This chapter analyses the approach undertaken in the Provincial Council of Biscay to design and delivery digitally enabled public services, including ways to improve the experience of users with public services. It looks at the strategic approach, enablers and capabilities in place to enable this transformation, as well as areas of improvement for Biscay to consider when further advancing the design and delivery of human-centred public services.
Digital Government Review of Biscay, Spain
Towards a Future-Oriented Public Sector
Abstract
Public services are the most direct way to connect governments with citizens and businesses. Having access to high-quality and convenient public services is therefore critical to reinforce democratic systems and build trust in public institutions. As underlined by the OECD Survey on Trust in Public Institutions, satisfaction with public services shapes government responsiveness to user expectations and needs (OECD, 2024[1]). In a context of rapid digital development, digital tools and data are powerful tools to enable more responsive and convenient public services that meet user needs and then reinforce public trust (OECD, 2022[2]).
High-quality and accessible public services require a co-ordinated and coherent approach that places users and their needs at the centre. The OECD Recommendation on Human-centred Public Administrative Services identifies the key provisions for integrated and consistent public administrative services that meet user needs (Box 4.1). It underlies the importance of institutional co-ordination, leadership, core enablers and systematic improvement that lead to human-centred public services (OECD, 2024[3]).
The Recommendation provides a policy framework for the development and implementation of services that put user needs at the centre of policy design and delivery. It has four pillars.
Pillar 1: Strategic vision, values, and rights
Whole-of-government strategy: develop services aligned with government-wide goals.
Human-centred culture: prioritise user needs and public engagement.
Right protection: respect the rule of law, providing procedural guarantees and transparency.
Pillar 2: Core foundations
Leadership and roles: clearly define leadership and co-ordination responsibilities.
Skills and competencies: build public servants’ capacity to design and deliver services.
Digital infrastructure: develop scalable, secure, and interoperable digital infrastructure to support service delivery.
Pillar 3: Seamless and accessible services
User-centred design: based on user needs, ensuring inclusiveness and accessibility.
Omni-channel approach: provide consistent, high-quality service across all channels.
Simplified services: streamline processes, reduce administrative burdens, anticipate needs.
Pillar 4: Measurement, engagement, improvement
Measurement of user experience: track user satisfaction and service performance.
Data-driven improvement: use data and feedback to continuously enhance services.
Public engagement: involve users in the co-design and evaluation of services.
Source: OECD Recommendation of the Council on Human-centred Public Administrative Services (2024[3]).
When looking at the specific role of digital tools, data and AI for human-centred public services, the Good Practice Principles for Public Service Design and Delivery in the Digital Age serve as policy levers to operationalise the provisions set in the Recommendations related to digital government. The three fundamentals and nine principles, as seen in Figure 4.1, offer practical guidance on translating the ambitions of the Recommendation into concrete action (OECD, 2022[2]).
These Good Practice Principles reflect a growing consensus on the priorities for governments in delivering effective public services in the digital age. They embody shared values and align with emerging trends in digital government worldwide. The principles support strategic, coherent approaches to service design and delivery, driving improvements in accountability, outcomes, and public sector innovation.
Source: (OECD, 2022[2])
These principles are applied in this chapter to analyse Biscay’s approach to service design and delivery in the digital age. They are used to assess Pillars 2, 3 and 4 of the Recommendation, with a particular focus on the service design approach and use of digital tools and systems that contribute to the effective and user-driven design, delivery and oversight of public services in the digital age.
The first pillar of the Good Practice Principles centres on establishing the institutional culture to design and deliver services that meet users’ needs and expectations. Active user involvement ensures that services are inclusive and responsive, enabling continuous feedback and tailored experiences, while omni-channel delivery approaches and connected data contribute to an integrated and convenient experience for users to access services that meet their needs.
Biscay is committed to advance towards a human-centred approach in public service delivery, enabled by digital tools and data. From a strategic perspective, Biscay has prioritised service design and delivery in the Bizkaia Digital Agenda 2027 (Box 4.2). The strategic axis No. 3 focuses on designing services from the citizen’s perspective, using user feedback and data analytics to anticipate needs and ensuring seamless, omni-channel access (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2024[4]). This approach benefits from the longstanding support of Biscay’s public company Lantik, which provides strategic and technical support to the Provincial Council for the digital transformation of its administrative processes and services (see Chapter 2).
Axis 3 of the Agenda Digital de Bizkaia 2027 is centred on transforming public services so they become simpler, more accessible and better aligned with citizens’ needs. The strategy prioritises the redesign of services from a user perspective, ensuring that interactions with the administration are easy to understand, require fewer steps and can be completed through the channel each user prefers.
Key actions under Axis 3
Citizen-centred service design: public services are being rethought using user-experience and human-centred design principles to make procedures clearer, more intuitive and less burdensome.
End-to-end digital services: the strategy promotes full digital availability of procedures – allowing residents and businesses to apply, track, receive notifications and complete payments online without needing to visit an office.
Omnichannel approach: citizens can choose how they interact with public services – online, by phone, via chat or video call, or in person – ensuring inclusion and providing seamless transitions between channels.
Interoperable and co-ordinated services: data and systems are being connected so citizens do not have to repeatedly provide the same information, making services faster and reducing administrative effort.
Proactive and data-enabled services: by using data responsibly, Bizkaia aims to offer more proactive public services, such as personalised reminders, eligibility notifications and timely guidance tailored to citizens’ circumstances.
In line with the strategy, Biscay is implementing an omni-channel service delivery model offering continuous 24/7 access to provincial public services (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2024[4]). Citizens can interact with the administration through multiple channels, including the single digital gateway Sede electronica, which provides access to a personal space with accessed services, personal information, communications and notifications. Sede electronica follows the federal legal approach to formalising public services in administrative procedures and document management systems (expedientes). This approach is complemented with video calls and chatbots. Further, the Provincial Council is working on enhancing face-to-face support. The Provincial Council has implemented Gertu, the provincial in-person services network, as well as unified its different assistance services to enable a seamless, integrated experience (OECD, 2025[5]; Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[6]). This model prioritises accessibility, flexibility, and user choice, allowing users to engage with public services in the way that best suits their needs while maintaining efficiency and personal attention across both digital and in-person platforms. Complementing this approach, the Provincial Council works with Zugaztel, a provincial entity that provides phone-enabled services, as well as is responsible for document digitalisation and production of digital content.
The Provincial Council is taking further steps to strengthen a human-centred approach in service delivery. The Provincial Council is progressively restructuring its corporate website around a life-events approach, ensuring that services are organised according to citizens’ real needs at different stages of life. This model is already being applied in areas such as social protection, including services for unaccompanied migrant minors. In parallel and as part of the Bizkaia Gertu project, a large new service centre will open in central Bilbao in 2026, offering more service desks, reduced waiting times, and dedicated spaces for private or sensitive consultations. Further, efforts to inform service design and delivery based on international best practices – such as this OECD review – has been a core pillar of Biscay’s strategy, looking at service delivery models across national and sub-national governments globally to inform domestic decision-making.
To achieve this ambition, the peer-reviewed fact-finding process conducted by the OECD suggests that more could be done by Biscay to strengthen the omni-channel approach. In specific, the omni-channel approach would benefit from a more concerted and dedicated channel strategy to define Biscay government's view of the optimal way citizens should be interacting with it - e.g. when do you want them transacting online, in person or over the phone. Having a clear view of the optimal approach will enable more efficient use of resources – for example, further investment in call centres may be unnecessary if they represent the least effective option – and will help maintain a consistent experience across channels. The experience of Australia’s New South Wales omni-channel approach can inspire Biscay in identifying the appropriate strategy approaches and elements required for consolidating channel management and integration (Box 4.3).
Service NSW: a mature omnichannel system
Service NSW is the state’s unified single digital gateway for more than 1 000 services from over 40 agencies. Its channel strategy is explicitly omnichannel, ensuring seamless interaction across:
Digital channels: The Service NSW website and MyServiceNSW account enable citizens to complete high-volume transactions such as licences, fines, vehicle registrations, and grants, with personalised dashboards and notifications for individuals and businesses.
Mobile app: Offering a wallet for digital licences and credentials, direct access to transactions, government support vouchers, venue check-ins, personalised reminders and service status updates.
Call centres: Local, high-capacity contact centres with shared knowledge bases ensuring consistent information regardless of agent or channel.
Physical service centres: A state-wide network of face-to-face offices across metropolitan, rural and remote areas. Staff have access to an integrated CRM, enabling the same information and case progress to be viewed across channels.
Service NSW’s core design principles
Channel choice & accessibility: Citizens can begin, continue or complete interactions on the channel that best suits them, with deliberate channel controls applied for higher-risk transactions to ensure identity assurance, fraud prevention, and regulatory compliance.
Seamless transitions: Information follows the user – agents can see the same data as shown in the app or online.
Consistent branding & interface: All channels use the same visual identity and service language, reinforcing trust and familiarity.
Inclusive access: Assisted digital support is offered at service centres and via phone for users with lower digital skills or accessibility needs.
Life-event-based navigation: Services are organised around life events (e.g., having a baby, starting a business), integrating discrete transactions around user needs and simplifying access across channels.
Biscay has also advanced in the implementation of the once-only principle for more connected and integrated data across the province (see Chapter 3). Biscay has formal requirements that mandate Provincial Council’s departments and agencies to not request personal data to individuals and businesses more than once (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2024[9]). In practice, these requirements are implemented at provincial level through the interoperability node of Biscay (Nodo Bizkaia de interoperabilidad) (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[10]); while at state level through the interoperability node NISAE (Basque Government, 2025[11]). As explained in Chapter 3, the interoperability framework relies largely on SOAP-based services, which may constrain the flexibility needed for a more dynamic digital provision of public services e.g. compared to API-based interoperability. With mobile apps, digital portals and third-party integrations, APIs better support multiple channels and rapid iteration.
Together with the strategic approach and connected data, a pivotal element in service design and delivery is the human-centred culture, mindset and practice to offer more responsive public services to users. This reflects the ways services are designed and provided based on users and their needs. When looking at common approaches and guidelines for service design and delivery, Biscay’s public service providers are required to define charters for each offered service (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[12]). Charters provide information on requirements, benefits, and service quality commitments. They contribute to empower agencies and establish tangible responsibilities to improve user expectations and experience when accessing a service (Box 4.4).
The Provincial Council of Biscay publishes a set of service charters on its Transparency Portal to inform citizens about the services it provides, the quality commitments it undertakes, and users’ rights and obligations. Their purpose is to strengthen transparency, establish clear service standards and support continuous improvement in public attention. Each charter defines measurable quality commitments, indicators to monitor performance and channels for citizen participation, including suggestions and complaints. They are regularly reviewed and updated to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with citizens’ needs.
However, it is observed that Biscay’s departments and agencies approach human-centred service design and delivery in different ways - as illustrated in Figure 4.2. When asked about how users are engaged in service design and delivery, Biscay’s departments and agencies indicated that only a few of them involve users throughout the service lifecycle in comprehensive ways. Most entities acknowledge the central role played by Lantik in providing supporting service design and delivery through common digital infrastructure and architecture, so they recognise that users are not fully engaged. This contrasts with targeted efforts to involve users in core strategic processes, such as EtxeTIC, Amabilidad Digital, Renta or Batuz. Results suggest that Biscay would benefit from a more standardised approach, from design to implementation, delivery and oversight, for example in the format of a common service standard. The experience of OECD countries can assist Biscay in leveraging existing service standards to develop a context-dependent version that suits the administrative and cultural approach of Biscay’s administration (Box 4.7).
Note: Aggregated answers from 10 surveyed departments and agencies from Biscay Provincial Council.
Source: (OECD, 2025[5])
United Kingdom: Service Manual
The UK Service Manual provides comprehensive guidance to help teams design, build and run public services that meet the government’s Service Standard. It emphasises user-centred design, accessibility, assisted-digital support, agile delivery, multichannel consistency and continuous improvement. Key topics include identifying user needs, structuring services, using data and analytics to measure success, ensuring consistent technology choices, and managing cross-channel transitions. By embedding these practices, UK public services aim to be simple, intuitive and inclusive for all citizens, whether accessed online, by phone or face-to-face.
Canada: Digital Standards
The Digital Standards set out by Canada’s government define a user-centric blueprint for public digital services, emphasising simplicity, trust and accessibility. They require that services be designed with real users’ needs in mind, iterate continuously, and make use of open standards and open-source solutions wherever possible. The Standards further mandate that services be inclusive – built with accessibility from the start – and secure, ensuring privacy and transparency while reducing friction. They promote data stewardship by collecting information only once and reusing it responsibly, and they require ethical use of technologies like AI. These principles provide a consistent foundation for designing, building and operating government digital services.
New Zealand: Digital Service Design Standard
The Digital Service Design Standard provides a user-centred framework guiding how public services should be created and delivered in New Zealand. It sets out twelve core principles such as identifying users and their ongoing needs; designing with inclusivity, ethics and cultural context; integrating privacy and security appropriate to risk; enabling reuse and collaboration; employing digital technologies to enhance delivery; and ensuring transparency and accountability. Services must be designed for their full lifecycle and built by empowered interdisciplinary teams operating openly. The Standard ensures government services are accessible, trustworthy, and aligned with the unique constitutional and cultural environment of Aotearoa.
There are several positive examples where a human-centred approach has been adopted to design and delivery services in Biscay at sectoral levels. In specific, Bizkaia’s CiX co-creation projects place users at the centre of service design by involving them directly in shaping new provincial services (OECD, 2025[5]). For this, the Provincial Council is implementing the Citizen Experience (CiX) methodology, a framework that combines design principles and governance with a strategic plan to support consistent service design and delivery. Using this methodology, the Provincial Council collaborates with citizens and local stakeholders through focus groups and participatory techniques to ensure services reflect real needs and offer greater personalisation through selected initiatives, including:
Efforts to reduce the digital divide among vulnerable groups.
The EtxeTIC project (Box 4.6) to improve at-home support for elderly people in situations of dependency through technology.
The Batuz project (Box 4.7), which digitalises and monitors taxation processes for businesses and the self-employed across the territory.
The initiative Amigabilidad Digital (Box 4.8), the Provincial Council of Biscay’s programme to support adoption of digital services by all citizens.
EtxeTIC is an innovative home-care initiative designed to support people in vulnerable situations who depend on others for daily living but wish to stay in their own homes. It focuses especially on those who are looked after by relatives or friends rather than by professional carers.
Recognising the physical, emotional and financial strain that this type of care can place on both dependants and carers, the Provincial Council created EtxeTIC to bring together social and healthcare services into a single, co-ordinated and intelligent support system. The programme provides practical, emotional and administrative assistance, not only to people in need of care but also to those who look after them.
Its main aims are to improve the wellbeing and life satisfaction of both dependants and caregivers, encourage shared responsibility for care, reduce caregiver burden, and help people remain safely in their own homes for as long as possible instead of moving into residential care.
The project involved the application of service design practices including usability analysis, co‑design and iterative testing. Users (both dependent persons, caregivers and service staff) have been actively involved through interviews, workshops, role‑play usability tests, data analysis, and continuous validation to ensure solutions reflect real needs and improve their experience.
Bizkaia is approaching a human-centred design and delivery of tax services through the Batuz project. The project is based on the concept of “tax compliance by design,” as developed in the OECD Forum on Tax Administration’s 2014 study “Tax compliance by design: Achieving improved SME tax compliance by adopting a system perspective.” This approach integrates tax compliance directly into business processes rather than treating it as a separate, later obligation.
Batuz applies innovative digital technologies to fight tax fraud and to assist more than 90 000 companies and self-employed workers in Bizkaia in fulfilling their tax obligations. It is built on the principles of the Real-Time Economy, meaning that economic transactions are recorded and available immediately, enabling the administration to use advanced data models and proactively generate draft tax returns for the most important taxes: personal income tax (IRPF), VAT, and corporate tax.
Renta Bizkaia and Batuz were co-designed with citizens, professionals, and vulnerable groups through collaborative sessions, ensuring solutions addressed real user needs. Users actively shaped digital platforms, processes, and communications. Their participation was central, making the transformation user-driven, simplifying tax compliance, and building trust between administration and society
Amigabilidad Digital is the Provincial Council of Biscay’s flagship programme to reduce the digital divide and ensure that all citizens – especially older people and vulnerable groups – can confidently use digital public services. It offers free, territorial workshops, personalised guidance and online micro-learning resources on smartphone use, online safety, e-administration (Bak/BakQ), email, apps and everyday digital tasks. Developed with social organisations, the programme identifies barriers faced by people with low digital skills and adapts training accordingly. By strengthening digital confidence and abilities, Amigabilidad Digital directly supports more inclusive, accessible and user-friendly public service delivery across Biscay.
Complementing training activities, Amabilidad Digital comprises dedicated actions to promote cognitive accessibility, such as text-to-speech, easy-to-read content, as well as GovTech challenges, cybersecurity awareness, and STEAM vocations for women.
While Biscay has taken strategic decisions to provide wide access to public services, further actions could be taken to approach public services around users and their needs. This approach should include engaging users across the service lifecycle, as well as to offer a more consistent user experience with other services provided by the Provincial Council, from website layout and UX to navigation. The fact-finding mission conducted by the OECD elucidated that public services are structured and offered from a paper-based perspective (expedientes) rather than following users and their needs. While digital service delivery is strong and well consolidated through Biscay’s website, actions could be taken to maturing customer experience across all aspects of service delivery, not just digital delivery. This includes considerations given to whether it could be broadened to all aspects of service delivery, including in person delivery i.e. what is the optimal in person experience, including how it relates to the online experience. Further, it includes adopting a wide range of user research methods through service design, delivery and operation to capture user needs and views that inform how services are designed and delivered e.g. requirements gathering, feedback during design, build and live service delivery (Figure 4.3). The experience of initiatives approached through CiX co-creation projects can serve as inspiration to establish common and widespread service design approach across all provincial departments and agencies. For example, initiatives such as the redesign of the beach’s website based on user feedback (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[19]) and the use of think aloud testing to leverage user feedback in redesigning social security services (Provincial Council of Biscay, n.d.[20]) can serve as inspiration within the Provincial Council to inform a more homogeneous and consistent approach across agencies and departments when providing human-centred public services.
Methods for user research and testing before, during, and after the development of a digital service
Source: (OECD, 2025[21])
The second fundamental pillar of the Good Practice Principles focuses on empowering public institutions with the digital skills, infrastructure and resources needed to deliver high-quality, consistent public services in ways that strengthen government responsiveness to users and their needs.
As outlined in Chapter 3, Biscay has taken strategic steps to advance towards a more digital skilled workforce. Action Line 14 of the Digital Strategy 2027 focuses on strengthening the digital capabilities of the Provincial Council’s workforce so they can progressively deliver more and better digital public services (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2024[4]). It includes designing Biscay’s dedicated strategy for digitally empowering future public employees, outlining core skills such as leadership, data governance, digital collaboration and security awareness. This framework includes assessment, training pathways and formal recognition of learning (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2024[4]).
As part of several initiatives, Biscay participates in the Ikanos Project, an initiative led by the Basque Government to define and strengthen digital competencies across public administrations in Euskadi (Autonomous Community of Basque Country, 2025[22]). This project includes developing a shared professional digital administrative role, identifying required skills, tasks and technological tools. Biscay is contributing by mapping its administrative staff’s digital activities and participating in competency-definition workshops. However, there is no explicit recognition of service design and user research skills as part of this initiative.
Biscay has an opportunity to further develop service design and delivery skills that help them achieve the goals on public service transformation. It is noted that both the Provincial Council and Lantik have undertaken training on service design and design thinking, innovation and change management, and process reengineering. However, the OECD team and peers noticed that, while positive, ongoing actions on digital talent and skills can further enhance the development of service design and user research skills across service providers. This can include, but be not limited to, dedicated training on service design, user journey mapping and user research methods, as well as capabilities to leverage performance and satisfaction data to inform service design and delivery (OECD, 2021[23]; OECD, 2022[2]) across Council’s departments and Lantik’s staff. Similarly, dedicated roles on service design within the Provincial Council, such as a Head of Service Design, would contribute to developing coherent and consistent capabilities across Biscay’s administration.
Positive experiences observed through GovTech collaborations can help institutionalise service design skills (see Chapter 5). Participation in GovTech challenges expose staff to agile, experimental ways of working, helping them strengthen competencies in service design, user research and rapid prototyping alongside external innovators (OECD, 2025[5]). At the same time, awareness-raising activities highlight the importance of developing these digital capabilities, supported by training in digital tools relevant to public-sector service delivery. This approach enables employees to learn by doing while embedding a culture of innovation across the administration.
Another core enabler for public service transformation is the availability of shared and common digital infrastructure to support the design and delivery of public services. Governments at provincial and local levels benefit from the strategic decision made by the Council decades ago to establish common digital and IT service providers – Lantik and Zugaztel for the Provincial Council and Biscay, and BiscayTIK for most of Biscay’s local governments (see Chapter 2). As outlined in Table 4.1 and Box 4.9, key digital infrastructure and resources are available in Biscay, including digital identity systems (Box 4.10).
As covered in Chapter 2, Biscay’s digital transformation is led by Lantik. Founded in 1981, Lantik is a publicly owned company that offers digital transformation services to Biscay’s departments and agencies. In addition to this, Zugaztel supports the province’s digital public service agenda by building and operating the IT/telecommunications infrastructure, citizen-service contact points, digitised back-office and front-office systems. It enables the provincial administration to deliver services online, via phone and via assisted-digital channels, aligning with the broader digital government transformation. When looking at the availability of common and shared infrastructure for joined-up public services.
Common digital infrastructure, such as digital public infrastructure (DPI), enables digital transformation of public services at scale, breaking down policy and institutional siloes as well as enhancing coherent and efficient digital investments (OECD, 2024[24]; OECD, 2025[25]). Biscay benefits from a longstanding policy to develop and deploy shared digital infrastructure across the province and its local governments. Leveraging the work of Lantik, Zugaztel and BiscayTIK, key building blocks for human-centred service design and delivery are:
Single digital gateway: Sede electrónica is the Council’s digital gateway for citizens and businesses to access provincial services. It offers secure identification, online procedures, personalised areas for tracking cases and notifications, digital payments, and document verification.
Digital identity: multiple digital identity options are available from Izenpe and national systems. Users can authenticate with Bak, BakQ, electronic certificates, or the national DNIe. Bak and BakQ offer free, convenient access with varying security levels (further details in Box 4.10).
Data interoperability: The interoperability node (nodo de interoperabilidad) enables data exchange between the Provincial Council and other administrations, replacing paper certificates with secure electronic verification. It provides services such as identity, tax and social security checks, supported by auditing and authorisation modules. Integrated with Spain’s ENI and ENS frameworks, it is open to all Biscay municipalities and already supports dozens of procedures (further details in Chapter 3).
Digital payment: Biscay offers digital payments through the Basque administrations’ online payment gateway (Mi pago online). Citizens can pay taxes and fees digitally using debit or credit cards, often without needing digital identification. The system simplifies transactions and complements other options like direct debit or payments through financial institutions.
Digital communications and post: Sede electrónica enables citizens and businesses to receive digital notifications and official post through a secure online portal. Users can access, track and download official communications, files and invoices within their personal area (Mis Notificaciones). This fully digital channel replaces conventional postal services, offering faster, more transparent interactions.
Izenpe is the Basque Government’s trusted service provider and the foundational authority behind digital identity in the Basque Country. It issues certificates, manages secure authentication infrastructure and provides centralised cloud-based signing services. Izenpe enables interoperability and trust across Basque and Spanish administrations.
Biscay integrates Izenpe’s identity ecosystem into its Sede Electrónica, offering simple, secure and interoperable identification. Two core systems – Bak (basic) and BakQ (advanced, multi-factor) – cover different levels of security and user needs. Both enable access to digital services without software installation and support cloud-based electronic signatures. This model balances ease of use, security, and broad accessibility, encouraging widespread adoption of digital public services.
Bak
Bak is a basic-level digital identification method composed of a reference number (the user’s DNI/NIE), a password, and a non-qualified certificate stored securely in Izenpe’s centralised “cloud” repository, used for signing. Depending on the service, different security levels may be required, and identification methods with more factors may be necessary. Bak allows users to identify themselves and sign in low-risk public services through Euskadi’s electronic identification portal. The cloud-hosted certificate, safeguarded by Izenpe, enables electronic signatures when needed – for example, signing an application or acceptance.
BakQ
BakQ is a digital identification and electronic signature method for people over 16. It consists of an identifier and two authentication factors, including user (DNI/NIE), password (8 characters), and a second authentication factor through a code sent by SMS to the user’s mobile phone.
It works on computers, mobiles and tablets, across any operating system, without requiring installation. Requesting a BakQ automatically enables the use of Bak as well, allowing users to choose between both methods. BakQ allows online access and processing across numerous public services and electronic procedures.
Source: (OECD, 2025[5]; Izempe, 2025[26])
At local level, BiscayTIK contributes to securing a consistent digital transformation across Biscay’s municipalities, including the digitalisation of public services (Box 4.11). BiscayTIK delivers cloud-based services (SaaS) and digital platforms to local councils, enabling online citizen procedures, web portals, transparency tools and shared ICT infrastructures. By pooling resources for municipalities often with limited budgets, BiscayTIK helps enhance service quality, reduce administrative burden and foster consistency across local government digital offerings.
BiscayTIK
The BiscayTIK Foundation is an innovative initiative through which the Provincial Council of Biscay supports local administrations for the digital transformation of their public services. More than 100 municipalities and inter-municipal associations benefit from technological tools and services that enhance internal management efficiency and enable the provision of advanced digital services to citizens.
BiscayTIK’s key objectives are to:
Strengthen the proximity of local government to citizens.
Standardise technological resources across municipalities, reducing digital disparities and improving internal operations and public-facing services.
Promote specialised knowledge to develop practical, value-adding solutions for local administrations and residents.
Position Biscay as a reference territory in local government digital innovation.
Looking ahead, the Provincial Council and Lantik are looking into the next phase of BiscayTIK to evolve existing services and equip participating municipalities with more agile, innovative and secure tools.
Udalnet: digital channel for local authorities in Biscay
Udalnet is the Provincial Council’s digital platform for communication and administrative interaction with municipalities and inter-municipal bodies. It offers targeted information and facilitates the completion of a range of administrative procedures provided by local governments.
Looking ahead, it would be strategic for Biscay to continue consolidating existing and new shared digital infrastructure with a perspective to enable cross-border interoperability at domestic and international levels, as set by the EU Digital Decade. The administrative system in Spain, including the role of sub-national governments in service delivery, requires a strengthened approach to multi-level governance that continue securing the interoperability of digital infrastructure with the Basque Country and Spain. Further, in line with major EU priorities and growing flow of data and people across borders, it would be strategic to empower Biscay’s citizens with the ability to leverage this infrastructure when accessing public services abroad through the federal government. Therefore, securing the resources, leadership and political support for a timely maintenance of this infrastructure would be essential to secure service continuity and operation across jurisdictions. Additionally, further work and collaboration between Biscay, the Spanish Federal Government and the Basque Country through Izempe would contribute to look at such opportunities in the context of the implementation of the EU digital wallet and eIDAS 2.0.
Another area of consideration is to increase uptake and adoption of relevant channels and key infrastructure, in particular digital identity. Challenges persist for vulnerable groups, especially older people, including limited digital skills, low awareness of security benefits, and distrust due to fears of fraud or privacy loss (OECD, 2025[5]). Evidence from the peer review mission indicates that the diversity and complexity of identification methods – such as certificates, DNIe or passwords – can feel confusing or unintuitive. Technical compatibility issues, like outdated devices or browsers, further hinder use. Addressing these social and technological barriers is essential to ensure inclusive, confident adoption of channels and tools across all user groups. To overcome some of these challenges, Biscay is supporting users through several initiatives, including the implementation of authorised civil servants to act on behalf of less skilled users in service delivery (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2021[29]), including identification and signature, as well as telephone identification for users that require more personalised support (Izempe, 2025[26]; Provincial Council of Biscay, 2026[30]).
The last fundamental pillar of the Good Practice Principles focuses on the use of tools and data to strengthen public trust in digital public services, and enable an environment where performance indicators, user-focused measurement and oversight to promote accountability and continuous improvement. This is implemented through targeted initiatives from the Provincial Council and Lantik.
Regarding service performance, several entities play a role in monitoring performance. The Provincial Council has implemented a control board with access to service performance across different services, monitoring in real-time each channel performance, visits, completed and uncompleted transactions (OECD, 2025[5]). Further, Zugaztel, Provincial Council’s service provider also has a control board with similar dashboards and views. Working on an integrated and consistent approach to measure service performance would be optimal. Complementing this, Lantik uses the system Dynatrace to monitor performance of underlying service delivery digital infrastructure. Given the importance of the tax declaration process, Biscay has established a dedicated performance measurement system for the tax declaration campaign that includes monitoring across channels as well as declarations’ completion rates (OECD, 2025[5]). Through this approach, the Council accesses detailed information to monitor the health of different services, including user experience, tracking how they evolve over time and giving teams a centralised view of incidents that can be improved by focusing on specific errors or slow actions (OECD, 2025[5]).
When looking at satisfaction with services, Biscay has established different measures to gather user satisfaction with service channels and specific services. As introduced in Box 4.4, service charters define explicit commitments made by service providers in terms of quality, timeliness and overall user satisfaction with services. Each charter establishes quantitative satisfaction targets alongside a set of operational performance indicators, including waiting times, response times, processing deadlines, accessibility standards and user-experience commitments (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[31]; Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[12]). These indicators function as measurable promises to citizens. Performance against them is regularly monitored, evaluated and published, creating a transparent feedback loop in which real user experiences generate data that then informs management decisions, resource allocation and service improvements (OECD, 2025[5]). Complementing this, the Provincial Council works with an external provider to measure user satisfaction with in-person service delivery channels common (non-specific) services (IKERFEL, 2024[32]).
To meet user satisfaction targets set in each service chapters, several service providers conduct dedicated user satisfaction surveys, including regarding treasury, social security and environmental services (Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[33]; Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[34]; Provincial Council of Biscay, 2025[35]). For example, the Provincial Treasury of Biscay conducts detailed tax-service satisfaction surveys to understand how citizens interact with different service channels – digital platforms, telephone support and in-person assistance. The results help the administration compare channel efficiency, identify emerging user preferences and adjust staffing, guidance and technical features accordingly. High satisfaction with digital channels, together with growing levels of online usage, has encouraged Biscay to expand online offerings, simplify digital journeys and invest in automation, exemplified by features such as automatic tax refunds. In this way, user feedback directly shapes the evolution of public services toward greater efficiency, accessibility and convenience (Regional Treasury of Biscay, 2025[36]).
All these actions lead to a human-centred approach when measuring performance and user satisfaction in Biscay. To strengthen this approach, Biscay could consider taking some concrete steps. One area of improvement is to more clearly articulate service performance and user satisfaction data to inform public service design and delivery. The OECD team and peers identified that performance and satisfaction measurement often work in a disconnected way, which may constraint the positive outcomes that feedback loops can provide when pursuing an evidence-based approach to service design and delivery. It would be beneficial for Biscay to consider this into a potential dedicated channel strategy, so to clearly articulate both service and channel satisfaction targets with the overall strategy. Further, Biscay would benefit from standardising satisfaction measurement into a single and common methodology to enable better comparability across different service providers. Such common approach could also enable the adoption of service-specific improvement roadmaps and action plans tied to user satisfaction targets set in each service charter. Some of OECD countries, including Chile, are advancing in taking strategic actions to leverage satisfaction data for service enhancement, including dedicated service improvement plans (Box 4.12).
Chile has built a solid measurement system for user satisfaction and service improvement. The Quality of Service and User Experience Performance System (Sistema de Calidad de Servicio y Experiencia Usuaria) was established in 2023, building on both the ongoing User Satisfaction Survey (Medición de Satisfacción Usuaria- MESU) running since 2015, and other administrative data such as complaints and user feedback. The newly established system is managed jointly by the Secretariat of Modernisation and the Integrity and Transparency Commission (Comisión de Integridad Pública y Transparencia). Its phased implementation includes building a base line, designing, and implementing improvement plans and an evaluation of the results. In addition, the first phase implements a governance framework including a Committee for Service Experience and Quality with representatives from public sector organisations. The following implementation phases consider the publication of a service quality and user experience policy, including an action plan for continuous improvement.
Source: (OECD, 2024[37]; OECD, 2025[38])
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