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ICNMC improves services with new Call-Flow System |
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There are in use in the Force about 13 500 computers, 10 200 printers, 13 000 beat radios, 14 600 telephone lines and 6 500 mobile phones. Furthermore, 75 IT applications and 21 electronic/telecommunications systems are operating 24 hours a day. Reports of problems with these information and communications technology (ICT) equipment and systems are handled by the Information and Communications Network Management Centre (ICNMC), formerly known as the ITB Central Help Desk, which operates round the clock. Most of the problem reports are made to the ICNMC Hotline. "In 2010, there were over 155 000 incoming calls. Our ICNMC operators have tried their best to answer as many calls as possible. Despite our effort, many incoming calls, especially those during the peak hours, could hardly be answered simply because all our operators were engaged. We understand how our colleagues feel when they have to wait for quite a while for their calls to be answered by an ICNMC operator or when they cannot be connected to the operators at all," said Mr Lam Wai-ming, Senior Police Telecommunications Inspector who is the supervisor of ICNMC. A study was conducted in 2010 with the objective of improving the service provided by ICNMC. The study revealed that many incoming calls were abandoned because of long waiting time. Furthermore, a substantial amount of calls received were not fault reporting calls, e.g. enquiring the progress of follow-up action on some fault reports. The study concluded that there was a need to reposition ICNMC so that it could focus on dealing with major ICT incidents or problems that impact significantly on police operation, such as breakdown of major system. Repositioning of ICNMC involves the need to, firstly, prioritise handling of calls in accordance with their respective urgency and secondly, promote a self-service culture in end users for solving minor problems. "A new call-flow system has been developed and was implemented on March 19. It aims to provide timely response to urgent fault reports by effectively prioritising calls and reducing the call waiting time and the amount of abandon calls," said Mr Szeto Yu-man, Telecommunications Engineer of COMMS Branch. "Prior to its roll out, two rounds of User Acceptance Test (UAT) were conducted. The first UAT involved Information Systems Wing officers. After some fine tunings, 200 officers who previously made problem reports to ICNMC were invited to participate in the second UAT, with 80 officers responding. The feedback was positive," Mr Szeto added. The new call-flow system is an Interactive Voice Response System. Callers will be asked to select a category out of five, according to the nature of their problems. For those categorised as an urgent major ICT incident, e.g. PABX breakdown and PEN server problem, the callers will be connected to the ICNMC operator straight away so that the matter can be dealt with priority. Whereas for non-major ICT problems, the callers will be asked to choose from a list of choices before their calls are routed to the most appropriate ICNMC operators. For some commonly encountered problems, the system will advise the user to refer to the ICNMC-Frequently Asked Questions (ICNMC - FAQ) website for relevant information. For problems relating to the roll out of a new system, the callers will be connected directly to the relevant enquiry hotline. To tie in with the new call-flow system, the ICNMC - FAQ website has been added to the newly revamped ISW Homepage. In addition, two new on-line forms - one for enquiring progress on follow up action and the other for reporting faults - have been introduced and are available from the website. "These on-line forms provide additional ways for contacting ICNMC and will help to reduce the amount of voice calls so that ICNMC staff can focus on dealing with major ICT incidents and have more time to arrange follow up action," said Mr Szeto. He added that users are encouraged to provide means of contact, including their mobile phone numbers, on the forms. Contacting users by sending short messages will be a useful alternative. "It is understandable that users will need time to adjust to the new call-flow system and to get used to relying more on self-service. Nevertheless, the co-operation of users is crucial to the success of the new call-flow system," Mr Szeto concluded. |
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