EU sees 'potential' in e-government

Online services have 'huge potential' to save time and money but they need to be more user friendly, says the European Union

Only a minority of users are experiencing service improvements through e-government, according to a "snapshot" survey issued by the EU.

While e-services such as tax returns, online VAT, social security benefits, car registration and birth and marriage certificates have "huge potential" to save time and money, they are yet to present an improvement on their offline counterparts, says the report.

The research finds that online income tax returns are saving EU citizens "seven million hours a year", while companies are saving about €10 per transaction on VAT returns.

Overall, 62 per cent of users say they are "very satisfied" with e-services, and less than 10 per cent report they are not satisfied. Over three-quarters (77 per cent) say that they would recommend online services to others.

It adds, however, that "real service improvements" are only experienced by 30 to 40 per cent of users, and that e-services need to be made more user friendly. The "most common" usability problem is that people can't find the e-service.

"The most important action item in order to improve value for citizens is to make the services easy to use and to provide better help regarding the e-service on the website," said the report published on Friday. "Fundamental process integration [back office] and improved service delivery [front office] is needed to create integrated services and deliver maximum benefits."

Commenting on the findings, Viviane Reding, the EU information society and media commissioner, said that it is now time to make e-services more widely available.

"Using new technologies to provide public services can become a powerful way to cut red tape," she said. "The survey shows that public services online clearly deliver concrete added value both to citizens and business.

"The challenge now is for public authorities to provide online public services interactively wherever possible and relevant, and in a manner which is as user-friendly as possible. We have to ensure that citizens and businesses across the EU get the maximum benefit from quality, efficiency and productivity gains achieved by supplying public services on line."

The EU's eGovernment-impact survey got responses from 48,228 users and recorded their attitudes to the usability, benefit and value of e-services. It was commissioned to assess progress under the eEurope action plan for 2005.