KONICA MINOLTA LAUNCHES DX SUPPORT PLATFORM FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Japanese local governments have experienced unprecedented manpower shortages in recent years, partly because of the ever-increasing workload per employee caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters, and partly because of the rapid aging of employees. Under the circumstances, local governments have high hopes for digital transformation (DX). By streamlining and standardising work processes, it is expected to solve these problems and dramatically enhance productivity.
 
With the DX Support Platform service jobs that can only be done by government employees and those that can be done by non-government employees can be classified. For this purpose, work volume and procedures are comprehensively visualised. Using robotic process automation (RPA[1]) and AI-OCR technologies, the service aims to reallocate tasks that were conventionally done by government employees to non-government employees. In this way, the service allows government employees to concentrate on the jobs that only they can do and reduces their excessive workload, thus helping to improve public services. Furthermore, it can assist the business continuity planning (BCP) of local government employees when mobilised to respond to an emergency.
 
Konica Minolta has worked with more than 50 local governments to develop its new service. The company was able to draw on its many years of experience in the manufacturing industry and has developed a method for applying its BPR[2] approach.
 
Konica Minolta aims to extend the DX Support Platform to 100 local governments during FY2021 and 1,000 local governments by FY2023 in cooperation with all its business partners (34 companies as of June 2021).

 

 

 

Values Offered by DX Support Platform
 

1. Facilitate data-driven problem-solving by leveraging the know-how that Konica Minolta has developed in the manufacturing industry

 
Throughout its long history as a manufacturer, Konica Minolta has continuously improved its business processes through a data-driven approach, by intensively collecting data and visualising problems to be solved, in line with its Quality Policy, “Management based on facts.” The DX Support Platform was developed leveraging the know-how the company has gained through such experience. The company classified as many as 800,000 data items collected in on-site surveys into some 4,800 patterns according to job and work categories, analysed them by AI, and succeeded in developing a template for a support menu that encompasses visualisation, problem identification, optimisation, standardisation and sharing.


 

2. Help local government employees promote BPR at their own initiative by comparing their workflows with those of other local governments 

The DX Support Platform offers visualisation, work analysis, optimisation, and standardisation services. These services are provided through the DX Cockpit, which stores workflow data of local governments. Local government employees can access the DX Cockpit via the Local Government Wide Area Network (LGWAN) as well as the Internet to refer to the workflows of other local governments in their respective job categories and set any workflow model that they find is more efficient than their own as a benchmark. All the services offered on the DX Support Platform are based on the data obtained by visualising the work processes of the 50 local governments associated with Konica Minolta. Government employees can select any of the services according to their individual needs.

3. Accelerate the shift to remote work for local government employees  
The DX Cockpit also provides local government employees with access to the standard work procedures, legal information, registers[3], and manuals of other local governments as well as their own, allowing them to access necessary information safely from anywhere when outside of the government office, if they are connected to the LGWAN. In this way, the DX Support Platform helps them work remotely while improving public services, even if they have to work in shifts or staggered hours due to emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The DX Support Platform also serves as key infrastructure for promoting workstyle diversity.
 


4. Enable joint use among smaller local governments  

The DX Support Platform is not intended for large local governments only. Konica Minolta is actively promoting the shared use of digital systems for smaller local governments that cannot introduce the DX Support Platform alone due to low cost-effectiveness. For example, Konica Minolta conducted a pilot demonstration with the Nagano prefectural government for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in FY2020, and proved that “local governments can share the RPA system at low cost by standardising workflows and administrative documents, even if they use different mission-critical systems.” Based on this finding, Konica Minolta will extend services to smaller local governments through its DX Support Platform.
 
 
Local Government DX Support Platform website (Japanese):
https://www.konicaminolta.com/jp-ja/govchois
 

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[1] Software robot developed for work automation
[2] Business Process Reengineering.
[3] Books and registers of local governments