Digital citizen services improve government management

Within all the difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic has left during this 2020, opportunities were born that gave rise to develop technological solutions that can be key to empower the future and accelerate economic recovery, also helping to educate a much more friendly citizenship with digital media, using them to fulfill their obligations in a way they did not know or were not familiar with before.

To this end, many of the procedures that normally took time and required mandatory assistance were migrated to be carried out online, improving and facilitating the experience thanks to digital citizen services.

The National Government's commitment to boost the economy is focused on information and communication technologies, with the aim of increasing productivity, closing territorial gaps and modernizing public institutions, according to the Vice-Presidency of the Republic's website.

For example, the electronic invoicing process used to be considered as one of the many steps towards digitalization and as of this year, more than a technological option, electronic invoicing becomes a legal requirement that every taxpayer must comply with if they do not want to incur penalties. This type of digital citizen services facilitates tax payment compliance.

Even, data published by Semana Magazine indicate that the pandemic also influenced the behavior of Colombians when paying taxes, 68.2% of the income tax returns as of September 1, 2020 had been made by digital means. A year ago during the same period, only 26.8% had taken this alternative.

In addition, only 28.7% of the filers did it in the cashier's office of the banks and last year this figure was 68.6%, which shows an important change in the behavior of Colombians, demonstrating that digital alternatives are a real option today.

Another example that contributes to these changes is the business analytics solution 'Sophie', a tool created by Nuvu with which companies have direct access to financial and accounting information of companies, which are monitored through a platform focused on improving access and visibility of valuable information.

On the other hand, there is SingApp, an application that links and authenticates customers with facial biometrics technology, ID card reading and proof of life in an easy and secure way to their data with the use of AI.

These are just a few examples of how digital citizen services improve government management and demonstrate that users are increasingly comfortable with the idea of using digital channels to facilitate procedures and provide security while saving time and money.