The municipality of Milan has, in collaboration with public staff and a tech company, developed an open source Digital Sustainability Model, which measures the effect of the digitalisation process up against three parameters.
The municipality of Milan has been testing a Digital Sustainability Model in their General Registry Office in the past years. This year, the municipality created a GitHub repository for the model, currently including a presentation. The model is a way of quantifying outcomes of digitalisation in three main measuring points: Saving time, money, and carbon emission.
The case of the General Registry Office showed that once it was possible to obtain city certificates digitally, on average, it would save citizens an hour of travelling, eight minutes in the administration per digital certificate and around 450.000 sheets of paper. With the Digital Sustainability Model, it is possible to quantify these results.
Structures and KPIs
On its GitHub page, the model is yet to be made public, however, it is possible to find the overview of the analysis process with objectives and aims, structure and composition, and KPIs for the quantification of benefits. The structure for the process is:
- Identification of the macro-activities most impacted by the digital project
- Mapping of the processes impacted by the digital application
- Calculation of the benefits for the stakeholders impacted by the initiative
The KPIs are split in two: Benefits for public administration and for the citizens. The digitalisation is intended to improve efficiency of the organisational structure and at the same time improve the services offered to the citizens, it states.
Organisational fundament
The introduction to these digital processes required a little help for the public employees. They needed to see the value of digitalisation, Roberta Cocco, Deputy Mayor for Digital Transformation and Service in Citizens in Milan said to Cities Today. As she states, it is important that the drive, management, and monitoring comes from within the municipality.
It is also important for the public employees that no jobs have been lost due to the digitalisation process in Milan. Also, it is still possible for citizens to receive the service analogue instead of digital due to national legislation.
Final take-aways
- Milan has developed an open source Digital Sustainability Model for local digitalisation efforts.
- The model quantifies how much time, money and carbon emission are saved by the digital services of the public offices offering them to citizens.