Ville de Laval Speeds Up Community Response Systems with an Azure AI Solution
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- Canada
Product
- Azure
- Azure AI Services
- Azure Machine Learning
- Dynamics 365
- Microsoft 365
Tech Stack
- Azure Cognitive Services
- Azure Machine Learning
- Microsoft Power Platform
- Power BI
- Microsoft Teams
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Machine Learning
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
- Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
Ville de Laval is the third-largest city in Quebec, Canada, and the 13th largest in the country, with a population of over 400,000 people. Located just northwest of Montreal, Laval is a modern, growing city that emphasizes providing its citizens with a high quality of life through cutting-edge infrastructural initiatives. These initiatives are part of a digital transformation process led by Marc Campeau, the Innovation and Technologies Director at Ville de Laval. The city has been focusing on integrating AI into its systems to improve citizen services, with the 311 system being a prime example. The 311 system is designed to handle non-emergency issues, such as graffiti or missed trash pickups, and the introduction of AI has positively impacted the citizen experience by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the service.
The Challenge
For a city the size of Laval, managing the 311 system, which fields questions and complaints about non-emergency issues, can be a significant challenge. The city handles an average of 645 calls a day, and when including in-person requests and emails, the 311 operators respond to more than 250,000 requests annually. The manual recording of each call can sometimes be left incomplete, leading to inefficiencies. The push to augment the system with AI began in 2019, with the goal of adding value for each person contacting the 311 system. The city was already using Microsoft 365, making the adoption of Dynamics 365 and Azure a simpler process. However, a multivendor survey was conducted, including the creation of AI assets through open-source technologies. The goal was to create a high level of interoperability between Azure and the existing Microsoft 365 environment, simplifying the development of a solution using Azure AI capabilities.
The Solution
Ville de Laval worked with Gestisoft, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, to deploy Dynamics 365 and use its customer relationship management functionalities to create an improved database of citizen issues. The city implemented a new AI solution incorporating Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Power Platform. The solution automates the delivery of call summaries, classifications, and operational analytics to Dynamics 365 and Power BI. This automation allows the city to understand which calls are most frequent and improve service quality. The AI and machine learning integration helps Laval aggregate calls more efficiently, with quick information-seeking calls managed by a virtual agent, reducing wait times and allowing employees to respond to complex requests sooner. The solution is expected to automate 20,000 calls by the end of its first year. Additionally, the system recommends citizen request types to agents during calls, surfaces relevant information, provides real-time transcription across multiple languages, generates call summaries, and offers sentiment analysis for future reference.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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