Over the last six weeks, we’ve made lots of improvements to the Citizens Advice Scotland chatbot. Many of those improvements are behind the scenes, so we wanted to share them here. To be honest, it feels like we have only just got to the start line. The initial four months…

Since the pandemic, many CABs have switched from mainly giving face-to-face advice to mainly giving remote advice. When giving advice remotely, getting documents signed (especially 3rd party mandates) is a persistent pain. Some CABs use Signable or similar software. Could this be rolled out across the network? We are exploring…

We are prototyping a chatbot as part of the next phase of the CivTech project for CAS (following on from this prioritisation plan). Some CABs have seen huge demand for webchat. In success, we believe a chatbot can automate the routine parts of a webchat, freeing up advisors to focus…

In the last update, we asked for help prioritising areas where technology could improve service delivery across Scottish CABs. Since then, we’ve conducted workshops with over two dozen people from across the network. (Thanks to everyone who gave their time.) We’ve distilled these discussions down to 5 top priority areas…

There’s a long list of ways technology could help at CABs across the CAS network. Thanks to a successful application for CivTech match funding, we’ve got 12 months to explore service improvements and deliver them for the CAB network. Where do we start? Managers, we need your help and that…

At SIDE, we’ve just completed CivTech’s 3-week Exploration programme. We worked on a Challenge to improve the operation of Citizens Advice Scotland national helpline. CivTech is a Scottish programme to drive ‘daring and innovation in the public sector’ and it deserves to be celebrated. (Perhaps it is already celebrated? …

At SIDE, we’ve set ourselves a challenge. In the next 5 months, we will launch a digital project that makes a social impact. The website Charity Entrepreneurship says Founding Charities is One of the Highest Impact Things One Can do. They would say that I guess. …

As we reach the end of SIDE Labs’s 10-week Communities Definition programme, I was absolutely delighted in the final show and tell. What a buzz to see the progress made by our six charities. What have we made together? Intergenerational Music Making IMM had made a Spoonful of Music — An intergenerational NHS music project…

I was speaking to a tech agency boss who said it is unfair to compare code with no-code, as no-code will be an order of magnitude cheaper. — Hang on. If no-code costs a tenth as much as custom code, surely you’d always use it? He said, well no, because of GDPR, because of integrations, and because no-code will only get you 80% of where you want to go. I’m suspicious of all these reasons. No-code will typically…