is filing an appeal for review to a government agency that is governing the field inspections. While the citizen files the data of his appeal on the front-end of the Agency’s website, on the back-end an AI is trying to categorise the complexity of the case based on the gathered data.

With a well defined set of rules, the AI would be able to set a relevant complexity score. If the case is too complex (above certain score) it will be send for review by human. If the case is simple enough for automatic processing through the AI, then it will be automatically allocated to an inspector and the inspection scheduling and execution will happen in the most optimal way.

Related: Learn more about inspection management and AI complexity score

We worked so far so good, so we don’t need AI

AI is not a magic that will instantly improve the business outcomes within an organization. Whether your company needs or does not need AI, it should be a decision based on data. In other worlds, every CIO must be able to answer why his organization does or does not need AI.

Having visibility on technologies and knowing how they can or can’t help on the strategy of the organization is important. The business needs are ever evolving and the decisions that are made today may not apply for tomorrow’s technological landscape. That’s why no matter where a government agency or an enterprise may stand in terms of adopting AI, they must have their research done.

Debunking myths is easy. Staying always alert to how technologies evolve is hard. Do you want to follow what’s new with AI and inspection software? Sign up for our newsletter.

Contact us now.
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