To become a leader on digital government, Europe may have to think beyond putting public services online
By Solveigh Hieronimus, Senior Partner and Leader of the McKinsey Center for the EU
Digitizing public services has the potential to not only provide fast, high-quality services to citizens at lower cost, but also help boost satisfaction with and trust in government institutions. Following the recent announcement of the Digital Compass for 2030, here is a short perspective on what it could take for Europe to become a true leader in digital government based on our work at the McKinsey Center for the EU.
The world’s most innovative companies are providing consumers with ever more engaging, seamless, and satisfying experiences online, raising the bar for what citizens will expect in digital interactions with their government. More citizens now expect to engage with local, regional, national, and even EU agencies almost instantly – and they have less and less patience with complex and confusing online journeys.
The European Commission has recognized that digital public services are a key foundation for Europe’s digital transformation and has set itself an ambitious goal as part of its Digital Compass: by 2030, 100% of key public services should be available online across the continent.
Nearly all EU Member States have made substantial strides in doing this. Currently, nine are already close to meeting the Commission’s 2030 standard – maintaining more than 95% of services online across eight important business and life situations, including starting a business, moving home, or finding a job.
Innovators at different levels of government, from Estonia to New South Wales to Dubai, have already built scalable, efficient digital platforms that deliver a seamless customer experience rivalling those offered by the private sector.
Based on our research across the public and private sectors around the world, the EU has the potential to chart a course to becoming a true global leader in online services. Focusing on three ‘dimensions of excellence’ could help:
1. Seamless mobile user journeys
Today, the world’s most digital governments provide a mobile ‘single front door’ to an internet platform where citizens have convenient access to all key services.
These apps personalize the individual experience and integrate the public and private services required in specific business or life situations. For example, users can apply for a driving licence and find a driving school with a few clicks. The benefits of such a platform could include building confidence in government. Research shows that people are nine times more likely to trust a government agency if they are satisfied with its service, and that satisfied customers are five times more likely to agree that a public service is a good investment of taxpayers’ money.
2. Automation to improve service and control costs
Case processing for all key services could be fully automated or supported through smart, ethical algorithms, eliminating the need for human intervention in most routine transactions whenever citizens consent to automated processing of their request.
In such cases, citizens could automatically complete applications, for example, using data available from government registers and their ‘digital wallets’. Backend systems could use straight-through processing and proactive service delivery where possible. The birth of a child, for example, could trigger the beginning of benefits and communications with the parents about support options. Service delivery regulations could be written for easy translation into machine-readable language – ‘rules as code’ – drastically reducing the costs of IT implementation. And where human discretion is needed, civil servants could receive decision support from smart algorithms.
As laid out by the Commission’s new draft regulation on the use of artificial intelligence systems, stringent privacy and data protection guardrails, as well as transparency and auditing mechanisms, for example, could help minimize the inherent risk. This would also help to acceptance and adoption of automated processing of public service requests among EU citizens.
3. Universal service access for all EU citizens across borders
Decision makers could consider whether key services could be made available across Member States to all eligible EU citizens and legal persons. With the Single Digital Gateway (SDG) Directive, the EU has started to open public services to everyone in the single market. By 2030, it might surpass the SDG ambition, providing the same first-rate service experience for all users regardless of which Member States they live in. For example, each user could sign up for a digital profile, where they receive communication from different Member States in a single secure mailbox and use services in their own language. Government registers could be integrated across borders to allow automation and a more seamless experience.
The Commission has set out an aspirational goal for making public services available online that is both achievable and essential to maintaining the trust and support of the people. There are reasons to be optimistic about the digital future of government services in Europe, including the potential to engage hundreds of millions of citizens with fast, high-quality services more quickly at a lower cost to taxpayers. Now is the time to begin thinking about how to make this vision a reality – digital innovation and online expectations will only accelerate.
What’s your perspective on what distinguishes true leaders on digital public services? Join the conversation in the comments below – and let me know if you’d like to read more insights on this topic. You can also read my recent article on digital skills here.