Improve Public Services Through E-Government and User Interaction (FR0021)

STAKES The digitalization of user services and administration’s internal processes has become an essential element of public action. The involvement of stakeholders in the conception or the evolution of these projects, the exploitation of data produced by digital services and the opening of new channels of interaction with the users constitute important axes of the open government project.

CONTEXT & AIM In 2014, France was named by the United Nations the most advanced European country and the 4th most advanced in the world in terms of e-government29. The website impot.gouv.fr, for example, allows users to submit tax returns online and quickly, using pre-filled forms, and even to pay their council tax using a flash code system. The website service-public.fr offers centralized access to all public services, with entries corresponding to life events: "I am moving", "I am looking for a job", etc. For each category of processes (family, documents, citizenship, transport, etc.), the website sets out the procedures to be carried out, provides the link to online procedures, and references texts. Since 2014, the faire-simple.gouv.fr website has allowed public agents and users to come together to build solutions to modernize public action. One of the co-construction workshops resulted in the creation of a form intended for disabled persons, designed by disability associations and the administrations concerned. Regular consultations are held with individuals and businesses in order to determine which administrative procedures should be simplified in priority. At the last brainstorming session, 2,000 suggestions were received online and 40 simplification measures were selected for implementation. As part of its digital public services strategy, France has put in place a mechanism for listening to user requirements, measuring satisfaction, and ensuring constant adaptation based on user requirements. In particular, the Secretariat-General for Government Modernization (SGMAP) shares a digital uses scoreboard each year. It measures perception of online administrative procedures and the proportion of procedures carried out online. Every 3-4 months, the SGMAP also brings together communities of practice where participants exchange and share experiences on listening to user requirements, rationalizing modes of contact and the service relationship, and the uses of online services. The State must continue to equip itself with high-performance tools of analysis that will help it in its decision-making processes. Ongoing attention must be dedicated to the audience, the incorporation of websites into their ecosystems (deep hypertext links, inflows and outflows between public sites) and referencing. Using these tools, detailed diagnoses of difficulties encountered could be established and the actions required to correct them could be put in place.

ROADMAP
• Improve satisfaction measurement and take into account user feedback, involve stakeholders into services design and transformation
- Launch the publication by each ministry of key figures on the use of public services on their various channels
- Map inflows and outflows, in order to measure the integration of various public sites according to theme or time of life, and, in doing so, detect websites that are not directly involved in assisting users with sufficient or relevant hypertext
- Extract statistical data from software common to government websites (around 650 sites, some of which have been monitored for over 10 years), and analyze them using data sciences methods
- Develop and roll out co-construction methods (OpenLab, design, user-civil service workshops…)

18. Strengthen interaction with the user and improve public services through e-government

Commitment Text:

ROADMAP

Improve satisfaction measurement and take into account user feedback, involve stakeholders into services design and transformation

· Launch the publication by each ministry of key figures on the use of public services on their various channels

· Map inflows and outflows, in order to measure the integration of various public sites according to theme or time of life, and, in doing so, detect websites that are not directly involved in assisting users with sufficient or relevant hypertext

· Extract statistical data from software common to government websites (around 650 sites, some of which have been monitored for over 10 years), and analyze them using data sciences methods

· Develop and roll out co-construction methods (OpenLab, design, user-civil service workshops…)

Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text please see France's national action plan: https://bit.ly/2MTYhsR.

Responsible Institution: Prime Minister's Office; Ministry of State for State Reform and Simplification attached to the Prime Minister

Supporting Institution(s): N/A

Start Date:Not Specified

End Date:Not Specified
 

Commitment Aim

The commitment aimed to improve existing digital services by collecting and analysing key use statistics of digital services platforms, and by building new digital services in response to collaborations with users. The two objectives of the commitment are to disclose more information on how effectively these digital public services platforms are used and to create opportunities for citizen input on the design of e-government services. A central aspect of the commitment revolves around analysing website usage but the text does not specify the exact number of websites to be analysed, nor does it define the “key figures” to be published about ministry websites. The commitment does not specify which services will be addressed by user feedback, nor does it detail the collaboration involved in improving public services. This commitment was a step forward in tracking data on the use and efficacy of digital public services and toward increasing access to e-government services.

Status

Midterm: Limited

Completion of this commitment was limited by the midterm. The government had not yet started publishing key figures on the use of public services. The IRM researcher noted that during this period, there was no standard definition for “key figures” or other usage indicators for online public services, and was unable to find public evidence that each ministry had published their key figures. The government self-assessment argues that this commitment achieved substantial completion, but the evidence provided is an update to the digital public services dashboard, which took place in September 2016, outside of the period covered by the midterm report. A data science expert noted that the dashboard enables tracking the number of visitors to specific ministry websites and the frequency of visits but is insufficient to track how visitors navigate between government websites or even inside a single ministry's website. The government self-assessment confirmed that mapping activities did not take place during the first year of implementation.

Regarding the statistical analysis of data from government websites, the government made limited steps forward. While the commitment specifies “around 650 sites,” in July 2016 the government only published audience analytics for approximately 100 government websites. However, the data offers increased levels of granularity for statistical data on government websites including analytics on a monthly and daily level. The data is available only at the website level and not on individual pages, except for the 50 most visited ministry web pages per day. The same goes for referrals, sources and supports used to visit the website. Data related to 97 different websites is published on a daily level.

Lastly, the SGMAP had organised multiple and regular open labs for Simplified Public Procurement projects; the labs allow collaboration between stakeholders on project construction. It also organised similar co-design workshops during the creation of the France Connect project, the national single sign-on service. At the time of the midterm report, there was no publicly available information with specific metrics regarding the attendance of those workshops, feedback from the participants, or how exactly those workshops ultimately impacted the project.

End of Term: Substantial

The completion of this commitment is still considered limited by this end-of-term assessment. The government self-assessment does not provide any evidence of new developments for this commitment.

The main development in the second year of implementation were updates to the digital public services dashboard published in September 2016 (3^rd edition) and in May 2017 (4^th edition). The dashboard helps administrations adjust their digital services to meet users' needs. The dashboard contains the results of an annual telephone survey of 1006 private individuals and 600 private companies. The survey asks for users' habits and satisfaction, and, for 30 specific services, administrative statistics on the actual portion of digitalised services undertaken in the last year. The IRM researcher could not find the dashboard data in open data format and the methodological note lacks detail, especially regarding information taken from the administration.

The government also started to provide data on total visits, visit frequency, and the audience of ministry websites through a dashboard and .cvs datasets on data.gouv.fr. There are three datasets on monthly visitors to the prime minister's website, gouvernement.fr: (i) a dataset for webpages on governmental actions, decisions and policy; (ii) a dataset on audience by theme; and (iii) a general dataset on the audience. These contain very limited information and the granularity is low (e.g. the latter merely contains the pages viewed, visits, cumulated visits, pages/visit, duration, and bounce rate). There is also a dataset of the daily visits to all governmental websites.

The IRM researcher did not find any evidence that the data provided by the government could allow mapping of web traffic or a measure the integration of governmental websites.

Lastly, the Secretariat for the Modernisation of Public Action (SGMAP) has developed multiple tools to better serve the end-user when developing or reforming services. They use various methodologies to measure user satisfaction, such as an opinion barometer for instance. The SGMAP's role is to assist other administrations in changing their work methods and they have developed a kit to better measure and account for user feedback^{[Note144: Available here: http://www.modernisation.gouv.fr/la-qualite-des-services-publics-sameliore/par-la-consultation-et-lecoute/kit-satisfaction-des-usagers.]} and a list of guidelines for taking the user into account in digitalised public services.^{[Note145: Available here: http://www.modernisation.gouv.fr/ladministration-change-avec-le-numerique/par-des-services-numeriques-aux-usagers/les-10-principes-dune-demarche-en-ligne-exemplaire.]} The SGMAP also functions as an incubator for developing new digitalised public services.^{[Note146: More information available here: https://beta.gouv.fr/.]} The team also developed a co-construction method that can be used by other administrations.^{[Note147: Available here in beta version: http://comment-faire.modernisation.gouv.fr/index.html.}

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Did Not Change

Civic Participation: Did Not Change

The objective of this commitment was to digitalise public services and provide an opportunity for end-users to influence this digital transition. It relates to OGP values as far as it had the potential to track user data and increase access to public services. Given that the government failed to complete most milestones, this commitment did not open government practice with respect to access to information and civic participation.

The IRM researcher did not find any evidence that these activities created an opportunity for the public to influence decisions. The digital public services dashboard provides information on user satisfaction but at a very general level. The questionnaire asks users if they were satisfied with their experience when they opened an account or searched for information; the IRM researcher did not find evidence of an opportunity given to users to provide more precise feedback. The lack of information provided on the co-construction events and methods further support coding the changes to government practices and openness as ‘did not change' since these participation opportunities were one-off events and do not seem to indicate a change in government practice to include regularly user co-construction and feedback in public service design.

The government does provide information on the audience of governmental websites or on the use of digital public services. The data is general and insufficiently granular to be useful. The IRM researcher did not find any public information regarding the reuse of these datasets. It is thus hard to assess the relevance of the information provided. As such the changes can only be considered as minor.

Carried Forward?

This commitment was carried over to the next action plan, with a focus on the development of a list of services accessible online, on the publication of an open and collaborative dashboard on digital public services and on the publication of civil society and user feedback.

Theme IV: Open Up Public Administration