The implementation of VIDsigner's biometric signature through Peakway and its integration into the solutions of GADD Grupo Meana represents an important step towards the transformation of public administration.
The municipalities of Salou and Manlleu are two administrations of Catalonia (Spain) with 27,000 and 20,000 inhabitants respectively, and more than 10 years of history actively promoting electronic administration. A fundamental commitment of their management has been to implement the technology necessary to improve the attention of the citizens, enabling them to deal with any in-person procedures more quickly.
Modern technology has been the main element of their "Paperless Offices" project, which was meant to transform the attention provided without exhausting resources.
THE CHALLENGE: Bringing digitalization closer to citizens who prefer in-person attention
The municipal public offices needed to maintain the quality of the traditional in-person attention and eliminate the technological barrier for citizens more accustomed to the paper process.
The main objective of the municipality of Salou was to accompany the citizens during their first encounter with the new electronic system.
"We were concerned the average time of attention in the public offices could increase, but the initial support of the new users greatly facilitated its adoption".
Jesus Redon Diez-Canseco, Head of Information Systems
The municipality of Manlleu, which was already awarded in 2009 with the prize for the Best Electronic Signature Initiative by CATCert, the Catalan certification agency, focused their efforts on communicating the importance of reducing the use of paper to citizens, which were more familiar with in-person attention.
"The main challenge was to incorporate systems for identification and the capture of biometric signatures (tablets) from the beginning, in order to save paper and time in the administrative process while not compromising the service to our citizens".
Mª Carme Noguer, Coordinator of Organization, People and Electronic Administration Ayuntamiento Manlleu
THE SOLUTION: Easy and transparent integration of the electronic signature for face-to-face scenarios
Based on a previous analysis, and as a partner of Validated ID, the Peakway group decided for the integration of the electronic signature solution within the file manager of GADD Grupo Meana, a tech pioneer for citizen's offices. The aim was to create a system that facilitates any kind of request and is 100% digitised.
According to M" Carme Noguer, Coordinator of Organization, People and Electronic Administration of the Municipality of Manlleu: "The processes were simplified immensely. "Any in-person procedure of the citizens is now stored directly in their electronic file, including the guarantees for identification and their electronic signature. And all this in a very agile and fast way".
The responsible of Salou also emphasizes that it was a very "transparent" process for the citizens, which did not affect the normal operation of the file manager with significant changes.
"The promising results, paired with the broad range of potential uses of the biometric signature, encourage us to continue with the digital transformation and further reduce the use of paper."
Jesus Redón, Head of Information Systems Municipality of Salou Municipality of Salou
THE RESULT: Easy and transparent integration of the electronic signature for face-to-face scenarios
The positive results have made it possible to eliminate multiple documents on paper, which led on the one hand to a reduction in the workload of scanning and archiving documents, and on the other hand to an increased satisfaction of the citizens with the received service.
As Mª Carme Noguer points out, the new system allows citizens, who approach the municipal public offices, to make their request and sign it directly on the tablet before it is automatically integrated in their electronic file "without any loss of time or need for manual processing".
Both municipalities now hope to be able to extend the use of the biometric signature to more departments, such as Human Resources, where personnel files could be digitised.
For Xavier Sancliment, founder of Peakway and partner of Validated ID, lies the challenge of a digital transformation project in time and agility.
In the case of both municipalities, it has been possible to design a roadmap with very successful short-term actions, which creates more opportunities for these municipalities to lead new initiatives in the future.
