This paper describes the objectives, the general architecture and the components of the web-based system for quality evaluation of the on-line public services developed using the framework of the complex research project Ã¢Â€ÂœSystem for quality evaluation of the on-line public services for citizens and business environment (e-ServEval)Ã¢Â€Â. The paper also presents the technological options regarding the design and development of the system, the functions of the components and the aspects regarding the interface between user and e-ServEval system. Finally, the stage of the project and the conclusions are presented

Alexandru BALOG

Florin PETRESCU

Grigore BADULESCU

Revisoara BADULESCU

Informatica Economica

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Revista Informatica Economică nr.2(46)/2008  18E-ServEval: a system for quality evaluation of the on-line public services  Alexandru BALOG, Grigore BĂDULESCU, Revişoara BĂDULESCU, Florin PETRESCU  National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest  This paper describes the objectives, the general architecture and the components of the web-based system for quality evaluation of the on-line public services developed using the framework of the complex research project “System for quality evaluation of the on-line pub-lic services for citizens and business environment (e-ServEval)”. The paper also presents the technological options regarding the design and development of the system, the functions of the components and the aspects regarding the interface between user and e-ServEval system. Finally, the stage of the project and the conclusions are presented.  Keywords: e-government, e-government services quality, quality evaluation.  Introduction The on-line public services represent one of the most dynamic areas of the modern economy, as well as a field of major theo-retical interest. The quality of the on-line public services holds a central position within the initiatives concerning the devel-opment and improvement of services for electronic government and performance management in public administration. Ac-cording to the largely public accepted opin-ion in the field literature, the on-line public services refer to services supplied by elec-tronic means by the public administration for the citizens and the business environment.  The focus on the quality of the on-line public services is a significant part of the digital re-form, which – at its turn – is a part of the public administration reform for improving the performances of the authorities from this point of view. There is a general consensus that the authorities of the central public ad-ministration have to adopt a strategic man-agement approach oriented mainly towards results, centred on the quality of supplied services and the citizens’ needs. System for the quality evaluation of the on-line public services for citizens and business environment (e-ServEval) is a project developed under the Excellency Re-search Program (2005-2008) by a consor-tium composed of the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI), the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE), the National Communications Re-search Institute (INSCC) and the National Institute for Research and Development for Labour Protection (INCDPM). Based on the research and development re-sults, the designed e-ServEval system will be applied for the quality evaluation of the main public services widely used that are developed, implemented and available on-line in Romania. This paper is organized as follows: first we describe the project objectives; then we pro-vide a brief overview of the general architec-ture of the e-ServEval system and the tech-nological options for the development of the system. This is followed by a description of the system structure and the main functions of the components and the interfaces be-tween users and e-ServEval. Finally, we re-port on the stage of the project and the future actions for the research team.  2. Objectives At European level [1], the European Com-mission has defined within the initiatives and actions concerning the e-government a list of 20 basic public services: 12 basic public ser-vices for citizens (i.e.: payments of the social aid based upon the declarations for total in-come, on-line payments of taxes etc.) and 8 basic services for the business environment (i.e.: public bids issued by the Govern, VAT payment, payment of income tax etc.).  The degree in which the objectives of the quality of the on-line public services are quantified and made public, as well as the degree of measurement and reporting, vary from one country to another. The most fre-1Revista Informatica Economică nr.2(46)/2008 19quent evaluations are being made by the public surveys, by the investigations regard-ing customers’ satisfaction concerning the on-line public services supplied by the public administration authorities, by benchmarking the on-line availability of the different types of public services etc. The conceptual framework of the on-line public services quality and the different ap-proaches used at international level are pre-sented in [3, 6]. In this context and considering the present national and international state in the field, the project’s research team proposes the de-velopment, experimentation and implemen-tation of a software solution and methods system for solving the following problems related with the quality evaluation of public on-line services [3, 5]:  (1) the quality evaluation of a public on-line service taking into account the service sup-ply process, the user interface and supplied information by the portal which sustains the services; in this way, it is ensured an inte-grated approach for the evaluation of public on-line service’s quality taking into account their core components (front-office and back-office);  (2) the quantification and evaluation of pub-lic on-line services taking into account the user’s features, services’ typology, and the availability degree of on-line services; in this way, it’s assured a modern approach focused on users for the evaluation of public on-line service quality;  (3) the development of software solutions and methods that ensures the correlation of service’s quality with public on-line service development strategy and with performance of the authority from public administration that supply the service;  (4) the evaluation of public on-line service s both from the user’s point of view, and from the service’s supplier point of view.   3. The general architecture The general architecture highlights the main components e-ServEval that assures the technical and functional requirements de-fined in [4]. The architecture is based on the multi-tiered, layered framework which is used to describe the web-based applications. The client layer The client layer refers to the user’s environ-ment of the services delivered through the e-ServEval system. All the evaluators have ac-cess the e-ServEval services from the web browser. The evaluators communicate with the e-ServEval system using browsers capable of HTTP protocol-based communication. It as-sumes that the evaluator has access at the web in order to use the e-ServEval system. The e-ServEval system will function cor-rectly with the following browsers: Internet Explorer 6.0 or older versions, Netscape Navigator and Opera 6.0 or older versions. The administrator of the system and the ex-perts can access the e-ServEval system from local computers, without using a dedicated browser. Web access layer The functions of the system will be imple-mented and presented as an assembly of ser-vices on a web site dedicated to the e-ServEval system. The external and internal evaluators will access the same e-ServEval homepage.  The control for the access to the resources from the web server is based on the identity of the user. The system will automatically generate the identification data for the evaluator (username and password) when an evaluator requires the registration into the system. To access the e-ServEval system, the users will send the authentication data (user-name and password) using the forms pro-vided on the system’s homepage. Application layer This layer contents the main functional com-ponents specific for the management of the evaluation process including data analysis processes, validation of measurement models and reports for the evaluation results. Data management layer This layer implements services for the re-search, adding, change or deletion of infor-mation from data collections which contain information from completed questionnaires and from data collections containing infor-Revista Informatica Economică nr.2(46)/2008  20mation used to administrate the e-ServEval system (e.g., users lists) The development of the e-ServEval system is oriented towards the use of open-source software, and the development of its own software modules. Supplementary, we use software products: - open-source: Linux operating system, Apache web server, MySQL database server (data management), PHP (creating programs for components); - commercial: SPSS 14 for Windows (statis-tical analysis and processing), AMOS 6.0 (optimization and validation of measure-ment models).  4. The e-ServEval components The general structure of e-ServEval system contains an assembly of components which have interfaces and interactions (Figure 1).    Fig.1. The e-ServEval system components   User Interface Manager (UIM) This component is used by all evaluators to browse through the e-ServEval pages spe-cific for the evaluation process. Also, the component ensures the monitoring of the workflow in the system and controls the exe-cution of the other components. Authorization and Access Manager (AAM) This component administrates the users list of the system, validates and monitors the us-ers’ access to the system. An important func-tion of this component is to ensure the secu-rity and to monitor the unauthorized attempts to access the system.  Evaluation Process Manager (EPM) This component guides the evaluators in the on-line evaluation process, administrates the list of the types of on-line public services and provides information regarding the evaluation process. Also, it checks if the fields in the questionnaires are completed and if the database is up-graded with the re-sults from the questionnaires. In Figure 2 it’s presented the main menu in the interface be-tween the evaluator and EPM component.   Fig.2. The main menu in the interface be-tween the evaluator and EPM component   Evaluation Report Manager (ERM) This component is responsible with the exe-cution of the evaluators required operations concerning the visualization / printing of its own evaluation results (in tabular format and graphics), the history of its own evaluations (Figure 3). Also, this component is used by experts to develop reports regarding the global and analytical results obtained from evaluation (at service types level, at the level of quality characteristics concerning types of services, comparative analysis etc.).   Fig.3. An example of report regarding the history of the users own evaluations   Questionnaires Structure Manager (QSM) Managerinterfata cuutilizatorulManagerautorizaresi accesManagerproces de evaluareManagerrapoarte de evaluareBDadministrare sistemBDevaluareManagerstructurachestionarEvaluatormodele demăsurareInternetexpert   evaluatorRevista Informatica Economică nr.2(46)/2008 21This component is used by an expert for the development of the questionnaires and it’s accomplished through specialized software to create on-line questionnaires. Figure 4 presents a sample evaluation questionnaire that has to be completed by an evaluator.   Fig.4. Example from the structure of the evaluation questionnaire  Measurement Models Evaluator (MME) This component is used by the e-ServEval questionnaire administrator for analysis, validation, optimization and evaluation of the measurement models. This component is accomplished with specialized software (sta-tistical package SPSS 14 for Windows and AMOS 6.0 for Structural Equations Model-ling).  5. The project stage The project is in its fifth phase of develop-ment “The experimentation of the pilot sys-tem.” Until now, activities such as the elabo-ration of the experimentation methodology and the experimentation plan have been finalised. The activities for defining the evaluators list and the list of on-line public services, which will be the object of the ex-perimentation, are about to be concluded. We have in view categories of on-line public services for citizens that are widely used and available on-line in Romania [2]. An ex-perimentation methodology created by the research team based on the best practices in the domain will be used. The results of the experiments will be recorded in experimenta-tion reports.  6. Conclusions By applying the modern information tech-nologies, the project contributes to resolve concrete and important problems regarding the measurement, the evaluation, and the im-provement of quality for on-line public ser-vices. In addition, through the research re-sults, the project adds to the research efforts done in the domain of evaluation for the ser-vices provided through electronic means and demonstrates the validity of technologies and modern applications in e-government. In order to capitalize and exploit the results, we will undertake actions to include the sys-tem and its services in the offer of services for the project’s partners.  7. References  [1] *** eGovernment Progress in EU27+: Reaping the benefits. 19 september 2007. http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=391 (accesat 12 noiembrie 2007). [2] *** eGovernment in Romania. EGov-ernment Factsheets, v3.0, october 2007 http://www.epractice.eu/document/3090 (ac-cesat 12 noiembrie 2007).   [3] Balog, Al. şi colectiv.  Sistem de evaluare a calităţii serviciilor publice on-line pentru cetăţeni şi mediul de afaceri. Contract CEEX nr. 30/2005, Faza 1: Studii şi analize privind calitatea serviciilor publice on-line, decembrie, 2005. [4] Balog, Al. şi colectiv. Sistem de evaluare a calităţii serviciilor publice on-line pentru cetăţeni şi mediul de afaceri. Contract CEEX nr. 30/2005, Faza 2: Specificarea cerinţelor sistemului. Mai, 2006. [5] Balog, Al., Ivan, I. Cercetări privind evaluarea calităţii serviciilor publice on-line. în: Revista Română de Informatică şi Auto-matică, vol. 16, nr. 4, 2006, pag. 39-48. [6] Balog, Al. Evaluarea serviciilor elec-tronice în sectorul public. în vol.: Lucrările celei de a patra Conferinţe Naţionale de In-teracţiune Om-Calculator, Constanţa, 19-22 Sept. 2007.   

E-ServEval: a system for quality evaluation of the on-line public services

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E-ServEval: a system for quality evaluation of the on-line public services

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