Steria’s Survey on European Government Leaders Reveals Open Data ‘Critical’ to Reducing Administration Costs

abernard102@gmail.com 2012-07-02

Summary:

“Steria today releases the results of a European-wide qualitative research project which surveyed senior civil servants and public officials in government departments and agencies about their attitudes towards the future of public administration. The study, ‘Beyond Efficiency: Public Administration Transformation’, revealed that open data, citizen-centric services, collaboration between private and public organisations and citizens as well as shared services are the top issues facing public sector leaders across Europe. One third of European civil servants surveyed agreed that breaking down departmental silos is vital to developing more citizen-centric services. These themes are being driven by issues such as the financial debt crisis, ageing populations, demand from the public for greater transparency especially with regards to data and Europe moving towards a single market as well as increasing globalisation. The trend observed in Europe resonates with the public administration functioning in India, where the Parliament of the country endorsed the mandate for timely response to citizen requests for government information by passing The Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI). Pierre Basquin, Leader of Steria’s Public Administration Business Community, comments, ‘The research shows that there is a wealth of knowledge about these issues and a passionate desire among European senior civil servants to do things differently and try out new ideas. How each country approaches the issues varies, but they are meeting and sharing knowledge and ideas to drive transformation. If the European Union gets this right it can create a landscape in which political dogma on how services should be designed and provided would no longer prevail but the best solution would be allowed to emerge combining the capabilities of public servants, non-governmental organisations, businesses and citizens themselves at the same time as embracing new tools and information communication technologies.‘ François Enaud, CEO, Steria, says, ‘This research shows that the future pressures facing Governments across Europe will require departments and organisations to simplify and automate processes, particularly around open data, if they truly want to innovate. We are already seeing some of these future themes playing out on the ground in Germany and Belgium for example – countries ahead of the curve for data-sharing. But other countries have further to go to break down departmental silos and regain public trust if they want to improve on their promise of open data and improving front-line services.’”

Link:

http://www.itnewsonline.com/showbwstory.php?storyid=7633

Updated:

08/16/2012, 06:08

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.psi oa.comment oa.legislation oa.india oa.attitudes oa.lay oa.steria oa.rti oa.surveys oa.europe oa.government oa.data oa.south

Authors:

abernard

Date tagged:

07/02/2012, 17:19

Date published:

07/02/2012, 20:19