GWIC turns regulatory business into a customer-first organisation.

“Our goal is to make sure that all greyhounds [in the racing industry] are kept safe and well,” said Richard Sollorz, Principal Project Officer for the  Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission. “We have a retired greyhound here in the office with us, our second one actually. He belongs to one of our staff members, and he is more than a best friend. He is our purpose, sitting right next to us every day.”

A dog lover’s dream job, indeed.

The Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission (GWIC) is a regulatory agency that works to promote and protect the welfare of greyhounds, to safeguard the integrity of greyhound racing and betting and to maintain public confidence in the greyhound racing industry. It’s a mission that is just as much about people as it is about animals; if Richard and the team are going to be successful in keeping all greyhounds accounted for, they need to make it easy for people to report on their dog’s overall health and wellness, note any events that might impact the dog’s state, and work with GWIC on recovery or retirement plans when the time comes. 

“In other words, we have to be more than a regulatory agency if we are going to successfully regulate the industry. We have to be a customer service-orientated organisation, focused on the people side as well as the animal welfare side, and find a way to bring those together in our business strategies,” said Mike Lubrano, Senior Business Analyst for GWIC. “We’re here to support the industry and all its facets, and that is what brought us to the cloud.”

GWIC was established to help greyhound racing come back as an official industry, safely. But the team inherited a paper-based system that was very labor-intensive for participants. People had to print out, complete, and mail in registration forms and regular reports, “and things were always getting lost in the mail,” said Mike. “As a result, we were managing a lot of non-compliance and the call centre was very busy with questions. This work environment really impacts everything from the ability to deliver on the mission with confidence — we don’t want any animals to slip through the cracks — to staff morale. It’s hard to be overwhelmed with work every day. We needed to replace this system with something that meets the standards of government service.”

And Mike’s realisation is one that’s recognised by the larger government IT industry. 

In its recent forecast for global government spending, Gartner estimated that the Australian government will increase IT budgets by 6.2% YoY for a total of $13 billion in order to keep pace with expectations. Software applications are expected to be responsible for the majority of this growth, with an estimated increase of 10.5% alone. “Most technology spend is now linked to digital programs, for example, cybersecurity and digital identity programs,” said Gartner’s Vice President of Executive programs Brian Ferreira to Government News. “We’re seeing the public sector changing IT operating models and innovating at a quicker pace by adopting commercially available technology solutions and software – particularly software as a service.” [1]

GWIC took this as a call to action, met with a regulatory agency in Victoria that had digitised its processes, and saw the possibilities. They were able to see all the ways participants were able to interact with regulatory services, the level of participation that was then generated from happy customers — yes happy customers of a regulatory service, and amount of stress that alleviated for the teams.

“That really engrained in me ‘this is where we needed to be,’” said Mike. “We needed a digital tracking and report system.”

The team launched e-Trac, a digital CRM and case management system on the Salesforce Customer 360 for government. It serves as a platform for GWIC’s regulatory activity, giving staff and customers a set of tools to ensure dogs are safe and healthy as they participate in the racing industry.

Here’s how it works:

• Intake: GWIC customers are invited to create a profile in e-Trac’s online community portal built on Experience Cloud. Here, they can browse services and begin processes like registering their dog or providing a status update.
  
• Automated, digital forms: Instead of being directed to where they might obtain a paper form, they are presented with a digital form powered by Public Sector Solutions. This guides the customer through a digital intake process, launched from that same platform. Questions are served up dynamically based on selections the customer makes, and responses are captured in a personalised profile record. The system also makes recommendations on care, treatment plans, and so on for greyhounds based on the history entered into the form’s fields.
• Employee productivity: service inquiries and status updates and then pushed through to a dashboard also built using Public Sector Solutions. Similar to the customer experience in the community portal, GWIC employees can see tasks, click into a specific case, review any related history or information in the customer’s profile record (such as dog racing history or see the latest veterinary report on file), and action it accordingly.
• Outreach and communications: Let’s say the customer is overdue in submitting something like a veterinary report for one of the greyhounds in their care. The employee can trigger an email or SMS message (based on the preferences noted when the customer set up their profile) via a set of integrated communication tools from Marketing Cloud, log the event, and update the customer’s record when the information is received. “Fewer printouts, fewer hours spent on manual data entry, and fewer calls back-and-forth to track the status of a service inquiry,” said Richard.
• Additional capabilities: Salesforce Maps was included, giving GWIC staff the tools to schedule routes and site visits should they need to visit a dog owner for any reason, send out regionally targeted public service announcements, and more. So was Field Service Lightning, which, gives employees who are already out-and-about the same set of desktop service tools over mobile, helping them respond and action needs with real-time context that much faster. Last but not least, Shield was added on, giving E-track an additional layer of data security

“Customers and employees can log in — anytime, anywhere — and update their records, see current status, and work together to keep greyhounds’ health the priority across the industry,” said Richard.

“We were even able to connect this system to our scanners, which gives employees the ability to confirm and update a dog’s wellbeing on the spot. Mike and I have been out in the field using our scanners and conducting training, and the response has been really positive,” Richard continued.

One of their customers even sponsored an event called e-Trac Race in an effort to promote the program and encourage more greyhound owners to welcome GWIC and its services into the industry. 

E-Trac has also opened up new service capabilities. “Our vets work closely with a big university regarding race injuries. We are starting to give both of those groups access to e-Trac which will give them real information from the field to be used in research activities,” said Katie Hitchcock, Media & Communications Officer. “I am really excited about that because insights like seeing what practices help prevent injuries are really important to us; that’s what we can share to benefit our beloved animals and support the racing industry.”

“Greyhound racers love their dogs. Most of them treat their dogs better than they treat themselves,” said Mike, “and this strategy helps us build that mentality into the foundation of our work and the cornerstone of the industry.”