Digital transformation maturity of local authorities
Your territory’s digital transformation, measured service by service and turned into a budgeted roadmap.
10 themes, a 5-level scale. And the action that moves each level to the next.
The framework’s 10 themes, already written from L1 to L5. One company, one business unit, or 300 at once.
Digital transformation maturity of local authorities
10 themes, 5-level scale.
Nordhavn Industries
53 / 100
They measure their maturity with Datamensio
An example
This could be your situation.
Take one company as an example: three sites, three spreadsheets, no shared answer.
Nobody can consolidate.
Nordhavn Industries, 2,400 people in Hamburg, Lyon and Porto. A client asks where the group stands. Each site answers in its own spreadsheet, with its own scales.
Three weeks, a single base.
One Digital maturity framework for local authorities (non-certifying framework, aligned with French and European digital government orientations) assessment launched across all three sites at once, from the managers’ interview notes. The framework was already written, its 10 themes and levels L1 to L5 too.
Two costs avoided before being committed.
A score of 53 out of 100, with the gap concentrated on three themes. The AI companion spotted that two actions duplicated those of another audit. The committee report took one sentence to request.
What it saved them
- 3sites measured on the same base, instead of three questionnaires to reconcile
- 2duplicate actions caught before the spend
- 1committee report, with no manual rework
These figures are an example. They could be yours.
The standard imposes processes. Datamensio says where you stand.
01
The framework is already written
Themes, questions and levels L1 to L5, all written. You do not start from an empty spreadsheet.
02
The score lands the same day
Online, by self-assessment link or in interview. Theme by theme, comparable over time.
03
The gap becomes a costed plan
Every step up carries its action. The AI prioritises on expected effect, not on the order of the standard.
04
Progress can be demonstrated
Campaign after campaign, against your target and against your own past. That is what your board asks for.
The maturity scale
One level, the next, and the action that links the two.
It is this mechanism (a level, the level above, and the action linking the two) that turns a finding into a trajectory.
Are the online procedures offered to residents handled end to end without re-entry by departments?
- N1
Online procedures are limited to a form or a downloadable document. Departments re-enter the information manually.
- N2
A few procedures are integrated into the business application. Processing remains uneven between departments and depends on the people in post.
- N3
The most frequent procedures are handled end to end in business tools. Residents are informed of the progress of their application.
- N4
Processing without re-entry is generalised, timelines and completion rates are tracked per procedure and presented at steering committee level.
- N5
Journeys are periodically reviewed based on usage data and resident feedback, with traceability of the changes made.
Action to move from L2 to L3
Select the five highest-volume procedures, map their actual workflow from submission to notification, remove identified re-entry with the relevant department, and activate progress updates for residents, with a checkpoint at the digital steering committee.
« With Datamensio, we meet our objectives far more efficiently. The ERDF inspection services and our supervising ministry particularly appreciated an approach that gives them reliable data. »
Director, CCI 94CCI Île-de-France
« We believe this is the most suitable solution to scale our transformation project and measure impact according to our needs. »
Maja SucekChief Operating Officer, Interreg Danube
Rarely on its own
Frameworks combine. Put several together to cover your business, or have the AI write yours.
Take your first measurement
What this framework covers
The framework covers the digital transformation of a local authority across its five structuring dimensions: the digital relationship with residents (online procedures, reception, inclusion), internal organisation and processes, governance and use of territorial data, the technical base and its security, and finally the skills and change management among staff and elected officials. It applies equally to a municipality, an intermunicipal body, a department or a region, with maturity levels graded using the CMMI method.
In practice, digital transformation across a territory is hard to steer because it is fragmented. Projects are run by different departments, funded through separate schemes, and progress at uneven speeds. How many procedures are genuinely dematerialised end to end, with no re-entry of data and no paper trail downstream? Who decides to open a dataset, and on what criteria? Do staff trained on new tools still use them six months later? Without a shared reference, debate stays declarative and budget decisions are made on gut feeling.
The context has shifted on one specific point: attention has moved from the rate of procedures put online to the actual quality of service delivered and its accessibility. Digital accessibility, support for people distant from digital tools, infrastructure frugality and control over technical dependencies have become full steering criteria in their own right. One common confusion is worth clearing up: equipping departments with tools does not transform the organisation. A resident portal bolted onto unchanged internal processes shifts the workload, it does not reduce it.
This framework does not lead to certification and does not aim at a compliance declaration. It answers a different question: what level of control does each dimension actually sit at, and what concrete action moves it up to the next level. Where an audit concludes with a gap, the maturity assessment places the practice on a progressive scale and links each level to an operational step, costed in terms of budget, timeline and expected effect on the score.
The framework is ready to use in Datamensio. You can adapt it to the size and skills of your authority: the AI adjusts the themes, questions and wording of the levels, or builds a tailored version from your own documents, master plan, council decisions, or existing digital roadmap.
Reference standard: Digital maturity framework for local authorities (non-certifying framework, aligned with French and European digital government orientations)
The themes assessed
Digital strategy and governance
Existence of a formally adopted digital roadmap, political and administrative sponsorship, steering bodies, alignment with the territorial development project, multi-year budget trajectory.
Digital relationship with residents
Coverage of online procedures, end-to-end journeys, progress updates on applications, contact channels, satisfaction measurement.
Digital inclusion and accessibility
Support for people distant from digital tools, retention of physical and telephone channels, interface compliance with accessibility rules, content readability.
Internal processes and dematerialisation
Dematerialisation of decision-making and accounting workflows, electronic signature, electronic archiving, elimination of re-entry between departments.
Territorial data and open data
Data inventory, governance and associated roles, quality and freshness, publication of open data, decision-making uses and territorial observatories.
Information systems and interoperability
Application mapping, exchanges between business applications, shared reference data, contract reversibility, technical debt management.
Digital security and service continuity
Access management, backups and restoration tests, staff awareness, continuity and recovery plan for services essential to residents.
Staff skills and change management
Skills assessment, training plan, on-the-ground support for departments, staff involvement in designing tools, monitoring of usage after rollout.
Infrastructure and digital frugality
Network coverage of sites, staff equipment, hosting and outsourcing choices, equipment lifespan and reuse, consumption measurement.
Steering, evaluation and transparency
Monitoring indicators, reporting to elected officials and residents, evaluation of digital services after launch, reuse of lessons learned.
A short version of the framework is available for the online self-assessment.
Frequently asked questions
Does this framework lead to certification?
No. Digital transformation of a local authority does not fall under any certifying body. The assessment measures a maturity level, produces a score per theme and a roadmap. It supports internal steering and reporting to elected officials, not a label.
How does this differ from an audit or a control?
A control checks for the presence of requirements and concludes with a gap. The maturity assessment places each practice on a progressive scale and links each level to the action that moves it up to the next. It informs budget decisions rather than delivering a verdict.
How long does the assessment take?
The short version can be completed in a single working session. The full version, run collaboratively with several departments, typically takes one to two weeks, most of the time being spent gathering input from business departments and IT.
Does the framework suit a small municipality as well as a region?
Yes, provided it is adjusted. The AI adapts the themes, questions and wording of the levels to the authority’s remit and size, or builds a tailored version from your master plan and council decisions.
Can several municipalities within an intermunicipal body be compared?
Yes. Assessments run on the same framework can be compared across entities and over time. A cross-cutting roadmap consolidates the action plans of member municipalities and avoids funding the same action twice.
Who should answer the questions?
The questions concern organisation and practices, not technical configuration. A chief executive, an information systems director or a transformation project lead can answer them. The collaborative mode allows more technical questions to be routed to the right person.
How is the action plan costed?
Each gap between the score and the target generates an action. The service catalogue offers a solution against each action, with its cost, timeline and expected effect on the score. The AI groups these into a prioritised roadmap, ready for use in the budget orientation debate.
Where is the data hosted?
In France, with OVH, backed up with Scaleway. No transfer outside the European Union. The AI models used can be selected, including from European solutions.