NYC 311 system upgraded to answer education questions

The New York Department of Education recently completed a new call center to handle inquiries regarding enrollment, transportation and other educational topics. Assisting in the design and launch of the enhanced 311 system was Accenture, who helped implement new software and data integration.

“This enhanced 311 system for parents and guardians with children in public schools will continue to evolve and support NYC DOE many years into the future,” Steve Hurst, Accenture’s Health & Public Service practice lead for New York City, said in a statement.

The NYC DOE began testing the system, which is intended to benefit public school families, at the beginning of summer, where Accenture officials were using Oracle CRM On Demand to integrate the DOE’s existing infrastructure. Oracle’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) customer relationship management solution helped to improve response time and give concerned parents a centralized “hotline” through the consolidation of various DOE offices.

Accenture officials said the new system integrates information from select NYC DOE offices, including the Offices of Student Enrollment, Pupil Transportation, Family Engagement and Advocacy, and Special Education Initiatives. DOE’s project manager, Rob Sanft, praised Accenture for quickly designing and testing the new system, adding that thus far, the new system has been well received.

“Working with Accenture we were able to ramp up quickly, creating necessary work flows and loading relevant data, and perform functional and user testing in time for the opening of school,” he said in a statement.

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