“Parliament is not categorised in the gazette as a public space” – Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi in Parliament.   The country needs people to work and earn money, for themselves, for the government, and for the nation. But people use this as an excuse to gather around, shop, and attend weddings and religious events, and thus increase the risk of exposure to Covid. We know we have to prevent public gatherings and so we have blanket curfews in our most populous districts, effectively cutting off most of our revenue-generating capabilities.  As the country goes into a vicious tailspin with authorities battling valiantly to contain the latest spread of the Covid pandemic, let us examine whether the country really needs to go into a full lockdown, if existing inexpensive technology is utilised in a practical manner to continue working on a limited scale, while also limiting the spread of the disease until the vaccines expected within the next few months deliver humanity from this evil.  

Unnecessary gatherings 

Why does Parliament have to meet at all? Why can’t we take a cue from some of the more rational global cultures and use online technology for our lawmakers to meet and discuss? Many companies have switched to this, using Zoom, MS Teams, Slack, Trello, Houseparty, Skype, and many other software that were quickly put on the market or already existed. You can interact with people any place in the world that has internet connectivity. Individuals do it; small, medium and large-sized businesses do it; other governments do it. So why isn’t everyone who practically can, doing so? Of course, you can’t move all activities online. A factory with a thousand employees cannot produce rubber tyres through Zoom. So there are clear limitations, which can only be partially mitigated through the use of physical distancing of two metres, wearing masks, constant washing of hands, regular temperature checks, frequent disinfection of surfaces and objects that people touch, etc. But you can certainly mitigate matters and curb the rapidity of the pandemic’s spread. You simply need to target locations where people tend to gather in large numbers; e.g. fish markets, vegetable markets, police stations, banks, supermarkets, government offices such as the Pensions Department, etc. Look into what methodologies and technologies can be effective, and can be implemented both rapidly and cost effectively. Lethargic bureaucrats may argue that parliamentary standing orders or constitutional stipulations require Members of Parliament (MPs) to gather together. The simple answer to that is that Parliament is empowered by the people to make laws and change laws. If that’s too complicated, then party leaders can simply consult each other online, brief their party lawmakers, and have an electronic vote. Get into the 21st Century, people! This isn’t some village council two thousand years ago where everyone has to gather and raise their hands.  

Appointment and scheduling system

Why do organisations make people wait, gathering them in large numbers in the midst of a pandemic? Simply have an online system to schedule appointments. Remember that Sri Lanka is a nation with more active mobile phones than people. You also don’t need smartphones – an automated SMS-based system can give out appointments. That way, people will spend the minimum amount of time inside your building. The appointment and scheduling system is an excellent solution for government offices, public agencies, and corporates which actively enforce measures for social distancing imposed by the Government due to the Covid-19 virus. It is Ideal for other public and social authorities such as nursing homes and more.

• Of course, many people are used to human contact. But this needs to be shelved in the face of a pandemic. More than half, 53%, of clients in corporate banking choose to go to a branch or visit a banker to open a bank account. Furthermore, 58% said they would prefer to apply in a face-to-face meeting for a loan (Greenwich Research, 2020).

 

Appointment and scheduling system for government

The development of public and private sector appointment and scheduling applications allows users to make their own appointments. The online scheduler helps constituents to easily make, amend, and cancel their own appointments at the click of a button from virtually any place that they would have to visit. It is a cost-effective way to tackle multiple goals simultaneously, greatly enhancing time management and efficiency as well as disease prevention. Implementing an appointment and scheduling system for the government and the private sectors also appeals to the general public and squashes bureaucratic inefficiency, all the while allowing staff the flexibility to concentrate on community-enhancing non-administrative tasks. There are conditions for co-ordinated reservation of appointments everywhere.  Whether at the Immigration Department or at a hospital, unrestricted numbers of guests and visitors can not be permitted, in order to ensure the health and safety of all people. This is especially true of places where more elderly people gather, such as retirement houses. The management teams must assign special spaces for visits so that after each appointment, disinfection is encouraged and cleaned up to avoid viral infections from causing havoc. Researchers have suggested that you should eliminate long queues and vulnerable people, even before you switch to expensive ventilating solutions, in order to avoid the spread of Covid-19. Holding virtual queues is also the best way to maintain the social distance in order to minimise physical waiting and excessive crowds. The risk of spreading the virus is minimal if there are no clients standing in line. The facilities can still be provided without contact; and the correct queue structure can also be maintained. As far as an agent can accept email and telephone requests, he/she can add visitors to the virtual queues and maintain the workflow accordingly by using the queue management system. The advantage of the queue management system is that it efficiently handles the customer traffic. It lets you know how many rental slots you have and gives you power over the guests simultaneously. One important point is that managers must identify points in their offices that are in high consumer demand and assign employees according to consumer demand and availability. In addition, tracking is also a vital part of deciding the number of visitors awaiting their turn. But with the queue management system, all this becomes seamless. It provides data like open counters, availability of workers, number of counters, etc.  Examples from Malaysia: In partnership with Queuemed, EncoreMed, Bookdoc, and DoctorOnCall, an appointment system is now in operation and has been extended to selected health clinics in the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.  

Current problem

• Streamline process: An organisation needs an overall evaluation of its activities to optimise work processes and to improve the workflow. The use of office paper by government sectors, including the use, scanning, and archiving of forms, should be assessed. The financial services industry must define areas for change that contribute to digitisation of manual processes and physical paperwork elimination from order forms, onboard documents, and agreements.
• Covid risk: How do government and local authorities respond to Covid-19? What emergency management steps and risks should be considered from public health initiatives to personnel guidelines? 
• Cramped waiting rooms: The problem with public offices across the globe is the old system of people who come, queue up, or take tickets, and then wait in a crowded area. In most countries, it is now compulsory for anyone on their premises to comply with social distancing criteria of one or even two metres. But having people waiting half an hour, even tow metres apart, increases the risk considerably in contrast to having each person in the building for just five minutes.
• SOP implementation: The key main reason for the increase in Covid-19 cases was complacency in keeping with current standard operating procedures (SOP).

 

Corporates/banks

• Has the private sector really done enough to protect their own staff and their customers? Has the waiting time of customers been reduced to the bare minimum? Experience says no. Customers still have to queue up inside banks. 
• Banks need to encourage consumers to use ATMs, and mobile and online banking services instead.
• Relationship managers must work towards establishing relations without meeting each other.
• Reduce the number of persons required for unnecessary validation and authorisation. Don’t keep customers waiting in your bank. Automate. Streamline.
• Reduce the number of common surfaces used – pens, books, counters, etc.

  The behavioural improvements in each area of life are certain once the outbreak of Covid-19 is reopened. And a "new normal" is already emerging in the case of banks and credit unions. Almost every customer has been forced to switch to online and mobile banking for its most frequent transactions because branch lobbies are shuttered and dramatically restrict personal services, other than branch closeups. As a customer’s experience gets faster, quicker, and more stable than traditional banking, with these types of digital banking, the impact will become more permanent. The digital age of recent decades has shaped all facets of our lives, including our banking practises. Over the years, banks and credit unions have adopted ATMs, online banks, mobile banking, etc. But many still favour the personalised experience of a branch visit even with this development. Even today, over half of those using a bank or a credit union plan to visit their branch for their own business. However, digital banking is going to play a greater role in this new era than before. Indeed, most financial institutions would almost definitely concentrate on the digital future. Whereas social distance and homestay intervention may gradually have taken place, the transition is quickly accelerated.  

Practical solutions

• Term scheduling of agent schedules and resource availability tools for setting up, configuring, and controlling them
• Use an app that provides mobile users with the option of scheduling and checking-in appointments and locating offices, and viewing queue information and other functions can be introduced to a management app
• Operating time, availability, overbooking, the form of appointment and period configuration interface for the manager, schedule ownership, access and management permissions, and more
• Calendar owner interface for calendar opening and closing, agent updates, rescheduling appointment blocks, etc.
• Call centre agent interface focused on customers’ requests and location for national scheduling
• A web interface, which can be tailored to respective corporate or government websites. It can be incorporated into the website's office locator as well as online campaigns by using an online appointment programme for the clients, through the company website or a system-hosted web server
• Lock mechanism prevents simultaneous bookings from separate networks on double requests
• Send automatic messages to clients, including appointment information, planning notes, cancellation or reschedule links, and other actions. Maintain automatic records. These recalls can be printed when the appointment is scheduled or emailed/sent as an SMS a couple of hours before the appointment
• Microsoft Exchange/Outlook data integration appointment
• Scalable for all departments, offices, services, and officers
• Each setup is parameter-based, does not require programming, takes place over remotely secured network connections, and directly affects all offices and sites

 

Solution advantages

 

• Maximises the potential of appointment planning by offering a clear and uniform timetable for all customer engagement platforms, including self-service 
• Reduces running costs by simplifying scheduling and improving the performance of operators
• Improves customer loyalty and experience by simple-to-use, self-service scheduling that takes into account agent skills and service availability 
• Allows, if possible, to match customers and inquiries to individual agents; to provide visitors with messages and directions prior to their arrival at an appointment, and to schedule agents for their appointment
• Adds value if agents are needed as part of local and federal policies to comply with performance standards

 

Conclusion

To sum up, many prominent and important businesses haven’t acted forcefully enough to protect their daily workflows through social distancing. The use of the appointment and scheduling systems (mobile and web solutions) will substantially reduce the risk of infection. This would lead to a drop in the number of virus cases. It is therefore vital for organisations to quickly test out a queue management system; secure the workers and customers and act to stop Covid-19 in every possible way. Find the most practical way to provide the best quality and maintain a satisfaction rate to the customer. (The writers are Managing Partners of Cogitaro.com, a consultancy that finds practical solutions for challenges facing society and different industries. Dr. Dias is a digital architect and educationist based in Kuala Lumpur. He holds a BSc in Computing from the University of Greenwich, a Masters in Computer Software Engineering from Staffordshire University and a PhD from the University of Malaya. He is completing a second doctorate in Business Administration from Universiti Utara Malaysia [ruwan@cogitaro.com]. Eliatamby is a lecturer in marketing, human resources, and mass communications based in Colombo. He is an author and was formerly associate editor of a newspaper and editor of various industry magazines. He holds an MBA from London Metropolitan University and an LLM from Cardiff Metropolitan University [niresh@cogitaro.com])