Verify & Digital Identity Roundtable Rochdale

In November we held a Verify / digital identity roundtable discussion for local authorities based in the northwest, hosted at Rochdale Town Hall.  The event was facilitated by iNetwork, so our thanks to them for putting this together.

Looking at what the attendees wanted, a number of common themes emerged, which included:

  • How would a LA get their customers using verify,
  • Using Verify for Single sign-on for accessing services, making it easier for the customer,
  • How Verify can make service improvements,
  • How Verify can improve engagement with citizens,
  • Using Verify to access multiple services through single account,
  • How does Verify work with existing CRM and My Account services,
  • How can Verify extend access to residents not engaged,
  • How can Verify and identity integrate with existing systems.

In the round table discussions, where each table had to tackle one issue, again we noticed common challenges between LAs and what they are trying to achieve.

Tackling service costs, taxi licensing and even helping people to register for voting were seen as key service areas.  Saw that using Verify to target services at citizens is a positive way forward, Universal Credit being a good example.

Looking at the benefits of a federated identity, helping vulnerable people came out strongly, driving out further efficiencies, reducing delays and waiting times for customers and removing a silo approach within local authorities.

Finally, the benefits of a personal data store were clear. A citizen who can control and share their own information would save staff time and costs, and customers always doing the same thing.  Other operational cost savings could be made around document storage and management but a federated identity would resonate with place based working, whilst putting the customer in control of their own information, ensuring GDPR compliance.

Click here for a copy of the slides.