User-Based evaluation of e-signature use within public sector institutions

In the modern world information technology plays an important role in many areas. There is no exception in authorization of documents in the public sector. Innovations in the public sector are essential in order to provide high-quality and reliable services to all consumers. With the development of technology, the submissions of documents in the public sector organizations are constantly being improved. The old - paper version form of documents, in many of these organizations has changed to electronic version, which is signed by electronic signature. The main objective is to analyze consumer’s attitudes to the public sector documents being signed by using electronic signatures. The first part is the theoretical analysis of public sector services, innovative adaptation of it, the electronic signature types, their operating principles and benefits to consumers. Also in this part is defined the use of electronic signature and identified the opportunities of electronic signature infrastructure development. The second part is the methodology of the research, analyses, summarizes the survey results, determine what aspects of signing the documents are the most important to consumers, and how they evaluate the reliability of the qualified electronic signature. Test method - questionnaire. The survey results showed that document security and time savings are considered as key indicators which increase consumers satisfaction with e-services in the public sector, however the results of analysis revealed that one of the most important characteristics of a qualified electronic signature, document security, only partially meets consumers expectations. This shows that the most important characteristics of an electronic signature are incomplete fulfilment which reduces consumers confidence in electronic signature. Looking to the future prospects it would be appropriate to conduct a survey of Lithuanian residents about the fees for electronic signature, as empirical research has shown that one of the most common reasons stopping residents to use the electronic signature is the applied service fee. This study aimed to find out what should be the service fee that a person would be willing to enter into an agreement for electronic signature