SAP has added to its suite of industry-specific accelerators for the SAP Hybris Commerce platform, with the launch of a new citizen engagement offering for the public sector.
The accelerator was jointly developed by SAP Hybris and ANZ SAP partner UXC Oxygen, and assists governments and other public sector organisations to deliver services to citizens through a single unified interface.
The solution will be used for document handling, requests, payments, permits and registrations in areas such as:
• Civic services, such as applying for an ID, via or a parking permit, or to file public grievances;
• Social services, such as support with financial or medical assistance, child care assistance or unemployment benefits;
• Tax and revenue management, such as online taxpayer services or using omnichannel capabilities across all devices and channels; and
• Grantor requests, which will allow schools, for instance, to easily request and track grants for modernisation projects, such as new building insulation.
“This is a step change opportunity for public service organisations to ignite citizen engagement,” said UXC Oxygen director Stuart Dickinson. “Around the world, governments are moving from a high-touch service deliver model to one where citizens can access information and execute core processes via any device or channel themselves. The SAP Hybris citizen engagement accelerator will provide these agencies with a platform to speed up the delivery and improve the effectiveness of citizen self-service.”
The citizen engagement accelerator joins industry-specific solutions for the telecommunications, financial services, media and travel industries. It is no coincidence that this accelerator has been next launched, as citizens increasing wish to interact with government organisations in a similar way to retail and travel companies.
“The digital economy has impacted the way consumers engage with brands, and the same applies for interacting with government agencies,” said Kathleen O’Brien, global industry principal for public sector, SAP Hybris Australia. “We believe the public sector has a great opportunity to transform and improve citizen engagement, and the new solution is equipping and empowering them to meet these expectations quickly, efficiently and through digital channels.”
Public sector organisations can use prebuilt capabilities and templates specific to their needs to implement citizen engagement projects quickly.
SAP Hybris has also announced the opening of a new Sydney data centre – the first to be opened in the APJ region to address demand for locally hosted cloud-based solutions.
The data centre will host SAP Hybris Commerce, Cloud Edition, with plans already underway to introduce other cloud products including SAP Hybris as a Service, SAP Hybris Engagement Center, SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer and SAP Hybris Marketing.
“SAP Hybris has a commitment to build on our investment and technology partnerships here and across the APJ region. The new service addresses the requirements of many Australian organisations eager to move to the cloud to innovate, create, deploy and host services in a single location,” said Stuart O’Neill, head of business, SAP Hybris ANZ.
The Sydney Hybris data centre is the first to be built since the data centre in Frankfurt in 2013. A data centre was also opened in Boston in 2012.
