Quality-centric E-Government

The digital information infrastructure of public services in Germany is noticeably lagging behind those of its European and international neighbors. There are still considerable discrepancies between the current situation in public services and the requirements of the 2020 Online Access Act (OZG). Among other things, the online provision of administration services is dependent on the infrastructure for electronic identity verification (eID), which is still not available in all locations in Germany. While citizens are increasingly demanding the same level of “convenience” they have come to expect in the private sector from public services, there is a prevailing perception that service quality in the public sector is inferior to that of the private sector.

Public services can be categorized into analog, digital and hybrid services (e.g. online appointment bookings combined with a physical appointment). To date, there has been no suitable instrument for measuring the quality of hybrid public services. Accordingly, the central question of this research project is how to measure, control, and sustainably improve the quality of hybrid services in the public sector.

The aim of this project is to develop a suitable instrument for measuring and monitoring the quality factors of hybrid services in the public sector and to run a pilot project to gather data that can be transferred into the development of measures for training suitable skills. The aspect of digital identity infrastructure is to be given particularly high priority as it forms the basis of every digital and hybrid public service. The project aims to make a significant contribution to sustainably improving the quality of public services in Germany and, thanks to the transferrability of the project’s findings, the creation of new training concepts, open source publications and spin-off opportunities.