Case study: Digital services transforming business operations
Last year the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) worked with an external provider to build a secure payment portal. Combined with the clever use of webforms, they have made it easy for customers to pay for services and complete transactions online.
The team at ARPANSA have since experienced many unexpected benefits.
‘Our customers are at the forefront of everything we do. Our priority was to offer customers a complete end to end digital service. We didn’t expect we would increase demand for our services by empowering them to self-serve,’ said Thomas, Website Manager ARPANSA.
At the start of this project in 2017 the website had many PDF forms for various services. This made the process of purchasing a service more time-consuming than it needed to be for customers. It also required manual processing by ARPANSA staff.
‘We have created approximately 30 webforms to replace PDF forms. Customers can now complete a full transaction with payment through several of these webforms. Through automation and streamlining our processes we now have a much quicker turnaround of applications.’
Although the secure payment portal is separate to the website, the transition for customers is seamless.
ARPANSA used ‘form components’ in webforms to pre-populate customer information.
‘Pre-populated forms are convenient for customers. It also reduces the risk of errors in forms. We’ve saved time following up with customers on incorrect forms. We’ve also eliminated the manual work associated with PDF forms. For example, entering customer’s details in the system or sending a follow up email.’
For some of these webforms, the ARPANSA website generates a unique invoice number based on the service purchased. The invoice number is pre-populated in the secure payment portal. Once the transaction is complete, customers receive a confirmation email. It contains details of their purchase and other information they need.
‘For example, if a customer purchases an ultraviolet radiation testing service, we can provide instructions to correctly label their samples. It makes our job a lot easier.’
The system also generates a second email to the ARPANSA team which provides order details in real time.
‘Our changes to webforms have resulted in a large increase in demand to hire our radiation meters. We’ve had to purchase more to meet the demand.’
Thomas has been a GovCMS customer since 2017. He believes using GovCMS also makes his job easier.
‘Using GovCMS takes the hard work out of ensuring we meet accessibility and security requirements. GovCMS provide a safety net. They take care of maintaining the platform. We know they’re there for us when we need them’.