The digital maturity report
The index shows what citizens see on the website. The report shows why it looks that way and what the institution can change over the next two years.
The report is for the leadership of a city hall or public institution that wants to know where it stands before a strategy, a funding application or a digitalisation project.
Provider: CSLDI, the Centre for Strategy, Leadership and Smart Development at FSPAC, Babeș-Bolyai University.
What the index sees, and what it doesn’t
What it sees: the website
The orase-digitale.ro index assesses the official website on 46 indicators in five categories: ergonomics, content, online services, participation, and security and privacy. Every town and city has three measurements, from 2020, 2023 and 2026, and is compared with places of the same size.
It is the foundation of the report: a starting point that is comparable and public.
See how your city hall scores in the index →What it does not see: the rest of the institution
The index measures whether services exist on the website and how good they are. It cannot see whether citizens use them, which systems run behind the counter, how prepared the people who operate them are, or which projects are on the way.
For that, you need data from inside the institution.
Five layers of data
Each layer answers a concrete question about the institution, from what citizens see to what is about to be built.
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01
What citizens see
The foundation: the Digital Cities index
The score on the 46 indicators, the trajectory across 2020, 2023 and 2026, the position among places of the same size, and the categories that pull the score down.
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02
What citizens use
The institution’s own records, over several years
How many payments are made online and how many at the counter, how many requests arrive through each channel, how many appointments are booked online. A service that exists but is not used is an investment that does not pay back.
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03
What happens behind the scenes
An inventory of back-office systems
Registry, archive, local taxes, civil status, urban planning, accounting: which applications are used, who maintains them, what data they exchange, and where work still happens on paper or by e-mail.
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04
People
A staff survey and interviews with management
An anonymous survey for all staff and interviews with management and heads of department: which digital skills exist, what training has taken place, who is responsible for the website and the digital services, and where things get stuck.
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05
Projects
Under way and planned
Which digitalisation projects are under way or coming, how they are funded, which problems they solve, and whether they connect to each other or to a strategy.
How we work
Indicative timings, for a town hall
- Week 1
First conversation
We agree what the institution wants to learn, who the contact person is and what data exist.
- Weeks 1–2
Outside analysis and data request
I analyse the index profile and send the list of data needed on service use and on systems.
- Weeks 2–4
The staff survey
An anonymous online survey of about 15 minutes, sent by the institution to all staff.
- Weeks 3–5
The interviews
Conversations of about an hour with management and with the heads of the departments that deliver services.
- Weeks 5–7
Analysis and report
I bring the five layers together and set out the maturity stage and the priorities.
- Week 8
Presentation
The results, presented to management and, on request, to the local council.
Three stages of maturity
The report places the institution on a three-step scale. Each step takes a different kind of work, and none is won for good: a service you stop maintaining takes you back down.
Digital services
Online services that duplicate the counter: payments, requests, appointments. Quick wins, without major internal change.
Digital processes
Internal processes are audited and redesigned, databases are connected, repetitive work is automated, and data feed into decisions.
The digital institution
Digital is the default way of working. Services start from people’s needs, data are open, and participation is part of decision-making.
What the institution receives
- The full report, with the analysis of the five layers and the maturity stage
- A two-page executive summary, for management and the local council
- A 24-month roadmap, with priorities and indicators
- A presentation of the results, to management
What I ask of the institution
- A contact person in the institution
- Access to records on service use and on systems
- Sending the survey to staff
- Time for interviews with management and heads of department
A city of 25,000 people
From 16th to 79th place in three years, with 82% of payments still made in cash. The executive summary shows why, and what can be done in two years.
The example starts from a real city’s data, slightly altered so that the city cannot be recognised, and completed with simulated data for the layers that need access inside the institution.
Questions
Is the report public?
The institution decides. The index data are public; everything else, including the report, belongs to the institution.
How much does it cost?
It depends on the size of the institution and on how many data layers the assessment covers. After the first conversation you receive a fixed offer, within the Romanian threshold for direct procurement.
Can it be funded from EU funds?
If the institution has a digitalisation project under way or in preparation, we discuss at the first meeting whether the assessment can be included in it as an eligible activity.
Who carries out the assessment?
I do, as a member of CSLDI. I start from the methodology of the Digital Cities index, which Ioana Nisioi and I have applied since 2020 to all 325 Romanian towns and cities.
Does the report change the city’s score in the index?
No. The index is calculated the same way for every city, only from what is publicly visible on the website, and the report’s data play no part in it. An institution that commissions the report gets nothing extra in the index.