Language:
Search
 

MUNICIPALITY OF HERAKLION
Greece

The Problem

Heraklion has a population of c. 180.000 inhabitants, is the largest urban centre in Crete, the capital of the region of Crete and the economic centre of the island. The city is the commercial and scientific centre of the island. It has a strategic geopolitical position in the southeast basin of the Mediterranean Sea, connecting three continents and many different cultures. Heraklion has always been the business and social centre of Crete throughout the ages and that status has been maintained until today. In the city and its wider area there exist a number of educational and research centres i.e. the University of Crete, the Technological Educational Institute, the Institute of Technology and Research, the Technological Park, ENISA that contribute to a high educational level.
Heraklion’s port is one of the biggest in the south-eastern Mediterranean basin, an important cargo and passenger station. Heraklion’s airport (Nikos Kazantzakis’ airport) is the second one in Greece as far as the numbers of passengers and flights are concerned.
The Municipality of Heraklion is the largest in Crete, and holds the 5th place in Greece. It holds an important position concerning the applications of New Technologies as well as the innovations in the civil sector and the financial development.
Until a few years ago, the client was obliged to come to the main Offices of the Municipality to require any kind of legal document, or to apply for any sort of service. Of course this procedure used to take a long time and, on several occasions, it would involve more than one civil servant and a great deal of paper work. As an example in order for someone to acquire a birth certificate, he/she should visit the appropriate office, make an application, and return the next day to collect it and to use it where he/she needed it. Of course in other cases, more complicated ones i.e building permits, this used to be a procedure that could take a long time, some times even 12 months and a great deal of psychological cost on the part of the client. Bureaucracy in Greece does go well back into the history, some 3000 years ago when a very well organised bureaucratic system, using clay tablets and the Linear B script was established in order to list the number of products and goods going to or out of the most significant palace in the Mediterranean basin, Knossos palace.
Since 2004 our Municipality has been implementing the designated digital strategy, by taking into consideration the new global digital environment and how the civil sector can better focus on the customer (customer focus orientation).
The main sources of inspiration are the new “civil status”, based on the Total Quality Management and the “digital age” which is now being formed. We have also obtained valuable experience from our contacts through European networks e.g. euro cities, euro towns, Balkan cities, where similar procedures are being implemented.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
In order to encounter the above mentioned bureaucratic situation that used to hold up all the public administration as a whole a series of measures and projects were planned and implemented concerning the infra structure as a first step, and the services offered to the client as a result. This policy is based on 4 main objectives:
1. Rights to Access: this involves the construction of an Infra- structure of 64 km. fibrecats, the creation of a wireless network, of 3 local centres –for public I.T access, 110 public buildings, 3 antennas WiMAX & WiFi in 8 different squares and 8 central roads, in the central park and along the coastal road. Also free and quick I.T public access.
2. e-Services: 163 digital administrative forms, e-procedures. Out of these 28 are of the 3rd level and are accomplished through the web without demanding the presence of the applicant at the local bureau. The e-payments belong to the 4th level and offer to the citizen full information concerning his/her debts and a way of payment (through electronic payment). The citizen is now able to apply for any sort of paper that he needs through the web services offered to him. E-ticketing services for cultural events that take place throughout the year in the city. In order for the citizen that cannot reach the town centre or is not familiar with new technology, there is a number of e-services that have been established and are being used in municipal local offices close to his neighbourhood. In addition to the e- services, a G.I.S system is now being established to modernize the services offered from the Town Planning Office.
3. Digital Content: it concerns mainly the creation of a Digital Municipal Library and Digital Historical archives (Venetian and Turkish archives, digitalization of old newspapers from 1880 until 1960 and old photographs concerning the history of the city since the early 20th century onwards). This tool is very useful for the public (students, teachers, researchers, writers that are interested in learning more about the city and its background). It offers a wide range of key words for the search engine. A few years ago this would have demanded the presence of the public at the Municipal Library and their staying in the town for a long period of time and cost of money– concerning researchers from elsewhere-. Special equipment (hardware and software) for the disabled users of the Municipal Library.
4. E-tour: The world citizen will better and more efficiently learn about and be more accustomed with the history of the city through the E-tour in the history of Heraklion (history, monuments, folk culture, time line, virtual tour, images…) offered in the Municipal Portal.
5. E-Democracy: is offered through: e-access to all decisions of the local government, e-voting, e-fora and e-newsletters. Through these services local people are fully informed of decision policies/ and in position to express their view and even to propose their own approach to a problem or situation. Also this tool offers the possibility of free entry to e-services from home, from the office, the municipal departments, the central roads and squares.

Until now we did not possess a systematic record of measured results concerning the perception of the good practice by staff. We do though conduct, in different periods, surveys concerning the perception by citizens/customers (by measuring polls). The satisfaction surveys from the citizen’s point of view were used as a barometer for the user’s satisfaction. From all these services, it has become clear that the vast majority of clients are satisfied with these policies but it is well known that similar procedures take some time to get familiar with by the public.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Department of Information Technology was mainly responsible for the whole project. Each of its personnel was responsible with one or more parts of the work with the involvement of private contractors. The whole project was based upon the new Digital Strategy and philosophy which takes into account people’s demand for quicker and more efficient services from the local government. The experience gained from the participation in different networks and European Programmes was extremely useful in planning the whole concept and realizing the final project. The new “civil status”, based on the Total Quality Management and the “digital age” played of course an important role in the formulation of the Strategy.
The whole project was achieved through the established co-operation with the Educational Institutes, i.e the University of Crete, either as a contractor or as a contracting entity through programmatic conventions, the Institute of Technology and Research, the Greek Organization of Telecommunications and public electricity company for the infrastructure and other private contractors. All these projects were realized through different public competitions.
The citizens played an important role in the formation of the new strategy and the conception of the new ideas. Without their substantial participation the whole project would be merely inactive and pointless. From the beginning people were informed through the internet, the media (through the local newspapers and TV channels) and then were called to participate in local fora in order to express their opinion and sustain their needs to the local governors.
It has become more than clear that only through the collaboration of the whole civil sector and the participation of the final beneficiaries the project can be useful and sustainable.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main strategy was the modernization of civil services with the use of new Technologies so that the client is better and quicker served, without requiring his/her presence in the municipal bureau. The goal is to achieve the “one step shop” mainly with the opportunities offered by new technologies. The full use of e-procedures will take us to the new era of e-government. The electronic service delivery is the quickest way that will lead to this goal.
At the same time the services offered are getting to be more automated and unified in an integrated information system that will provide a series of services necessary for its administration. This can be achieved in various ways: with the necessary infrastructure and the computerization of all the services with the e-content. Also the creation of a web site for the city was another goal that was achieved by promoting all its history, daily life, its tradition and customs. Through these pages the citizen, inhabitant/visitor gets a full picture not only of the city but also of the services offered and the whole range of the e-procedures to follow.
Within the strategic objective is also the full use of the European and national financial funds. The objective was planned according to the programme E- Europe (e-government) and more specifically to that concerning the access of each citizen to the local government through the Internet. This project serves the main target of the European strategy which is the creation of a digitally updated European community without any social exclusion.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The key development is the implementation of Digital Strategy which was established by the Municipal Authority in collaboration with the civil sector of the Municipality and after public consultation which showed us the need for the development of the civil administration. It also made us quite clear where our efforts should aim at and what our goals should be. At first we set the main implementation steps to follow and the human resources and financial terms to be used. According to the project the main implementation phases are as follow:
The first step was to install personal computers with programme offices and later on with more specialized programmes. After the establishment of the Digital Strategy the following steps were followed:
A. The construction of the infrastructure this involves: structured cabling, creation of an Infra-structure of 64 km. Fibrecats, creation of a wireless network, of 3 local centres –for public I.T access and free and quick I.T public access.
B. Total computerization of the civil sector, almost 90% of the civil servants make use of p.c.S not only through Office Programmes but also through specific computer programmes according to the nature of their work, i.e. financial programmes, Auto-cad, G.I.S., personnel management programmes, library programmes, registrar programmes etc…
C. Creation of a web site that aims at: a) the promotion of the old city, its monuments and its history through time, b) the citizen information about the every day life, the cultural events and many other matters that may interest him
d) Useful and necessary information about the political and administrative mechanism of the Municipality, the services offered, telephone numbers, faxes etc…
All the above mentioned projects led to the creation of a Municipal Portal that is in a position to administer a vast number of transactions amongst: the citizen, the visitor, the trading partners, the government agencies and the Municipality.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
New Technologies and Informatics, even if they are not completely new for our Municipality, caused many changes in every day life and they did not have the perception that was initially expected. A number of civil servants are near to the age of retirement that makes it hard sometimes for them to assimilate new ideas and new tools. In the past it was not necessary for someone to have a special knowledge in computers in order to have a position in the civil sector. This has now of course changed. In addition for older civil servants there are organized and conducted special seminars so that they become more familiar with new technologies. In addition a vast number of seminars are addressed to a large number of employees in order for them to become more accustomed with new technologies. We have to note that it takes sometime to change people’s way of thinking and working, to change people’s mentality.
In general we could say that there exists a “digital gap” concerning the civil sector, which creates problems during the implementation of these projects e.g. the introduction, in practice, of the digital signature and the general use of digitalized administrative documents.
At the same time by implementing Total Quality Management a big number of civil servants became accustomed with the new perception of the civil administration. The use of the Common Assessment Framework and the I.S.O became useful tools in our effort to understand our inefficiencies and to find ways and solutions to overcome them. The outcome of these efforts was the acquirement of the 2nd national award for the civil services in 2009.
Of course amongst the obstacles we can also refer to the difficulty of implementing the digital signature in the wide range of the civil sector and the big number of public documents requested in a lot of cases.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The project was co-financed by the European Union financial programmes such as the 3rd Community Support Framework, the “Information Society” and the Regional Operational Programme (R.O.P.) both of the 3rd Community Support Framework.
For the completion of the whole project, other parallel works will contribute to this such as «SYZEFXIS» which is a project of Greek Ministry of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization, that aims at the development and updating of the Public Sector's telecom infrastructure. It's about a core and access network for the Public Sector's organizations aiming to satisfy all their needs for communication through telephony (telephone communication between organizations), Data (PC's communication - Internet) and Video (teleconference - training).
As far as the human resources are concerned the project has been realized and is being realized with the participation of the department of Information Technology the Municipality of Heraklion. Each of its personnel was responsible with one or more parts of the work. They are responsible for the whole initiative, the project itself, its following and supervision as well as its implementation and realization. The whole project was achieved through different public competitions where the main contractors were either private companies or the University of Crete and/or the Foundation for Research and Technology based in Heraklion.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
For our Municipality, the whole project made a drastic change concerning the procedures followed until recently, and this was quite innovative. At the same time other organizations of similar or smaller size, benefited from us and that is the reason why we created a network system for the implementation of CAF and the quality management as a whole. The main result was the drastic but at the same time gradual transformation of the administration and organizational culture by means of introducing innovative, by Hellenic standards, methods, tools and techniques. This gave us a new range of delivery procedures from which the client – citizen benefited and started trusting us for our efficiency and responsiveness. The reductions of red tape, of paperwork as a whole, the speedy processing of applications, the digitalisation of administrative forms, and the electronic service delivery are some of the fields of transformation. Of course this procedure doesn’t stop here; it needs more work towards this direction in order to get to a “paperless” office and so in order to make the initiative more worth while, more sustainable and client orientated. Since November 2007 there exist 1300 authorized users and 890 e- services have been required from which 580 through the municipal portal and 310 from the one local municipal department which was used as a pilot example.
We estimate that our case shows clearly that the combination of the good practice with the implementation of CAF and other procedures derived from Total Quality Management (qualitative and quantative methods, user satisfaction barometer, customer survey) can take us one step further towards our strategic goal which is better and even more efficient services.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The whole project, based on a new concept for the civil sector which is characterized, worldwide, by the digital age has already created an impact on the administration, at the local level. This new concept is mainly customer orientated, since the strategic goal is to serve the client more efficiently and in a speedy way. This project has also an impact, positive and encouraging. More importantly the local administration has gained the trust of the client – citizen point of view, by means that he/she now comes to the municipal offices in a more positive way and less biased towards the procedures as a whole. In addition by having the opportunity of using a number of services on line, i.e. applications forms available on the Internet it saves him/her a great deal of personal time.
On the other hand the civil servant, having at his/her disposal a variety of digitalized administrative procedures has become more efficient in his work, more effective and more productive.
The lessons learned can summed up as following:
1. Citizen / customer orientation in public management
2. Widening of e- procedures
3. Widening of one stop shop
After all these, it has become clear to us that the next step is to pass from the digital municipality to the digital city with total organisation and strategic planning in several sectors as: Financial Growth, Education, Health, Employment, Security and Tourism etc. All the above presuppose collaborations and common strategies amongst the Municipality and other partners as the University, technological Education Institutes, the Institute of Technology and Research, the Technological Park Syndicates, associations etc.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   MUNICIPALITY OF HERAKLION
Institution Type:   Public Organization  
Contact Person:   Despoina Karabatzaki
Title:   Quality Office of Municipality of Heraklion  
Telephone/ Fax:   0030 2810 399 205
Institution's / Project's Website:   00302810 280780
E-mail:   karabatzaki-d@heraklion.gr  
Address:   Ag. Titou 1 str.
Postal Code:   712 02
City:   HERAKLION
State/Province:   HERAKLION
Country:   Greece

          Go Back
Print friendly Page