An online services portal is judged on one measure: the share of requests that actually go through it. A site delivered on time but used by nobody has spent a budget for nothing.
Projects that succeed tend to follow the same sequence.
1. Start from the queues, not the catalogue
The temptation is to digitalise everything. That is the surest way to deliver late and badly. Start by observing: which procedures generate the most trips, complaints and re-keying? Two or three of them usually account for most of the volume.
A portal that handles three high-demand procedures well is worth more than one that handles thirty poorly.
2. Simplify the process before digitalising it
An approval chain with six signatures stays slow once digitalised — it simply becomes slow on screen. The question to ask at each step: why does it exist? Some answer a legal requirement; others are a habit nobody has re-examined.
This is the most delicate step, because it touches the organisation. It is also the one that produces the clearest gains.
3. Design for a phone, on a slow connection
Most users will connect from a mobile, often on a limited data plan. Three concrete consequences:
- short forms, split into steps, that keep what has been entered if the connection drops;
- light pages — every unoptimised image costs the user money;
- document upload that accepts a photo taken on a phone, not only a scanned PDF.
4. Plan for assistance, not just self-service
Some users will not complete the process alone: difficulty with written forms, limited digital experience, an unusual case. From the design stage, plan a help desk where staff can complete the form on their behalf, and a channel for exceptions.
A portal that ignores this reality mechanically produces exclusion — and the counter stays as busy as before.
5. Train staff before opening
Staff are the first point of contact for users. If they discover the tool on launch day, they will present it badly. Involving them during design, then training them beforehand, transforms how the project is received.
Plan administrator training too: a portal where every content change requires a supplier ages quickly.
6. Measure usage, not delivery
The useful indicators are not how many pages were delivered, but:
- the share of procedures completed online rather than at the counter;
- the drop-off rate within the form, and where it happens;
- processing time, before and after;
- call volumes about the procedures concerned.
These figures guide the fixes and justify the next phase of the programme.
What about the technology?
It comes last, and rightly so. An open source foundation such as Drupal brings native multilingual support, fine-grained roles, accessibility and long-term security maintenance, with no per-user licence cost. But no tool compensates for weak scoping.
Scoolis supports public bodies from scoping through to adoption. Explore digital transformation.