The digitalisation of existing public services poses diverse challenges to government teams in municipalities around the world. Some of these challenges might be technical, educational, financial, and even cultural.
Any public service can potentially be digitalised, but each case and city are unique. So before these initiatives are started, it is recommended to step back and plan the way in which those objectives can come true and the factors that surround them.
Transforming existing services into digital requires a careful study and analysis of those opportunities, resources, and risks that may take place before and after the process.
Existing analog services require at least 3 elements in order to be digitalised:
- Being efficient and accurate in their current analog version so they fulfill citizen's needs.
- Addressing the Digital Divide and the Digital Literacy.
- Technological infrastructure and maintenance.
Digitalising public services is more than creating a website or a mobile phone application and implies the articulation of the new digital services with the analog existing processes, human talent, and the technology that will support them.
This working group focuses on learning and experimenting about the viability, opportunities, and risks of current services to be digitalised, the group also explores alternative ways to address citizens' needs using digital resources.