Espoo

1. Enablers

1.1 - Skills

Does the local authority have internally any position such as service designers OR user researchers OR user experience experts?

Has the local authority provided training on service design or user research to its employees in the last three years?

Yes

If yes, provide the evidence, including the approximate number of people trained

Omnia is a municipality owned educational consortium that provides upper secondary vocational education and training and general upper secondary education, youth and adult workshops, and liberal adult education, vocational courses and support in recruitment for enterprises. Espoo’s liberal adult education is provided by Omnia. During the years 2020-2022, Omnia arranged 336 courses in digital technologies and courses had 4825 participants. More information about Omnia and courses from. www.omnia.fi In Finnish schools structured training on digital technologies is part of the curriculum. In Finnish schools structured training on digital technologies is part of the curriculum.

Has the local authority provided training on ICT to its employees in the last three years?

Yes

If yes, provide the evidence, including the approximate number of people trained

2022: at least 6 2021: 19 2020: at least 5 Data got from HR-system, based on applications for courses/training

Has the local authority provided training on ICT to citizens in the last three years?

Yes

If yes, provide the evidence, including the approximate number of people trained

2020: 37 courses for whole organisation, that have had 798 participants. Additionally there have been branch specific courses. 2021 Espoo has started to use mainly web-based digital courses, Webope. 2021 there was 1129 participants in Webope courses. 2022 There was 1300 participants in Webope courses.

1.2 - Strategies

Does the local authority have a digital strategy less than three years old?

Does the local authority have a position of Chief Digital Officer or equivalent?

Yes

If yes, provide the evidence

While there is no position of Chief Digital Officer, there is a ICT-development manager who leads the digital development team under CIO.

Does the local authority have formal service standard (like for instance the UK Government Digital Service standards)?

Yes

If yes, provide the evidence

Espoo has enterprise architecture principles that are comparable to the standards. They give guidelines to digital service design and are in line with national legislation considering digital service delivery.

Does the local authority have design guidelines valid across departments, including for instance standards or protocols for simple language?

Yes

If yes, provide the evidence

Espoo has both tactical level guidelines and operational level standards for service delivery. For example guidelines for “tone of voice” in customer service, accessable language. These are available for employees in intranet.

Does the local authority have in place formal methods to monitor and enforce such service standards and design guidelines?

Are service design or user experience mentioned in digital strategy or some other strategy level document?

1.3 - Ecosystem

Does the local authority provide APIs to other administrations and to private companies?

Yes

If yes, how many external organisations (public and private) access the API monthly on average?

Espoo offers over 20 open APIs, for example to geographic and map data https://www.espoo.fi/en/product-descriptions-geographic-data-and-maps Use of APIs is not measured. Measuring would require budget to collect the information from partners.

Does the local authority use standardised services modules, provided at national or European level (e.g. CEF building blocks, national payment service or eID)?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence of standardised services modules

Yes, Espoo uses Suomi.fi services provided by the national Digital and population data services agency. For example, Espoo's early childhood education https://espoonvarhaiskasvatus.fi/applying/mapf

Has the local authority carried out within the last two years innovative forms of procurement, such as pre-commercial procurement, hackathons, other forms of collaboration with SMEs and startups?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence of collaborations carried out

Espoo has utilised innovative public procurement methods for example in procurement for Espoo.fi website platform and partner. More information about Espoo’s procurements can be found from national public procurement portal https://www.hankintailmoitukset.fi/en and Espoo’s online tendering system Tarjouspalvelu(extrernal link) where the invitations to tender and the related documents are also published. Espoo has been active partner in hackathons, such as Junction https://www.junction2021.com/ and has also arranged own hackathons, latest for chatbot development in June 2021. Espoo also has a Digital Agenda program that is based on co-creation and experiments for new digital solutions together with companies. https://www.espoo.fi/en/city-espoo/innovative-espoo/digital-agenda

2. User-Centricity Performance

2.1 - Co-creation

Does the local authority habitually (as standard practice on every new digital service) use service co-design / user research sessions in developing its services before their launch?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence on the type of service sessions

Within the last couple of years, it has been common practice to have service design or user research phase in the projects that develop services for end-users. This is not followed or monitored but can be detected from Espoo’s project portfolio. Usability and accessibility assessments are standard practices in Espoo’s digital procurement process.

Does the local authority habitually carry out users' research sessions on a regular basis (at least once a year) AFTER the launch of a service?

Does the local authority habitually use web analytics and other service data to improve digital services (e.g. completion rates and most frequent errors)?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence of web analytics examples employed

Google Analytics is used in Espoo's publication system, but it is being replaced by a product from Matomo Analytics. We use analytics in the development of our sites constantly. More extensive reports are taken every three months. For example we look at where did the traffic come to the site (a search engine, social media or another website), what are the most popular contents, what is the average session duration, what is the percentage of new visitors and so on. We have anonymization on, so no personal data is stored. Matomo Analytics is used in The Helmet web library (www.helmet.fi). The information obtained with the help of web analytics is used in improving the findability of the sites and in other site development work. The goal is to make our sites as user-friendly as possible.

2.2 - Supply of online services

Does the local authority offer at least one proactive service, where users are automatically signed up for a service based on the government-held data?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence of proactive services

The City of Espoo offers free sports and exercise services to Espoo residents aged 68 and up through the +68 sports wristband https://www.espoo.fi/en/sports-and-nature/guided-exercise/exercise-seniors/68-sports-wristband Every year citizens that turn 68 get a letter informing them that they are entitled to this service (using address and birth year data). It doesn’t require any registration or application. The citizen needs to collect the wristband which then states for the sport services that the person lives in Espoo and is of certain age. This is also to make it more flexible for the citizens, they don’t have to prove their age every time they use swimming pools etc. One proactive aspect of the service is the sports clubs that need no pre-registration for +68 users. In comparison for most of the other sport clubs people need to register.

If yes, provide evidence of how many and what requirements of the Single Digital Gateway have been fulfilled

Espoo has implemented Suomi.fi services (e.g. Finnish Service Catalogue) that are applicable to the Single Digital Gateway. For example, the Espoo.fi service information is based on the FSC-data. Information about the Finnish Service catalogue: https://palveluhallinta.suomi.fi/en/sivut/palvelutietovaranto/palvelukuvaus/palvelun-kuvaus

Does the local authority provide habitually to citizens the possibility to check online the progress status of the services they request?

2.3 - Useability

Do all the websites or websites sections of the local authority have consistent design and look&feel?

Yes

If yes, explain how (e.g. use of colour palette, consistent text size and fonts used, etc)

Espoo has web-service creation and brand instructions in place. Webpages have been updated in 2022 and have the same look and feel. Different older (prior to 2022) digital services might have a different look and feel but all the new webpages and digital services are created according to the brand instructions. The Espoo.fi web service has common content elements that are used by different service units. As a general rule, the fonts and text size of the online service are the same, but there is a possibility, for example, of text sizes to differ to some extent. The colors generally used in the online service are the so-called brand colors of the city of Espoo, but for example the KulttuuriEspoon brand color palette is wider and thus they use colors in the online service more widely.

Does the local authority provide the possibility to citizens to have live audio/video interaction (such as videoconference or single telephone number)?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence on what type of interaction

Espoo’s Contact Center/ e-services team answers customer service questions, assists with matters related to health care e-services and processes feedback. They also connect customers to right experts if needed. Service is available on chat, video-chat, via phone or email and social media. https://www.espoo.fi/en/city-espoo/customer-service/service-points-and-espoo-info/service-points

Are the local authority web services in line with <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/" target="_blank" >accessibility guidelines (WCAG)</a>?

Yes

If yes, provide examples of WCAG guidelines compliance with web services

For example, Espoo.fi accessibility documentation: https://www.espoo.fi/fi/saavutettavuusseloste-espoon-kaupunki (in Finnish)

2.4 - Security and privacy

Are the users able to use national eID, as a means of authentication for online services requiring authentication?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence

Yes, Espoo uses Suomi.fi services provided by the national Digital and population data services agency. https://www.suomi.fi/e-authorizations

Has the local authority put in place measures to ensure citizens' control over the data held about them (such as seeing who has access to the data and for what reason, correcting data, etc.)?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence of the measures put in place to ensure citizens' control over the data held about them

Information about Espoo’s data-protection https://www.espoo.fi/en/city-espoo/data-protection

Has the local authority in place documents on measures, practices or procedures on ICT security?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence of what documents

Espoo’s ICT security practices and procedures are described in documentation updated in intranet, documentation include but are not limited to documents such as “ICT security guide for personnel”, “Assessment form for ICT-security risks”, “Exercises for IC-security”.

2.5 - Citizens redress and feedback mechanisms

Does the local authority provide online mechanisms for both citizens and businesses to complain and seek change to a decision?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence on what online mechanisms for complaints have been put in place

All official complaints and appeals must be given in written format, but online documents meet this requirement and redressal requests can be submitted online. https://www.espoo.fi/en/city-espoo/participate-and-contribute/petitions-appeal

Has the local authority put in place structured means for users to provide feedback?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence on how users can provide feedback

Feedback can be given online https://easiointi.espoo.fi/eFeedback/en and on Trimble Feedback mobile app. Citizen’s can also contact the city customer services to give feedback: https://www.espoo.fi/en/city-espoos-contact-information-and-feedback

2.6 - Interoperability

Does the local authority apply the once-only principle in its services, so that citizens are not required to submit documents already held by the administration?

Does the local authority encourage the use of standards in IT development and procurement?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence

The City of Espoo has comprehensive instructions for procurement and separately for ICT procurement, and these instructions are being followed. Separate instructions are used for different procurement types: separately for small and direct procurements and for procurements exceeding the national threshold value. The instructions do not refer directly to standards. There is no publicly available standard documentation. ICT instructions related to procurement include e.g. following materials: - Pre-examination phase to support procurement - Instructions for drawing up the contract - ICT tender templates - structure of documents - Basic instructions for SaaS acquisitions - Procurement implementation checklist - RACI responsibility allocation table for ICT procurements In addition, more detailed instructions can be found on Espoo's integration practices and information security.

Has the local authority policies in place to encourage the use of open source solutions?

3. Outcome

3.1 - Adoption

Does the local authority publish data on usage of online services (such as a dashboard with metrics on transactions) on a regular basis?

Yes

If yes, provide evidence of what kind of data on usage are provided

A National “City and Municipality services” survey is done once in City Council term (4 years). The survey is done by FCG Consulting. On those years that there is no national survey, Espoo runs an own “Municipality services in Espoo”-survey. Among other things, the survey measures if the respondents have used Espoo’s digital services and what services citizens find important. The survey asks also about contentment with online services from different angles (accessibility, availability, online offering etc). Use of online services data as part of the Municipality service survey can be found from here: https://www.espoo.fi/fi/espoon-kaupunki/tutkimus-ja-tilastot (only in Finnish) and here: https://www.espoo.fi/fi/toimintaympariston-tila-espoossa

3.2 - Reduction of burden

Does the authority measure the average time saved by citizens when using an online service compared to the offline one?

3.3 - Satisfaction

Does the local authority measure the citizens’ level of satisfaction with regards to the services’ provision?

Yes

If yes, provide some evidence including the use of standard methods (such as Net Promoter Score)

Espoo has decided to use NPS as the city-level practice to measure customer satisfaction since April 2020. Not all units have yet applied the city-level questions but have different indicators for customer satisfaction (such as four-scaled happy-or-not questions). NPS scores 2022 of different units vary from -2 to +92.

Background Information

305.200

Total population

2022: 15.632 (Espoo’s health and social services, the Western Uusimaa Rescue Department and their personnel were transferred to the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County as of 1 January 2023.)

Total number of employees in the city/region administration

2.155.345.000 euros in the year 2022

Total annual budget (last year or average of the last three years)

Number of ICT specialists employed directly (full-time equivalent)

153

Number of ICT specialists employed indirectly (subcontracting/outsourcing)