Description of the problem

Slovenia has an extensive array of state administration authorities websites, which provide a wealth of useful information and services for citizens, businesses, foreign users, the state administration authorities themselves and to some extent the wider public sector. The primary way in which state administration authorities communicate online is through their presentational website, but they also publish information on government service portals and on a variety of their own and on inter-ministerial project websites. This means that most of the state administration information is published in multiple places. Such fragmentation of information and its duplication on various sites leads to incorrect and inconsistent posts, which undermines the credibility of the state administration authorities websites. 

An analysis of the state administration authorities websites in 2016 showed that there are more than 350 websites in the state administration.

It was also found that the content structure is left to the discretion of the individual authority and is therefore fragmented and unpredictable from the user's point of view. The user is confronted with a one-off layout and quality of content on each presentational website. There is also no uniform system of rules for publishing online information from the state administration authorities to facilitate the work of editors, to unify the user experience of the state administration authorities websites and to control updates and duplication of content. 

Vision and objectives

One of the key objectives of the project is to establish the central state administration website GOV.SI and to integrate it with the other service websites of the state administration into a uniformly organised and seamlessly functioning state web service.

The project also aims to create uniform standards for all state administration websites, which will enable a better and more cohesive user experience. The results of the project will need to be maintained, therefore another aim is to establish a single editorial policy to ensure, through editor coordination, the implementation of the uniform standards, their upgrade and the quality of the state administration content on the web in the long term. 

Objectives

Establish a single editorial policy for the state administration authorities websites to

• prevent inaccuracy and duplication of content on the websites of the state administration authorities in a rational way;
• clearly define the roles of all stakeholders in publishing and updating content;
• increase control over content editing (development and updating of content);
• provide users with comprehensive, accurate, comprehensible and useful content on the state administration authorities websites and easy-to-use e-services;
• establish a single editorial process with a unified team of sectoral editors and common tools for editors.

Establish a single back-end system for input of the state administration authorities content on the websites to

• rationalise the costs of developing and maintaining different content management systems (CMS) or web content delivery systems; facilitate the development of new modules on the same platform;
• optimise editor training processes;
• simplify website editing processes.

Establish a central state administration website, GOV.SI to

establish a single point of contact for the state administration authorities websites for citizens, foreigners, NGOs, business entities and public administration, with a unified back-end system for content delivery and a unified editing process, allowing users to quickly access useful information and easy-to-use e-services.

The aim is to:

• centralise control of the editorial process and standardise the content update process; 
• increase task transparency and thereby streamline editorial processes; 
• clearly demarcate content.

Results

The key result of the project is the integration of the websites of all state administration authorities into a common GOV.SI website, i.e. at least 200 presentational and project websites.  The central GOV.SI website is available from 1 July 2019 at www.gov.si. The content has been gradually transferred by the authorities and currently more than 150,000 pages are published on GOV.SI. 

GOV.SI is established as a central repository of information and a directory of entities in the state administration, providing users with quick and easy access to information and services of the state administration.

GOV.SI puts the user at the centre. The content is presented in a uniform way, with a single structure and in a user-friendly language. This ensures a unified user experience when moving from one authority’s content to another. Content is entered at one point and displayed in several places on GOV.SI, reducing the possibility of errors and inaccuracies.

GOV.SI has introduced common databases of state administration authorities, ensuring that citizens can find in one place all state administration job vacancies, all public contracts and calls for tenders, and all services and news, which improves the transparency of the state administration operation.

The content on GOV.SI is presented in logically organised content areas (e.g. culture, social security, business and economy, etc.), so that when searching for information, users do not need to know which ministry is responsible for a certain content, but instead can proceed from their specific life situation. Furthermore, this organisation of content allows for the interweaving of ministries on common themes.

In October 2019, the GOV.SI website was awarded the Brumen Foundation Award for Excellent Slovenian Design, and in July 2020, the 2020 Netko Prize for the best website of a public or non-governmental organisation.

The launch of GOV.SI also achieved the goal of optimising the number of state administration websites, streamlining the costs of maintenance and upgrades of different websites and optimising the work of editors in terms of delivering content into a single system. The possibility of greater control over duplication of content has been achieved, and, by requiring that each webpage on GOV.SI has the person responsible for that content and the date of the last update indicated, also the possibility of monitoring how up-to-date that content is. At the same time, the single platform allows state administration authorities to interact with each other in the same content areas. 

In order to improve and unify the user experience of all state administration websites (not only GOV.SI), the uniform website standards (in Slovene language) project has been developed together with all state administration authorities, which include common content, technical and graphical requirements for state administration authorities' websites. The implementation of the standards will be overseen by the Ministry of Public Administration.

At the same time, the Decree amending the Decree on the visual identity of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and other state administration authorities (in Slovene language) has imposed the application of uniform graphic elements of the integrated graphic design of the state administration to all websites of the state administration authorities. The Annex (in Slovene language) provided for in this amended Decree is an appendix to the State Administration Visual Identity Manual and shows the placement of the uniform graphic elements on the websites of the state administration authorities.

Costs

• total: EUR 521,600
• EU funding: EUR 417,280
• state budget funds: EUR 104,320

Effects

Direct effects

• the project could lead to annual savings of around EUR 190,914 (after the completion of the project).

Explanation of the calculation of the savings: Some 770 public employees are involved in the editing of state administration authorities websites as part of their job. They spend 5,092 hours per month on this task, which is the same as if approximately 29 public employees worked full time on website maintenance alone (Report, Government Communication Office (UKOM), 2014). The establishment of a system for the maintenance of websites of the state administration authorities under the project will, at the organisational level, lead to optimisation of the work and save at least 10 % or 509 hours per month otherwise spent on this task. According to UKOM (2014), between 2009 and 2014, EUR 8,123,175 were spent on the development and maintenance of the state administration authorities websites. The reduction in the number of websites, which is one of the objectives of the project, will also reduce the cost of website development and maintenance by at least 10 %. The direct financial effects therefore derive from lower maintenance costs in correlation with the reduced number of websites as a result of the establishment of the GOV.SI website, lower maintenance costs for CMSs as a result of the establishment of a single CMS, and optimised work of the editors of the state administration authorities websites.

Indirect effects

From the results of the project:

• up-to-date content that is not duplicated;
• increased transparency of web content and the work of editors;
• optimised work of editors with clear roles and responsibilities: clearly defined roles of all stakeholders and rules for planning, posting and updating content;
• comprehensive, accurate, comprehensible and useful content and easy-to-use e-services that will save citizens and businesses time and money in procedures with the state, and facilitate office work of the competent authorities;
• unified editorial process with a unified team of area editors and common tools for editors;
• greater control over content and editorial processes;
• fewer state administration authorities websites;
• lower annual maintenance costs for the CMS (content management system);
• fewer trainings for editors;
• better user experience.

Expected indirect effects:

• increased public trust in the content published on the state administration authorities websites;
• increased credibility of state administration websites in the eyes of citizens;
• increased awareness of citizens, businesses and public employees of the content published (procedures with the State, obligations, news, etc.);
• saved end-user time and money, resulting in more satisfied end-users;
• reduced workload of clerical staff at administrative units, OSS points;
• relieved customer service call centres;
• reduced workload of website editors due to optimised editorial work.

Situation without project implementation

If the situation of the state administration authorities websites remains unchanged, the result will be:

• state administration authorities website content that is duplicated, out-of-date and difficult to understands; 
• overloaded website editors due to duplication of work; 
• uncoordinated growth in the number of websites; 
• growth in the number of different CMSs requiring maintenance and upgrading; 
• citizens' distrust of web content; 
• underused online tools that can help to streamline the work of officials in the relevant offices; 
• citizens' dissatisfaction with the lack of useful content on procedures with the State.

Strategy for the way forward

Continued maintenance and upgrades of GOV.SI have been ensured, and the content and technical administration of GOV.SI has been determined along with regular training of website editors as initiated under the project. The administration of the Uniform Standards for the websites has been determined. State administration authorities have to comply with the Uniform Standards and the amended visual identity decree regulating the websites by September 2024 at the latest.

The optimisation of the number of websites and all other activities established under the project will be maintained and upgraded under the Single Editorial Policy for State Administration Websites.

The objective is to provide a standardised user experience on the state administration authorities websites. The establishment of a single editorial policy with uniform rules will enable the long-term maintenance of quality standards and the operation of a uniformly organised government web service.