In recent weeks, IOTA has been engaged in various technical events. From 7th to 9th November 2023, we had the pleasure of hosting the second fully face-to-face technical activity of our 2023 Work Programme, the IOTA Workshop “Contact Centre of the Future: Digital Transformation Best Practices” in Budapest, Hungary. This Workshop allowed IOTA member tax administrations to learn more about strategies and approaches members have taken, or are looking to take, in digitally transforming their service delivery to taxpayers in order to create Contact Centres of the Future.
It was a real pleasure seeing some familiar and lots of new faces in the conference room, especially as the last in-person meeting for this activity happened in 2019 – just before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from the insightful and wide-ranging presentations, this Forum was also notable for its friendly and inclusive environment. As Chantal Sauber from the Swiss Tax Administration remarked, “IOTA means friendship, meeting new colleagues, hard work, and having a lot of fun, both inside and outside of the meeting rooms”. This friendly environment made it easy to start and join conversations between plenaries so I corralled some attendees from participating member countries such as Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Switzerland, and got them to share some thoughts about the event. In the following interviews, they reveal their main takeaways from the three-day activity.
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: How did you feel yourself? What were your first thoughts, and first impressions about the Workshop “Contact Centre of the Future: Digital Transformation Best Practices”?
Ernst Siller/Austria: I felt very comfortable for several reasons. For one thing, I saw a lot of familiar faces. Personal contact has been difficult in recent years. I was also looking forward to the various presentations that were announced on the agenda. And my (high) expectations were not disappointed.
Susanne Pack/Austria: I felt very blessed, that I was part of the event but also excited to learn from others and inform the other participants about the Austrian approaches in our Contact Centre. It was an opportunity to delve into diverse perspectives on customer service, technological development, and operational strategies.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: I enjoyed that we had the perfect opportunity to share IOTA member tax administrations’ experiences of implementing digital transformation in order to improve the operation of Contact Centre functions. My first impression was that I must increase my knowledge and listen about strategies and approaches members have taken, or are looking to take, in digitally transforming their service delivery to taxpayers in order to create Contact Centres of the Future.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: I was honoured to have had the opportunity to participate in such an event. I remain very impressed with such a well-organised workshop on a very important and inspiring topic that is the Contact Centre of the Future. My first impressions were primarily to emphasize, how important the role of the Contact Centre is in communicating with taxpayers. In addition, I was pleased with the fact that this event focuses precisely on the development of multi-channel services, with a special focus on the specifics of tax administration in Europe.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: It was a pleasure for me to participate in the IOTA event, dedicated to Contact-Centres, to share our experience, and also to find out what other countries are implementing in their tax administrations. My first impression is that tax administrations are evolving and are creating new paths into remote services, Contact-Centre being one of the most important channels within tax administrations.
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: The overall event was beyond my expectations. The panel presentation of each individual representative provided an extremely good insight into the state of the development of Contact Centres and the development of information solutions that help the call centre. Here, I mean the insight into artificial intelligence and the development of chat, voice, and web bots. The workshop was held in a relaxed atmosphere, where it was easy for the representatives to give their own views on the topics under consideration and the expectations of their tax administrations for the following mid-year period. I accepted my role of being at the workshop with all seriousness and actively participated both in panels and in individual workshops, with questions and giving my proposals.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: After being within IOTA for more than 10 years now, organising and hosting so many IOTA events in Switzerland as well as attending so many IOTA Administrative Events, I was very curious to participate in an IOTA event as a “normal” participant especially because this was my first IOTA Technical Workshop. And luckily, I have got a very interesting and actual theme!
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: What are the main things that you have learned at the Workshop? What are your main takeaways from the 3-day event?
Ernst Siller/Austria: I learned a lot of little things that we can use very well as puzzle pieces for our own efforts. It is therefore difficult to name one or two main takeaways. If so, I would say that a holistic view of the customer service interface is essential.
Susanne Pack/Austria: As an active participant, I learned about the advantages of AI-driven automation, omnichannel communication strategies, and data analytics for enhancing customer experiences. In addition, challenges such as the establishment of hybrid working in conjunction by using technological tools were intensively addressed in the discussions.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: First of all, I considered how contact centres are evolving more widely. Consequently, I looked at how contact centres intend to operate going forward. Secondly, I had a big opportunity to participate in plenary sessions, panel debates, and to exchange experiences of differing strategic approaches to contact centres together with the most commonly used channel strategies by the IOTA member tax administrations. Thirdly, I learned how Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots are being used to help customers self-serve, use of channel strategies to drive down direct contact, how changing demographics mean digital channels are becoming more popular, and how Cloud-based services can make tax administration contact centres more agile and cost-efficient while supporting the IT and strategies. What is more, I heard more about managing hybrid working models, including 
the challenges and opportunities, managing hybrid workers, and keeping employees engaged.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: Firstly, I have learned that professionals from various tax administrations are like one community. Why? Because usually in our local markets we do not have any peers to compare with and share best practices. After such workshop, each of us could get back to the country inspired by the ideas that fit best our needs. Secondly, I learned how much online self-services are important to handling and managing taxpayers’ queries in different channels. Whatever is available online should automatically serve the customers and a taxpayer may call as if only for solving sophisticated issues. Last but not least, as various tax administration entities, we are on different stages in using chatbot and voicebot implementation, this is something tangible on which we should focus our future activities and share our expertise with each other.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: I have learned that one size does not fit all, and each country is designing its own way of offering services to citizens. What we all, as tax administrations, have in common is digitalization and finding the right services to implement in order to increase tax compliance and facilitate interaction with taxpayers.
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: My expectations were aimed at getting to know possible service providers for chatbots within Europe, getting more information about the possibilities of connecting different entry channels of communication for taxpayers, and getting the best practices for implementing user-friendly digital transformation from classic to NextGen Contact Centres. All this knowledge was presented at the Workshop. At the event, I received relevant answers, in particular, I got to know possible providers of services and software (from Avaya Oceana, Avaya Agent Desktop, IBM Watson, and Cisco). The next was an answer related to how to ensure the establishment of an omnichannel policy of different entry points in the Contact Centre and an insight into chatbot solutions that already are in use in some neighbouring countries.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: Tax administrations mostly all struggle with the same topics, issues, and questions. After listening to so many thoughtful presentations, I will go back home with a backpack of good examples and new ideas.
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: What are the top priorities for your administration that you would like to achieve in the following years to build the contact Centre Centre of the future? (Please name 3 priorities)
Ernst Siller/Austria: The priorities are as follows: 1) Introduce omni-channel (agile services) throughout. 2) Significant reduction in human-human customer contact (using AI etc.). 3) Increase customer satisfaction.
Susanne Pack/Austria: The first priority is AI Integration: Prioritise the seamless integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance customer interactions, streamline processes, and improve overall efficiency in the contact centre. The second priority is Omnichannel Experience: An omnichannel approach aims to provide a unified, customer-centric experience by integrating and optimizing communication channels within a Contact Centre. This strategy enhances customer satisfaction, loyalty, and the overall efficiency of customer service operations. While the third one is Data Security and Compliance: Continue to ensure data security and compliance a top priority to protect sensitive customer information. Maintaining data security even with authenticated digital customer contacts (e.g. Live Chat).
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: First of all, now we have in Lithuania two separate centres: tax clients can get taxation information in one call centre, while tax services are provided by another centre. As a consequence, the main task is to have one call centre where our clients can get both taxation information and tax services. Secondly, we want to spread artificial intelligence products in tax services, as a consequence, self-service shall be a priority so that fewer clients need to reach/ call to the information centre. Thirdly, we seek to have one convenient IT system through which all services would be provided. As a result, the convenient self-service system shall apply.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: From my point of view, the first priority is to implement one, unified multichannel platform for all employees in tax administration who communicate with taxpayers on a daily basis. For the taxpayers ensure one point (one phone number) of contact to communicate with the tax administration. The second priority is to develop a voicebot not only to route the taxpayers to certain queues (topics), but also to respond to popular questions so that they can a swiftly answer with no necessity staying in the queue. The third priority is to evolve the chatbot from responding to general tax queries to coming up with transactional and individual answers based on responses taken from backend tax systems.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: I can set up the following list of priorities: most importantly, increase the number of Contact Centre agents; and then, extend the services offered to taxpayers via the Contact Centre, finally, integrate the Contact Centre with new channels.
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: It would certainly be necessary to adopt a direction regarding the Contact Centre in the future and approach the preparation of a strategy in this area. The Slovenian Tax Administration already had a chatbot called VIDA, which was discontinued in 2015. It is necessary to reconsider the feasibility of introducing a similar but modern chatbot. Finally, it would be necessary to create a department for communication with taxpayers, where employees who would work in the call centre could develop themself at a professional level, as well as implement IT systems that taxpayers and employees could use for modern communication.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: For me, the first priority is to maintain or increase partner satisfaction, in the second place I would mention the efficient use of resources (self-service first) and I would place a uniform public image in the third place.
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: Is there anything that you specifically would like to see at the next Workshop?
Ernst Siller/AustriaSince a tax administration is a service provider, the customer interface area is neglected in the entire IOTA program. I would like to see more workshops like this. A “customer orientation” workshop would be interesting, which not only highlights customer service but also allows an overall view.
Susanne Pack/Austria: I would be very interested to know, how the participating countries have developed, what their challenges have been, and how the strategy has developed.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: I would like to see more deeper view of how Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots are being used to help customers self-serve, and the use of channel strategies to drive down direct contact. Also for me would be interesting to hear more about how changing demographics mean digital channels and what channels are becoming more popular. I also think that there should be, it specialist meeting where they could discuss how Cloud-based services can make tax administration Contact Centres more agile and cost-efficient while supporting IT and strategies.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: I would like to pay more attention to how we should orchestrate all channels: online, Contact Centre, social media, and tax offices to give customers the best from each channel, on the other hand, to precisely optimize our human and digital resources.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: I would like to see more about the ways used by tax administrations in Contact Centres in order to monitor, evaluate, and forecast. How taxpayers are authenticated and authorised to obtain sensitive information from Contact Centre agents? How alternative channels are influencing the volume of interaction in the Contact Centre?
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: Topics related to the electronic document management system, the methods of electronic signing and security policies, exchange of electronically signed documents between information systems, organisations, and countries would be particularly interesting.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: I would really appreciate to once have the opportunity to physically (or virtually) visit a Contact Centre.
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: What does IOTA mean to you? What it’s like working with IOTA?
Ernst Siller/Austria: For me, IOTA is a connector between tax administrations. Collaboration is uncomplicated.
Susanne Pack/Austria: IOTA offers a promising platform for international collaboration and knowledge exchange. It's an opportunity to delve into diverse perspectives on customer service, technology integration, and operational strategies, fostering innovation and best practices. The potential for cross-cultural insights makes this event an intriguing forum for shaping the future of Contact Centre management on a global scale.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: For me, IOTA is a great place where we can exchange knowledge, and opinions and get great ideas in the field of tax administration. Also, at meetings, there is always an opportunity to exchange contacts and gain new useful acquaintances.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: IOTA means openness, supporting innovative thinking, and international cooperation between tax administrations.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: A place where to share and learn, to do better than you used to do. Working with IOTA is interesting and sometimes challenging considering the fact that each time you find out new things to do.
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: IOTA is an association that brings together expert knowledge from various fields at the level of European countries and beyond. IOTA has employed professional staff at the highest level, enabling the transfer of professional knowledge between tax officials of member states. Working with IOTA is a pleasure!
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: Friendship, meeting new colleagues, and working hard but, at the same time, it also means having a lot of fun – inside and outside the meeting rooms.
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: Why is IOTA important now and in the future, in your view?
Ernst Siller/Austria: All tax administrations struggle with similar challenges. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Networking with other tax administrations through IOTA and other organisations is immensely important in order to be future-proof.
Susanne Pack/Austria: The potential for cross-cultural insights makes this event an intriguing forum for shaping the future of Contact Centre management on a global scale.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: I think IOTA is an important organisation because during IOTA’s meetings, it is possible to directly generate ideas, make decisions, and develop proposals for improving tax administration on an international scale.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: Working with IOTA is like gathering at one time and place so many wise and experienced people (in that manner with Contact Centre expertise in the Tax Administration), which allows to boost initiatives on the local level.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: I will not answer about “now”. I am focusing on the future because I think my previous answers are clear why IOTA is important now. Regarding the future, IOTA could have an important role in order to gather countries that are not part of IOTA and start sharing knowledge with IOTA member states. In the international context, where people are crossing borders understanding what other tax administrations are doing sharing and learning are more important than ever.
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: At the moment, there is no other organisation on the level of the countries of the European continent (except the European Commission, which only applies within its member states), which would enable the exchange of professional expertise between tax employees. To the extent that a competing organisation would arise, IOTA would still have the primacy of the most professionally advanced organization, which I wish to remain also in the future.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: IOTA offers a unique platform for sharing experiences and best practices within the field of international organisations. I like the practical approach and the very open discussions.
Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: If you had not joined the tax administration what would be your perfect job?
Ernst Siller/Austria: Maybe I would have been a travel destination and hotel tester. :)
Susanne Pack/Austria: Definitely something with people and language. I think I would work as a speech therapist.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: I think my perfect job would be in such organisation like IOTA. I am very interested in participating in international meetings, meeting new people, and of course, getting to know the taxation systems of different countries.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: I would love to be a musician, a guitar player. Actually, for many years this has been my biggest hobby. I enjoy playing and singing with other people. Music is a great way of self-expression.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: Painter, but I missed the chance. Meanwhile, I am trying to paint tax administration in colours.
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: I would be a professor at the faculty or a trainer.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: Hopefully, I will be a travel blogger.
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: What did you like the most about Budapest?
Ernst Siller/Austria: I visit Budapest from time to time and therefore know the city well. I just like the atmosphere and the good food.
Susanne Pack/Austria: I really enjoyed joining the IOTA event and getting to know people from different countries and their approaches. But also the sightseeing tour was very beautiful and interesting. I definitely come back as a tourist to see all the beauties of the city.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: I would highlight the culture, architecture with great food and great history.
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: People are very nice and, speaking of participants, very helpful and operative. Budapest, as a city, is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe with great architecture and culture.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: People. Some of them reminded me how important we are as individuals and how many things we can do even if sometimes we forget. And thanks to those who reminded me!
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: Easy accessibility, suitable location, the friendliness of the city with many possibilities for sightseeing.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: The answer, without a doubt, is ruin bars. These unusual drinking joints situated inside neglected pre-war buildings of the old Jewish Quarter cannot be found anywhere else and are what make up the spirit of Budapest.
- Erika Szabo/IOTA Secretariat: Do you have any messages for the IOTA community?
Ernst Siller/Austria: All I can say is stay tuned.
Susanne Pack/Austria: Thank you for the organisation and the opportunity to be part of this exciting event. It was a pleasure for me to have been a participant.
Martynas Endrijaitis/Lithuania: Keep providing such great, useful, and very practical workshops!
Bartłomiej Szymański/Poland: Keep on doing the great job you do! Be the facilitator of innovation in tax administrations.
Mihaela Dragulin/Romania: Share and learn! Always you can do better! Make the world a better place than it was yesterday!
Tomaž Lavrič/Slovenia: My wish would be for every tax officer to participate in a workshop or conference of IOTA at least once during his working career, where he could exchange experiences and acquire new knowledge and attitudes about the professional practices of other member states.
Chantal Sauber/Switzerland: Please keep as active as you can.
