Reinventing Public Sector Accessibility
The Success Story of Botcopy, Google, and Minnesota
A Salute to the Innovators in Minnesota
We at Botcopy found ourselves in the right place at the right time and, more importantly, working with the right people, but before I get into that story, a special shoutout to the innovative State of Minnesota. If you take one thing away from reading this, it should be that Minnesota's commitment to ensuring every citizen has access to government services is phenomenal and trendsetting. Thank you, Minnesota — your mission should inspire everyone.
A Game-changing Partnership
Now, onto the story: As you know, many contact centers were swamped during the pandemic. Alarmingly, people had difficulty reaching government agency support services. Talk about making a bad situation worse! However, Minnesota didn't sit on their hands. Instead, they enlisted Google Public Sector, Insight Technologies, and Botcopy to meet a new level of customer service, AI prowess, and accessibility standards that serve all Minnesota citizens, regardless of language or abilities.
How the Super Team Worked Together
The new bot warrants your attention (so take a look) because it works and gets essential things done. And if every state in the union did likewise — America would work better. Granted, a bot use case shines when you actually need the bot, but try to use your imagination. We all have our prejudices about the DMV. A bot like this will make your next sojourn to your state's DMV site a pleasant one that doesn't eat up your time or drive you nuts. No pun intended.
While the bar is very high in Minnesota, doing what they did is attainable with the right team in place. Let me tell you about that team: a partnership that combines Google's excellent AI and analytics products for the backend, Botcopy for the web chat UI layer and Dialogflow build-out, and Insight Technologies for additional managed services to help tie it all together.
An Impressive Output for the Public Sector
The team succeeded in bringing enhanced accessibility and language processing to Minnesota's Driver Services website. We're proud to attach our name to this project for so many reasons; not the least: it reflects Botcopy's commitment to accessibility, meets WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, and supports every language available within Google Cloud.
The Role of Human Vision and Leadership
I want to give a big shoutout to the inimitable Joel Pingel and Sarah Mixdorf at Google Public Sector. Their vision, drive, and optimism fueled the project to break new ground. In addition, Joel's entire team has been excellent to work with, proving that the X factor for innovation still lies in the bold spirit of human beings and solid leadership. I'd also like to acknowledge the great role Insight Enterprises has played in bringing this project to fruition.
Achievements and Looking Forward
Google Public Sector's discernment proved spot-on — the Botcopy and Google combo brought contact center AI to Minnesota's website, meeting accessibility guidelines and communicating in over 36 languages.
Botcopy and Google Public Sector continue to work together and are taking our show on the road, setting the standard for partnerships and revolutionizing access to government services. Minnesota's chatbot is up and running, so take a look. It's set to be more sophisticated as time passes – this is just the beginning. Plus, new projects and initiatives are underway with more states, cities, municipalities, and federal use cases.
Lessons Learned and Future Aspirations
The journey for a startup like Botcopy is tumultuous; we work hard to give our customers the best and ensure our value prop cuts through the clutter. But thanks to visionary partners like Joel and Sarah at Google, partners like Insight, and states like Minnesota, the right people are grasping what's on offer.
Again, a well-worn phrase comes to mind, but it's true: "If you believe it, you can achieve it." So get after it!
