NSW DPI Food Authority
NSW Food Authority’s ByteMobile solution improved its customer service, increased its professionalism and has achieved a 40% gain in the number of inspections and audits it’ s able to complete.
Introduction
NSW Food Authority’s ByteMobile solution improved its customer service, increased its professionalism and has achieved a 40% gain in the number of inspections and audits it’ s able to complete.
NSW DPI Food Authority Pain Point
With only 50 field officers, NSWFA was struggling to deal with over 12,000 inspections/audits and 2,000 customer complaints it receives annually. The challenge was to reduce the 2 days per week field officers spent in the office, and increase the amount of time they could spend in the field with their customers.
NSW DPI Food Authority Solution
Custom mobile application integrates with existing CRM. Cconsolidates multiple paper-based forms into 1 intelligent electronic (multi-part) form which connects via a 3rd party middleware layer to NSWFA back-end system (or if no connectivity, pends on the device until connectivity is restored). Forms self-calculate so that at the conclusion of the site visit the customer receives a conclusive copy of the report almost immediately via email (instead of the previous 2 week delay). Replaces all paper-based reference material, including previous inspections, legal rulings, copies of legislation and more than 300 checklists.
NSW DPI Food Authority Next Stage
The OneBlink software, support and infrastructure has recently been expanded to serve the specific needs of Biosecurity field officers, as well as a separate application to provide for external/3rd party auditors.
NSW DPI Food Authority Testimonial
“Probably the biggest gains are occurring when we carry out audits. Today, staff are able to conduct audits more efficiently, so while we’re undertaking more audits and inspections we’re also able to spend more time with our customers.”
Debbie Brookfield
Manager Business Systems Emergency Operations, Intelligence and Programs
NSW DPI Food Authority
Timeframes
The solution was first rolled out in 2013. Numerous feature enhancements have been requested by NSWFA over the years while OneBlink has continued to upgrade the specifications and performance of the underlying platform as part of its “-as-a-Service” offering.
Lessons Learned
Involve key field staff as early as possible. Allow users to develop their ‘dream’ system and try to make it possible. Change current operations and procedures and align business needs to ensure benefits of new system are achieved. Allow for adequate training – ‘buddy’ on-the-job training between field officers works well. Provide for troubleshooting and support facilities.
OneBlink's Experiences
Middleware makes changes less risky. Establishing a well-defined middleware layer between the mobile application and the Byte back-end system means regular improvements can be made to frontend applications or server-side processing with less risk and need for extensive testing. Offload pressure on slow host systems with caching. Employ good design and data caching strategies when interacting with slow host systems for better response times and less frustrating user experiences.
