The administration can handle the crisis

With its recently published study ‘Public Administration in Times of Crisis’, the consultancy firm next:public has produced an analysis of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the public sector. With nearly 5,000 questionnaires analysed, the study is based on the largest survey of public sector staff conducted to date on this topic. In addition, around 5,000 members of the public were also surveyed.

Johannes Rosenboom, Head of Sales, Marketing and Business Development in the Public Sector division at the IT company Materna Information & Communications SE, comments on the study’s findings:

“One thing has been clearly demonstrated by the current survey of citizens and the public sector: the public sector can handle a crisis. The public sector has learnt to implement pragmatic solutions under pressure and to utilise the scope available for experimentation and innovation. The local government level also performs well in this regard. In future, it will bear the main burden of OZG services as the direct interface with citizens.

However, there is still potential for improvement in areas such as internal work organisation, digital infrastructure and staff training, as well as in the administration’s interaction with citizens.

Citizens want digital services from the administration, but they still also want the option of in-person appointments. Relying solely on functioning online access therefore falls short. Online forms are merely the visible tip of the ‘OZG’ iceberg. The entire application processing system should be swift and efficient, regardless of the channel through which the application is received by the administration. Services must be available digitally throughout the entire process, from the application right through to the decision. To achieve this, it is necessary to integrate downstream procedures and back-end systems into the digital process and to fully digitise internal processes. Only genuinely digital administrative processes can truly satisfy citizens.

In the administration’s back-end, it is important to automatically transfer data digitally into specialist procedures and e-file systems. Interfaces are also necessary to integrate cross-cutting administrative services, such as e-payment, e-invoicing, user accounts, electronic sealing and signing, and digital authentication functions.

Close integration with portals and registration procedures is also necessary to achieve the highest maturity levels.

This end-to-end approach is complex to implement and requires more time than simply posting a digital form on a public authority’s website. The good news is that tried-and-tested basic components, including interfaces, are already available for implementing OZG solutions.”

Materna supported the study as a sponsor and consultant.

Click here for the study results.