- What if the country is not a unicorn?
- How to prepare and implement digital identity?
- Polish example for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- On the example of Poland, the e-Government is, among others, a perfect cooperation between the administration and the banking sector.
- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an opportunity to spread the way for an effective partnership between the government and the banks
Digital Transformation is the phrase that can be used in almost all industries, not just in banking. The influence that digital transformation can have on a particular market sector, or even on global consumer expectations, can be observed by anyone who's ever used Netflix or Uber. Digital transformation is also increasingly being implemented in the public services sector managed by the governments and administrations of various countries. Today we can already admire examples of countries like Estonia, where over 90% of citizens take care almost 100% of formalities online, sitting in the same time on the couch and watching films on Netflix.
What if the country is not a unicorn?
Gartner answered this question in October by publishing a list of 10 trends for creating modern public administration services. Gartner's analysts say that the implementation of e-government is a long-term strategy for most countries, which lasts for many budget cycles. The full list of trends for the next 12-18 months includes:
- Adaptive security
- Multichannel citizen engagement
- Agile by design
- Digital product management
- Anything as a service (XaaS)
- Shared services 2.0
- Digitally empowered workforce
- Analytics everywhere
- Augmented intelligence
- Citizen digital identity
The last trend is exciting due to the possibility of cooperation between the governments and the banking sector, which is discussed below. On the other hand, Gartner believes that digital identity is a key factor in triggering citizens' access to public services. However, there are few examples in the world where governments have implemented it in such a way as not only to ensure an adequate level of security, but also to meet the expectations of citizens regarding, for example, the simplicity of obtaining a digital identity and its subsequent use in handling official matters.
How to prepare and implement digital identity?
Gartner has only created a list of trends, but does not answer the question of how to do this in the right way. Jamie Berryhill and Piret Tiret Tõnurist, analysts and consultants, answered the question by publishing in the Dubai Policy Review a set of practical guidelines for digitalization project managers. It is particularly important that there is no one universal way to implement digital identity in all countries in the world. The solutions that are being implemented must fit in with the country culture. Governments must therefore take into account the cultural determinants of their countries when preparing for changes in the area of digitization of services or launching a digital identity program. Effective solutions from one country will not always fit into another.
Polish example for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Despite the distance between Poland and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the two countries seem to be similar in terms of their openness to technology and the strong position of the banking sector. This was probably one of the reasons why the government in Riyadh became interested in the successes of e-government implementation in Poland. Puls Biznesu has informed that a team of IT specialists from Poland (Sebastian Christow, Michał Pierzchalski i Marcin Szokalski), who were at the forefront of digitalization projects of the Polish administration, were invited to consult the project.
Poles are a nation that is extremely open to all technological novelties. One of the best examples is the fact that within 30 years the Polish banking sector has evolved from a very underdeveloped one into an ultra-modern one, and Polish banking solutions are recognized all over the world. It turned out that Poland was a sleeping giant that woke up after the fall of communism and today still surprises the world with new, innovative ideas.
The term "sleeping giant" has also recently been used by the Oxford Business Group in its study „The Report: Saudi Arabia 2019”. It turns out that the society in Saudi Arabia, like in Poland, is extremely open to technological novelties. Among over 30 million citizens of the Kingdom, there is a large percentage of young people who can be described as digital-native. What is more, Saudi Arabia also has a well-developed, stable, and strong banking sector, which is just beginning to benefit from the advantages of fintech companies.
On the example of Poland, the e-Government is, among others, a perfect cooperation between the administration and the banking sector.
Although Poland is not E-stonia, the country has found an excellent way to use its strengths in banking and openness to new technologies. The first such project was Trusted Profile. It was about creating a digital identity for citizens, thanks to which they could log in to the government portals, take cares formalities online, and digitally sign documents without the need to set up a qualified electronic signature. The problem that arose during the launch of the Trusted Profile project was the mobilization of citizens to set it up. It turned out that at first, this process was not 100% digitalized. It was possible to apply for such a profile online, but the process required a citizen's visit to the public office in order to verify identity and confirm the creation of a Trusted Profile. Such a process was not accepted by Poles because they were not willing to make an additional effort, which was the necessity of a direct visit to the public office.
The IT specialists responsible for this project invented a new way of setting up a Trusted Profile. They decided to encourage Polish banks to free of charge cooperation, which was aimed at increasing Customer Experience of both government and banking services. The designers of the currently functioning solution took into account the fact that the clients of banks are people with already strongly verified identity by the banks themselves. Therefore, they developed a process in which bank customers logging into their electronic banking, thus confirming their identity, could create a Trusted Profile in a few steps inside the electronic banking system. In this way, banks contributed to the popularization of the use of digital services of Polish administration. It was particularly important that each online formality would also be authorized (signed) using e-banking authentication.
The second project of great significance for millions of Polish citizens was the launch of a nationwide program of financial support for families called the "500+ Family". The program required millions of people to submit applications for child benefit. Then these millions of applications had to be processed in a specially created IT system Emp@tia. The designers of IT solutions also decided to involve Polish banks in this project. They decided to facilitate the application process. The aim was to make it possible to fill in the application in a specially prepared form inside the electronic banking system of a particular bank. The cooperation of our company with 7 Polish banks was a great success. Thanks to the capabilities of the Eximee platform provided by Consdata, in 2.5 months we were able to enable the largest Polish banks to prepare for the launch of the "Family 500+" application process. It is worth noting that a similar solution can be used in many government programs around the world, which will require citizens to fill in applications or declarations.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an opportunity to spread the way for an effective partnership between the government and the banks
If Saudi Arabia will indeed benefit from the experience of prominent Polish professionals and will engage the banking sector in a government digitalization plan called Yesser, this will be a reason to be proud of all Polish specialists, banks, and companies such as Consdata, who have been involved in the various steps taken in Poland related to the implementation of the e-government. I am keeping my fingers crossed for this!
