Key messages from
Better connected 2014
Socitm South West
April 4
Martin Greenwood
www.socitm.net
This year’s headline
Rapid growth in use of mobiles a major
challenge for local government websites
…
suggests latest Socitm survey
www.socitm.net
But first some context about
digital delivery
Launched
10 December
at Socitm 2013
www.socitm.net
Better with less: delivering local
public services in the digital age
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
www.socitm.net
By 2020?
Now at end of 2013
The accelerating pace of change
How to progress the digital agenda
Key milestones on the digital journey
Section 1 By 2020?
A vision for digital services based on:
• Start of new wave of development in educating the young,
creating over time a new generation of ‘tech-savvy’
citizens.
• ‘Smart city’ thinking of digital innovation
• Model of how one council has already prepared itself for a
new level of digital transformation
• New benchmark for quality of the customer experience
www.socitm.net
Section 2 Now at end of 2013
A number of studies this year
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National Audit Office review of GDS
Local Digital Today from CLG (via UKAuthority)
Socitm study of 30 councils
Evidence from Better connected and Website performance
service
• Cultures of the Internet from Oxford Internet Institute
Policy in right direction, but progress patchy
www.socitm.net
Section 3
The accelerating pace of change
• Latest thinking about role of digital in welfare
reform, social housing, health and social care
• Level of complexity that has not previously been
faced.
www.socitm.net
Section 4
How to progress the digital agenda
• Patchy progress
• Very few are able to demonstrate good practice
holistically across all their activities
• Composite picture from specific examples from
different organisations
www.socitm.net
How to progress the digital agenda
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Argyll & Bute Council
Bellshill Academy, North Lanarkshire
Birmingham City Council
Bournemouth Borough Council
Buckinghamshire County Council
Cambridgeshire County Council
Casllwchwr Primary School, City and County of Swansea
Cheshire East Council
Coventry City Council
Croydon Council
East Riding of Yorkshire Council
Future City/Glasgow
Hertfordshire County Council
Lambeth Council
www.socitm.net
How to progress the digital agenda
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London Fire Brigade
Newham Council
Redbridge Council
Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
Rushcliffe Borough Council
Shropshire Council
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
South Tyneside Council
Suffolk councils
Surrey County Council
Swale Borough Council
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
West London Alliance
www.socitm.net
How to progress the digital agenda
Key principles
Enabling principles
1. Customer experience
2. Engagement
3. Ways of working
4. Service re-design
5. Demand management
6. Leadership
7. Capability
8. Sharing
9. Agile working
10. Transparency
11. Usability
12. System selection
13. Take-up
14. Assisted digital
15. Performance
Digital Insights
www.socitm.net
How to progress the digital agenda
One example
Online housing benefits
System selection of easy-to-use third party
software is often major bugbear, but web
managers can take responsibility as at Rochdale
and, working hard with a responsive supplier,
can turn unpromising situation into flagship
project.
www.socitm.net
Section 5
Key milestones on the digital journey
• Corporate commitment to a digital future
 Some key questions
• Digital capability
 Eight tangible milestones
www.socitm.net
Corporate commitment to digital future
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Is there clear vision shared by senior managers?
Do effective leadership and governance arrangements exist?
Has clear set of priorities been agreed corporately and for each
service?
Have goals been set for these priorities, based on usage data?
Has organisation implemented policy of redesigning services
before putting them online?
Does it give usability of online services the highest priority?
Is there strong commitment to use digital tools (eg social media) by
employees at all levels for purposes of citizen engagement?
Has it committed to a policy of transparency ?
Is there strong digital capability at heart of programme?
www.socitm.net
Strong digital capability
1.
8.
Very good website to support digital delivery for both desktop and
mobile
In-house team with digital skills, expertise and ‘can-do’ attitude
Procurement rules to prevent software being obtained that is not
fit-for-purpose
System for managing digital content on web and other digital
platforms giving full editorial control to central web team
Pruning of web content (and content authors) in past 18 months
Tools and infrastructure in place to enable digital working
Corporate process for gathering and analysing data about
demand for services
Well-researched plan for how online take-up will be increased
9.
Supporting evidence-based plan for assisted digital services
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
www.socitm.net
This year’s headline
Rapid growth in use of mobiles a major
challenge for local government websites
…
suggests latest Socitm survey
www.socitm.net
Our review
• Survey of 410 UK council websites
(all E, S, W and a few from NI)
• Main survey of 259 questions by team of 12 reviewers
• Supplemented by specialist accessibility assessment by
Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC)
• Also an extra survey on digital engagement by team
• Use of third party data (eg Hitwise, Sitemorse and Local Direct)
www.socitm.net
How we assessed websites
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№ of customer journeys for top tasks
(5 to 9, depending upon council type)
№ of usability criteria – maximum of 4
(Navigation, search engine, A to Z and
accessibility)
Overall reviewer rating – from 1 (poor) to
3 (very good)
Mobile assessment
www.socitm.net
Customer journey for top tasks
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Report fly-tipping (from mobile device)
Renew library book (from mobile device)
Find out about football pitch (from mobile device)
Find out about roadworks in my area (from mobile device)
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Report missed bin
Apply for primary school place
Find out about a planning decision
Apply for Council Tax Reduction
Apply for copy of birth certificate
Find out what's on for 'Under 5s' at libraries
Find out about care homes for elderly relative
Book an evening class
Register food business
Find out about my councillor
www.socitm.net
For each task
• Ease of finding
(eg arrival from Google, use of search,
A to Z, information architecture and
landing pages)
• Ease of completing
(step-by-step customer journey)
www.socitm.net
How successful is each task?
Apply for copy of birth certificate
Apply for primary school place
Book an evening class
Find out what's on for 'Under 5s' at libraries
Register food business
Find out about my councillor
Report missed bin
Find out about a planning decision
87%
75%
70%
67%
64%
62%
57%
51%
Apply for Council Tax Reduction
Renew library book
Find out about roadworks in my area
Find out about care homes for elderly relative
Report fly-tipping
Find out about football pitch
49%
48% Mob
37% Mob
33%
28% Mob
24% Mob
www.socitm.net
This year’s four star sites (England)
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25 (7%) 4 stars
• 138 (39%) 3 stars
• 119 (33%) 2 stars
• 74 (21%)
www.socitm.net
1 star
This year’s four star sites (England)
Adur & Worthing
Allerdale BC
Blaby DC (New)
Bristol City
Carlisle City
Cumbria CC (New)
Dorset CC
East Riding of Yorkshire
Eden DC
Guildford BC
Harborough DC (New)
Haringey
Hinckley & Bosworth BC
www.socitm.net
Kent CC
King's Lynn & West Norfolk BC
Leeds City (New)
Leicester City (New)
Lichfield DC (New)
Oxfordshire CC
Preston City
Sandwell MBC (New)
South Oxfordshire DC
Surrey CC
West Dorset DC (New)
Wigan MBC (New)
Mobile trends for council websites
Usage
Visitor satisfaction
www.socitm.net
The mobile experience
• Only 31% passed our mobile assessment
• One in three of last year’s four star sites failed
• Performance on four mobile tasks half as good
as the ten desktop tasks
• Accessibility standard dropped from 45% to
26%, the most important factor being major drop
in one mobile task
• Website visitor satisfaction 36% lower on mobile
device
www.socitm.net
Need for mobile improvement
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First things first – think mobile
Don't assume mobile users are that different
Keep forms simple
Think carefully before building native apps
Remember other websites people might be using
It’s vital to ensure that you are thinking about mobile
optimisation in procurement process – and that
means ensuring that your web team is at the table
for that discussion
One BC reviewer
www.socitm.net
Need for general improvement
Get the basics right! Don’t bother with apps. Make
sure you have a responsive website that works well
on tablets and mobiles. Rationalise your content.
Be aggressively focused on the user. Get a
continuous improvement plan in place and test, test
and test again with real people. Work with other
councils to force suppliers to improve their products.
Another BC reviewer
www.socitm.net
Where do we go from here?
Trend in four star sites
www.socitm.net
Is a single local.gov.uk the answer?
• Some good but limited examples of shared sites
eg Dorset, Adur & Worthing, Allerdale & Carlisle
• But this option a non-starter for several reasons,
eg local needs, different priorities, major logistical
problems etc
www.socitm.net
Scope for much more sharing
Task
Evidence of sharing
1M
Report fly-tipping
Little
2M
Renew library book
Full use of library cataloguing
systems
3M
Find out about football pitch
Little
4M
Find out about roadworks in my area
Some use of roadworks.org
5
Report missed bin
Little
6
Apply for primary school place
Full use of third -party system
7
Find out about a planning decision
Full use of planning systems
8
Apply for Council Tax Reduction
Little
9
Apply for copy of birth certificate
Little
10
Find out what's on for 'Under 5s' at libraries
Little
11
Find out about care homes for elderly relative
Some use of external databases
12
Book an evening class
Little
13
Register food business
Some use of GOV.UK
14
Find out about my councillor
Some use of modern.gov
www.socitm.net
But needs to be more intelligently
applied
Too many disrupted customer journeys
(example from East Anglian councils)
www.socitm.net
Some principles to apply
• A digital asset to be shared must meet a clear need
• A digital asset to be shared must be high quality
• A new digital asset to be shared must be developed
collaboratively
• Procuring a digital asset, whether free or paid for, should be
carried out carefully and systematically
• Integrating a shared digital asset in the main site is as
important as the asset itself
www.socitm.net
Managing third party suppliers: the
biggest issue for council web teams?
Far too many:
• poor quality products from usability viewpoint
• poorly integrated third party products and services
Nine recommendations covering:
• Procurement
• Design
• Support
www.socitm.net
http://wps.socitm.net
www.socitm.net
www.socitm.net
Learning from
Better connected 2014
Wed 14 May, London
www.socitm.net
Key messages from
Better connected 2014
Thank you
Martin Greenwood
www.socitm.net