1. Introduction

Reference to the Council of Ministries Resolution No. (418) dated 25/07/1442 AH, of establishing the Digital Government Authority (DGA), and with reference to the fourth article, in its fourth and fifth Paragraphs of the Authority’s regulations which states that the Authority is mandated to “coordinate with relevant entities to organize the activities of digital government, digital government platforms, sites, and services, government networks, and the unified national portal. This includes the development of plans, programs, indicators, and standards related to the activities of digital government and shared digital government services," and "issue measurements, indicators, tools, and reports to measure the performance and capabilities of government entities in the field of digital government, and the satisfaction of the beneficiaries”.
 

As an extension of the Digital Government Authority’s responsibilities in enhancing the performance of government agencies, accelerating digital transformation, raising the quality of services provided to beneficiaries through platforms, and improving their digital experience in line with the strategic directions of the digital government, the Authority launched the Government Services Digital Experience Maturity Index for 2024, in its (third) cycle, with the aim of measuring the level of maturity of digital government platforms and services. 
 

Objective of the Report 

This report provides an overview of the Digital Experience Maturity Index for Government Services 2024, its methodology and measurement mechanism. Moreover, it highlights the most prominent achievements, developments and improvements that the platforms included, have worked on in the field of digital experience , and indicates the main observations and the overall index result and the results achieved by the top ten digital platforms and the key recommendations, according to the four key perspectives of digital experience maturity, which are:

• Beneficiary Satisfaction
• User Experience
• Complaints-Handling
• Technologies & Tools 

2. About the Maturity Index

2.1 Digital Experience

The digital experience is defined as the entirety of the beneficiaries’ experience formed through the interactions with digital government platforms and services across all touchpoints through beneficiaries’ affairs with the government agency. The experience starts with an initial contact with the government agency, across different digital channels to deliver the service, gather the voice of the customer for opinions, complaints, and feedback, and moving forward with a comprehensive analysis of the beneficiaries’ data to improve the services. A digital experience is centered around key elements:
 

• Design Platform or digital service functionalities in a way that makes it easy for users to complete their tasks and goals.

• Adaptation of the digital experience based on user's preferences and needs, making it usable by all user categories.

• Effective response to user complaints, taking their opinions into account, and encouraging their participation through stages of design and continuous improvement of the digital experience.
   

Providing a mature digital experience is crucial, as it accelerates digital transformation, improves the quality of life of beneficiaries, increases their satisfaction and loyalty, and motivates them to use the digital platform’s channels, products, and services effectively. 

Therefore, it is important to measure the level of maturity of digital platforms, especially priority platforms, so that the government agencies can determine the current baseline and the future state of the intended digital experience and then draft a roadmap to improve the digital experience of their platforms.

 2.2 Digital Experience Maturity Index

Based on the importance of the digital experience and its impact on accelerating the pace of digital transformation, and its essential role in meeting the needs of beneficiaries of digital government services, and considering it a means to improve the quality of these services and raise the satisfaction of beneficiaries with them, and the necessity of enabling the development of digital government platforms and services, and improving the user experience for them, the Authority has worked to develop the Digital Experience Maturity Index for Government Services . This index is an annual index that aims to measure the maturity of digital government platforms and services according to a number of key perspectives and themes. It works as an enabler for achieving the strategic directions of the digital government by analyzing the results and identifying the themes that may require raising their level of maturity, and providing recommendations to improve them.

To ensure alignment with modern digital experience trends, changing beneficiaries’ needs, these perspectives are reviewed in each cycle as needed and according to the latest international practices and strategic trends of digital government. This is done to enhance the exchange of success stories and achieve the desired benefit.

2.3 Objectives of Digital Experience Maturity Index

The Authority aims to achieve the following objectives through the index:

• Keeping pace with the National Digital Government Strategic Directions.
• Enhancing the digital experience of beneficiaries and improving their satisfaction.
• Accelerating the digital transformation of government digital platforms and services.
• Raising the maturity of government digital platforms and services.
• Establishing DX maturity measurement practices based on international standards.
• Benefiting from platforms with high maturity levels to set exemplary national models. 

The Digital Experience Maturity Index (DXMI) also contributes to several national goals that are part of the Digital Government Strategic Directions. DXMI creates a positive impact on the digital transformation journey in the Kingdom, through:

• Quality of Life: Raising the percentage of beneficiaries highly satisfied with digital gov’t services.

• Beneficiary Satisfaction: Significantly improving the quality of life of Saudi Arabia citizens.

• Ease of Doing Business: Enhancing digital access and inclusion of business (for the purpose of digital competitiveness).

• Digital Government Transformation: Enhancing the digital transformation of government entities and improve decision making.

• Environmental impact: Reducing CO2 emissions based on digital solutions.

• E-Participation: Improving beneficiary participation in public decision-making and designing digital government services.

• E-Government Index: Achieving a leading figure in the EGDI rankings.

3. Methodology of DXMI In 2024

3.1 Mechanism for Improving and Developing the Digital Experience Maturity Index

The Digital Experience Maturity Index for Government Services continued its development in 2024, refining its perspectives through a methodical scientific approach involving multiple stages of research and enhancement. This process aligned with the strategic directives of the digital government transformation, gradually achieving its objectives, with a focus on the critical criteria that significantly impact international benchmarks and the Kingdom's ranking within them. These stages include:
 

1. International Indices: Studying international indices and their sub-standards:  The United Nations, the World Bank, and the ESCWA.
2. Research & Best Practices: Studying perspectives, themes and standards of the best practices and the outcomes of local and international research.
3. Lessons Learned: Incorporating lessons learned from previous cycles and feedback from entities to improve the index.
4. New Standards: Determining a list of important standards in international indices, best practices and research results that are not included in the current DXMI.
5. Improve DXMI: Improving the methodology of the DXMI.

6. DXMI Development: Build the new DXMI constituents including playbooks and systems.
   
    

   

3.1.1 Key Improvements to the Digital Experience Maturity Index

Upon completion of all stages of development and improvement of the methodology, the following enhancements were taken into consideration:

• Improving the criteria for selecting targeted platforms.
• Excluding the theme of accessibility and availability from the "Beneficiary Satisfaction" perspective, as it will be thoroughly addressed through specific criteria under the "User Experience" perspective.
• Enhancing the sub-criteria for various themes.
• Incorporating the theme of (Beneficiary Expectations) into the “Beneficiary Satisfaction” perspective.
• Incorporating the theme of (accessibility for people with disabilities and the elderly) into the "User Experience" perspective.
   

3.2 Criteria for Selecting Platforms Included in the Index

The targeted platforms which were selected in (2024) cycle based on the following criteria:

• The diversity of sectors served by the platform.
• The influence of the platform on international indices.
• The importance of the platform in the sector it serves.
• The volume of services and operations in the platform.
• The number of beneficiaries of the platform and the diversity of their segments.
• The volume of interactions about the platform in the social media.
• Platform connectivity with major life journeys needed by various beneficiaries in the Kingdom.

3.3 Platforms Included in the Index

The index (2024) cycle included the assessment of (39) digital platforms from the priority platforms, which were selected based on the aforementioned criteria.

For more information: Check the digital version.