The GOVERNANCE project has released the DIGITS Assessment Report on the digital maturity of Apulian public administrations, developed by the Apulian expert team as part of the activities aimed at supporting digital transition and administrative simplification in the South Adriatic area.
The report applies the DIGITS framework, a structured digital maturity assessment model designed to evaluate municipalities across six strategic domains: Digital Infrastructure, Intangibles, Governance and Digital Strategy, Information, Technology, and Sustainability and Social Impact.
The assessment is based on responses collected from 65 municipalities out of the 257 identified municipalities in Apulia, with participation distributed across small, intermediate, medium and large municipalities. Due to the limited number of respondents among small municipalities, the comparative analysis mainly focused on intermediate, medium and large administrations.
The analysis reveals that most Apulian municipalities are positioned in the medium digital maturity band, indicating that the foundations of digital transformation are already in place, although not yet fully consolidated. Governance and Digital Strategy, Information, and Digital Infrastructure emerge as the strongest domains, reflecting relatively mature governance structures, compliance mechanisms, and basic digital service provision.
At the same time, the report identifies significant structural weaknesses in the Technology domain, where the adoption of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Big Data Analytics, and Blockchain remains limited across municipalities of all sizes. The analysis also highlights gaps in monitoring systems, decision-support capabilities, and citizen participation processes.
The DIGITS Assessment Report provides evidence-based insights to support future policy actions, helping administrations identify strategic priorities for strengthening digital governance, technological innovation, and organizational capacity-building within the Apulian public sector.
