The European Commission eGovernment Benchmark 2015: More Digital Transformation of European public services needed to drive the EU Digital Single Market

This year’s eGovernment Benchmark, which surveyed over 10,000 websites across the EU member states, has again focused on the user centricity of customer journeys through various life events such as starting up a business, losing and finding jobs, and studying. The report reveals that Europe is gaining digital maturity in online services: more information and services are available online, and that there is a growing opportunity for online support, help, and feedback.

Urgent improvements in mobile, transparency, and simplification are required

Necessary advancements, however, are being made slowly especially in the area of user experience. More could be done to increase personalization of online public services, in particular as regards mobile accessibility, transparency and the simplification of services.

Despite a fast growing number of mobile users, governments are still not progressing the great opportunity, offered by mobile devices, for the further personalization of services. At the moment, only one in four public websites is mobile friendly. Examples of best practice show that as soon as websites are designed for mobile, the number of users increases exponentially. There is a clear need for mobile friendliness that is not being addressed at the moment. A positive exception is the UK, where mobile responsive public websites have witnessed more than double the mobile traffic of their European counterparts^[1].

Lack of transparency on processes, personal data, and the agencies involved in government services causes people to go offline and does not help to build trust. The transparency benchmark shows a 3 percentage point improvement from the previous measurement, but is still unsatisfactory as it stops at 51%. The transparency of public organizations is 9 points above this benchmark (at 60%). It is also positive that users have gained better access to their personal data handled on government websites (increase of 5 percentage points to 52%). However, they still face considerable barriers when it comes to the clarity of the service delivery process ie. the service process, duration and response times related to the steps one needs to take to complete an online public service from start to finish (increase of 2 percentage points to 41%).  Trust is essential to attract more online users and subsequently realize the cost savings that online services potentially hold.

Simplification is another important driver of personalization of online services. The Authentic Sources key enabler^[2] has dropped two points in 2014 as compared to 2013. This means that there are fewer cases where online forms were prefilled with data that a government already knows about its citizens. This implies that internal government processes are not so “digital”, and the potential efficiency gains are not yet being realized.

Digital Single Market is far-off

A Digital Single Market has the potential of EUR 340 billion in additional growth, hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and a vibrant knowledge-based society^[3]. However, a Digital Single Market is not in sight yet. Only very few online transactions are possible, when applying for public services in other European Union countries. The cross-border mobility indicator has not yet reached the halfway mark, and is still low (48%). Positively, this is an increase of 4 points from the last measurement. Across Europe, on average, the indicator of cross-border mobility for business is performing better than the citizen mobility indicator (58% against 43%).

Dinand Tinholt, Vice President and Global EU Account Director at Capgemini said: “Europe must embrace the power of modern technology to transform public services to keep up with other regions globally. Europe is currently in a position of potential. The key question is whether it can use that potential to truly deliver an advantage. Preparing digital strategies for realizing a Digital Single Market is now more relevant than ever.”

To access the full report, please go to http://www.capgemini.com/egov-benchmark

For more information about the EU’s digital agenda, please go to https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/

About Capgemini

With more than 145,000 people in over 40 countries, Capgemini is one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The Group reported 2014 global revenues of EUR 10.573 billion. Together with its clients, Capgemini creates and delivers business and technology solutions that fit their needs and drive the results they want. A deeply multicultural organization, Capgemini has developed its own way of working, the Collaborative Business Experience^TM, and draws on Rightshore^®, its worldwide delivery model.

[1] Source: GOV.UK, https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/02/06/improving-gov-uk-on-mobile-devices/
[2] Authentic Sources are base registers that store (personal) data – so that it can be re-used for prefilling web forms.
[3] Mapping the Cost of Non-Europe 2014-2019, a study by the European Parliament (Second Edition, July, 2014)

Rightshore^® is a trademark belonging to Capgemini