Faces on the cloud – Newspaper Kommersant No. 152 (7353) of 08/20/2022

Changes are expected in the sphere of public services in the near future, in fact, we are talking about a new stage in the digital transformation of services, said Maksut Shadayev, head of the Ministry of Digital Development, at the Digital Evolution forum in Kaluga. The changes are driven by growing user expectations. Thus, it is planned to appoint an officially declared responsible person for each state service. To solve problems with a lack of resources, the regions are invited to switch to centralized platforms for public services – however, their implementation may require new budget subsidies, this issue is being discussed in the government.

The head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, announced a new stage in the digital transformation of public services, which should begin in the near future. “Get ready for the fact that there is a lot of work to be done, and this autumn will be devoted to reformatting this block,” he said yesterday at the plenary meeting of the Digital Evolution forum in Kaluga. The minister explained that the changes are due to the growing expectations of citizens: once using a convenient service for one service, in one region, the user wants a similar result for others. “In this sense, the better we work, the greater the demand for such changes,” he said.

Thus, the department plans to appoint a person responsible for each service, whose task is to act as a customer for the continuous improvement of the provision of public services: he will be responsible for convenience, quality, feedback, errors, failures. “I once said that up to the point that we will hang a photo of the responsible person on the public services portal so that people understand who is responsible for the convenience of this process,” Maksut Shadayev said. According to him, personification will take place and an institution responsible for public services will be created. It is assumed that these will be individuals (in addition to those responsible for digital transformation), explained Kommersant in the press service of the department. At the same time, the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko recalled that at present, each federal and regional department has digital transformation leaders who are responsible, among other things, for the high-quality provision of public services to citizens in electronic form.

In addition, the minister announced the need to build a feedback channel on public services for regions with federal departments. Such a need is due to the work on the mass transfer of socially significant services to electronic form, which is being carried out by the Ministry of Digital Development with the subjects of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, federal sectoral departments that create standards for the provision of services may sometimes not take into account some of the nuances of the regions. In this regard, Maksut Shadayev asked to organize separate groups to discuss these issues. Earlier, the Ministry of Digital Development introduced a “visual service designer” for the government departments and regions to put their public services into operation. The tool allows you to design a service on the Lego principle, simplify and speed up this process (for more details, see Kommersant of June 24).

The transformation of public services will also require the solution of issues of technical, financial, and human resources; however, not all regions have them, the minister noted. The existing resource constraints are accompanied by a shortage of infrastructure, he pointed out. “It is clear that the issue is being resolved with the servers – but still their cost increases, and the same amount of money remains,” he said. According to Maksut Shadayev, there is currently a high demand for cloud solutions. To meet the requirements in full, it is necessary to switch to centralized solutions for public services – they will solve problems with infrastructure, information security, and get a turnkey service. Such solutions include, for example, a platform for public services and services, a system of interdepartmental electronic interaction 4.0 (“data marts”), Kommersant was specified in the press service of the Ministry of Digital Development. For their effective implementation, the regions, according to the minister, need to build subordinate organizations or negotiate with companies on the market. “Perhaps we will subsidize the introduction of these platforms in the regions, we are thinking about it now,” he said. The press service of the Kommersant department did not name the possible amount, noting only that the calculation will be carried out on the basis of a special methodology designed for these purposes.

Venera Petrova