Directgov – strategic change, or just another website…

Will Stengel

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Agenda

1. Directgov – the brief

2. Aligning strategy and vision

3. The importance of joined up government

4. Designed around the citizen – creating a consistent customer experience

5. Evaluating our performance

6. Future plans

7. Strategic issues

8. Lessons learnt

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Directgov – the brief

The issues:

• Lagging behind other governments

• Fragmented marketplace

• Confusion around dealing with government

The brief:

To drive citizen uptake and usage of government online services by creating a new

category brand –‘united government services’ (Launched April ’04)

• Single brand to promote and become synonymous with e-government

• Joining up and simplifying government for citizens

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Directgov – strategy and vision

• Government’s flagship digital service

• It will become the principal online destination for citizens

• Provides customer focused services - multiple channels

• Joins up government services in a consistent online environment

• Provides cross-marketing and cost-saving opportunities

• Single brand to promote e-government

• Integral part of the wider transformation of public services – supports the efficiency review

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Transformational Government Strategy

“Services need to be designed around citizens and

businesses to ensure effectiveness of delivery to the

customer, to achieve policy goals and to release savings”

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Directgov – why is joined up government important?

• Efficiency

• Value for money

• Simpler public services

• Boost take up of online services

• Because the citizen says it is!

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Directgov – creating a consistent customer experience

• One style

• Plain English

• Consistent url strategy

• Brand experience

• Common standards – tone of voice, accessibility, look and feel, navigation

• So what does it look like…

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Recently completed / In development

• Road tax

• Driving licences

• Jobseeker / Worktrain

• Transport Direct

• Student loans

• 6 decision trees

• Directgov website available in Welsh

• Local Directgov

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Customer Focused

Service Aggregation

Services

Web DTVKiosk

Mobile etc

Departmental back office systems& local content and transaction administration

Services grouped by customer needs

Recognise the customer

Meet customer needs in one place

Common, consistent and customer focused interaction

Directgov Vision – Focus on the Customer

Positive user ratings

Satisfaction Measures Dec 04 Aug 05

% Rating site excellent / very good / good 81 84*

% Finding all / most information sought 43 55

% Likely to recommend site 61 71

Website aspects(% excellent / v good)

Dec 04 Aug 05

Range of information 39 48

Ease of using the site 44 50

Usefulness of information 38 46

Attitudes towards Directgov % strongly / slightly agree

Good place for public services information 81

Contains information useful to me 76

Saves me time and is convenient 72

Is a site I trust 64

* Responses made up of: 11% Excellent, 37% V good, 36% Good, 13% Fair, and 4% Poor

Source: Virtual Surveys Pop-up Survey, Aug 05

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Independent Tracking

• Directgov consistently in the top 5 UK Government websites for usage since August

2005

• In January 2006 Directgov was ranked 4th, just behind high transacting sites.

Rank Name

Market Share

(by visits)

Previous month

1 Jobcentre Plus 11.09% 22 HM Revenue & Customs 8.20% 33 Met Office 5.65% 14 Directgov 3.59% 45 Department Of Health 3.11% 56 National Archives 3.06% 87 DfES 2.00% 108 Driving Standards Agency 1.98% 79 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency 1.97% 910 The Standards Site - DfES 1.93% 15

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Recognition for our achievements

• World Summit Awards 2005

Winner: e-Government Category

• 2005 Good Communication Awards

Winner: Central Government Website of

the Year

• e-Government National Awards 2005

Winner: Central e-Government excellence:

Citizen-centred online services

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Ever increasing number of visitors

• More than 2.8m visits in March

2006 to the Directgov site

• Already one of the most popular

‘Government’ sites in use

• User profile: 53% female, 70%

working 16+ hours, average income

£34k, 34% over 45 (59% over 35)

Directgov Monthly Unique User & Visits Figures

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

Mar

-05

Apr

-05

May

-05

Jun-

05

Jul-0

5

Aug

-05

Sep

-05

Oct

-05

Nov

-05

Dec

-05

Jan-

06

Feb

-06

Mar

-06

Series2 Series1

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National marketing campaign

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Directgov take-up vs. govt trend

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The people of this country demand that we provide public services online and over the phone that are as good as anything they receive from the private sector.

For example we have to build upon Directgov, our flagship digital service. It is already improving people’s experience when they deal with Government on the internet and demonstrates why Departments need to work together in delivering more public services built around the needs of the citizen.

…and from the Prime Minister

1st November 2004

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Strategic issues

• Content depth

• Role of the centre

• Role of departments

• Funding

• Governance

• Thinking outside the silos

• Communication

• Transforming government

• Customer pull v government push

• Responsibility for customer experience

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Directgov – lessons learnt

• Role of the central team

• Customer focus hard to maintain

• Multiple interpretations are a real threat

• What does multi-channel mean

• Can you be just an online channel

• Clear decision making is not easily achieved

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Questions