The Land Agency is the branch of the Italian Tax Administration that is responsible for managing the Cadastre, Cartography and Public Real Estate Registers throughout Italy. Its headquarters are located in Rome and it has offices in all provincial capitals. The Land Agency currently employs around 11,000 employees. Anyone who notes errors related to the cadastral description of their real estate can directly forward a request via Internet to change such data through the Land Agency's Contact Centre. The Contact Centre is a new way of solving the most common kinds of problems related to real estate data held by the Cadastre. Moreover, it simplifies the change of data procedures, allows end users to contact the Land Agency without having to actually go to its offices and significantly reduces the time required to reply to requests. End users can avail of the service by simply filling in the online form available on the Land Agency's website indicating their name, surname, address, e-mail address, the real estate unit in question, the data to be changed and the necessary information to support such a request (for example the details reported in the notarial contract of sale). The e-mail messages are handled by a central division of the Agency, which in most cases, checks these requests by matching them with the data stored in the Cadastre's database and carries out the changes directly. In the event where it is necessary to consult paper archives the requests are forwarded to the relevant provincial office. Moreover, the service has led to the redesign of back office procedures, by redistributing the Agency's workload throughout the territory. In all cases the end users receive a reply by e-mail within fourteen days of the request.

Main results, benefits and impacts

An initial analysis, made after five months (written analysis of 3 May 2005), revealed particularly encouraging results. There is a high end user demand for the service. Despite the fact that no launch advertising took place between 23 November 2004 and 30 April 2005 almost 12,000 request were forwarded (almost 25.000 to 30.000 on an annual basis). These requests regarded real estate property in every Italian province. In line with the forecasts, the Contact Centre dealt with 5% of the total amount of change of data requests. In fact, as regards the kind of requests which are strictly related to the Contact Centre, the penetration share is estimated at about around 10%. The service is transparent: the end user is informed by e-mail that their request has been received and is being dealt with, that it has been forwarded to the relevant provincial office, if necessary, and about the outcome of the process. The service is effective: 95% of the requests have been dealt with, while the remainder are being processed. Out of all the requests handled to date, 80% have resulted in changes being made to the databases, 12% with instructions for end users of the service; while the remaining 8% have been either incorrect or irrelevant. How the management of the requests works: the majority of the requests (almost 60%) are handled directly by the central Contact Centre, without actually involving the provincial offices. The Contact Centre and the provincial offices collaborate fully with each other. Timeliness of reply is excellent: 97% of the requests handled were dealt within the pre-established 14 day target (88% were resolved within one week). It is worth noting that in 2004 the system performance, at a national level, was about 50 days to deal with change of data requests (referring to 95%). End user range. This service has been mainly used by professionals (surveyors and notaries account for approximately 65% of the requests forwarded), while individual citizens also showed keen interest (25%) and public administrations forwarded about 5% of them (in particular municipalities). The benefits of the project seem apparent: the Contact Centre appears to be able to deal with the end users' problems without difficulties and in a very short timeframe, to enhance the quality of the database, and to reduce the workload of the provincial offices. The external costs incurred in 2004 amount to approximately 200.000 Euro. Such costs involved the development of the ICT solutions and the training of the personnel. This figure does not account for internal staff costs or accommodation costs for premises which the Agency had already been using.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

Firstly, this eGovernment initiative was introduced along with procedure streamlining e.g. the issue of end user authentication has been overcome as the request to correct data is simply a message verified with the information the administration already holds. The second aspect involves the service's impact evaluation. From the outset forecasts/targets about the volume of demand for the service as well as steps to guarantee its service levels were defined. The service was introduced along with a monitoring system, which meant that it was possible to measure and evaluate it day by day. The third aspect concerns the use of project management techniques. Although the architecture implemented was not particularly sophisticated, the project management approach made it possible to take into consideration all the activities which were part of the project from its beginning and to develop them together as much as possible and to reduce not keeping deadline schedules. As regards Italy, the project is extendible to all local administrations and to some central ones through initiatives of institutional cooperation. To date the project has been extended throughout the Land Agency's organisation, and has been designed to be extended in partnership with other administrations and/or with trader associations, which can contribute to identify and face the need to update/correct data in the Land Agency's database. Moreover, such design features, could be reused by other administrations which manage public registers such as Chambers of Commerce, Car Registry Office, Social Security bodies while local administrations could reuse certain aspects. In relation to initiatives to reuse the project, the Land Agency is willing and committed to: - making a presentation of the initiative, if requested; - making demos at trade fairs and/or workshops; - replying to e-mails; - organising "open doors" days with visits and illustrations of the experience; - participating in workshops at bilateral or multilateral discussion tables. The success of this initiative above all hinges on some essential organisational features which were in place from its outset: - Solid backing from top management; - Clear strategy and goals; - Good planning; - Use of project management techniques which are commensurate with the complexity of the project; - Clear assignment of responsibilities to implement the project. Secondly, some ICT features already in place at the project's outset have ensured the right environment for this innovative initiative: - High availability of ICT workstations; - Availability of a solid network infrastructure; - Availability of the cadastral applications on a web platform. Thirdly, the focus and priority that the legislation attached to citizen oriented initiatives has an important role, and has also been supported by more general legislation regarding the streamlining of administrative procedures, the digital administration, and privacy.