Supporting with telework the Italian cadastral system (ABI)

The telework initiative is part of a project being driven forward by the Italian Land Agency. This project is commonly known as ABI (costituzione dell'Anagrafe dei Beni Immobiliari -the implementation of a Land and Real Estate Registry) and is divided into two phases which concern: - the reorganisation of currently available information (phase I) - the elimination of paper backlogs - the alignment of information and the digitalisation of real estate deeds - the retrieval of missing Cadastral data (phase II) A detailed plan to carry out these activities, which included the direct consultation with the provincial offices to define goals, schedules and resources, was put in place. The underlying aim of this plan was to eliminate totally the paper backlogs within 2004, by shifting the workload to be carried out in poorly staffed to ones with lighter workloads. The elimination of the paper backlog was completed within its scheduled deadline and the Land Agency is currently working to bring the second phase of this project to completion.

Main results, benefits and impacts

Costs - the first phase involved: - Logistic operating costs; - The impossibility to transfer some types of backlogs; - The training of staff hired on fixed term contracts; - Activities to transfer deeds; - The upgrading of hardware supplies; Benefits - the alignment of the databases enhances the quality of the services delivered to citizens. Results achieved: the gradual reduction of the backlogs and the almost completed capturing of the updates in the Cadastre's database. 95% of the data updates have already been acquired while 30% of the databases have been aligned to date.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

This project is original as it involves all the resources of the Land Agency and optimises their use through its pursuit of a twofold objective: the digitalisation and the alignment of the Cadastre's databases. The underlying aim is to create a synergy among all employees nationwide, in order to attain common goals, irrespective of the workload of a particular office, and to create a sense of belonging to one big team. The Land Agency's experience is based on a working model which could be transferred to any administration which has several offices. It has involved a large number of employees, who have been able to cooperate on line through the adoption of innovative technologies, and has had a positive impact on the volume of results attained. If requested the Land Agency is willing to: - Make workshop presentations of this initiative, describing all its features, including its most specific and critical ones and how it resolved them; - Reply to any e-mail about the project in order to promote a worthwhile exchange of ideas; - Organise an "open doors" event in a showcase setting in which activities will be carried out to experiment with all the steps which are being gradually implemented; - Participate in round tables. Factors on which the initiative's success hinges: - the optimisation of workflow among offices; - the creation of a sense of belonging to the Tax Administration; - the sharing of the aims of the Land Agency; - the introduction of a new work methodology to ensure a more efficient management of working processes. Issues which had to be addressed: - the identification of resources to be assigned to the activity; - the organisation and training of human resources. Lessons learned: - the involvement of the Land Agency's staff in a common objective made it possible to achieve a better result; - the key factor of success has been the decision to assign personnel to specific projects and to train them gradually.