The past 15 months were full of transformation milestones for regulators and inspection teams in big organisations. However, the next 5, 10 and 15 months are not going to be any less different in terms of reaching new milestones, because the economic sectors stood still and now started reopening again.
What does returning to normal means for regulators and inspection teams?
As we already touched on a previous topic, adopting a new inspection model was and still is crucial for the reopening of the economic sectors that were closed during the peak covid-19 waves. Increasing the capacity of resources by hiring more inspectors, more gadgets and more stuff may sound like a natural effect of the increased inspection workload. But resource optimisation of the existing finite resources is the smartest decision.
The big question is how regulators can deliver an increased level of customer support in an environment of a growing inspection workload, finite resources and inspection teams that are adapting to new operational models?
When speaking of digital transformation, we should always keep in mind that public sector regulators are rarely the first movers in adopting new and innovative inspection models compared to other sectors like insurance risk inspection & claims, financial inspections, etc. So when we consult our clients from the regulatory sector, very often we have to explain to them why resource optimisation is not a high-risk digital transformation project by giving them practical directions that can lead them to successful adoption of resource optimisation.
Here are some of them:
Adopt an inspection management platform.
Regulators in different states are at a different level of digital maturity. For some of them, resource scheduling and optimisation is the first move towards digital transformation, for others, it is thе next step after digitising their case management system. Regulatory agencies must plan not only their first digital transformation step but also their next steps in that regard. If they digitise the regulatory case management process in 2021, they must have a plan for digitising the resource scheduling and inspection planning in 2022 and 2023. Expanding the digital transformation scope must be done with the right partners who have industry expertise and can help regulators move their process gradually on one platform. Whenever they decide to adopt an inspection allocation optimisation system into their operations, they will have a readiness that will lower the risk of failure.
Change the service mode into a more user-oriented experience.
With or without pandemic, the public sector services faced a trend toward improving the customer experience for citizens and businesses. However, the post-pandemic expectations for a more digital and value-driven user experience have raised. In the regulatory inspections aspect, it means that users are more accustomed to receiving real-time insights into inspection resolution timelines. If regulatory agencies are going to keep improving the user service, they will have to start planning the introduction of more visibility for the inspected entities. This is extremely valid for organisations that embrace the self-service and remote inspection models. Optimising resource scheduling is one side of the coin towards regulatory process optimisation. The other side is having a well-informed end user with whom to realise the digital moment that the inspection management platform is creating.
On-site inspections must be dynamic.
Even though complex and high-risk inspections must be conducted on-site, it doesn’t mean that their process should not include self-service points as an alternative to unexpected issues like blocked access to an inspection point, etc. Having an alternative solution for unexpected disruptions during on-site inspections to avoid shutting down the whole inspection is what makes sense to reach inspection resolution on time, as planned resource-wise.
Regulatory inspections are more prone to change now than in the past few years. Acceleration in the digital transformation strategy is advancing throughout the regulatory sector. This means that inspection teams must be encouraged to deliver value while also learning to work in a new operational model. Following these three directions is a sure way to bring the digital transformation efforts to their expected realisation with low risk of failure.
Canalix is an inspection management platform that helps regulators to transform their inspection process effectively. Contact us now to help you transform yours.
