Quality and impact monitoring for local eGovernment services

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a layered, comprehensive model of quality of service (QoS) for local eGovernment, and discuss its feasibility on a regional eGovernment case study. The eGovernment online services are becoming a key infrastructure for advanced countries. They allow significant efficiency gains in different sectors of society, offering benefits for individual citizens and for the community as a whole. The deployment of online services alone is not sufficient in order to qualify an eGovernment strategy. The intrinsic and perceived quality of services offered, as well as the actual impact of new functionalities, should be properly measured and taken into account.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents an applied research study for a quality‐focused evolution of a service‐oriented architecture for local eGovernment portals. This investigation was based on three main layers: the perceived quality and effective impact of services (G2C layer), the effectiveness of the deployed processes (WFM layer) and finally, the system‐level efficiency (G2G layer).FindingsThe measurement of quality with respect to eGovernment services is a complex task which requires appropriate tools to tackle the different aspects of the problem. Specifically, active and passive tools (respectively surveys and usage analysis) should be used to evaluate the quality perceived by the users as well as the utility of the service itself. The efficiency of the back office workflow must be estimated measuring statistical and dynamical indicators. Finally, technical measures should be used to monitor the responsiveness and scalability of software implementations and deployment systems.Social implicationsA better knowledge regarding (e‐)Government service delivery processes, their QoS and their impact on the society can empower both citizens and local administrators, and can help them to better improve the effectiveness of local government.Originality/valueThe multi‐layered quality measurement architecture proposed in this paper offers local governments the capability to systematically monitor and analyse the quality of their online services. The business process management technologies allow citizens to get a better knowledge of the service delivery processes; the QoS measurements allow to improve control on them; and the eGovernment Intelligence model allows to better quantify their actual social impact.