A multi-country survey conducted by Accenture indicated that public service customers want digitized processes to be simple, intuitive and secure to ensure privacy protection.
The company, which announced its findings on Wednesday, found that more than 40 percent of respondents still prefer telephone or in-person government transactions due to limited access to the Internet.
Accenture conducted the study among 5,500 consumers and 3,000 public service workers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia, France, Italy, Singapore and Spain.
In the consumer survey, 39 percent of respondents answered that they wanted more digital government interaction. However, 53 percent of the respondents expressed frustration in online public services. They listed “ease of use” and “more confidence in data security and privacy” as top priorities in considering the use of digital government portals.
“The best step forward to improve customer experiences is to establish simple and secure processes so people can get what they need on the first try,” said Eyal Darmon, global public sector customer engagement lead at Accenture.
The report also showed that only one-third of government workers underwent cyber and data security training, even if 94 percent said they were confident in using new computerized tools.
“Continuous education and training on cyber-security could help increase government workers’ and customers’ confidence in digital government services,” Darmon added.
