Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG2: E-government (Physical) Author(s) Sanja Vrbek University of Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia Hržica Rok, Jukic Tina, Sanja Vrbek, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana; Rok Hržica, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana; Tina Jukić, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana Title A Holistic Digital Approach to Co-creation of Public Services File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Sanja Vrbek Abstract Both the academic community and international political actors have promoted co-creation as a solution to the ‘wicked’ problems of today. However, in spite of the academic and political interest, a holistic and guided approach to the practical implementation of co-creation by public entities is still lacking. All the efforts invested by now have been limited on either specific policy areas or specific aspects of the co-creation process. More importantly, these efforts have failed to maximise the potential of digitalisation as a supporting instrument of this cause. Hence, the COGOV project financed within the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme aims to address this gap by providing a holistic digital toolkit that supports and guides public organisations through the whole process of service renewal on the basis of co-creation. To achieve this, the toolkit is consisted of four tools tackling different aspects related to co-creation: 1) the Co-Ready tool supports assessment of organizational readiness for co-creation; 2) the Co-Serve tool supports selection of public services most suitable for a renewal based on co-creation principles; 3) the Co-Renew tool provides a co-creation platform for the renewal of the public service (previously selected with the help of the Co-Serve tool); and 4) the Co-Master tool supports assessment of the quality of the co-creation process that took place during the service renewal. The first, second and fourth tool (Co-Ready, Co-Serve and Co-Master) build on the concept of decision support models and rely on data gathered on the basis of a systematic literature review and case studies conducted in the context of the COGOV project. Their aim is to provide not only an informed assessment of the present state of play (regarding the organisational and service readiness for co-creation or quality of the co-creation process), but also guidelines as to which aspects (and how) need to be improved or taken into consideration as potential challenges during co-creation. Differently, the third tool (Co-Renew) builds on the idea of customer journey mapping – a largely overlooked concept in the context of the public sector ‒ with the purpose of providing a platform for public organisations to actively include external stakeholders in the process of service renewal. Hence, the aim of this paper is threefold. Firstly, to scan the current endeavours and tools available to public organisations interested in implementing co-creation within their work. Secondly, to present a blueprint of a holistic toolkit for co-creation as a potential solution to the gaps noted in the present approach. Thirdly, to invigorate the debate about the link between theory, digitalisation and concrete instruments practitioners need for successful implementation of co-creation in the public sector.
