OTTAWA - A group of digital disruptors inside the federal government is testing a way to send tens of millions of e-notifications each month to save workers — and taxpayers — time and money.
Known as Notify, the system is built on open-source code from a similar service in the United Kingdom and is meant to let departments easily and cheaply send emails or text messages.
The federal government group that designed Notify, the Canadian Digital Service, found it could send 10,000 emails in 15 minutes.
That pace would amount to 29.5 million emails a month and would cost about $4,000, the organization says.
Pushed government-wide, the service would replace assorted notification systems built from scratch for individual departments.
The idea is to make it easier for Canadians to keep up on their applications for federal services, for instance, or appeals of benefit decisions — eliminating the need to dial into government call centres and potentially wait on hold just for updates.
The work is part of an overall effort by federal officials to digitize government services.
In a blog post, the organization says offering email updates is "the bare minimum of what people expect from any online service they use," and that occasionally following up "helps provide a sense of confidence and reassurance."
