Background
The Consulate General of Haiti in Chicago is a Haitian consulate office located in Chicago, IL that offers several services to their constituents located within 27 states in the US. They were facing tough challenges with staffing and collecting data. To improve their performance, the office decided to leverage data analytics to gain insights into its operations and user behavior.
Challenges
They faced several challenges, including:
Lack of data systems: they were receiving the information they need via paper and a small team was entering those on a spreadsheet.
Lack of data integration: they had data scattered across different systems, making it difficult to get a holistic view of their operation.
Inefficient data management: the office did not have a centralized data repository and lacked processes to manage and maintain data quality.
Limited data analytics expertise: the office had no one internally with enough expertise in data analytics.
Solution
To address these challenges, The Consulate General of Haiti in Chicago engaged us, Data Synergy, back in January 2020 to help them improve their data collection, management, and analytics capabilities.
Step 1: Data Collection
The first step was to build a secured platform on which users could input their information remotely from anywhere in the world. We, Data Synergy, built a website with a form entry portal that did just that. We also used high grade encryption technology to ensure the data inputted were secured and highly guarded. Furthermore, we customized the forms to be user friendly and intuitive.
Step 2: Data Integration and Centralization
Once we started capturing data electronically, we began integrating data from various sources (phone, legacy, etc) into a centralized data repository. We worked with the office to identify the relevant data sources and develop a data integration strategy. We used a combination of Data Pipeline automation, ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools, to have the data into a central data warehouse.
Step 3: Data Quality Management
Once the data was centralized, we worked with the Consulate General of Haiti in Chicago to establish processes for data quality management. We helped them define data quality rules and establish procedures for monitoring and correcting data quality issues.
Step 4: Data Analytics
With a centralized data repository and robust data quality management processes in place, we then onboarded one of the leading CRM platforms. We went to great lengths to enhance and customize the CRM platform to allow them to have a centralized portal. This also allowed the office to perform advanced analytics on its data and gain key insights.
Results
The data analytics platform provided the Consulate General of Haiti in Chicago with several key benefits:
Improved insights: the platform allowed them to segment its constituents and gain insights into their behavior, preferences, and demographics.
Enhanced data management and communication: the office was able to optimize efficiency and reduce complaints by more than 75%. This is greatly due to the robust and self service online presence, they now have. With our data integration techniques, they now know who is calling (ID, application status, payment history, etc) while the phone is ringing! As an added bonus, the number of calls were reduced by close to 40% due to the users new ability to check their own application status online directly.
Better decision-making: the data analytics platform provided the Consulate General of Haiti in Chicago with real-time insights into its operations, enabling faster and more informed decision-making.
Conclusion
By leveraging data analytics, the Consulate General of Haiti in Chicago was able to overcome the challenges it faced and improve its performance. The office was able to gain insights into user behavior, optimize communication, and make faster and more informed decisions. The success of this initiative demonstrates the importance of data analytics in today's competitive business environment.