Ideas for e-services efficiency measurement

1. Ideas for e-services efficiency measurement Lasse Berntzen Vestfold University College lasse.berntzen@hive.no Efficient & Effective eGovernment Workshop 17.03.2010

2. Context • Norwegian project eGovMon develops methodologies for automatic assessment accessibility, transparency, efficiency and impact of public sector web sites. • This presentation is meant as input to a discussion on e-services efficiency.

3. Efficiency What is efficiency? • The quality or property of being efficient. • The degree to which this quality is exercised What is efficient? • Acting or producing effectively with a minimum of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort. • Efficiency is often about process improvements within the organization. • But also efficiency for citizens.

4. Efficency and e-government • How can efficiency of e-government services be measured? • Two perspectives: • Users (Citizens) • Administration (Employees/Managers)

5. Hypothesis • Electronic services are effective • E-Services saves time/costs for users (citizens) • Self service reduces work load on administration • One indicator is number of e-services/services • Some services are more important than others • Because they are heavily used • Because the gains are high • For each service, assess maturity and impact

6. Maturity (user perspective) • No e-service available (manual) • Downloadable form / service description • Interactive form / service ordering • Interactive form with prefilled content

7. Maturity (administration) • No e-service available (manual) • Downloadable form / service description • Because customers serve themselves • Interactive form / service ordering • Electronic information can be handeled more efficient • Intergration with backoffice systems • Process improvement

8. Impact • A highly used service has more impact than a seldom used service.

9. Examples • The following examples are just meant as a starting point for discussion, and not as a conclusion!

10. Example • Kindergarten application • Exists (1) • Heavily used, saves some resources (3) • High maturity: interactive submission, integration with legacy system (4) • Efficiency for users (ranked by themselves) 4 • Efficiency score (1*3*4*4= 48)

11. Example • Complaining about municipal services • Exists (1) • Sporadically used+ (2) • Medium maturity: interactive submission, no integration with legacy system (3) • 2 is downloadable form, 3 is interactive, 4 is integrated • Alt. 4 is form is prefilled with relevant data.. • Efficiency for users (ranked by themselves) 3 • Efficiency score (1*2*2*3 = 12)

12. Note • Sporadically used may indicate that citizens do not have anything to complain about. • However, this calculation tries to measure efficiency from user- and administration perspective, and compared to kindergarten applications, the efficiency gain is much lower.

13. Example • Applying for municipal grants (voluntary organizations can apply for grants) • Exists (1) • Sporadically used (1) • Medium maturity: interactive submission, no integration with legacy system (2) • Efficiency for users(ranked by themselves) 2 • Efficiency score (1*1*2*2 = 4)

14. Note • Value for end user is low, not seen as time saving because you have to fill in information (e.g. financial information) that already exist in paper form. • It would be less time consuming enclose this information with a paper-based application.

15. Collecting information • User surveys • Self-reporting • Probes

16. User surveys • User surveys is probably the best method to collect information avout efficiency gains for users

17. Self reporting • Self-reporting is probably the best way of collecting information from administration (management and employees) • But other alternatives can be considered (next slide)

18. Use of probes • A probe is a piece of software that collects information on system performance • A probe may be called upon to deliver its results. The delivery does not normally pose any security problems. • By implementing experimental probes and discuss with vendors on implementation of probes.