eReykjavik - service applications online (eReykjavik)

eReykjavik offers Reykjavik´s citizens a wide range of automatic and interactive online applications. Citizens can apply for schools, after school activities, music schools, summer activities, summer jobs and grants for extra curricular activities through the citizen´s portal and receive instant automated responses when the status of their application changes. In addition to these fully automated (green) applications, citizens can apply for 16 different services online through semi-automated applications (yellow) and 28 applications are also available online for citizens to print (blue).

Policy Context

Policy context comes from the Government and from the City Council. The City Council past Information Policy in the year 2000. In June 2001 it developed an IT policy. In June 2002 it developed an Easy Access policy. In April 2004 it past a resolution about eReykjavik. The goal is to be amongst pioneer cities in utilizing the different options of electronic means to enhance and improve services for citizens and companies and effective use of IT. Iceland is not a part of the EU but is a part of the EEA. Iceland has adopted some of the IT and eServices policies from the EU and the City of Reykjavik has been active member city within the Knowledge Society of Eurocities (see eurocities.org).

Description of target users and groups

The target group for eReykjavik includes all citizens over the age of 17. This includes 78,8%percentage of Reykjavik City's 117,100 citizens as well as the citizens of other regions in Iceland who use services in Reykjavik. Today over 13,000 citizens are registered in eReykjavik, which means that over 14% of Reykjavik´s citizens aged 17 and older are registered in the service portal. Over 8,000 fully interactive applications are sent every year as well as thousands of semi-interactive and printable applications. Applications for schools, after school activities and summer activities are aimed towards minimizing the administrative burden of parents of school-aged children. The newest addition (opening in 1. august 2007) to eReykjavik will enable parents to distribute a grant from Reykjavik City to up to 3 different organization providing extra curricular activities for their children. The system will also provide the organizations access to eReykjavik where they can register activities and monitor grant income. Applications for music schools are open for all citizens with an Icelandic social security number. Applicants are diverse, ranging from school children to adults, including citizens from all regions of Iceland. Applications for summer jobs for Reykjavik City are aimed at teenagers 17 years of age and older who would like to work for the city during their summer holidays. Other semi automatic or printable applications, such as applications for preschool, building permits, grants, financial aid and services for disabled citizens are aimed towards all citizens living in Reykjavik.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The eReykjavik project manager is responsible for the day-to-day running of eReykajvik, development and technical matters. The project manager works under the Management team for eReykjavik, which is comprised of managers and executives from the Office of Technology and Services, the Technology Centre of Reykjavik, the Reykjavik.is Web Team and representatives from the various departments which have automatic applications in the eReykjavik portal, such as the Department of Education. Partnerships are in place between eReykjavik and the initiative island.is which is run by the Ministry of the Prime Minister. EReykjavik is also working with other ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance in regards to implementing a new secure digital identification card. EReykjavik works with various insitutions within Reykjavik City, government agencies, other towns and municipalities in Iceland and various suppliers. Multi-channel issues: eReykjavik´s automatic and semi-automatic applications are handled fully online. Passwords are sent via email as well as by post. Letters of acceptance and other documents are printed automatically and sent by post. All information regarding the citizen´s interactions with eReykjavik are also saved within the portal undir "my cases".

Main results, benefits and impacts

Of the approximately 90,000 (1. april 2007) inhabitants of Reykjavík aged 17 and older, 13,000 are registered in the eReykjavik portal today. This means that nærly 14% of Reykjavik´s inhabitants are members of eReykjavik. Over 8,000 fully automatic applications were sent through the portal last year in addition to the thousands of semi-automatic and non-automatic applications. In an opinion poll conducted in June 2006 over 93% of participants were very satisfied with being able to apply for services online, nearly 80% thought eReykjavik provided good service and over 82% thought it was easy to use the eReykjavik portal. A useability test conducted in January 2006 showed that the applications in eReykjavik were accessible and user-friendly. The total administrative and financial impact of eReykjavik has not been calculated fully. An estimate of the total financial gain from the application processes would be between EUR 500.000 and EUR 600.000 in yearly savings. These financial gains are the result of more efficient administration, time saving processes and fewer employees. The total financial gain will go up as more and more processes are becoming fully automatic. Innovation: eReykjavik emphasises fully automatic application processes. The aim of eReykjavik is to allow citizens to apply for services and receive automatic responses and information online without having to go between government insitutions and buildings. All processes are made fully automatic by linking to various government systems, allowing information to flow freely between institutions. When applications have been accepted, information flows into the institution´s own database automatically, allowing the institution to work further with applicant´s information. The City of Reykjavik is very occupied with Data security. In cooperation with the commercial banks and the Government of Iceland, electronic identity will be launched this autumn to increase security. Digital signatures are being developed and the law and policy structure being revisited and simplified for easier access for citizens. The processes, such as applications for school, extra curricular activities, extra curricular grants are very complicated and require many links to different software systems and institutions, such as the national registry, the school Mentor system, the Music school systems, payment systems,

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

eReykjavik has been in the forefront of electronic governement in Iceland and has influenced many other towns and municipalities. eReykjavik has been used as a pilot project in many new areas, such as applications for schools and the implementation of new digital id cards. eReykjavik works in cooperation with the island.is initiative and will for example be starting a pilot project for house benefit applications soon with the goal of enabling all municipalities to use the same project for housing benefits. eReykjavik has also been introduced in Sweden, Finland and at Eurocities Knowledge Society events, Cisco eLeaders events and inspired other European cities to go even further in their endeavour towards better eServices.

Lessons learnt

1. Fully automatic applications cut administration costs and make administration efficient 2. Connections between insitutions and different government systems simplify application procedures 3. Complications regarding applications, such as neccessary documents and permits, can be solved with cooperation between government insitutions. 4. Laws need to be revised with regards to the digital age. 5. Good planning and homework, mapping and simplifying processes and information to staff and citizens is the key to good implementation of eServices. Scope: International, Local (city or municipality), National, Regional (sub-national)