Poland Country Report Pojedynczy Punkt Kontaktowy (Single Point of Contact)

Transcription

1 Ref. Ares(2016) /01/2016 Poland Country Report Pojedynczy Punkt Kontaktowy (Single Point of Contact) Contents 1 Introduction Availability and quality of PSC services Provision of information on the types of administrative requirements applicable to both establishment and temporary cross-border scenarios Availability and quality of information Good practice: Simplification of procedures Electronic completion of procedures: coverage and level of sophistication Assistance to PSC users Good practice: online assistance for PSC users Overall quality of PSC services for users from other countries Language support Finding the relevant information on applicable procedures Completing procedures electronically Use and usability Task completion Identifying the right procedures and finding appropriate information Completion of procedures Comparison of results between national focus group and other focus group General usability and user satisfaction Accessibility Take-up, positioning and promotion Administration, organization and back office enablers Back office integration and cooperation with competent authorities Finance and resources Status of key technical enablers (eid, e-signatures, e-payments)

2 5 Future outlook Strengths, weaknesses and recommendations Availability and quality of PSC services Summarising expert assessment Use and usability Administration, organization and back office enablers

3 1 Introduction This country report provides an overview of existing Point of Single Contact (PSC) infrastructure and services offered in Poland. The report provides details about the availability and quality of services found during portal testing by egovernment experts, views obtained from end-users from Poland and the Czech Republic during focus group sessions 1 about usability of the portal and the views of portal staff and other egovernment experts about the development and functioning of the portal. For ease of cross-referencing the text in this document with the appropriate tables, the tables have been placed in a separate annex. Annex B provides the tables referred to in this document. Annex A provides details of six scenarios used during the study; these are referred to in Section 2. There is one point of single contact in Poland, dedicated to both users based in Poland as well as those from outside the country. The portal carries the EUGO logo stating that it is a part of the EUGO network. The thematic areas covered by the portal can be found in Table 1. The Polish PSC is a business advice and guidance service provided by the government. It consists of an online portal created as a common initiative of the Ministry of Economy (coordinator), the Polish Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing (responsible for preparing descriptions of procedures, simplification and electronisation of procedures and technical issues). Apart from that, all other relevant authorities are obliged to inform and update management of PSC about any changes in their regulations in order to implement them to the portal, which is supported by an administrative panel. In addition, relevant competent authorities are involved in supporting the help desk. First plans concerning creation of the PSC commenced just after adopting the Services Directive in Development of the portal started in April 2009 and the PSC, as a newly created website, went live for users on the 28 th December The Polish PSC portal was created and is developed within an e-government project called UEPA (i.e. SEAP Simplification and Electronisation of Administrative Procedures), the aim of which is to simplify 570 administrative procedures covering all thematic areas regarding setting-up a business and making 420 of these electronically available till the end of The PSC (eu-go.gov.pl) is integrated to the epuap platform (electronic platform for public service). Whereas the eugo.gov.pl page provides the relevant information on requirements and procedures, the actual completion of procedures is carried out through the epuap portal, which is directly linked to the eu-go.pl portal. These solutions were put in place in order to implement the requirements of the Services Directive. However, Poland takes a 1 End-user testing was undertaken by focus group participants and Deloitte experts in each country studied. Participants examined the PSC in their home country and one other country. Details of the scenarios and country pairings can be found in Annex A. 3

4 comprehensive view to its PSC, which is meant to cover in future all relevant procedures for business, not only those covered by the Services Directive. At this stage, the portal already offers information about taxation and social security issues (see Table 1). The Polish PSC portal is not available (as such) in other languages, in the sense that information content has not been translated by the organizations responsible for the PSC. However, in the absence of professional translations, informal translations can in the meanwhile be obtained by the "Google translation" tool, which has been integrated in the portal. 4

5 2 Availability and quality of PSC services Points of Single Contact are the most visible benefit of the Services Directive for businesses. They are meant to become fully fledged e-government portals allowing future entrepreneurs and existing businesses to easily obtain online all relevant information relating to their activities (applicable regulations, procedures to be completed, deadlines, etc.) and to complete electronically the relevant administrative procedures. The services offered by PSCs need to be available not only in the country of the administration but they must also be accessible for businesses from other countries, across borders. The degree of availability of services through the PSCs was analyzed on the basis of six business scenarios. The six scenarios focused on concrete examples in three sample sectors architecture, restaurants/catering and tourism. One set of three scenarios focused on establishing a permanent business in the specific sector in Poland these are called the 'establishment' scenarios. Three other scenarios investigated the steps required if someone from another country wants to temporarily provide a service in Poland these are called the 'temporary cross border' scenarios. These terms are used throughout the tables and text in this report. Details of the scenarios can be found in Annex A. For each scenario, eight groupings of administrative formalities (e.g. authorization schemes, licenses, other procedures etc.) that businesses are most typically obliged to fulfill in order to provide their service activities were examined. For each grouping, the study analyzed to what degree information was available through the PSC and to what extent a business was able to complete the relevant procedures electronically. The eight groupings (henceforth called 'types of administrative requirements') are: 1. Company registration 2. Obtaining a general business license 3. Procedures relating specifically to the service provider/ profession that they are exercising (licenses to act as a travel agent, architect, sell alcohol etc.) 4. Tax and financial formalities 5. Social security formalities 6. Regulations relating to the premises of the provider, such as providing proof of the location and/or ownership of the premises. 7. Procedures relating to the way the service are carried out and the place the service is carried out, such as applying for authorization to make outdoor sales or serve food on a street. (called 'operations and location' in later tables) 8. Procedures applying only or specifically to cross border provision of services 5

6 These eight types of administrative requirements cover the most common procedures businesses usually need to comply with when starting their activities. In order to complete the above requirements, service providers are often required to provide specific supporting documentation (e.g. proof of insurance coverage, proof of good repute, etc.). The different supporting documents are referred to in the tables contained in the annex as "Procedural components that may be relevant to the preceding procedures". They include: Provide a translation of legal documents produced in another country; Provide details of the location of the business; Provide proof of the ownership of the business; Demonstrate proficiency in the local language; Demonstrate good repute or the lack of a criminal record; Prove accreditation from a financial organisation guaranteeing funds if the business should fail; Provide official proof of your experience or qualifications; Provide official proof of your identity; Provide proof that you are not bankrupt; Provide proof that you have sufficient financial resources / solvency; Provide evidence of relevant insurance; Provide proof that you have no outstanding tax payments. The availability of most of these procedures is mandatory under the Services Directive, for others it is not (in particular social security and tax procedures). However, from a business perspective, it is strongly recommended to make available all these procedures through the PSCs as they are the main steps required to start a business or to provide cross-border services. In this section the availability and quality of the three main tasks of the PSC are assessed: provision of information to businesses, completion of online procedures and assistance to PSC users. In Poland, only 6 out of the 8 groups of procedures mentioned above are relevant, as a general business license is not required in Poland. The regulatory environment in Poland can be defined as quite heavy. The development of the Polish PSC has also led to standardisation and simplification of processes, in particular as regards the development of standardised application forms. 2.1 Provision of information on the types of administrative requirements applicable to both establishment and temporary cross-border scenarios The obligation to set up PSCs means, in practice, that business must be able to complete the entire cycle of all procedures and formalities relating to the access to or the exercise of their activities without having to contact any institutional 6

7 interlocutors other than the PSC. The first key requirement for the PSCs is to make available all relevant information concerning applicable procedures Availability and quality of information In a first exercise we looked at the number and coverage by the portal of requirements or process steps needed for permanent establishment or temporary services provision based on the business scenarios described above, see Table 3. Table 3 shows that the Polish portal provides access to information on about around 80% of the procedures necessary to complete the 6 test scenarios. In total, 69 regulatory requirements need to be undertaken to complete the six scenarios. Twelve of these (17 %) were covered by the main portal. 42 procedures (61 %) were covered by the web sites of competent authorities linked to by the portal; these were both central administration authorities relevant for general regulations as well as local administration granting local permits. 15 procedures (20%) were neither served by the PSC portal nor by linked websites. All these procedures concerned restaurant/catering, both establishment and cross-border scenarios. On the other hand, all procedures concerning the travelling and architecture scenarios are served online. In a second exercise we assessed the quality of the information provided by the portal for the seven types of administrative requirements mentioned previously. Table 4 shows that the portal does not provide information about one out of seven requirements applicable for assessed scenarios at all and in case of others the information is not always sufficient - there is a lack of detail concerning all forms to be submitted and supportive documents required including information on whether copied or original version of documents is required. The situation looks better in case of cross-border procedures as there are more details about form and format of documents submission provided. There are no deadlines by when the competent authority has to inform the applicant of its decision and no means of redress/appeal for applicants are defined. But for some procedures, sample documents concerning particular procedures are being attached on the portal. The column 'sector specific: person' refers to the procedures for individuals to get the recognition of their professional qualifications. As can be seen from Tables 4, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11 and Table 18, most information on these procedures are not provided by the PSC portal, and the user is referred to other sites to complete this task. For the administrative tasks applicable to the Cross Border scenarios, the scope of information provided varied by business and geographical location (as noted this can be the prerogative of competent authorities). 7

8 Information about the applicable administrative procedures (to start up a business/ provide services across borders) can be accessed or searched in a number of different ways, see Table 5. These include searching/access by type of user, service sectors (e.g. construction, tourism, retail) and by a thematic index of procedures (company registration, tax, etc.). Especially the thematic index of procedures was widely praised by focus groups participants. One of them mentioned: I was in charge of setting-up a restaurant business and had no problem to find necessary info about alcohol license because of a clear search structure I found it within a minute. However, it should be noted that the list of available procedures still requires extension to be of help for broader group of entrepreneurs. 8

9 2.1.2 Good practice: Simplification of procedures One of the examples of good practice performed in terms of implementation of Services Directive is a significant simplification of procedures concerning the registration of a business. Namely, on the 1 st July 2011 new regulations of the law of freedom of economic activity were implemented, according to which there is a new form CEIDG-1 acting as an application for business registration of individuals. The form is available on the website linked to the PSC portal. This form is at the same time an application for Social Security / Agricultural Social Insurance Fund, and registration with the Central Statistical Office and the tax office. This is an important convenience for entrepreneurs, who previously had to deal with separate documents for each authority. 2.2 Electronic completion of procedures: coverage and level of sophistication The Services Directive establishes an obligation on Member States to make it possible for businesses to complete all administrative formalities related to the establishment or cross-border provision of services online and across borders. This includes both the submission of an application (with supportive documents) as well as the receipt of the administrative decision from the responsible competent authority. If e-signatures are required in the context of e-procedures, Member States have to accept as a minimum advanced e-signatures supported by a qualified certificate and, if justified, also supported by a secure signature creation device (i.e. the qualified e- signatures) 2 Moreover, MS have to be able to technically process certain formats of advanced e-signatures (C/X/PAdES) 3. The sophistication of the PSC portals in terms of online completion of procedures is examined with a commonly adopted egovernment maturity model with a four-step scale. The four steps or stages of development are: 2 Decision 2009/767/EC 3 Decision 2011/130/EU 9

10 1. Information: only the information required to understand how to complete the procedure is available; 2. One-way interaction: forms concerning the procedure that can be downloaded and printed are available (these can then be returned by post, or taken directly to relevant competent authority offices); 3. Two-way interaction: forms concerning the procedure can be downloaded and uploaded, which enables the entrepreneur to start the procedure electronically. However, procedures are not fully online, some tasks need to be completed via alternative means (e.g. by post or visit to an office); 4. Full case handling: the whole procedure can be completed online (including the receipt of the administrative decision). Table 6 reflects the logic of the Polish PSC. The portal provides information and then links to other websites, where procedures can then be actually completed, in particular through the epuap portal. The scope of procedures available online varies between the scenarios and industries. Still none of the procedures, taking into account both dimensions of electronic procedures performance (type of procedure and its location), can be completed as two way interaction or full case handling on the portal. For the establishment scenarios most procedures are available online, either as information only (83%) or one way interaction. The functionality seems much better when taking into account procedures served by another site linked to the PSC here, 55% of identified procedures is available for users as one way interaction. Moreover, procedures concerning the establishment scenario for architects were the only ones for which full case handling was identified, during focus group sessions. The example of full case handling procedures in the Polish environment is the application for business registration of individuals, served by the form CEIDG-1.The remaining scenarios could not be handled fully online, as the CEIDG-1 serves only for entities wanting to establish business activity as individuals. E-signatures are not available on - are required in order to complete procedures using the epuap website. Apart from e-signatures there is another kind of electronic data certification, so called trusted profile (another method of confirming the identity of a citizen in electronic administration systems, an equivalent of a secure e- signature verified by a qualified certificate) that is issued for free;. E-signatures or trusted profiles are mainly required for fully interactive online services (like company registration where data is directly inserted into the business register and where personalised services are available, e.g. pre-filled info available within the CEIDG-1 form). Table 7 shows that the PSC portal itself does not enable electronic documents to be uploaded and completed online, but it is again possible via the epuap portal integrated with the PSC. Table 9 shows that the six business tasks to be undertaken in Poland required 13 applications or supportive forms to complete the tasks. The portals (PSC together with epuap) were able to support the exchange of these 10

11 documents with the exception of those related to operation and location of the business. All necessary documents may be provided in a variety of ways including digital copies, the submission of copies of originals or originals delivered by post or in person at an appropriate office or locations where the document can be verified as an original. As noted earlier in 2.1 the precise documentary requirements are largely determined by individual competent authorities and it is possible for local authorities to require different numbers or types of documents to complete the same task. In the area of company registration, tax and social security formalities as well as services relating to an individual or profession the translation of original source documents is required. Documents can be uploaded on the epuap portal, sent by to competent authorities or submitted in registry box office of the relevant authority. Table 10 shows that two of the eight types of administrative requirements to be undertaken in Poland require payment, namely services relating to an individual or profession and services related to operation and location e.g. obtaining alcohol license. Online payment as well as information about the possible form of payment is not provided directly on the PSC portal such functionality is available on epuap. Table 11 shows that none of the seven types of administrative requirements to be undertaken in Poland provide tracking services that allow users to monitor the progress of their transactions. 2.3 Assistance to PSC users The Polish portal provides a number of highly praised interactive tools to help users obtain information. When users encounter problems, various sources of help are available. As Table 12 shows, online assistance is provided in a variety of ways (FAQs, individual advice services and videos). These are generally good, easy to use and comprehensive. However, users with problems to which they cannot find an answer appear to have only one option using a HelpDesk Good practice: online assistance for PSC users Online help for PSC users is enabled on the portal with a tool called HelpDesk. It is very easy to find an icon appears almost in the center of the main page. A user having problems 11

12 in finding relevant information on the portal or in interpreting information may use an available web form and send a query. In general, one should get the response to simple, standard questions within 7 working days (according to the law of freedom of economic activity). For personal questions or to make use of the advanced functionality of the HelpDesk, a user has to log in or register on the Portal. There is no need to log in if a user wants to get to the database of basic information and public advice only. The HelpDesk is coordinated by the Polish Chamber of Commerce, one of the three authorities responsible for PSC development in Poland and the Ministry of Economy is responsible for formulating answers to most of the queries posed by PSC users. 2.4 Overall quality of PSC services for users from other countries Language support To enhance cross-border activities it is recommended that portals are available in the language(s) of neighboring countries or in one of the most commonly used languages. Table 13 provides details about the availability of pages, services and forms in other languages. The Polish PSC has not been translated into other languages but informal translations are available through the use of the "Google Translate" tool, which has been integrated in the portal. Although this of course does not offer the quality of professional translations, it can at least provide overseas entrepreneurs. However, the translation tool is only available as regards information content. When it gets to actual completion of procedures, epuap does not cater for translations. In general, according to Polish regulations, there is no possibility to submit documents to Polish offices in languages other than Polish that is why only the description of particular procedures without specific forms are available in other languages Finding the relevant information on applicable procedures There is a good general introduction and guide to getting started for non-polish users which includes reference to the option of operating temporarily in Poland, which is easily visible and accessible on the portal. However, as Table 14 shows, even though the portal includes a separate section for temporary business operations, it does not provide sufficient information. As far as the legal requirements are concerned, experts noted that the regulatory requirements and interaction with the portal for cross border users were generally, but not always, the same as for Polish-based users. Ease of use of the site and completion of electronic procedures for residents of other countries was therefore similar as for Polish-based users. In general, participants of focus sessions were not certain whether without knowing anything about the country s administrative and legal system, a foreign business could easily understand all requirements that had to be fulfilled to complete the scenarios. 12

13 2.4.3 Completing procedures electronically The completion of procedures through the epuap website requires the use of e- Signatures. Currently, only the national ones are accepted and users from abroad cannot make use of their own e-id/e-signature (see table 14B). 13

14 3 Use and usability Use and usability is examined through three criteria, which are considered separately below. The overall ease of use and usability of the portal was examined by focus group participants in Poland and egovernment experts. The focus group participants were business people who are active in the three sectors covered by the study (architects, restaurants/catering, tourism). Usability was measured using the System Usability Scale (SUS) methodology, which uses an attitudinal scale where users are asked to respond to statements with a rating on a five-point (Lickert) scale of Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. SUS examines the efficiency, effectiveness and ease of use of the portal. User satisfaction was also investigated using the Analysis of Web Application Requirements (AWARE) methodology. AWARE uses a similar Lickert based attitudinal scale to SUS. AWARE examines user satisfaction by examining users' views of various features of the portal; these include content, structure, navigation, presentation and user operation. In addition, this chapter also looks at portal positioning, promotion and take-up by business users so far. 3.1 Task completion Identifying the right procedures and finding appropriate information A key role for the portal is to enable users to find appropriate procedural and regulatory requirements prior to starting a business or starting cross-border trading. Tables 15, 16 and 17 examine the ability of focus group participants to find the procedural requirements necessary to complete the six business scenarios. Focus group participants had 15 minutes using the portal to find the regulatory 14

15 requirements and procedures required to complete each of the establishment and cross-border scenarios they examined. In most cases focus groups participants searched for appropriate procedures, usually using the search function at the portal. This process was usually efficient and accurate for procedures that were hosted on the portal, but some users ran out of time to complete the more complex scenarios. Another problem was the fact that some procedures were simply not available on the portal, but only links were present. However, during the assessment users praised the structuring of the information on the PSC. Another helpful tool is the search engine, which is created in a user-friendly manner. For example, after inserting a word associated with alcohol, even in English, in search results you get all necessary procedures related to obtaining an alcohol license. The search engine works in English for some, but not all procedures (e.g. obtaining building permits). Tables 15, 16 and 17 show that users were generally successful in finding relevant procedures. On average, 66 % of the procedures identified for establishment scenarios were correctly selected. The highest proportion was for the architectural establishment scenario (86 %). According to users opinions, a huge improvement to the current content of the portal would be an interactive search tree that could provide checklists by sector or company type. Such a tool requires users to insert details such as their business activity, location, legal structure, employees and place of work. The tool would enable users to produce a variety of (downloadable and printable) guides including business start-up organizers, regulation checklists, continuity and risk assessments and business exit checklists. There was also a consensus that there is a need for more specific information and information linked to non-standard procedures and cases. 15

16 As Tables 19, 20, 21 and 22 shows, overall there is a relatively low level of satisfaction with the content available on the portal, because not all procedures needed to complete particular scenarios could be found. Also navigation on the portal was not easy enough for some users. Not all relevant information was available and at the same time information that was included on the portal was often too detailed, which was making it difficult to find the necessary elements Completion of procedures Suggestions from the focus group and from the experts included were focused on the simplification and standardization of existing procedures as well as the implementation of an interactive step-by-step tree. Users also seemed to be confused with the articulation between the PSC portal and the epuap tool, which has an entirely different look and feel Comparison of results between national focus group and other focus group In general, in Tables 20 and 22, Czech users found the Polish portal slightly easier to use than their Polish counterparts. In particular, there are some interesting differences in assessment of the portal s usability shown in table 20, where Czech focus participants clearly understood different requirements existing for permanent/temporary provision of services while their Polish counterparts were not satisfied with available information. What is more, Czech users found it easy to understand all requirements that had to be fulfilled to complete particular scenario, while Polish users found it tough. Table 22 shows that against all measures (for content, structure, navigation, presentation and user operation) Czech users in general provided the same relatively low user satisfaction scores as their Polish counterparts for the Polish PSC portal General usability and user satisfaction Tables 23 and 24 examine accessibility of the portal using the SUS framework. It shows that Polish PSC users found the Polish portal easier to use than their counterparts in other countries, even if most of the information were not directly present on it (this is indicated by higher scores given by Polish experts than the average of all portals examined). The portal was found to be accessible in general and various functions for undertaking activities were well integrated, however it was not intuitive enough to complete the given scenarios. This means that taking the website as a whole the idea of structuring information as well as the quality of 4 The scores represent the views of focus group participants and experts in each country, they have not been standardized. Thus whilst the table provides a comparison of results between countries an unusually optimistic or pessimistic group of assessors could influence comparative results. Importantly, the review of the UK portal was undertaken after participants had completed scenarios on their 'own' Irish portal. 16

17 existing content is good, but some areas are unnecessarily complex which makes users confused. 3.3 Accessibility Several evaluation tools were used to examine portal accessibility and the extent to which the portal was usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. Table 25 provides the number of errors preventing full accessibility found by two of the most commonly used accessibility tools. The lower the number of errors the better. The average number of errors for all tested portals is shown in the right hand column. Overall Poland has a relatively high level of accessibility. The most important result in terms of usability and accessibility is the W3C Markup Validator 5. It assesses the html markup used in the web site and states whether any errors have occurred. In Poland there was no errors covered by this indicator. Finally, accessibility was measured using the W3C CSS Validator 6, which measures the degree to which web-sites adhere to web standards as regards cascading style sheets (CSS). CSS errors mean that information does not display correctly, or at all. For a website to be considered of good accessibility, the maximum number of errors should be 100. The Polish portal is characterized by 186 errors. According to information obtained from the PSC management, some variance with the current standards was kept to increase compatibility with older version of internet browser. 3.4 Take-up, positioning and promotion The use of the Polish PSC portal is regularly monitored by Google Analytics as well as other external mechanisms. In 2010 the portal was visited by over users while a year after the number amounted to over users a significant increase. Key PSC related phrases were examined in two search engines. This assessment shows that the positioning of Polish portal is very good after typing Point of Single Contact in Polish into the search engine, a link to the Polish website appears on the first place, as Table 26 shows. Table 27 describes the focus group's recognition and awareness of aspects of governmental portals such as its affiliation with the EUGO network. The PSC portal was not well known among participants of focus sessions prior to the meeting. However, after spending some time on the portal they claimed that the idea may be beneficial for entrepreneurs provided that the emphasis will be put on appropriate execution of assumed plans, namely simplification and digitalisation of procedures as a part of UEPA project. It is recommended to make use of effective marketing tools to raise the awareness of the portal. The site was recognizable as an official

18 portal due to its style, the content of 'about us pages' and.gov.pl URL. The portal also provides users with links to other Member State s portals. 18

19 4 Administration, organization and back office enablers This section examines the operational aspects that impact on the practical functioning of the portal activities. This includes the degree of back-office integration (i.e. the interplay between competent authorities responsible for specific procedures handled through the PSC and the portal itself); it investigates the degree of resource availability and it includes the overall egovernment readiness of a Member States, in particular as regards key technical enablers such as the ability to handle electronic IDs, e-signatures or e-payment means. 4.1 Back office integration and cooperation with competent authorities For the portal to offer its services to business in an effective manner, it is vital that all competent authorities are closely connected to the portal. Without successful backoffice integration, it would be challenging to ensure up-to-date information and electronic application forms availability in a coherent manner across the board. Secondly, providing the means to complete a wide array of electronic procedures through a single portal can potentially offer serious efficiency gains through a push towards a standardization of relevant forms as well as the means to sign applications electronically and to submit application files. As Table 28 illustrates, the number of authorities dealing with the procedures offered through the portal amounts to 5185 (including large numbers of local authorities as well as multiple national government ministries). This is posing a serious challenge, as it is difficult to make coherent actions undertaken by different stakeholders. Based on the division in regulatory requirements that are served by the PSC and at other sites, it is unclear whether the Polish PSC portal can act as an autonomous portal or gateway to other platforms. A majority of the procedures are served on other sites, linked by the PSC, indicating that this portal mainly acts as a gateway. According to PSC staff, an important issue relating to portal development is a difficulty to involve other stakeholders (other competent authorities) in the process of implementing changes to the portal. In accordance with Polish regulations, relevant authorities are responsible for publishing factual, updated information on the portal. In order to simplify and unify this process, the Ministry of Economy together with partners started an implementation of project UEPA (Simplifying and Electronisation of Administrative Procedures). The aim of the project is to unify and simplify relevant procedures and implement them in electronic version. The system will allow all stakeholders to update and customize forms/procedures, if needed, on their own by using an administrative panel specially dedicated for this purpose. 4.2 Finance and resources According to the information obtained from the PSC staff, the total development cost of the portal until launch amounted to around PLN 480,000. The amount of money 19

20 that has been spent in total after the launch is around PLN 1,720,000 while the annual running cost for the Polish PSC amounts to PLN 1,400,000. There are people dedicated to administer the PSC portal. They are in charge of technical and factual administration, content management, HelpDesk management, technological development as well as implementation of new solutions. Although currently resources are adequate, the number of staff may need to be increased in the future as a consequence of the portal development. 4.3 Status of key technical enablers (eid, e-signatures, e-payments) Polish administrations provide a possibility to use either e-signature or a free trusted profile issued by the Ministry of Administration and Internal Affairs. In the future there are plans to launch an e-id as well. Currently users identification is required in case of three situations: 1. While accessing HelpDesk with the purpose to get personal advice. 2. While accessing e-learning facilities. 3. While starting an e-procedure on epuap. 20

21 5 Future outlook PSC staff is currently working on standardization of descriptions of procedures in order to implement all the simplified procedures on the portal until the end of As a result, 420 administrative procedures will be available electronically, taking as a benchmark the implementation of the CEIDG form. One of the major barriers that may affect the implementation is legal requirement to keep paper form for some documents that are currently included Polish regulations. Moreover, there are some improvements expected from collaboration with Google that is working on a quality of translation available on the portal, based on feedback provided by the PSC staff. However, not all content can be translated as according to Polish regulations all formal documents must be submitted in Polish language. To increase awareness of the PSC initiative, which is currently not satisfactory, PSC staff is planning a promotional campaign among both entrepreneurs and public administrations. The plan is to participate in meetings, conferences and panels as well as issue newsletter and publish brochures/manuals for potential PSC users. According to the PSC staff, there will be a focus on the following issues in the near future: o o o o o electronisation of most popular procedures concerning setting up a business activity and obtaining building permits access to standardized procedures descriptions approved by competent authorities access to electronic applications in the form of creators generating documents / forms provision of full, updated information regarding procedures on one website availability and permanent development of well-organized HelpDesk 21

22 6 Strengths, weaknesses and recommendations This study examined the readiness of the Polish PSC portal by investigating its ability to support the completion of six business scenarios. The portal was able to support the access to the procedures required to complete the six business scenarios and all the relevant (seven out of eight) types of administrative requirements. The PSC portal is well underway to meeting its aim to serve as a real help for both national and international users. 6.1 Availability and quality of PSC services Expert analysis found that in terms of information provision, the portal goes beyond the minimum requirements of the Services Directive and also offers information on tax requirements and social security-related requirements a business has to fulfill. However, some important mandatory information is still missing, in particular guidance about procedures, deadlines and possibility to appeal. When it comes to online completion of procedures, in many cases it is not possible yet, but it should be noted that the process of implementing online procedures is still ongoing and the offer should be much broader soon. Information provision is generally good and the quality of the search facility, which provides easy directions and access to information for business activities was mentioned as one of the advantages by focus group participants. However, more detailed and language-specific translation on the site would make the content highly advantageous to more foreign users. According to the portal staff as well as focus groups participants, development of a more sophisticated search mechanism would significantly improve the convenience of using the portal. The tool may e.g. facilitate searching for published information by not only entering key words into a search engine but also by searching information based on a full drop-down list of sectors / occupations. The PSC staff is focusing on the standardization of procedures descriptions in order to unify and simplify existing regulations and describe them in accessible language. This standard will serve as a template according to which each procedure will run on the portal, thus the information available for users will be clear, simple and consistent. At the moment, online completion of procedures is only available for national users as it requires the Polish e-signature means. Efforts need to be increased to implement the comitology decisions adopted under the Services Directive. Another point of focus for PSC staff is enabling to perform procedures online. Not just using simple electronic forms but forms that allow filling in the necessary data step by step, and prefilling the form with data already provided before. 22

23 6.2 Summarising expert assessment Table 18B shows that in general the expert assessment of the Polish portal was better than of other Member States portals. The expert assessment of the portal was above average for structure and organisation of information, navigation tools, assistance channels, multilingual assistance, translation, tracking procedures and submission of e-documents. The portal received below average scores for the use of eid and esignature as well as online payment tools. 6.3 Use and usability Overall the use and usability of the Polish PSC was perceived to be quite good. Key attributes were thought to be:- The clear and professional appearance Its role in providing a one-stop source for information and services Well organized and efficiently functioning HelpDesk Nonetheless, experts and focus group participants suggested some areas for improvement. These included:- Shorter and more succinct forms for some services, namely reducing concerning irrelevant information that needs to be filled out Easier access or signposting to interactive tools, e.g. intuitive and visible at first glance link to the epuap website Improving the link between PSC and epuap by creating direct links to chosen procedures on the PSC portal Implementation of an interactive decision tree, providing step by step guidance by posing questions concerning various aspects of business activity and printing out possible solutions for existing circumstances More accurate translation, especially applicable for content written in legal language Text and language simplification Apart from the abovementioned suggestions, the most important area of improvement is the amount of information available for entrepreneurs. Now the informative part of the PSC portal is quite limited, e.g. you can search sector-specific procedures only within a few occupations. However, the practical part of the portal, epuap website, seems to be developing in a manner to fulfill the aims of the Services Directive related to simplification and implementation of administrative procedures electronically. A crucial point of focus should be the information for foreign users interested in entering the Polish market. The website offers a general introduction for businesses from abroad but it does not consistently make it clear for all service sectors which 23

24 administrative formalities a business has to complete if it only wants to enter Poland on a temporary basis (i.e. without establishment). 6.4 Administration, organization and back office enablers The long period of liaison with competent authorities and high level of on-going support provided to them by the team responsible for developing the portal has enhanced buy-in and support for the portal from competent authorities. The key attributes identified by experts, PSC staff and competent authorities are: Providing competent authorities with a tool supporting them in updating relevant information on the portal A team coordinating the implementation and development of the PSC portal in Poland that consists of three institutions taking advantage of totally different backgrounds and competences the Ministry of Economy (government), the Polish Chamber of Commerce (business side) and the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing (technical aspects) In general, assessment of the portal is highly influenced by its early development stage. In order to succeed in the future, the portal development should be focused on simplification of existing procedures and efficient cooperation between relevant authorities, apart from already performed activities like newsletters, informative meetings organized with public administration institutions or brochures/manuals for public administration planned for the near future. However, the essential success factor is orientation to business while undertaking any activities in terms of PSC development. This implies the creation of a platform covering wide range of easily accessible and relevant information for businesses in simple language for Polish and foreign entrepreneurs. 24