Territorial maturity barometer: how far have metropolises come in terms of digital maturity?

The “Metropolis, the most relevant level for driving territorial digital transformation?” barometer, carried out between November 2019 and June 2020, presents an assessment of the level of digital integration in metropolitan activities, as well as the resulting efficiency gains. It also offers keys to identifying and understanding maturity gaps within the sample of selected metropolises.

Faced with a dual challenge – cooperation with their member communes on the one hand, and their positioning and communication vis-à-vis citizens on the other – some metropolises are seeking to create digital projects and platforms between the services of shared communes, enabling citizens to benefit from the services of both the metropolis and their communes.

Even if the analyses refute the existence of a French model for digital development, there are invariants common to both advanced and “mature” metropolises, notably the partnership approach to projects, the citizen dimension at the heart of initiatives, and the attention paid to the benefits for employees. The study also identified the obstacles to digital development: both internally, due to a lack of acculturation among staff and technical, political and budgetary difficulties, and externally, in the face of growing fears among citizens and the digital divide.

A detailed analysis of three projects, focusing on cross-cutting themes such as user relations and digital inclusion, shows that some of these obstacles can be overcome by involving metropolises in the management of digital projects. This study confirms the potential of the metropolitan level to drive digital development in its territory, and to lead and coordinate digital projects.