eGovernance strategic framework for the next five years

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eGovernance strategic framework for the next five
years
Jeremy Millard, Danish Technological Institute
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Government / eGovernment ?

• Alan Mather (UK eEnvoy)
• eGovernment isnt any different from
  government. It just might make it better,
  sooner.
• Major policy goals of government / eGovernment
• 1 The search for savings dynamic,
  productivity-driven and value for money concept
  and set of institutions (more for less)
• user as tax-payer
• 2 The search for quality services inter-active,
  user-centred, individualisable, inclusive
  services, maximising fulfilment and security
• user as consumer
• 3 The search for good governance open,
  transparent, accountable, flexible, democratic
• user as citizen and voter
• What is role of the e in achieving above ?

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European eGovernment roll-out (1)
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European eGovernment roll-out (2)
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European eGovernment demand side
Preferred way of interacting with government
(Source Sibis, 2003)
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European eGovernment status Supply side

• Roll out dominated by services provided by single
  centralised administration, especially those
  which generate income for government (income and
  company tax, customs, VAT, procurement)
• easiest to implement, top-down, revenue
  generating, pre-existing functioning institution
  (or cooperating set of institutions)
• Less well represented by services provided by
  decentralised and multiple local agencies
• more variegated, complex, small scale, greater
  risks (politically, financially), fewer
  incentives
• Barriers interoperability issues between
  agencies, technology and organisational
  incompatibility, security, regulation, culture,
  legality, etc.

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European eGovernment status Demand side

• Highest demand for local and regional services,
  which are
• simple, high quality (achieve fulfilment), and
  involve input of little personal information
  (e.g. library, job search, house moving, car
  registration)
• Need for multiple channel access
• both electronic (web, digital TV, PIAPs, mobile,
  as well as PC) and traditional face-to-face/teleph
  one/post
• Barriers complex services, too much personal
  data required and lack of trust (security, data
  protection), channel access, awareness, no
  interest, etc.

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European eGovernment status Conclusion

• There has been a supply-side push over last 2-3
  years (success of eEurope 2002), but resulting in
  significant mis-match between supply and demand
  which now needs addressing -- focus on
  user-friendly, personalisable, high quality
  services at appropriate levels and multi-channel
  (from local to cross border), including CRM and
  high security
• However, some good evidence of cost savings --
  despite initially high investment, are starting
  to see lower running costs, fewer staff, higher
  productivity, lower fees, greater satisfaction
  (e.g. eProcurement)
• Also evidence of greater outreach, availability,
  transparency, better support for business, better
  compliance with national and international rules
• But, these achievements have tended to leave
  established structures and processes largely in
  place -- the learning curve can be long and
  difficult.

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Major strategic areas in eGovernment

• Efficient and lean government
• Government process re-engineering
• Meeting user needs and expectations
• Leadership, managing change and human resources
• Technology X
• Cultural and socio-economic drivers of change
• Service delivery
• Access for all
• Institutional and legal structures X
• eGovernance and eDemocracy X

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Efficient and lean government

• Driver since mid 1990s to achieve significant
  cost savings through eGovernment but has not
  materialised on significant scale
• In 21st C the realisation is that cost savings
  (plus significant quality improvements) will only
  come from re-engineering the internal processes
  of government
• but this can be seen as euphemism for sacking
  public sector workers and degrading the ethos of
  government and public service
• Some savings are now being made by eGovernment
• often require substantial investment, especially
  as the eChannel typically has to run alongside
  the traditional channel
• but can give quick returns though most will be
  longer term, e.g. fewer staff in directly
  affected departments
• need better budgeting and cost benefit analysis
• savings led by eProcurement but other service
  areas as well

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GPR (1) -- internal
Traditional government
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GPR (2) -- internal
Front-office re-engineering
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GPR (3) -- internal
Back-office re-engineering
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GPR (4) -- internal
Total re-engineering
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GPR (5) -- between back-offices / agencies
Vertical integration

• Between government levels
• international
• national/federal
• regional
• local
• community
• e.g.integration of single government functions
  like admin, health, education, etc.

Both vertical and horizontal integration
tailored and joined-up government for --
citizens e.g. life events -- business e.g.
discrete activities -- targeted at specific user
groups
Horizontal integration
Between different government departments or
agencies, including with non-government actors,
such as the private sectors (in PPPs) and the
third sector such as NGOs. e.g. integration of
multiple government functions in one place or
between places at same level (cross border)
Traditional, compartmentalised, bureaucratic
government
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• Meeting user needs and expectations

• Service design
• user focus and stakeholder involvement
• user-friendly features
• multi-channel access and services
• User support
• help-desk and user training
• direct user feedback
• Marketing and take-up
• marketing and publicity
• incentives and maximising take-up
• use of multipliers and intermediaries

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Leadership, managing change and human resources

• Management and decision-making
• change management and decision-making
• corporate commitment
• tools and teamwork
• The locus of pressure for change
• from users and staff
• from business
• from the responsible agency
• Public-private partnerships
• Phased implementation approach think big, start
  small, scale fast
• Human resources
• fewer staff
• changing roles and skills of staff
• staff flexibility
• staff training

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Models of eGovernance are cultural rather than
technical
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Service delivery and access for all

• Complementarity of different delivery channels
• Citizen and business life events or target
  groups
• Principal of access and affordability for all
• Social and economic divides now being compounded
  by digital divide??

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Moving forward...

• There needs to be a transformation of government
  to prioritise the production and distribution of
  public goods (content) rather than public
  administration (control), with a re-vitalised
  public service ethic and high skill, high value
  staff
• Down-sizing and centralisation of the back office
  (control), even up to national and international
  levels
• open technical platforms, interoperability,
  standardisation, comprehensive security systems,
  integrated processes, shared databases, economies
  of scale and scope, based on KM principles, CRM
  -- middle office, shared service centres
• Up-sizing and de-centralisation of the front
  office (content) to provide high quality, simple,
  localised, personalised, services
• grounded in local situations, responding to the
  large variety of individual needs of both users
  and government, and respecting and promoting
  democracy at all levels -- the subsidiarity
  principle writ large
• (R)e-balancing -- freeing up and redeploying
  resources a smaller and smarter back office and
  bigger and better front office
• The Back Office/Front Office dichotomy is a
  metaphor for control versus content
• In future, this dichotomy will become redundant
  and the content will be in control
  governance will have outgrown bureaucracy

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On-going strategies

• Focus on what citizens and business really need /
  demand, rather than the machinations of existing
  government structures and systems
• Focus on using new technology as a tool to
  support services and governance, i.e. enable
  people to do what they do best (e.g. provide
  warm human services implicit knowledge) and
  enable technology to do what it does best (e.g.
  provide effective and efficient data, information
  and communication systems explicit or codified
  knowledge)
• Develop and re-vitalise the existing European
  public service ethic into one suitable for the
  information society and knowledge economy. This
  would include recognising that government can
  learn from business, and vice versa, but that
  there is a unique European way to e-government
  which combines both economic efficiency as well
  as social cohesion and access for all.
• What we think of as e-government today will
  become (just) government within ten years i.e.
  all of government will use and become e.
• In the same way that e-business is migrating to
  k-business, so e-government will migrate to
  k-government in the sense that the technology
  will become unremarkably ubiquitous (the norm)
  and intelligent services will be provided by
  intelligent government
• Develop me-government, i.e. personalised,
  intelligent government, based on knowledge
  management, artificial intelligence and
  ubiquitous, ambient technology. Anytime,
  anywhere, any service, on the users own terms.

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Governance transitions