Iceland’s Digital public services thrive, as the country was recently recognised as 4th place in Europe for digital innovation in the European Commission’s eGovernment Benchmark 2022
Iceland has been hard at work transforming the country’s digital ecosystem to enable the digitisation of public services.
Digital Iceland, operated by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, manages the Island.is, a platform – which uses cutting-edge and transformative digital technology to revolutionise how government and citizens interact and engage in the digital world.
This is part of the country’s journey of making digital services the primary means of communication between its agencies and the Icelandic people, keeping pace with innovation and making processes as smooth as possible for the country.
Digital public services in Iceland and it’s importance
Island.is provides government agencies, Icelandic citizens and visitors with a digital public services platform. The platform harnesses digital innovation and combines it with people-centricity by basing the platform on life events.
From having a baby, moving house, starting a company, getting married and losing a loved one, the platform provides relevant resources by gathering information from tax authorities, Iceland registration, health and others.
This allows the Icelandic Government to, as CEO of Digital Iceland, Andri Heiðar Kristinsson, “deliver public services in a secure, efficient, and transparent manner while empowering citizens to participate in their democracy and have their voices heard.”
How does Island.is work?
A diverse group of 250 operational agencies and municipalities are included on the Island.is a website, that allows a centralised approach to public services.
This offers a central website and application system that helps government agencies combine all their services. The platform then provides self-service applications to users to manage different life events more easily. All information on the forum is available to all individuals possessing the Icelandic electronic ID (eID) – including those based abroad.
The platform’s accessible and modern web and application interface offers users a more time-efficient and straightforward service, and users can log on through their eID.
The applications gather everything for them instead of them having to drive between different agencies. Furthermore, with the Ísland.is My Pages and Ísland.is app, residents can view all sorts of personal data stored by the government concerning family members, real estate, cars and more.
“Our approach enables agencies to move faster for less money and creates a good user and familiar experience” said Kristinsson. “By using the Digital Iceland solutions agencies can leapfrog many steps on their journey and put focus on their core services towards the user.”
Using revolutionary technology to support public services
Iceland has cultivated the best technological expertise and pulled on a diverse range of private sector tech and innovations from 14 private companies. Pooling expertise also allows the framework to start new projects very quickly.
“We have built our technology by researching what other countries have been doing well and succeeded in improving their services” Digital Iceland’s Product Manager, Vésteinn Viðarsson said. “From there we built our own cloud-based open-source technology. With the right expertise, we’ve been able to build on the shoulders of others and put focus on adjusting the best work to our system.
Driving genuine transformation in public services
After Island.is’s launch, the Digital Iceland team found that as soon as a service becomes digital, about 80 percent of users chose this route – and up to 100 percent in many cases. The platform has a 70 per cent satisfaction rate, a testimony to its straightforward experience.
One example of the platform’s efficiency is the application for criminal record certificates.
Digital Iceland calculated a year ago that from the 13,500 criminal records delivered annually by the forum, approximately 2,250 hours of work by public officials were saved, the need for over 189,000km in driving to apply for and collect records was removed, and about 540,000 minutes of applicants’ time was saved.
Since the service was launched, applications for criminal record certificates have risen 30 per cent with zero extra work for the agency and extensive time saved.
The platform has also helped enable some of the Iceland Government’s more progressive and trailblazing policies. For example, in 2021, Iceland implemented a unique parental leave scheme to further gender equality, which offers each parent six months of leave at 80 per cent of their salary, with only six weeks being transferable between them, encouraging both parents to take a break after they have a child.
The digitalisation of Iceland
Island.is aids the adoption of this policy through the digitalisation of applications for parental leave and associated pay.
A new digital application for parental leave was released through this platform in collaboration with the Directorate of Labour and is constantly evolving.
Now, expectant parents can apply for parental leave digitally in a simple and user-friendly way.
The process automatically retrieves data accompanying the application from different government agencies such as health and tax to calculate the amount the parent will get each month. It then automatically forwards it to the spouse and employer for approval.
The application starts with one parent and transitions from there to the second parent and employer for approval before arriving with the systems of the parental leave fund for processing.
“It is reassuring to see all the correct information you already need pre-registered in the parental leave application when you log in.” said Kjartan Dige Baldursson, Digital Iceland CFO, currently on parental leave. “With my first child, I had to collect all this information myself and attach it to the application, even though all the information existed within the system. The whole process has become very simple and clear, and just takes a few minutes to complete.”
Facing the future for digital transformation in Iceland
As more European countries adapt to an age of increasingly digital public service coordination and provision in their systems, keeping people and their needs at the heart of the technologies used will remain critical to both positive outcomes and longevity.
Iceland has proven that a one-stop shop for national and local government and governmental agencies can be integrated into one system which also works for citizens.
