More than 100 of Australia’s local government authorities have so far participated in the new local Government Digital Maturity Index, a Government News initiative. Next week is your council’s last chance to take advantage of our survey, which is open until Friday March 24.
All participating councils will receive a tailored benchmarking report, quantifying and comparing their digital maturity with those of their peers. Participation is via completion of a 20-minute survey, which can be accessed here.
It costs nothing and is available to all local government authorities in Australia and New Zealand. The more councils that get involved, the more valuable the data will be.
“It’s the first time these metrics have been used in Australia,” says project leader Graeme Philipson. “It will be extremely useful for the councils that take part, but its real value will be to the wider local government sector, which for the first time will be able to gauge the extent to which Australia’s councils are adopting digital strategies and practices.”
Preliminary findings have already highlighted some valuable insights into the digital profiles of Australian LGAs:
- Two-thirds of councils are using web site metrics to measure the effectiveness of their online presence – but less than a quarter of them are measuring the effectiveness of their overall digital strategy.
- One quarter of councils have a mature cloud computing strategy, and another quarter are experimenting with cloud. But that means half have yet to move.
- Two-thirds of councils allow rates to be paid online, but only one third allow parking fines and other infringement notices to be paid online.
- Over 60 percent of councils offer at least some Wi-Fi in public places.
“The final analysis will be substantial., says Mr Philipson. “It will provide both an overall snapshot and individual ratings.”
Councils can participate in the project until the end of March by clicking on the survey link. The results will then be collated and analysed, with a market analysis report containing the overall findings released in May. Participating councils will then receive their individual benchmark reports.
“It’s a cooperative project, a kind of crowdsourcing exercise,” explains Mr Philipson. “Every council that participates gets to see where they are on the digital journey, and the whole local government industry gets a detailed analysis of the overall level of digitisation in the sector.”
When will the results of the survey be made public? Our Council is interested in the outcome.