A Reference Model For A Service Oriented Government

A reference model for a service-oriented government

Public the way we see it

Contents

Introduction 01

Overview of the model

1. The primary processes (Developments 1 to 5) 02

2. The secondary processes (Development 6) 02

3. Digital files and folders (Policy principle 7) 03

4. Chain integration (Policy principle 8) 03

5. Core registrations (Policy principle 9) 04

6. Governement desktop (Policy principle 10) 05

7. Political and management information (Policy principle 11) 06

8. Customer-friendly access (Policy principle 12) 07

Present state of affairs 09

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Introduction

The much-debated topic of New Government* requires governmental innovation and reform. The challenges are abound. Some examples: do more with fewer people. Provide transpar-ency. Respond faster to new legislation and regulations (time to market). To be able to work in a results-orient-ed and customer-focused manner. Deliver measurable services. Offer more and more services online. To put the citizen service number to best possible use. Manage file handling with often distributed entry of data, and yet to have consistent, reliable management information available. To say nothing of the integration of chain partners within government and the ability to extract politico-governmen-tal information from such a chain quickly.

In order to make a clear response to all these issues, the government needs useful tools. Tools that make it possi-ble to build the new government edi-fice of the future, step by step and in a targeted fashion. What is most important is that close cooperation and optimum knowledge transfer be-tween government and the corporate sector is crucial if this process is to succeed.

The Dutch government has invested a great deal of energy in this area in recent years. We are now beginning to reap the benefits of that effort. Take the Land Registry. This organization has won the most important European prize for E-government of the year. No small achievement. And there are many more such initiatives that are

putting the Netherlands on the map in global terms. Not for us to brag about in Holland, but an opportunity to analyze how this success has been achieved. And by doing this, to in- spire others.

Since the route to New Government was first taken in 2004 a great many changes have been set in motion in the public sector. The developments appear to be following on from one another ever faster. At the end of 2005 this resulted in the implementa-tion of eight major changes to the law, including the Social Insurance (Reduction of Administrative Burden and Simplification) Act, the Work and Income according to Labour Capacity Act, the Health Care Insurance Act and the Life Course Scheme. All these changes had a major impact on the administration of government and its IT. They are as it were all based on the new capabilities: they encourage the breaking down of the walls between institutes, with subse-quent integration of the administrative chain and we see they depend on new capabilities of accessing basic records in a national landscape.

To gain an insight into the develop-ment of New Government and to make the interdependence of the changes clear, Capgemini has devel-oped the ‘Government Reference Model’ in collaboration with SAP Netherlands.This model contains the primary and secondary processes of government together with a framework containing a number of the most important

policy principles of Different Government. It offers a way of think-ing for going step by step towards service-oriented government.

It contains a handle for making the developments manageable.

The Government Reference Model that we elaborate on below is built up into the final model section by sec-tion. We start with the primary and secondary processes of the govern-ment before moving on to the discus-sion of the implications for policy. For each section a general indication is given of what the development entails, what the current state of the IT struc-ture is and what impact the develop-ment has on IT.

Capgemini Nederland B.V.Public Sector

Nick van RossumVP Practiceleader SAP Public and FinanceAlbert KuiperBusiness ArchitectMario HalfhideVP Business Development and Sales Public Sector

Introduction

* New Government is the translation of the term ‘Moderne Overheid’ which is the name of the initiative of the Dutch government in 2006.

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In this model we distinguish twelve developments. Reflections and views on these developments can be found in this book. We outline the develop-ments briefly for you as follows.

1. The primary processes

(Developments 1 to 5)

Each government organization is re-sponsible for the execution of one or more of the five primary processes: making policy, raising taxes and col-lecting revenues, assigning funds and disbursements of grants, executing laws (a wide range of different proces-ses) and control of the execution of laws.

Looking at these primary processes and the way in which they are put into practice from the IT viewpoint, one thing immediately catches the eye. In the field of primary processes the government, with just a few exceptions, is using bespoke systems. These customized systems are at the end of their life cycle, are difficult to adapt to the new legislation and regu-lations and are very expensive to maintain. They were never designed for cooperation in (supply) chains. Any attempts at decompartmentaliza-tion would consequently be futile and merely be cosmetic.

A shift to application packagesThe replacement of some of these customized systems with application packages was only started two years ago. In terms of the primary process of levying taxes and collecting reve-nues the Tax Department for example is having its current customized system for the collection process replaced by a best-of-breed solution.

ERP too is increasingly being imple-mented to put the primary processes into effect. At the Ministry for Social Affairs and Employment the Hermes system is being set up. This budgeting system with work-flow, authorizations and management information looks after the determination and allocation of the budgets to the various benefits agencies.

At the Ministry of Defense the diffe-rent logistics and financial systems are being replaced during the reorganiza-tion of the branches of military serv-ice. The privatization of the housing corporations leads to the replacement of their current bespoke and package solutions. The whole handling of New Citizen Integration (including the attendance of courses and the conclu-sion of loans) is going to be adminis-tered at the IB-Groep. These exam-ples, solutions are based on a SAP platform. We also see that municipal-ities have started to use package solu-tions in recent years.

2. The secondary processes

(Development 6)

If we look at the secondary processes, the administration or support services as they are also called, then we see that in recent years there has been a major switch to application packages. SAP clearly has the leading edge in this area. At various Ministries appli-cation packages have now been intro-duced for financial accounting and personnel processes. At the same time the purchasing process at a great many government organizations is currently under scrutiny and work is under way on replacement of the cus-tomized systems with an application package. To take two examples: the Land Registry and the Tax Depart-


1. The primary processes

(Developments 1 to 5)

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2. The secondary processes

(Development 6)


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ment. At a number of government organizations the IT management of the secondary processes is also being accommodated in Shared Service Centers with a view to standardization and cost savings.

3. Digital files and folders

(Policy principle 7)

Under the New Government style of thinking, the citizen and the corporate sector take centre stage in the services of government. As a result it is no longer the individual processes that are guiding, but rather the file of the citizen or the business approaching the government. A 360-degree under-standing of all contact-moments in connection with the file (the case) is the consequence. This means that all the relevant information concerning the government’s customers must be available in digital form and that new work flow processes must be set up. Alls processes must be redeveloped to make the sharing of digital files part of the workflows.

As an example, from 2008 a digital customer file will have to be created for the application for a social benefit in which all the customer data and documentary evidence about the unemployment are collected electroni-cally. This file will be created at the intake interview by the front-office of the Ministry for Labour and will be available for use by various organiza-tions such as the Social Security Agency and municipal Social Services who are responsible for timely reinte-gration.

Another example is the constructions applications project that is currently in the process of implementation. This is a project that involves the handling


3. Digital files and folders (Policy

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of submissions for building construc-tion electronically over the internet. Construction application forms, draw-ings and calculations are submitted and processed digitally. The applicant can follow the decision-making in the process on the internet too.

4. Chain integration (Policy prin-

ciple 8)

Government organizations however do not stand alone in the execution of the tasks assigned to them. They are dependent on cooperation with ministries, independent authorities, municipalities, provinces and some-times even the corporate sector. The policy of New Government is aimed at giving simpler and clearer shape to this cooperation in the chains. This means that apart from the develop-ments within the organization itself, the developments of the organizations in their own chain are also important. Think for example of the social chain of Social Affairs and Employment, Social Security Agency and Munici-palities for the payment of benefits or the education chain with Finance, Education Departments, Culture and Science, the IB-Groep and the educa-tional institutes.

In these processes the various parties are dependent on (the correctness of) the data of their predecessors. Time saving, cost saving and more error-free information transfer are the main gains that can be achieved by govern-ment.

Currently the majority of the informa-tion exchange within the chains takes place on paper by means of (extracts from) files. In the Health Care chain the form and contents of the Elec-tronic Patient File are now being

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4. Chain integration (Policy principle 8)

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developed. Soon medical data will be exchanged between the different health care providers. In addition to the security aspect the technical implementation is a key issue. This is precisely where the problems are in the development of the Electronic Patient File as that it appears that there are major differences in the levels of the degree of automation of the various organizations in the chain.

By focusing on the chain there obvi-ously are also opportunities to reduce complexity of architecture and reduc-ing costs. Shared Service Centers across various different organizations of the chain are the solution to this.

The Ministry of Defense is currently seeing the introduction of a central service for electronic payment of invoices for procurement. The Ministry of Defense is leading the way in this functional area.

5. Core registrations (Policy

principle 9)

The idea behind core registrations is that citizens, business and other orga-nizations only have to have their details registered at one place and one time and these are subsequently used in all their interaction with govern-ment. In all contacts thereafter the core registrations are used as a start-ing point. The main consequences are that the basic records must be mana-ged centrally and that all government organizations must be connected. The government organizations are obliged to use these core registrations by law.

Originally this Act would have come into force for six basic records from January 2007. Problems with the implementation (how can this be achieved with the present IT infra-structure?) have led to the postpone-ment of the start date of the Act.Of these six basic records the Registration of Persons of the munici-

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pal personal records database, the Register of Businesses (basic address and buildings record) of the Chamber of Commerce and the Property Registration of the Land Registry are the three best known. The country’s citizens are currently being urged to apply for their Citizen Service Number (for the identification of the Registration of Persons) and their DigiD (type of pin code for authoriza-tion). These are all activities on the registration side: i.e. availability of the data, a unique identification and a security code. The actual implementa-tion within the New Government organizations has yet to start.

6. Government desktop (Policy

principle 10)

Another policy principle that is affect-ing every government organization is the central government desktop. The objectives of the introduction of the one format for the government desk-top are:

1. The public servant who can do his work anywhere and at any time. In the near future new public servants will be knowledge workers; 2. To be an attractive employer for new recruits;3. One-off entry of data;4. Portals and personalized access (for the customer as well as the public servant).

The first objective means that the public servant must be able to work from any government organization he wants or from home. The public serv-ant has access via a screen layout and requisite systems tailored specifically to the performance of his duties (objective 4). What we already stated is that the public servant will be a knowledge worker. All processes mus be executed automatically (electroni-cally) with minimal human interven-tion.


5. Core registrations (Policy principle 9)




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6. Government desktop (Policy principle 10)





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The one-off entry (objective 3) must ensure that data is recorded clearly, fewer errors are made and greater efficiency occurs. As an example of one-off entry consider diary manage-ment. A request for a holiday via Outlook immediately triggers a work-flow for approval, leading to the debi-ting of the days in the time records of the personnel system and the inclu-sion of the request as a document in the personnel file. At the outset all this seems easy to arrange. However, at the back-end a great amount of effort has to be invested in the current customized systems and application packages. There is even talk of a potential ‘implementation bottleneck’.

The purpose of the second objective is that the government remains an at-tractive employer for the new genera-tion, which is growing up working with the latest technology, in the futu-re too. Systems must be user friendly,

have a low learning-threshold and be recognizable in their operation.

7. Political and management

information (Policy principle 11)

Political and management information refers to the retrieval of unstructured ad hoc information from government systems in support of decision-making processes or accountability.

This does not mean the structured information about for example the costs of a construction project, but digitized information that is obtaina-ble now that more and more informa-tion is becoming available electroni-cally in files and can be accessed now that the systems can be linked to one another more easily.Information is politically indispensa-ble. An example of this unstructured information is the information that the Dutch Ministry of Finance needed on Property Tax at the beginning of 2006. Part of the national property tax

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was abolished, and the other part was allowed to rise only by a maximum of 2%. The municipalities became more autonomous in the taxation and could set the height of the tax. The provinc-es had the task to overview the height of the municipal taxes and agree exemptions. On a request in Parlia-ment, how many municipalities had increased the property taxes above the allowed percentage and had obtained this exemption from their provinces, the Ministry could not provide a direct answer and the provinces were only able to give him information about the situation two months later.

Having political and management information available to its fullest extent is something for the future. Only a small part of these links be-tween the government systems exists in the current IT infrastructure. At the same time a lot of government infor-mation still has to be recorded elec-tronically first and also the technical

form of the ad hoc establishment of connections between this data has yet to be determined.

8. Customer-friendly access

(Policy principle 12)

Key to customer-friendly accessibility is a government that offers the citizen and the corporate sector the opportu-nity to use the services of government over the internet. This means that all the processes that we currently still have to access to by going to the municipality or the province for example in person, are also handled over the internet. Examples of services that can be availed over the Internet include applying for permits or subsi-dies. This customer-friendly accessibi-lity makes deep inroads into the cur-rent processes, not only at the front (the applications), but also during the process (feedback of status and decisi-on-making on the application) and at the end of the process (the final deci-sion and the follow-up activities).


7. Political and management information (Policy principle 11)






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At the front for example this implies the use of easy to complete forms pro-vided electronically. For the public sector worker this represents a far more direct and faster (for example email) contact with the citizen or the business. The whole process becomes more transparent and easier to follow. In the back office standard handling will then be set up that can perform the standard test on the content and route the difficult cases to a real knowledge worker. This public sector worker can also work in a different organization in the chain. In this way the creation of a one-stop virtual shop for government information is also genuinely linked to a virtual delivery organization.

By the mid 2008 the municipalities and provinces must provide digital access to at least 65% of services. It’s likely that they will be able to achieve this target with ease. However, this figure is highly distorting.

8. Customer-friendly access (Policy principle 12)




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The municipalities are now concentra-ting on providing an electronic provi-sion for the variety of information that currently appears in brochures.

In addition, they are providing the application-forms electronically, but which then have to be printed out, completed and returned. The munici-palities and provinces will then go through the process as of old. The electronic catalogues with application forms of services are not therefore genuinely integrated, there is hardly any question of a government work-ing differently as part of a new digital era. The core issue lies precisely in integration, in which the processes really are transformed from front to back into an interactive sequence of steps that starts with access over the internet. This is where the true value lies. Only then can we move on to the actual reorganization of the chains for example with a more local presence: the municipalities as front office.

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The Government Reference Model shows clearly that all these develop-ments are closely related. At the same time it appears that none of the deve-lopments is anything more than barely out of the starting blocks. The designs are on the drawing boards (at the likes of EGEM and ICTU).

Key to these designs of ICTU and EGEM is the idea that the intercon-nection within government (across all layers) can be achieved with a frame-work of mutual ‘services’. An example of a service is the provision of the basic details of a citizen (to authorized enquirers). Another service can be the collection of levies imposed. We see here that the architecture based on services can also actually cause a spe-cialization within government. We already know the shared service cen-ters from the secondary processes, but we are going to encounter them in the primary process too in the years ahead. Municipalities will for example act more and more as a front office by forming an ‘access service’ to citizens and businesses for government tasks. The government is occupied with an accelerated development to a networ-ked form of organization. Behind these services that the organizations deliver to one another is a layer of applications that actually make the services possible.

To bring the new and desired service-oriented government to fruition not only must the service processes be adapted, but also the IT architecture (Service Oriented Architecture). The underlying principles that have been set out so beautifully in the vision of a New Government must also be put into practice.

The bottleneck lies in the actual crea-tion of the link from the front office to the back office, usually also across the boundaries of the organization. In the IT architecture one of the main causes of this bottleneck lies in the fact that the back office still consists entirely of a setup with bespoke applications and closed application packages. If the objectives (cost savings, flexibility, transparency, the citizen centre stage, quality) are to be achieved, then a real drive for openness still has to be made. There are already the first mur-murs of an implementation bottle-neck: there is too little capacity, direc-tion and budget to realize the full transformation.

It is impossible to realize these changes with a big-bang approach. Firstly, because it involves too many risks and secondly because it means that much that is good would be dis-carded: a disinvestment that no orga-nization can afford. An evolutionary process is required, a process con- sisting of the setting up of a future architecture on the basis of the ex- isting architecture and then slowly migrating to the new architecture.

A handsome and practical way to get to grips is to develop a SOA-Roadmap that covers all implementation issues. In fact, such a Roadmap can be seen as a combination of classical IT-Strategy and Business Strategy.

Present state of affairs

Present state of affairs

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A Reference Model For A Service Oriented Government