Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 30th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG2: Digital Government Author(s) Tanja Paneva University of Ljubljana Sveti Nikole Republic of North Macedonia Prof. Joze Bencina, PhDFaculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia Title Optimization of E-Service Delivery on a Local Level: The Role of One-Stop Shops (OSS) in the Case of Municipalities in North Macedonia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Tanja Paneva Abstract Optimization of E-Service Delivery on a Local Level: The Role of One-Stop Shops (OSS) in the Case of Municipalities in North Macedonia The concept of One-Stop Shops for public services (OSSs) is very much employed as integral tool for governments that undergo public administration reform aimed to creating e-service delivery environment. This aligned with the strong incentive to engage New Public Management (NPM) principles in service delivery with increased user-centricity and cost efficiency puts the One-Stop Shops into the focus of research aimed to discover the different OSSs establishment and operating models that ensure their optimal performance. Existing research in the field provides information on e-service delivery on a local level through analysis of different local e-portals, but little is known for the functionality of the integrated One-Stop Shops service points. The current context indicates that design of OSSs models should be made in line with the specific needs and circumstances in a given community. This tailored-made approach tends to optimize the practical functioning of OSSs and to remove communication barriers between governments and citizens. In the pursuit of provision of digital environment, the government of North Macedonia has opened One-Stop Shops services in 5 municipalities in the period 2019-2021. This paper aims to deliver a case study that will answer the question of the degree of fit between the services offered and the demand of citizens in 5 municipalities with One-Stop Shop service points in North Macedonia. The readiness of public administration to provide support in OSSs functioning in terms of human resources and technical capacities will be examined on the side of service providers. On the side of users, the paper will examine the frequency with demographics and social background of users for services offered by OSSs and the availability of information on how OSSs operate. Through online and field observation of the One-Stop Shops web-portals, this paper will analyze the number and type of services offered within the framework of the best practice principle for OSSs of OECD, the level of sophistication of services according to the Digital Society Index (DESI) and innovations introduced during the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, secondary data from focus groups, interviews and experts’ opinions will be added to the analysis to reflect findings of the OSSs in the different municipalities as something that has been recently introduced. The content of this paper will consist of introduction, first part with definitions, the theoretical framework of the concept of establishing One-Stop Shop services and explanation of the methods used for the research. The second part will present the general picture of the status of implementation of the public administration reform in North Macedonia in reference to opening One-Stop Shop services as the balance between state budget and optimization of e-service delivery on a local level. The results will be presented in the third part. Comparison can be drawn with research results from countries with similar context to North Macedonia. The conclusion will sum up the findings and will be oriented to identifying the reasons that separate the formal existence of the One-Stop Shop service points to their practical functioning for wider usage and optimization of costs and resources for the both sides – the public administration and the service users.
