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ARCHIVED - Performance Measurement for the Government On-Line Initiative

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	Client Take-up
Indicator(s)	Citizens/clients know what is available on-line Take-up of ESD channel increases over time
Measurement Level and Technique	Measurement at the service level using tracking of how clients engage the federal government, and at the "whole of government" level using citizen/client feedback
Primary tool(s)/data source(s)	1) Departmental reporting on GOL plans and progress – the reporting includes four types of data related to take-up: the number of unique clients served per year; the distribution of these clients across service delivery channels according to how they complete transactions and access information products; the volume of interactions across channels per year (i.e., channel load); and the marketing plans for individual services 2) Omnibus surveys – includes, e.g., Citizens First and Taking Care of Business studies, EKOS' Information Highway studies, Ipsos-Reid research, NFO Interactive surveys, TBS GOL Internet Research Panel
Summary of results achieved in 2003	Mixed – Client take-up of on-line federal services is increasing. Visits to the Canada Site and two of the three gateways increased noticeably in 2003. Some well-established GOL services now have more than 50% of their clients completing transactions on-line. Overall, the current take-up for transaction services (24%) is comparable to self-reported use of on-line banking in Canada (21-32% according to EKOS (2003)), a reasonable benchmark of what to expect. However, when CCRA's "Individual Tax" is excluded, the average take-up rate drops considerably. Further, a majority of Canadians think that the federal government does not do a good job of marketing its on-line services, and are only moderately aware of what is available. Only a few GOL services have marketing plans for 2004 and/or take-up strategies. While data quality improved significantly in the past year, there are still gaps and inconsistencies in measurement methodologies that make it difficult to set realistic take-up targets.
Raw data	Trends in overall Internet use 62% of Canadian households had at least one regular Internet user in 2002, up slightly from 60% in 2001 (Stats. Can., 2003) – More than 51% had at least one person who regularly used the Internet from home, up slightly from almost 49% in 2001 32% of Internet users do at least some of their banking on-line, up from 26% in 2002 (EKOS, 2003) – 21% do all of their banking through the Internet – The number of experienced "net bankers" is increasingly common; 15% of all Canadians, and 48% of those who bank on-line, have at least two years of experience Education and income continue to influence Canadians' use of the Internet (Stats. Can., 2003) – In 2002, 87% of households whose head possessed a university degree had at least one regular Internet user, compared with 66% whose head possessed a high school/college education, and 30% whose head had less than a high school education – In 2002, 88% of households earning $70,000 or more had at least one regular Internet user, compared with 75% of those earning $40,000-69,999, 51% of those earning $23,001-39,999, and 33% of those earning less than $23,000 Age also influences take-up of on-line services, although the percentage of Internet users in the 55-64 age group increased more than any other group in 2002 (Stats. Can., 2003) – The percentage of those 65 and older using the Internet also increased noticeably Awareness of federal service delivery on-line "Awareness of the on-line services that governments offer is modest, with the majority rating their awareness as 'moderate'. Self-perceived awareness is higher among those people exposed to the content through their web surfing activities. There is a real opportunity for governments to increase the awareness of Internet content and services, especially among those unlikely to stumble upon them." (NFO Interactive, 2003) – 15% of Internet users rate themselves as very aware, 67% as moderately aware, and 15% as not at all aware (three percent say they do not know) Only 25% of Canadians say that they know what the URL is for the main Government of Canada Web site (Ipsos-Reid, 2003) – Only 17% of this group (four percent of all Canadians) identified the correct URL, Canada.gc.ca (or gc.ca) Only 24% of Internet users think that the federal government is doing a good (22%) to excellent (two percent) job in promoting on-line information and services (Ipsos-Reid, 2003) However, 46% of Internet users recall hearing or seeing an advertisement for the Canada Site in the past few months (Ipsos-Reid, 2003) More generally, 57% of Canadians say that they are moderately (46%) to very (11%) familiar with the services that the federal government offers through the Internet, up from 43% in 2001 (EKOS, 2003) – Note that self-rated awareness in the EKOS survey is lower than in the NFO Interactive survey (mentioned above); one reason for this may be that the difference in the respondents – EKOS surveyed all Canadians while NFO Interactive surveyed Internet users, who as a group are likely to have more knowledge of what is available on-line than Canadians in general; another reason may be the difference between the questions – EKOS focused on federal services, while NFO Interactive asked about government services in general 15 of 30 GOL departments and agencies have plans to market their on-line services in 2004, but they only have plans for 29 of 130 services (22%) – Six of the 45 services (13%) that are complete have marketing plans for 2004 Use of gateways and portals There were about 16 million visits to the Canada Site in 2003, a 21% increase since 2002; further, there were over 800,000 visits to the business gateway in 2003, a seven percent increase since 2002, and over 2.1 million visits to the non-Canadians gateway, a 63% increase since 2002 – A visit is defined as "the sequence of interactions an Internet user has on a Web site without 30 minutes of inactivity" There were about 1.2 million visits to the Canadians gateway in 2003, a 64% decrease since 2002; the reason is that links to portals on the Canadians gateway are now also on the homepage of the Canada Site on a rotating basis (as of April 2003); there has been a significant increase in the number of visits to these portals as visits to the Canadians gateway have declined – E.g., page views for the Public Safety portal increased by 144% from June-September 2003 in comparison with the same period in 2002; and the number of page requests for the Persons With Disabilities portal in July 2003 were more than double the number of requests in January of the same year (that is, prior to the addition of portal links on the Canada Site) The most frequently visited portals are Business Start-up, Jobs, and Going to Canada; the fastest growing in terms of traffic volume are Canada and the World, Financing, and Public Safety Take-up of GOL services – channel volume "The Internet/e-mail is now well established as the second most common channel for contact [with the federal government]; Web sites have become the key starting point for many Canadians" (EKOS, 2003) 34% of Canadians say that their most recent contact with the federal government was through the Internet/e-mail, up from 27% in 2002 (EKOS, 2003) – 41% say their most recent contact was by phone, about the same as in 2002 (42%), 17% by mail, down from 21%, seven percent in-person, down slightly from nine percent Asked in a different way, 33% of Internet users say that their most recent contact with a government employee involved e-mail (NFO Interactive, 2003) – 81% say that their most recent contact involved the phone, 24% in-person, 10% mail, nine percent fax, six percent a comment form on a Web site, and three percent a public kiosk In comparison with individuals' overall use of service delivery channels, businesses use the mail, Internet, and fax more frequently, and they visit government offices less frequently (Institute for Citizen-Centred Service, 2004) – 58% of businesses say they use the mail vs. 25% of individuals, 45% say they visit government Web sites vs. 30% of individuals, 35% say they use the fax vs. five percent of individuals, and 25% visit government offices vs. 48% of individuals More businesses (74%) use multiple channels to access a government service than do individuals (50%) (Institute for Citizen-Centred Service, 2004) A strong majority of Canadians say that the purpose of their most recent contact through the Internet was to obtain either general information (30%), or the answer to a specific question (28%) (GOL Internet Research Panel, 2004) Overall, 51% of Canadians (66% of Internet users) have visited a federal Web site at least once in the past year, up from 42% (56% of Internet users) in 2001 (EKOS, 2003) – Similarly, a recent international benchmarking study found that 51% of Canadians have used on-line federal services/Web sites in the past year; overall, Canada currently ranks #6 in the world in terms of use of on-line federal services – the global average is 30% (TNS, 2003) Based on filings, there were 449.8 million on-line interactions between clients and GOL departments and agencies in 2003, up from 291.4 million in 2002; this represents a significant growth both in absolute terms (a 54% increase), and relative to the other service delivery channels (an increase from 50% of the total volume of interactions in 2002 to 62% in 2003) – Information services are mostly responsible for this increase, with the volume of interactions growing by 88% (from 145 million interactions in 2002 to 280.6 in 2003) In contrast, the volume of interactions for transaction services only grew by 16% (from about 146.5 million interactions to 169.2 million in 2003) – The volume of interactions through IVR decreased from 79.4 million in 2002 to 70.1 million interactions in 2003, while the other channels remained fairly stable Take-up of GOL services – where clients complete transactions Based on filings, 24% of (a total 70.3 million) GOL clients (or their intermediaries) completed transactions on-line in the past year, up from 21% in 2002 – 27% of government clients (either from federal departments or agencies, or from other jurisdictions) completed transactions on-line, up from 17%, 25% of individual Canadians, up from 22%, 19% of businesses, up from 16%, and two percent of international clients completed transactions on-line – One reason for the difference in take-up between Canadians and businesses is that large services for Canadians such as individual tax filing and job searches/applications have been available for several years, while comparable services for businesses such as tax filing have just been launched; however, departments and agencies expect businesses will significantly outpace Canadians in their use of on-line services over the next few years Take-up of some types of transaction services is much higher, i.e., greater than 50% – E.g., HRDC's "Employment Services", 97-100%; CCRA's "Commercial Customs", 97%; Jus.'s "Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance", 90%; PWGSC's "Linguistic and Multicultural Services", 90%; Public Service Commission's (PSC's) "Recruitment", 87%; Canadian Firearms Centre's (CFC's) "Canadian Firearms Program" (registration applications), 65%; DFAIT's "Trade Commissioner", 57%; and INAC's "Indian Registration/Certificate of Indian Status", 50% However, when CCRA's "Individual Tax" is removed the percentage of clients completing transactions on-line decreases to 13% in 2002 and 18% in 2003 (in comparison, the overall average is 21% in 2002 and 24% in 2003) – When on-line job services are removed as well (DND, HRDC, INAC, PSC), this percentage further decreases to seven percent in 2002 and 12% in 2003 A note on data quality There are still variations in the way that GOL departments and agencies track Internet use, and it is more difficult to track volume for the in-person delivery channel than for other channels, e.g., the telephone The percentage of clients completing transactions on-line for "mature" GOL services ("levels 7-9" using the model discussed in the critical mass of services section of this report) – to complete and submit an application form, make a payment, etc. – is 25%, i.e., only one percent higher than the average for alltransaction services; this is counter-intuitive, as in most cases, if not all, services rating themselves lower than a "level 7" should not yet have actual transactional functionality; one possible explanation is that departments and agencies are sometimes using different definitions of what constitutes an on-line transaction (e.g., use of calculators, as well as information about the transaction service as opposed to the transaction itself), thus inflating the overall take-up average – When CCRA's "Individual Tax" is removed from this subset of mature services, the percentage of clients completing transactions on-line in 2003 decreases to 15% In addition, data sets are less complete for 2000-02 in comparison with 2003, making it difficult to calculate future trends (and plan accordingly) with a high degree of reliability
Plans for improvement	Establishment of common Web metrics to better understand clients' use of gateways and portals, and to the identify the parts of the sites with which they are having difficulty navigating Continued improvement in the quality of take-up information at the service level for all delivery channels Development and implementation of more aggressive marketing, migration, and take-up strategies to encourage individuals and businesses to move to self-service channels where this is their preference – The marketing strategy will focus on three key themes: increased awareness (e.g., broad advertising campaigns in all media to inform citizens and businesses that the federal government has on-line services for them), maximum impact (e.g., coordination of marketing plans, including identification of common themes, audiences and opportunities), and targeted promotion of services Enhancement of the "Navigating the Canada Site" e-learning tool to promote the use of transaction services available through this site