December 14, 2009 at 06:26Reception of citizens: the experience of implementing the “electronic queue” (part 2)
Good afternoon dear friends!
Three months have passed since my previous note about how we introduced in our Office an “electronic queue” for receiving citizens. In three months, another large amount of work has been done. Firstly, of course, the running-in and “file completion” of the entire system in “combat conditions”. And secondly, just the other day, a system was launched for independent (!!) entry of applicants into the queue. Read about all these "goodies" under the cut. In addition, for all those interested, I prepared a video presentation that allows you to see live how it all works.
Three month results
All three months that have passed since the launch, the system is actively used. The recording volume for each day fluctuates around 80-90%, that is, only 3-4 cells remain free. As indicated in the comments on my previous article, this is useful if there is a time shift of the applicants' schedule - free cells allow you to return it to normal mode. In addition, to the extent possible, specialists record applicants “through one” cell - for the same reason.
About a month ago, the use of the system in another department began. Of course, each department has its own nuances, but the backbone of the system, made at the very beginning, remains unchanged. As necessary, additional fields in the database tables are simply entered and scripts are finalized. In general, all specialists using the system, note its great convenience compared to paper options.
In the course of the discussion, another rationalization was realized - the opportunity for department heads to see which of the specialists is making an appointment on which day. Potentially, this should exclude the possibility of recording “by pulling” from your workplace (bypassing the responsible specialist on a given day).
Applicants Self Record
All that was described above is a preliminary recording, either by telephone or at a personal visit of a citizen. However, progress is underway, and we have matured to allow people to enroll in the queue on their own (!!).
As usual, we first run all the innovations on our information and reference terminal (which is located in the reception hall), and only then we introduce it on the site. Thus, it is possible to think through all the risks and pitfalls in advance. And there are enough risks. For example, "pranksters" who introduce non-existent people. Or realtors who will score all days with their customers.
For the terminal, such problems (not completely, but for the most part) can be solved by setting a 15-minute timer. It is unlikely that anyone would want to "hang out" near the terminal in order to introduce one person every 15 minutes. On the other hand, pre-recording on the terminal is not used so often that a person who accidentally logs in finds a recording lock.
In general, after weighing all the pros and cons, I started writing scripts.
How it all works (inside view)
In my opinion, the most interesting was writing a script that defines free cells for recording. If a person, looking at the table, easily understands where to insert the record, then how can this be explained to the computer? I had to come up with the following algorithm:
- we take all the days that are 4-12 days ahead of the current date
- for each day we calculate free time (taking into account lunch, pre-holiday days and cells already
taken ) - as a result of sorting, we select the three most free days
- now the most interesting thing: we run for all free cells these days and select the most suitable. The best ones are those that on the left and on the right still have an empty cell. Good ones are those that have at least one empty cell on the left OR on the right. Here, the algorithm works according to the same principle by which a living person records (recording "through one" cell). If there are neither one nor the other, we search among ordinary cells.
- wow! selected the three most suitable cells for recording. We offer them to the applicant:
The applicant chooses the most convenient for him and proceeds to filling in his data. A virtual keyboard was developed here:
Finally, if everything is correct, a confirmation message is displayed that the data has been received (here they are transmitted to a remote server, where they are stored in the database). I think the system is quite simple and intuitive.
Conclusions
Of course, the scripts turned out to be complex, and I had to spend more than one week to run them. However, this is another step towards full electronic service for applicants. Now, already on the basis of the available scripts, it will be possible to undertake the development of a preliminary record through the Office website. We sincerely hope that this system will be beneficial.
PS Finally, a delicious dessert :-): a video presentation of the system that shows in live everything that I described in the article - a video file in the archive (14 Mb).
Thanks in advance for your comments.
link to kriorazum.ru
link to druzhkov.name
Three months have passed since my previous note about how we introduced in our Office an “electronic queue” for receiving citizens. In three months, another large amount of work has been done. Firstly, of course, the running-in and “file completion” of the entire system in “combat conditions”. And secondly, just the other day, a system was launched for independent (!!) entry of applicants into the queue. Read about all these "goodies" under the cut. In addition, for all those interested, I prepared a video presentation that allows you to see live how it all works.
Three month results
All three months that have passed since the launch, the system is actively used. The recording volume for each day fluctuates around 80-90%, that is, only 3-4 cells remain free. As indicated in the comments on my previous article, this is useful if there is a time shift of the applicants' schedule - free cells allow you to return it to normal mode. In addition, to the extent possible, specialists record applicants “through one” cell - for the same reason.
About a month ago, the use of the system in another department began. Of course, each department has its own nuances, but the backbone of the system, made at the very beginning, remains unchanged. As necessary, additional fields in the database tables are simply entered and scripts are finalized. In general, all specialists using the system, note its great convenience compared to paper options.
In the course of the discussion, another rationalization was realized - the opportunity for department heads to see which of the specialists is making an appointment on which day. Potentially, this should exclude the possibility of recording “by pulling” from your workplace (bypassing the responsible specialist on a given day).
Applicants Self Record
All that was described above is a preliminary recording, either by telephone or at a personal visit of a citizen. However, progress is underway, and we have matured to allow people to enroll in the queue on their own (!!).
As usual, we first run all the innovations on our information and reference terminal (which is located in the reception hall), and only then we introduce it on the site. Thus, it is possible to think through all the risks and pitfalls in advance. And there are enough risks. For example, "pranksters" who introduce non-existent people. Or realtors who will score all days with their customers.
For the terminal, such problems (not completely, but for the most part) can be solved by setting a 15-minute timer. It is unlikely that anyone would want to "hang out" near the terminal in order to introduce one person every 15 minutes. On the other hand, pre-recording on the terminal is not used so often that a person who accidentally logs in finds a recording lock.
In general, after weighing all the pros and cons, I started writing scripts.
How it all works (inside view)
In my opinion, the most interesting was writing a script that defines free cells for recording. If a person, looking at the table, easily understands where to insert the record, then how can this be explained to the computer? I had to come up with the following algorithm:
- we take all the days that are 4-12 days ahead of the current date
- for each day we calculate free time (taking into account lunch, pre-holiday days and cells already
taken ) - as a result of sorting, we select the three most free days
- now the most interesting thing: we run for all free cells these days and select the most suitable. The best ones are those that on the left and on the right still have an empty cell. Good ones are those that have at least one empty cell on the left OR on the right. Here, the algorithm works according to the same principle by which a living person records (recording "through one" cell). If there are neither one nor the other, we search among ordinary cells.
- wow! selected the three most suitable cells for recording. We offer them to the applicant:
The applicant chooses the most convenient for him and proceeds to filling in his data. A virtual keyboard was developed here:
Finally, if everything is correct, a confirmation message is displayed that the data has been received (here they are transmitted to a remote server, where they are stored in the database). I think the system is quite simple and intuitive.
Conclusions
Of course, the scripts turned out to be complex, and I had to spend more than one week to run them. However, this is another step towards full electronic service for applicants. Now, already on the basis of the available scripts, it will be possible to undertake the development of a preliminary record through the Office website. We sincerely hope that this system will be beneficial.
PS Finally, a delicious dessert :-): a video presentation of the system that shows in live everything that I described in the article - a video file in the archive (14 Mb).
Thanks in advance for your comments.
link to kriorazum.ru
link to druzhkov.name