Measuring digital government: How to assess and compare digitalisation in public sector organisations

Abstract

Digitalisation is currently among the contenders for the top spot on any list of key drivers of societal, economic, and political change. For public services, the potential of digital is particularly promising: instant interaction with citizens is facilitated, new ways of inclusion and accountability can increase citizens’ trust and new technologies enable a transition from government-centric to citizen-centric services. However, the task of releasing this positive potential can only be accomplished once governments develop an understanding of what ‘digital’ means in a public sector context and have comparable information on their current states of digitalisation. This contribution outlines a new and innovative approach to assess and compare public sector digitalisation. The development of the Public Services Digitalisation Index helps public sector decision-makers in charting the course for their organisations to become truly digital.