Digital by Default - Councils don't have websites, they ARE websites

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"Your council used to have a website - now your council is a website" was the thought-provoking assertion by social  entrepreneur and founder of mySociety Tom Steinberg at the recent SOCITM Building Perfect Council Websites 2012 event in Birmingham.

Many local authorities already make extensive use of their website to deliver public services online to citizens - whether it is to order a recycling bin, book leisure facilities, renew a library book or pay their council tax.  Tom's assertion is that local authorities still have a long way to go to deliver 'Amazon-style' levels of service and transaction capability online but they do need to make it a priority as the digital-native generation become the council tax payers of the near future.

The benefits to local authorities of investing in making their websites true transactional portals rather than simply being information repositories about council services are compelling:

  • Saving councils money: according to recent data from SOCITM, the 'cost to serve' a citizen service request reduces from £7.40 face-to-face to just £0.32 on the web (The full report that this data is taken from is available to SOCITM Insight members: Better served: Customer access, efficiency and channel shift)
  • Increasing citizen satisfaction: services can be available online 24x7 and accessible instantly by citizens which helps to improve their satisfaction with their experience of public services
  • Improving council agility: new or updated information on online services can be added to the website instantly

This may all sound too good to be true.  It is a reality in many councils already:

  • Chorley, Blackburn and Darwen Councils:  save £2.6 million over four years with new Customer Contact Platform from Microsoft partner Asidua, Read the full story here
  • London Borough of Lewisham: uses Cloud technology to reduce costs and increase savings by £150,000 a year with Microsoft partner bbits. Read the full story here
  • East Lindsey and South Holland Councils: on track to achieve savings of £3 million per year with new efficiencies with the support of Compass Point Business Services. Read the full story here

These councils are at the leading edge of integrating their citizen-facing websites, using Microsoft SharePoint, with their back-office business processes and applications.

The digital-native generation (i.e. the council tax payers of the very near future) expect ubiquitous internet access and are driving the explosion of internet-enabled devices from PCs, smartphones and tablets to internet-enabled televisions and entertainment consoles. This generation expects to be able to do most things online and will expect to be able to conduct the majority of their engagement with their local authority via the council website. The perception of the council website needs to change rapidly from that of a repository of information on council services to become the primary way for citizens to consume public services and interact with their local authority 'digital by default'.

Posted by Ian