The Social Services Online Client Portal

Even Brande, Founder and Chairman of Handel IT

By Even Brande

Throughout history human progress and innovation have been an ongoing drive in order to enhance the quality of life. You do not have to travel back many generations in order to appreciate all the conveniences we take for granted in our lives today. Since the commercialization of the Internet in the mid-1990s this progress has been further accelerated. I am hard pressed to think of an industry that has not been impacted by the Internet for better or for worse. A common theme is the gradual shift from services provided by others to services that we do ourselves. This trend has enabled employers to cut labor cost and shift some of the work traditionally performed by employees over to the customer. In many cases the customer may appreciate more control of the process, the privacy it provides, and perhaps, greater transparency. Over the past 20 years, the Internet has accelerated this transition. Some early adopters were online travel agencies, shopping, and financial services. But to truly appreciate this transition, let’s go back about a hundred years to see how the “self-service” evolution began.

The online client portal shifts the data-entry burden to the client, allowing employees to spend their time providing services rather than entering data.

Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store opening day crowd, interior, 210 S. 3rd, Laramie, Wyoming, 1927

Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store opening day crowd, Laramie, Wyoming, 1927 (Image courtesy of the Ludwig-Svenson Collection, Laramie, WY)

Hundred years ago, many families, especially in rural parts of America, still subsided from their own production of wheat, dairy, poultry, and beef. Grocery shopping involved traveling long distances by foot or horse and carriage (or by car for the few who could afford one). At the store you would order over the counter and a clerk would go and retrieve the different items for you. Fast forward one generation to the mid 1950s, and we now have self-serve grocery stores where we ourselves do the “picking”. This eliminated the need for a clerk to retrieve our products and gave us the advantage of comparison shopping.

In the last 20 years, we have seen how another step in the shopping process, the checkout, has been shifted from a clerk to customer, allowing us to self check-out. The most advanced version of this is what you can experience at an Amazon Go store where there is no checkout process. You just grab your items and go. Cameras, scanners, and other advanced technology knows what you took off the shelves and charge your account accordingly. Of course, while all this took place, another, perhaps bigger retail transition happened with online shopping.

Retail is an example of a process which in the course of less than 100 years eliminated the need for clerks, shifted the “data-entry burden” to the consumer, reduced costs, and made processes more efficient.

In the past few decades we have seen this happen in virtually every industry. Financial services, banking, travel, media, and yes, even Government.

Government programs often lag behind corporations in the adoption of new technology. Up until recently I renewed my vehicle registration or paid my property taxes by walking over to the courthouse, wait in line, and then complete my transaction which involved a real human clerk and a few pieces of paper. Now I complete these transactions on the web using a credit card and receive my vehicle tags in the mail.

RiteTrack Tribal and Juvenile Social Services Software Admission Screenshot for Client Portal

A RiteTrack online client portal allows the client to upload their own documents.

There is no doubt that self-service online portals are coming to all types of government services. That too includes those many service areas that we are involved with at Handel including Juvenile Justice, Child Welfare, and Financial Assistance, just to name a few. There are many services that can be provided electronically whereas some are still best done in person.

There are a tremendous number of benefits associated with self-service portals. Let’s use a Financial Assistance program as an example. A tribe administers a variety of financial services to their tribal members. With an online portal, the client has full access to their own information. They can edit pertinent information, upload and download relevant documents electronically, and track the progress of payments. The online portal shifts the data-entry burden to the client, allowing employees to spend their time providing services rather than entering data. The client gains a sense of ownership of their own information and can check updates and statuses without traveling or calling. Paperwork is eliminated and forms can be exchanged electronically. Processes that could take weeks now can be reduced to instantaneous. We also find that portals reduce data errors by allowing the client insight into their own information. We frequently hear about financial assistance checks going to the wrong address. With an online portal, the tribal member can verify that their address is up to date and make sure the check is sent to the correct address. Better yet, integrating with online banking can allow the client to set up their bank account information to facilitate direct deposit.

Are there any disadvantages to online portals? I do believe to some extent, there is a bit of a loss of community. We reduce the chance for random encounters and connecting with fellow humans when we eliminate the need to make an in-person appearance. Overall though, I believe the benefits of having an online portal far exceeds the disadvantages. As we add in videoconferencing in our online offering, we can also add back a human element for clients who have a need to discuss an issue face-to-face. People are generally social by nature and will find opportunities for social activities. Updating financial information or submitting documents does not necessarily have to be an arena for social interaction.

We believe there will be tremendous adoption of online portals in our market place (government social services) over the next decade. As government offices continues to struggle to find employees, as technology improves and as people get more used to using portals in their everyday life, so will this become a natural progression. Handel is proud of the role we are playing in this field. As we add portal functionality to RiteTrack, we would love to talk to you about how we can help your organization streamline the data entry process, increase accuracy and transparency, and ultimately, provide better service to your stakeholders.

The online client portal shifts the data-entry burden to the client, allowing employees to spend their time providing services rather than entering data.

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