The digitization of the Italian public administration is advancing. This is stated by the search foreGovernment Observatory of the Polytechnic of Milan presented this morning in Rome at the conference "From Italy to Europe, confrontation to improve". According to research in 2015 about half of the PA entities it developed eGovernment projects and compared to the previous year the capacity of innovation initiatives to achieve the desired results (+65%) and maintain them over time (+20%) has improved.
Furthermore, during 2015, the number of Municipalities that adopted a reuse solution doubled (from 16,6% to 33,7%), while the entities with a political referent for innovation projects grew by 35%. 85% those with a dedicated organizational area (while still remaining on limited values).
The success of the initiatives, according to the report, is heavily influenced by resistance to personnel change and the lack of formalization of back office processes, a fundamental requirement for digitalisation. An example is the case of PagoPA, called upon to solve the problem of digitizing payments to the Public Administration which in January 2016 had already joined more than 13.000 entities, but the absence of management software risks constituting a brake on diffusion.
After all, a strategic and continuous process is missing in the purchases of the PA: in 54% of cases the needs planning purchasing is on an annual basis and only in one institution out of five is the activity supported by an information management system. 81% of United Productive Activities Desks have at least one telematic channel for initiating proceedings, but many differences persist between the Regions. And even if 63% of the procedures of the Help Desks are initiated electronically, still 15% of the practices are in paper format or without certification.
Not only the administrations, but also the users do not seem to be completely ready for the change. over the80% of citizens still prefers traditional channels for paying fines and penalties, public transport and tickets, school enrollments, canteens and taxes to the PA, even if for the future more than half are willing to pay with alternatives to cash. The sentiment towards Open Data is mainly positive (70%) and clearly higher than that towards the PA in general (48%).
Just today, the INPS announced that envelopes with the forecast of their future pension will be sent to the homes of 7 million workers and the communication will also contain an invitation to request the digital identity of the new Spid to access all the additional features offered by the online retirement simulation service.
