Context
The city of Zagreb, like many other urban centres around the world, grappled with significant challenges in local governance and policy-making. The core issues stemmed from a lack of flexibility and adaptability in the face of a rapidly changing urban environment. This inflexibility led to prolonged approval processes, a strategic planning deficit and cumbersome urban planning procedures. Recognising the need for a transformative approach to overcome these obstacles, the city embarked on the ZGS BPM project. This project, ‘Development of Organisational Structure and Processes for Effective Support of the Strategic Development of the Smart City of Zagreb’, emerged as a strategic response to these governance challenges. The ZGS BPM project specifically addressed inefficiencies within the city’s human resource management and administrative processes.
Objectives
The ZGS BPM project had both general and specific objectives. The general objective was to align strategic and operational goals with business processes and key resources. This alignment aimed to achieve national and European strategic objectives related to strengthening institutional capacities and effective public administration.
The specific goals of the project were multifaceted. It aimed to improve service delivery by developing an organisational structure and processes to support the strategic development of Zagreb as a smart city. The project also focused on designing, analysing and optimising business processes. Additionally, it aimed to establish clear responsibility for key processes and develop a system for continuous process control and optimisation.
Implementation
To achieve these goals, the project included the creation of a service catalogue for the city of Zagreb and a project book for future implementation. Finally, the project implemented ‘e-Services: The Repository of Business Processes for the City of Zagreb’ to support the use of information technologies and software solutions for a unified information system aligned with user needs.
The ZGS BPM project was a €19 903 investment that involved redefining process ownership by appointing process owners and managers. It also meticulously documented business models and provided training to employees in process improvement, change management and innovation techniques. The project comprehensively defined internal and external services, emphasising transparency and efficiency. It established key performance indicators, including a business process repository, alignment with business strategy and the growth of digital services.