The curtain has finally risen I, the public administration app that will allow you to digitize many of the services we use every day. Via smartphone, you can replace the counter or physical presence with a few clicks, having direct contact with the various public administrations and giving way to the digital revolution that has long been required in the relationship between citizens and institutions.
Available on Google and Apple stores for a few days, it is for now rather limited in functions and still in full testing phase, but it could really represent a big change for the future of citizens and public administrations.
The genesis
The project has been in place for a few years and was designed, at least initially, as a large public platform in which the citizen could have all the public services that most interested him just a click away: a platform where you can contact and be contacted by public administrations, a place to perform actions that otherwise would have required physical presence at the counter. Over the years everything has evolved and last spring the first test phase of the service was launched, theIO app, available in closed-beta version only in some areas and for a few selected users and created by the Digital Transformation Team.
After the "closed number" test phases, it was decided to launch it for all users. Since last April 20In fact, IO is available for everyone on the Apple Store and Google Play Store. This is its beta version, still subject to bugs and with rather limited functions, where users can report problems and malfunctions. Has a new chapter in the citizen-public administration relationship really started?
The door within smartphone reach
The potential of IO is wide and undoubtedly interesting, from many points of view. Just enter the presentation portal of the service to discover its main options. Through the app, users will be able to receive messages and communications by all public bodies, pay services and taxes of any kind thanks to the synergy with pagoPA, the digital payment system of the public administration, to enroll their children in school, as well as to stay updated on the various deadlines and payment terms. Any useful service to the citizen, both locally and nationally, should be present in the final objectives of the developers and the Government on IO.
Pay a fine, the car stamp, an F24 or any contribution, book an appointment at a counter, receive the results of a clinical exam, pay a newsletter by scanning a simple QR code and whoever has more. IO will in fact be synchronized with the payment systems present in your phone and will allow you to do everything directly inside it, without too many frills and with the maximum possible security.
Half service
IO has an internal messaging system, so you can be promptly updated on any deadline, change or news. In a period like the one we are experiencing, imagine, for example, a notification of notification for the arrival of a new self-certification or the new opening hours of an office of which we were not informed.
The goal is to make IO a 100% complete portal that in the future will allow receive certificates, notifications and deeds directly on your smartphone and have a digital copy of any personal document. In the beta version available today, the functions are rather limited but citizens have the opportunity to report not only bugs and malfunctions but also to participate in a public forum in which to suggest future improvements and implementations. The project, at least in perspective, promises great things and seems important but for now, unfortunately, it is going to clash with limits of no small importance.
Youth limits
Can a state that is not really accustomed to digital like ours afford an app that centrally accentuates services for which almost everyone must go to a counter or visit a specific site? Yes, but on condition that you have patience to get used to citizens and administrations to use it. From the user's point of view to access IO it will be mandatory to have SPID credentials or an electronic identity card combined with its Pin, two requirements not too widespread in our country. The SPID, although present since 2016, has never had too much grip among the citizens, frightened by the long process of request and by a practical utility not really at the highest levels: the hope is that the app will encourage its diffusion or simplify it adoption, since for now it represents the only possibility available to use IO.
From the point of view of administrations, however, it will be necessary to ensure that state and local authorities adhere to the project. If at the state level it will be relatively simpler to do so, it may not be so in local realities, which have always been much more reluctant to digitize their services. And we know how much the latter are the most important services for a citizen's life.
What IO offers
All this is reflected in an app that, to date, offers very few services to its users. Laura Castelli, Deputy Minister of Economy, admitted all these limits on his Facebook profile: "There is still a lot of work to be done to tidy up the thousand channels that have been created over the years, but we are convinced that we can do it". And actually the panorama that a user is facing is rather bleak: locally the services available are very few, in some areas practically absent, while on a national scale only the ACI offers a very useful portal to pay the stamp duty or inquire about the certificates of ownership of its vehicles. Much depends on your area of residence.
Municipalities like Milan or Turin have joined the trial and offer some options to their users, Palermo offers notices on the expiry of fines or their ZTL passes, Trento has recently joined to allow citizens to make payments and manage school services. A rather fragmented panorama, which reflects the scarce digitization of services in our country.
A path in progress
The IO development road map is therefore still quite long and there are still many steps to be taken to implement as many options as possible. In any case, the platform seems good and seems to have all the potential to be able to give a positive input to everything that will gravitate around it.
In short, the project is more than valid and, with the right implementations it could become the perfect portal for the long-awaited digitization of the public administration. The government has in fact chosen an open source platform, with the source code available for everyone, with open and continuous development and the possibility of contributing to improvements. At the technological level, accesses with electronic identity card will also be added on iOS and payment methods will be expanded, today limited only to your credit card.
All implementations that will arrive soon, in the hope that more and more administrations will decide to join the initiative. It is still unclear when it will exit the beta phase, but it is likely that we will have to wait a few more years to have in your hands a complete service in all its options.
To the future
The good thing, in any case, is that finally, after years of uncertainties and only sketchy projects, we finally have a tangible platform in our hands, which seems to work quite well and represent, for the first time, the perfect access point to connect citizens and public administrations online under a single protective wing. As already underlined, the work to be done is still quite long, especially in encouraging all administrations to participate. The good example must also be given at the state level with IO which will represent the privileged channel of communication and offer of services. Naturally, it will be necessary to encourage their use, perhaps making access faster and easier and advertising the app much more than has been done so far.
Of course, we always talk about a project still in its embryonic phase, in full experimentation and with still many things to improve, but already allowing the greatest number of citizens to access and use it would be an incentive of no small importance to push within as many public realities as possible. As always, you will need to be patient, with the hope of finally having the right tool in your hands to finally improve the difficult relationship we have always had with public affairs. Will it really be the right time?
