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Table of contents NET-EUCEN in a nutshell ................................................................................................................. 4 The definition of User-Centricity in NET-EUCEN ..............................................................5 References ..........................................................................................................................6 The proposed user-centricity indicators ................................................................................... 7 The proposed user-centricity indicators ................................................................................... 7 The starting question ..........................................................................................................7 Indicator 1: Definition ........................................................................................................8 Indicator 2: Development ............................................................................................. 10 Indicator 3: Assessment .................................................................................................. 12 Indicator 4: Overall ......................................................................................................... 14 References ....................................................................................................................... 14 How to give test your service and give a feedback about the indicators ................. 15 Members signing the NET-EUCEN network contract........................................................... 16 Want to become a member? ...................................................................................... 20 Contacts .......................................................................................................................................... 21
4 NET-EUCEN in a nutshell
NET-EUCEN mission statement The NET-EUCEN network mission is to engage organisations and citizens in defining and using innovative high added-value services enabling the fruition of public and private facilities. Our motto is: Enabling innovative visions to shape the EU future services
NET-EUCEN is a network of subjects all interested in the enhancement of the application of the user-centricity paradigm in Europe and shall be seen as a multidisciplinary eGovernment Community. NET-EUCEN is co-funded by the European Commission under the CIP-ICT-PSP funding programme. The network of Organisations covers the whole supply chain of the user-centered services: Users, Associations, Public Administrations, software developers, services providers, cultural facilitators, field experts. NET-EUCEN is supported by an open group of experts (NEPEG) acting as peer reviewers of the project proceedings. All the members and experts actively contribute to the achievement of the following goals: Build an international Community of interest and practice Scout opportunities for innovative ICT based e-Gov solutions Enable user centricity as a condition for services take up Develop a set of scenarios as scalable examples of user-centricity Enhance convenience for the users of e-services Facilitate the interactions of Public Administrations with citizens Enhance reliability of services provision of administrations at all levels Define guidelines for the correct application of user centricity Establish a set of indicators as benchmarking tool for administrations
5 The definition of User-Centricity in NET-EUCEN NET-EUCEN focuses on “User-driven services”, those that actively involve the people using them in service design and delivery. They entail drawing upon the expertise, views and perspectives of service users to complement the skills and input of service professionals. NET-EUCEN has based the definition of its indicators following the policy requirements as stated in the major Communications and Declarations released by the European Community and by the eGovernment International Communities. We list here the high-level approach of policies: The Digital Agenda for Europe targets at empowering users and improving the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of the Commission and suggests that (…) eGovernment is about using the tools and systems made possible by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide better public services to citizens and businesses (…); moreover the policy pushes the European governments are committed to making user-centric, personalised, multiplatform eGovernment services a widespread reality by 2015; The Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Malmö (2009) is based on the concept that Citizens and businesses are empowered by eGovernment services designed around users needs and developed in collaboration with third parties, as well as by increased access to public information, strengthened transparency and effective means for involvement of stakeholders in the policy process. In the NET-EUCEN project, the User-driven services go beyond typical user consultation or user representation thanks to the involvement of public service staff and users working together to determine what services are provided and how. The users in NET-EUCEN are meant as persons, citizens and the whole concept of user-centric services is based on “putting the user at the centre of innovative services” starting from enabling of a specific procedure: users will be involved in the user-centric services development that will be driven by what users want and operate on a scale that is relevant to them. This approach should avoid the typical approach of developers and administrations that only understand the users’ guesses of the services they need or how they intend to deploy the service to solve problems and achieve goals. Furthermore, in this way we want to save the added value for consultation that serves an important function in eliciting people’s views about the services they are getting, but it could bring to a one-way process with no guarantee that services actually change as a result.
6 At this aim, users’ needs are clustered in two main categories: the innovative services and the future services, mainly depending from the availability of enabling technologies and/or of public administration integration mechanism. NET-EUCEN establishes three conditions for the full achievement of the usercentricity in the provision of a service: 1. Involvement of citizens in the service definition (i.e. WHAT they need / want / how they would to use the service) 2. Involvement of citizens in the service development through benchmarking evaluation 3. Involvement of citizens in the service assessment NET-EUCEN recognises the user centricity is a three-fold process: User Involvement in a Co-design stage: this means the engagement and involvement of users in the stage of the development of new ideas and concepts, i.e. the definition of the service shall be made with users by starting from the users’ needs, wishes and requirements without any technological constraint. User Involvement in Development and implementation stages: this means the engagement of a sample/group of users in the first implementation of the services in order to evaluate its features and continuously discuss with developers how to optimise the outcomes and suggest improvements and/or changes before the final running of the service; User involvement in deployment and running stages: this refers to the possibility to validate the service through an, even wider, user-test campaign. This test shall imply a check of the flexibility of the service from the technological perspective and the interoperability of the applications, thus to give the possibility to customise it following the changes in the political, economic or social environment.
References Digital Agenda for Europe, COM(2010)245 final, Bruxelles 19th May 2010 Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment, agreed on 18 November 2009 at the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference in MalmĂś, Sweden
7 The proposed user-centricity indicators The starting question How to measure a service as a single entity and not as a mean value of a Country?
We propose to build and validate 3 different indicators + 1 global, as per the network description of work agreed with the European Commission. The paradigm shifts from a government-centric to a citizen-centric view of public service delivery, and we are here to provide a tool for measuring the effectiveness of the application of this innovative view. These indicators cover all the three steps identified by the NET-EUCEN network as characteristics and boundaries for the application of user-centricity methodologies; they measure the involvement of citizens in: design, development and usability, actual use. A global indicator has been added as merging concept of all these three stages. They are the following: I1 = Definition I2 = Development I3 = Assessment I4 = Overall User-Centric Application
8 Indicator 1: Definition Name
Indicator 1: Definition
What does this represent?
This indicator measures the actual involvement of the citizens / user in the definition of the service in its totality. We take into account four different steps of service definition: The elicitation of needs The definition of the service The list of functionalities
Policy background
The definition of the interaction modalities For the elicitation of needs and service definition parameters: The European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 “Harnessing ICT to promote smart, sustainable & innovative Government” states that: - Empowerment means increasing the capacity of citizens, businesses and other organisations to be pro-active in society through the use of new technological tools. Public services can gain in efficiency and users in satisfaction by meeting the expectations of users better and being designed around their needs and in collaboration with them whenever possible. - Services (shall be) designed around users needs and Inclusive Services: “Increasing effective eGovernment means that services are designed around users’ needs and provide flexible and personalised ways of interacting and performing transactions with public administrations” For the functionalities and interaction parameters: The European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015, Services (shall be) designed around users needs and Inclusive Services: - In addition, the usability of and access to eGovernment services should be improved by delivering eGovernment services via multiple channels (including Internet, TV, telephone, mobile devices, or where appropriate through intermediaries).
Methodological The indicators does not distinguish between methodologies of approach involvement of citizens / users, i.e. the raw data might be gathered from face-to-face workshops as well as from special reports or experts’ feedback. The key concept has been also
9 Name
Indicator 1: Definition discussed in “Inclusive service design: Inviting users to participate in and contribute to service design will ensure (online and offline) a focus for services on usability around user needs and demands.” We assigned a similar weight for each of the four involved parameters, their actual relevance will be defined during the validation phase.
Proposal range
[0-1]
Parameters & options
Engagement of citizens/users in elicitation of needs We refer to the involvement of users in procedures (events, surveys, etc.) that enable the creation of lists of actual user needs
YES: 0,25 NO: 0
Involvement of users in the service definition We refer to the stage when a service does not exist and its targets (the providers, the socio-economic domain, the impact on which citizens’ event-of-life, etc.) must be completely defined starting from the user needs.
YES: 0,25 NO: 0
Involvement of users in functionalities definition We refer to the stage when the outputs of the services must be defined and the overall integration with P.A. systems has to be outlined.
YES: 0,25 NO: 0
Involvement of users in the complete interaction definition We refer to the stage when the modalities of interaction with users/citizens are defined, including all the features of input – output, the interfaces and modalities of interaction with user/citizens. Here are in the general phase of complete design of a service before the actual technical design, especially the front-end.
YES: 0,25 NO: 0
10 Indicator 2: Development Name
Indicator 2: Development
What does this represent?
This indicator measures the actual involvement of the citizens/users in the beta-status of the service, more in detail we refer to all those stages that are run before the service is put in place and available for all the users. We take into development:
account
five
different
issues
of
service
Components of the service • Test and refining of user interface • Test and refining of functionalities • Evaluation of the user’ documentation Methodologies • Use of a shared environment
Policy background
• Engagement of user’ categories For the shared environment parameter: The European eGovernment Action Collaborative Production of Services:
Plan
2011-2015,
- Social networking and collaborative tools (e.g. Web 2.0 technologies) enable users to play an active role in the design and production of public services. For the categories (supply chain) parameter: The European eGovernment Action Collaborative Production of Services:
Plan
2011-2015,
- The involvement of third parties needs to be explored which are the most suitable tools and how best to apply these to effectively engage businesses, civil society and individual citizens Methodological This indicator takes into account both aspects of activities and approach people. The involvement of user-citizens is seen as engagement through continuous feedback, therefore basing it on assessed procedures. We assigned a similar weight for each of the four involved parameters, their actual relevance will be defined during the validation phase
11 Name
Indicator 2: Development
Proposal range
[0-1]
Parameters & options
Involvement of users/testers in common shared environment We refer to the availability of a space either virtual (online) or real (workshops, meetings) where citizens/users are enabled to share impressions about the tests and further ideas for improvement. Involvement of user in interface test and refining We refer to the interface of communication between the user and the service
YES: 0,20 NO: 0
YES: 0,20 NO: 0
Involvement of user in functionalities test and refining We refer to the functionalities, i.e. to all those aspects that can be used either to customise the service to the users’ needs or to extend it by adding information. Involvement of user in check of documentation / guidelines We refer to the guidelines and (on-line) helps for using the different features of a service
YES: 0,20 NO: 0
YES: 0,20 NO: 0
Involvement of ALL user categories in the tests We refer to the number of categories of users of the service as for service definition. We want to check if ALL the user categories have been actually involved in the beta-tests phase
YES: 0,20 NO: 0
12 Indicator 3: Assessment Name
Indicator 3: Assessment
What does this represent?
This indicator measures the actual involvement of citizens/users in the mechanism of services’ refining during the usage We take into account three different issues of service development: Engagement of users’ categories Kind of instrument used for gather the users’ feedback Scope and use of the information gathered from users
Policy background
For the improvement and definition parameters: The European Involvement of processes:
eGovernment Action citizens and businesses
Plan 2011-2015, in policy-making
- Member States are committed to developing and promoting more useful and better ways, relying on ICT solutions, for businesses and citizens to participate in public policy consultations, debates and policy-making processes. The Malmö Declaration [6], Improve eGovernment services to cater for the different needs of users and deliver them in the most effective way: - Efficient eGovernment services built around the needs of users will increase trust in government and contribute to higher user satisfaction whilst achieving efficiency gains. Methodological The indicator is specific for existing and running services, and approach includes both people and instruments used for the assessment. The weight preliminary assigned is the same (33%) for each macro-parameter: Involvement, Instrument, Scope and it has been differentiated accordingly to the number of subcategories. Proposal range
[0-1]
Parameters & options
Involvement of ALL user categories in the assessment We refer to the number of categories of users of the service as for service definition. We want to check if ALL the user categories have been actually involved in the refining phase
YES: 0,33 NO: 0
13 Name
Indicator 3: Assessment Instrument used gather the users’ feedback: phone calls We refer to the use of: phone calls Instrument used gather the users’ feedback: web modules We refer to the use of: web modules Instrument used gather the users’ feedback: consultations We refer to the use of: consultations’ campaigns Instrument used gather the users’ feedback: workshops We refer to the use of: one or more face-to-face workshops
YES: 0,0825 NO: 0
YES: 0,0825 NO: 0
YES: 0,0825 NO: 0
YES: 0,0825 NO: 0
Scope: improvement of the service usability We refer to the use of feedback gathered to actually improve the service interface and usability at large. Scope: definition of new features We refer to the use of feedback gathered to design new features for the service
YES: 0,165 NO: 0
YES: 0,165 NO: 0
14 Indicator 4: Overall Name
Indicator 4: Overall User Centric Application
What does represent?
This indicator embeds the whole user-centric measurement by providing an overall score of its application. The indicator represents the mean value of the previous 3 indicators
Methodological We adopted the simplest definition as starting point to evaluate approach the overall user-centricity. Each indicator received a similar score when comparing with the other, i.e. each sub-phase weight is the 33,33% on the overall score. In this way we do not privileged any step of the user-centricity. Proposal range
[0-1]
Parameters & options
All the indicators have the same importance, the proposal is I4 = (I1 + I2 + I3) / 3 i.e. I4 = 0,33*I1 + 0,33*I2 + 0,33*I3
References NET-EUCEN Annex I to the contract EC 250522 OECD Rethinking e-Government Services USER-CENTRED APPROACHES © OECD 2009 The European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 “Harnessing ICT to promote smart, sustainable & innovative Government” 15th December 2010 Digitizing Public Services in Europe: Putting ambition into action. 9th Benchmark Measurement, December 2010.
15 How to give test your service and give a feedback about the indicators We kindly ask you to spend few minutes and test the indicators via our web tool, available at the page http://www.net-eucen.org/indicators.php You can give your feedback about the relevance of each parameter that build the indicators as well as about the overall scheme of the proposed indicators. You just shall select “Validate our indicators” and unlock the tool. We warmly ask you to leave your comments in the text box at the bottom of the page.
If you prefer to test your service, just select the “Measure the user centricity of your service” and proceed with the scoring of each parameter.
16 Members signing the NET-EUCEN network contract Innova SpA The INNOVA group is made up of a pool of more than 140 professional consultants and experts (of which 60% engineers and technicians) who have developed a long standing and consolidated knowledge in areas such as Research & Development, project financing, evaluation and valorisation of advanced technologies, marketing activities and technology transfer services at national and international level. INNOVA collaborates with cutting-edge research centers and universities in the implementation of valorisation strategies regarding the assessment and exploitation of advanced technologies for an efficient product and process management, developed in the framework of private research initiatives, R&D programmes of the European Union as well as national programmes.
University of the Aegean / Information Systems Laboratory The Information Systems Laboratory (ISLab) of the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, has extensive experience in research and development projects dealing with advanced forms of ICT exploitation in public organizations for supporting public policies formulation and interaction with the society (e.g. e-services, e-participation)
Steinbeis Innovation Center Embedded Design and Networking Steinbeis Innovation Center Embedded Design and Networking (sizedn) at the BadenW端rttemberg Cooperative State University Loerrach, Germany is a R&D partner in the field of embedded networking. Its system and software development expertise is a profound basis for ubiquitous and distributed computing applications
Inova Mais INOVA+ S.A. is an expert consulting service provider in the Innovation field. Created in 1997, it is a private company operating in Porto, Portugal, with affiliated companies in Luxembourg, United States and a shareholder in applied research laboratories in Portugal. INOVA+ has a consolidated experience in dealing with SME technology needs and research.
Cheshire Henbury Cheshire Henbury is a small company that specialises in providing research support services to industry and research funding agencies. The primary focus is on studies to establish research needs and opportunities, exploitation of ICT, research strategy development, and services to support the operation of research programmes. Information and Communication Technologies have been the main area of activity, with emphasis on applications
Techin TECHIN is a company made up of a pool of consultants specialised in marketing and technology transfer with an extensive experience in supporting organizations and companies for R&D projects development and technology innovation stimulation.
17 White Hall – Reply Whitehall Reply is the SW development branch of Reply and its competitive positioning it is based on cornerstones inspired by strong know how and dynamism: consulting approach, qualified international technology partnerships and R&D activities. Its e-government proposition deployed on Public Administrations it is able to produce measurable end benefits.
Data Media Group The Data Media Group was established in 1994 as project management, consulting, market research and media company in ICT field. Data Media Group has high professionalism and knowledge, experience, proved by 15 years of successful operation, public and private partnership networks in Baltics and other countries, high effectiveness per employee
CRP Henri Tudor CRP Henri Tudor contributes to the improvement and strengthening of the innovation capacity of enterprises and public organisations. Therefore, the Centre offers a large scale of services and activities: applied and experimental research, doctoral research, development of tools, methods, labels, certifications and standards, technological assistance, consulting and watch services, knowledge and competences transfer, as well as incubation of high-tech companies
Ventspils Digital Centre "Ventspils Digital Centre" is a public institution of Ventspils City Council the aims of which are: 1) to facilitate the involvement of Ventspils city municipality, residents and entrepreneurs in the information society and e-government; 2) to work actively in building up the information society and in implementation of e-solutions on local, regional, national and international level; 3) to form, to support and to develop the infrastructure of information and communication technologies.
Association for the Promotion of Information on Science and Technology for All Countries IT4ALL is an association whose core activities consist in ideation and development of innovative business Intelligence related services and in designing software packages and providing training and technical assistance activities on Business Intelligence, Internationalisation, Technology Transfer and Innovation processes as well as in offering Technology Assessment, R&D National and International Projects.
Malta Information Technology Agency MITA, formerly MITTS Ltd, provides ICT services and professional project management and consulting services to the Maltese public sector. It is an organisation of 320 highly skilled professionals dedicated to assisting the Government transform technological innovations into real business solutions. By means of its ICT and project management services, MITA helps the Government implement available technology in the fulfilment of its strategies and projects.
18 Technical Support for European Organisations TESEO is a Brussels based consulting with special focus on research and innovation and more than 15 years experience in European funding programmes especially in the Information and Communication Technologies. TESEO has run a series of projects specifically targeted at SMEs of the IT domain or at public organizations and has coordinated several policy related actions.
Vestfold University Vestfold University College is a medium-sized public higher education institution with approximately 4000 students and 450 employees. The Faculty of Social Science is one of five faculties. The faculty delivers several undergraduate and graduate programs, and has a well developed research organization
eDATA EDATA is a company focused on BPM-type services, having remarkable competencies in process analysis, modeling, automation and monitoring. The methodology we use for process analysis and modeling is one of our own and comes as a result of the intimate knowledge of the newest tools and standards in this area as well as the use of this knowledge in various projects. EDATA Competences are in Modeling Standards, Methodologies and Modeling platforms.
Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the biggest unitary local authority in Europe. Approximately 59000 staff are serving a population of over 1 Million people with an annual budget of ca. £3 Billion. The council provides a great number of services, including areas like children’s and adult education, social housing, social care and health, street maintenance and transportation, benefits, libraries, culture and arts to name but a few.
Euroconsultants S.A. Euroconsultants S.A. (ECSA), has vast and varied experience in many fields of economic and technology development, at the international, national and regional levels. Founded in 1990 as a private consultancy, it has grown and evolved into a group of companies with a diversified staff of 100 in-house experts and a further reservoir of expert consultants expanding their field of action.
Informacines visuomenes pletros komitetas prie LRV The mission of the committee is to design, arrange and co-ordinate processes aimed at the development of information society alongside the creation of an open, educated, continuously learning society, members of which rely on knowledge in their activities, have an opportunity and capability to make effective use of modern ITT means in every step of their life.
19 In-Jet In-JeT ApS was established in 1997 and has developed to become a renowned research and innovation firm in the field of technology development and exploitation. In-JeT has developed a effective tools for technology assessments, defining technology strategies, developing business models and business cases and exploiting innovative technology solutions in such divers areas as healthcare and industrial services.
Theodore Puskas Foundation Theodore Puskas Foundation is a non-profit, public benefit organization under Hungarian law. The objectives include from the beginning the dissemination of advanced foreign technologies in Hungary and the introduction of state of the art Hungarian technologies on the international market (know-how and technology transfer, knowledge management, partner search).
DIDA Dida has a deep experience in SMEs and Public Administration training asnd communication needs analysis that are in turn strictly connected with their knowledge lifecycles, as well as in designing and managing complex services delivery systems , also mediated by technologies.
Cities on the internet "Cities on Internet" Association (COI) is an organisation created in 1997, gathering Polish experts in the area of eGovernment. The highest priority of the organisation is to support local, regional and central public administration in the process of their transformation toward modern eGovernment solutions. COI is the Polish Information Society think tank.
e-trikala S.A. Development Agency Of Local Government E-trikala S.A. is an emerging company, formed within the Municipality of Trikala, acting in the fields of new broadband technologies. e-Trikala aims to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based applications, oriented to the improvement of every day life in a medium sized city. Its implementation of the first Digital City in Greece at Trikala, is a fact achieved through many projects and applications.
20 Want to become a member? NET-EUCEN federates all committed eGovernment stakeholders in Europe sharing a common objective of fostering the deployment of user centric eGovernment across Europe and across multiple services.
The NET-EUCEN is an open network of Organisations Networking services facilitate exchange processes within the NET-EUCEN network and with other similar networks and external entities dealing with policies for the improvement of public services provision at national level. The final objective is to strengthen the NET-EUCEN network capability in becoming a catalyst for participants to the eGovernment and policy programmes and to gradually increase the stakeholders base for the network. Being part of a community of interest where you are able to discuss user centric service development as a specialist topic Networking with European partners to exchange ideas and learn from experiences in other countries Submit your cases to a sectored community, the cases will be replied in the ePractice www.epractice.eu portal of the European Commission Access to a group of experts – if you have a question we’ll facilitate a response from the expert group (NEPEG) within the discussions moderated in the linkedin and Agorà forums. Full access to best practices as well as to all the publications and proceedings of the network User Associations and Citizens can understand the potentialities of usercentricity and learn how to better expose or submit their needs. Services Providers can evaluate new and innovative ways to approach to the users and citizens, as well as new solutions found by other providers. A weekly newsletter with network news and relevant events. We need your help to review and discuss our findings and ensure they are relevant for the Community at wide. We hope to influence the creation of next generation of user-centricity guidelines thanks to your support and your valuable opinion. Associate Members receive no funding for their participation or travel costs associated with the network. The degree of participation of Associate Members to the network activities is up to each institution and is on a voluntary basis. Signing up is easy, and completely free of charge. The whole procedure is completely managed on line, avoiding any paper and signatures. The ASP module is accessible via the webportal NET-EUCEN, http://www.net-eucen.org/index-1.php
21 Contacts The Coordinator INNOVA SpA Head Quarter Via Giacomo Peroni, 386 00131 – Roma (Italy) Tel. +39 0640040358 Fax. +39 0640040364 info@innova-eu.net Project manager Alessio Gugliotta a.gugliotta@innova-eu.net Project website www.net-eucen.org Linkedin A specific group is accessible via http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3209635 Facebook The Facebook page is an open page, called Net-Eucen http://www.facebook.com/pages/Net-Eucen/163831660340711 Twitter NET-EUCEN tweets are available at the address @NETEUCEN