Digital government

An online procedure is judged on time to decision, not on visit counts.

Divisions assembled: Software and systems Networks and communications

The issue

The online counter is the visible part; processing is what decides the service delivered.

An administration that publishes a form and leaves the internal chain unchanged moves the wait. The user saves a journey, the department gains nothing, and inbound volume rises while processing capacity does not.

The real difficulty sits downstream of the form: the completeness check, assignment, requests for further documents, the reasoning of the decision and its notification. Every step left manual caps the whole.

Then there is access, and it is not a secondary matter. A large share of users submit from a phone, on a slow and metered link, with neither printer nor scanner. A counter designed for a desktop excludes precisely those for whom the journey costs most.

The order of a digitisation programme, schematic

01Procedure chosen: High volume, short processing, an internal chain that can be handled in full. Not the most complex one.
02Real journey surveyed: With the officers who process it, not from the procedure as written.
03Restricted go-live: A limited scope, the existing channel kept open. Gaps are corrected on real files.
04Extension: Other departments, carry-over of the previous file’s data, registers connected as they come.
05Non-digital channel: Kept open, and feeding the same queue. Two queues produce two delays that drift apart.
06Delay measurement: Published, including when unfavourable. Visit counts measure nothing useful.

Schematic. The accented path is the order that makes it possible to put something into service.Typical delivery figures. The pilot share and the measured turnaround are targets; they are set on the real volume of the procedure.

Outcome

What you get

A procedure whose real time from submission to decision is measured, whose every file is traceable end to end, and over which the administration keeps control: hosting within the applicable legal framework, code handed over, teams trained.

Scope

What the solution includes

Procedure analysis: A survey of the real journey, the documents required and their legal basis, observed delays, grounds for rejection, and the points where files stall.
Online counter: Progressive form, saved drafts, upload from a phone, completeness check before submission, a dated acknowledgement that serves as proof, and visible file status.
Processing chain: Assignment to departments, work queues, traced requests for further documents, automatic reminders, reasoned decisions, signature and notification.
Interoperability: Documented interfaces with registers and management systems, exchange rather than re-keying, data reconciliation and explicit handling of divergences.
Identity and payment: Identification proportionate to what the procedure engages, connection to the payment methods actually used locally, receipt attached to the file, and accounting reconciliation.
Steering: A dashboard of volumes, delays and first-time completeness; logging, archiving, and a procedure for exercising data subject rights.

Sequence

How it is run

01
Framing
The first procedure chosen, the real journey surveyed with the officers who process it, documents required without basis put to arbitration, and the indicators that will judge the result agreed.
02
Restricted go-live
The counter opens to a limited scope while the existing channel stays open. Gaps are corrected on real files, before volume makes them expensive.
03
Extension
Roll-out to other departments, carry-over of the previous file’s data for returning users, and integration of registers as interfaces become available.
04
Handover
Architecture and operating documentation, team training, handover of the code, and a scope of autonomy settled in writing at the end of the programme.

Commitments

What is verified at acceptance

These commitments can be held against us. Written into a tender, they filter out the responses that will not hold — including ours, if it does not hold them.

The chain is handled from submission to notification. A counter delivered without processing is not part of this solution.
Operation on a phone, over a slow link, is verified on real devices rather than declared.
Accessibility for people with disabilities is proven by testing, and the results are handed over.
A non-digital channel is kept open, and the files it produces enter the same processing queue.
Data location and the applicable legal framework are documented before go-live.
Code is handed over to the client from the first delivery, with a reproducible build procedure.
Real delays are measured and reported, including when they are unfavourable.

Before committing

Questions to settle internally

An organisation that cannot answer these questions is not ready to launch the programme. Saying so is better than selling it a study.

Which procedure serves the most users for the shortest processing time?
Who, by name, decides to drop a document required without legal basis?
What decision time is the administration prepared to publish?
What happens to a file submitted at the physical counter: does it enter the same queue?
Where may the data reside, and who must be able to reach it?
Which team will take over operations, and what training does it need?

Evidence

What we have delivered on this scope

Government and public administration2023
Public administration — case-handling platform
Digitisation of a public-facing service, designed to remain usable on unstable connections and outside the capital.
Counters deployed
9
Months of programme
11
Reference KP-2023-005