Shared Services and Information Sharing in Local Government

It all comes down to Standards

Tim WilloughbyAssistant Director

LGCSB/ LGMA

Feedback – be very careful

My name is Tim

I explain technology…

to people who don’t understand it…

people who think they do understand it…

people who despise it…

and people who worship it.

…that help people understand how technology might help their Organisation…

I research

,

pilot a

nd

write th

ings...

I live here... According to Google Streetview

9

In Technical Terms

• I’m a Webservice –• Sitting between the Technical Teams and the

Business Teams, translating and relating between them..

• With Plenty of SOAP and REST....

Don’t bother me with your ideas now, I’ve got a job to do!

Local Government

Effective Collaboration• my references!

• If only..

• Definite reference!

Taking theego out of

egovernment

Standardisation and Sharing

• Leadership• Change Management

– Business as Usual, Cultural Shift, Continuous Improvement, Responsibility and Service Mapping

• Measurement – Measuring the Right Things– Selection, Cost Savings, Growth, Delivery

• Governance– Managing expectations, Innovations and Supplier

Push

15

Kotter’s eight-stage process for change

2. Form a powerful guiding coalition

1. Establish a sense of urgency

3. Create a vision

8. Anchor new approaches

4. Communicate the vision

5. Empower others to act on the vision

6. Plan for and create short-term wins

7. Consolidate improvements and produce more change

J. Kotter, “Leading Change – Why Transformation Efforts Fail”

17

1. Establish a sense of urgency

Forces for change

Forces for stability

The status quo

Burnes 2004

18

But I’m so comfortable…

Circular 02/09

• Includes– HR, Finance, Telephony, Virtualisation, etc...– Mail, Payroll, etc...– A bit like asking Revenue is this Taxable

21

1. How to create a sense of urgency?

• Create a crisis/rivalry– Just read the papers!!!!

• Find/develop a “red hot” burning issue – NAMA

• Revise existing or develop new standards– Income, profitability, effectiveness, efficiency,

customer satisfaction

• Get an outside opinion – Bring in consultants, customers, shareholders

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2. Form a powerful coalition• Ensure shared understanding

& right attitude– Ability to share vision– Trustworthy– Commitment to means and

end• Has access to necessary

resources– Formal position power – Expertise – Reputation – Leadership – Informal network position

But look out for people with big egos

or “snakes”

The small team that will

lead the change

Who has Formal / Informal power in the organisation?

• Try it out in your org.. Very interesting...23Teigland 2003

Community Archetypes

Perpetual duel. Duelsists

It’s all about him,fiercest of all

Ego

FillibusterHolds the floor,

monotonous hectoring

Big Dog and MiniMeBully - intimidateMe-Too will join the attack.

Radical Change is happening – With or Without the Owners / Shareholders

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3. Create a vision

• Create the vision– To direct the change effort– To coordinate across and outside the

organisation

• Develop a strategy to achieve the vision (operationalise)– To engage people through

participation– To find their “passion”– To overcome forces for stability

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4. Communicate the vision• How?

– Use multiple channels– Regularly to reconfirm

• What?– Keep it simple– Use metaphors and success

stories• Who?

– Walk the talk– Identify key opinion leaders

But listen as well!!

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When do people support the vision?

Relate to the vision Expect personal gain (make their world a

better place) Can give input Respect the leader Believe the time is right

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”

-Henry Ford

Effective Communication

• Clear Messages• Reduce Complexity• Don’t have opinions on

everything• Good and Bad News

Collaboration it’s more about the people than the technology

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5. Empower others to act on the vision

1. Does the organizational culture encourage individuals to act?

2.Do people have the necessary resources to

act?

3.Do people have the appropriate skills and training to act?

4.Do people have the authority to act?

5.Are the organizational structure & systems aligned with the vision?

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6. Plan for and create short-term wins

1. Create obtainable

targets

2. Encourage & convince people that

targets can be reached

3. Recognise and reward “winners”

Communicatethe wins

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Broadcast heroes and their success stories!

36

7. Consolidate improvements and produce more change

Change Project 1

Change Project 2

Change Project 3

Time

Scope of change

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8. Anchor new approaches

Company culture

Physical artifacts

activities and routinesUnderlying values,

assumptions,beliefs, and expectations

Intangible

5 Themes

•SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, Web 2.0 / 3.0, Peer to Peer•Addressing and Adapting change and to changeThe World has to be

on the Cloud

•Instantaneous, Online Response from Inter-continental companies•Digital Supply Chain across Global companies / across the globe

The World is Flat•Environmental Compliance•Reduce your own and your companies Carbon Footprint

The world is green

•Consumers and Workforce - always on - connected anywhere•Increased demand and expectation for services

The World is Mobile

•Energy and Cost Efficient Computing and Data Centres•Flatter Budgets require Efficiencies CAPX and OPEXThe World of Low

Cost ICT

Understand What the Citizen Wants?

What we Deliver

The World is changing

The Local Authority Enterprise

34 County HallsMany sub county halls!

34 enterprise data centers

Database Services

NetworkServices

Hosted Services

Network (~20,000)

Servers (5,000+)

Telephony (~35,000)

Staff

20,000• Desktop Remote access• Business Access• Multiple devices • Mobile, PDA, Smart Phone• Direct Connection

• Occasionally

43

Elected Members

1,000• Remote access• Multiple devices, • Mobile, PDA, Smart

Phone• Remote Services

15,000

AvailabilitySecurity Reliability

Mail(30,000)

Websites(1000)

The Enterprise

• We have Enterprise Infrastructure• We have Enterprise Software

• Have to think as an enterprise– Standards– Security– Shared Services– Service Delivery– Quality, Test & measurement…

Users Internal and External

Hardware Vendors Software Engineers

and Developers

Leaders

Quality

Test

StandardsSOA

SAAS

Web 2.0

Innovation

Software Vendors

The Ecosystem

EcoSystem

• Relationship between users, service owner , Designer and vendor

• Interrelated with the technology provider, the infrastructure and the transport mechanism

• Controlled by Standards, Quality and Testing• Requires Leadership & Governance

Standards in Real Life -Nuts and Bolts

Generally speaking, nuts and bolts come in standard sizes.If you loose a nut, you can run to the hardware store and buy another one of the same size.

Standards in Real Life -Connections

Almost all external computing devices are now USBEliminates questions such as “do you need a serial or PS/2 mouse?”

Standards

There May be a difference in Quality, Usage, Presentation

Standards in Real Life -Bottle Caps

You get the idea...

Lack of Standards?

live in a society obsessed with risk!

Standards are Important..

S

Standards

Whose Standard

How Long do I Stay with it

Equivalences?

Industry Support?

IndependentAssessment?

Support for a Mix of standards?

Do Government Care about Standards, Security and Encryption...?

CYAReplaced with

EYA

Data Privacy• Audit functionality to capture access is not in place in

many instances;• Significant amount of data transfers taking place using

unencrypted mail, file transfers, etc.;• Secure disposal of media at end-of-life not addressed

by most responses;• Procedures for personal data held on paper not

addressed by many responses.

CMOD Recommendations• If personal data is held on portable storage devices (incl. laptops), it

should be encrypted;• Data transfers should (where possible) only take place electronically

and where the data is encrypted;• Audit trails should be used (where technically possible) to capture

instances of inappropriate access and/or use;• Where remote access takes place, stringent security and access

controls should be in place (e.g. using strong passwords, security token authentication, remote session file deletion, etc.);

• LGCSB Report to feed into a cross-organisational working group to produce guidelines based on the recommendations contained in the report.

Berlin Wall

Even Security is changing

• Used to defend the edge of the network...• Now looking at defending the middle and

trusting the edges if they are trust-worthy... (Standards, Testing, Quality, Measurement)

Data Sharing

• Barriers to Sharing– Not Technical – People– Leadership– Perceived rather than actual Issues– Don’t see the need or Relevance to others in using

or having their data– Loss of Control / Power

Cloud Sharing?

• Cloud computing is a new way of delivering computing.

• Instant, easy access to resources• No commitment• Shared Resources (Hardware,

database, memory, etc..)• Pay for it on demand – per use• Instant scale if / when you need it

Planning Cloud Similar to a Peer to Peer Network

• Do a Metadata Search• (Only Metadata on the

Cloud)• Use Maps, Zoom, Pan,

Keywords, etc• Find the File(s) you want• Be Directed to the

Actual File URL• Get the File at Source

• No duplication of Files• Data Protection

Shared Identity? Single Understanding of a person?

• Position Paper – Central Identity Repository• 5 Main Databases

• Simple application

What is Data Interoperability?

The ability to exchange information between and among public bodies

cross discipline, cross jurisdiction, cross sector.

Assumptions:1. Exchanges would benefit one or more agencies2. Philosophy of “need to know” is replaced by “responsibility

to provide”

Shared Datacan be critical

in emergency response!

Potential Scenarios

Weather Incidents Flooding Accident

s

Local Government Evolution

Where we want to be?

Have Data Have Sharing Infrastructure

Can Collaborate

“No County Left Behind”

Still need Common Sense

Key disruptive forces

• Digitization of everything…… – and exponential growth

• Everything/one is getting connected…… – and mobile

• Devices are getting smaller, smarter…… – and cheaper

• Customer demand… – and an explosion of broadband

Work is also changing Rapidly

• Collaboration– Specialisation, optimisation, Just In Time

• Nature of Work– Anytime, Anywhere, Faster?, smarter, better?

• Human Capital is replacing Physical Capital as the Unit of Measurement

• More User Input, More Spontaneous, • Collaboration with (Unknown) Partners

…We have come a long way...

year

log

(peo

ple

per c

ompu

ter)

Mainframe

Minicomputer

Workstation

PCLaptop

PDAExplants & Implants ineverything & everyone?

Based on a slide by David Culler UC/Berkeley

• Platform• Interface to humans & the world• Networking and/or interconnect structure

Electronic/electro-mechanical

Everything is changing – even the hardware

watch

The service consumer is changing

Sharing!

Is there an easier way?

eReturns

MapViewer

Application

Public

Database

Local Authority

Database

Local Authority

Database

Local Authority

DataIntegration

Service

eReturns

DOE iPlan Application WMSWFS

Mapping

Tile Server

DOE

DOT

Central Reporting Framework

Health

SFA

LA

LA

LALA LA LA LA L

A LA

LA

eReturns

Define Quality?• Part of the problem

with Quality – it is not a single dimensional thing...– Should we view

quality from our own standards

– Or from the viewpoint of the customer

It was OK when it left Belfast!

Standards?

Black Box Theory• Government continually Hit with

an Open Standards v’s Black Box decision– The Black Box works– It solves the immediate Problem– The cost is predictable– We may be tied in to a proprietary

standard, but the next version will be more open!

– The more open standards – Loosely Coupled Solution will definitely work, with some adaptation.

– Who will support my decision?– Who can support the adaptation if the

loose couples become detached?– Who will share the risk of the Open

solution in the same way the Black Box provider will?

Independence

• Adherence to Standards facilitates Independence from Suppliers?

• Can we get truly independent advice?• Should Government employ independent

thinkers within the Civil Service or contract with Independent Suppliers?

Modernisation

• Simple and user-oriented • Participative and inclusive • Transparent and accountable • Joined-up and networked • Efficient and innovative

ICT a strategic instrument to achieve this?

Challenges for Public Servants

• Vertical institutional structures• Perverse incentives • Misuse of capital/labour substitution• Outsourcing v. integration/reform • Customer service strategies

Logic?

• Democracy, equality • Security/privacy • System feasibility, interoperability, adaptability,

standardisation • Administrative and political feasibility • Agency autonomy and flexibility • Economics (resources, budgeting)

Point of Interest

• The youth of today are: • Are tech aware & capable• Don’t care about Digital Rights• Produce Content and Dynamic Applications• Rise of the amateur• Tomorrows Employees• How do we interest the WikiGeneration?• Or Employee 2.0?

So far ICT has not fundamentally changed government

• 1990s: lCT expected to make government more transparent, efficient and user oriented

• 2005+: disillusion as bureaucracy still in existence

• Can Cloud / Web 2.0 Help?

Jane E. Fountain – Gov 1.0 – Just Replicating the Silos on the Internet

With a change in emphasis...

IT Investment Goal:

Online Services Change

Change Goal:

TransparencyInvestment

Automation of Public Service Augmenting of Public Service

eGovernment 1.0 eGovernment 2.0

Lessons LearntWENT WELL

Beginning to see Acceptance of Current Situation

Collaboration across councils

joined-up thinking and new ways of working

Collaboration to save money –...

• ‘Tribal’ working practices.

• Solo Runs• Attendance and

Agreement while present – change of mind when back at base

• Getting middle-management involved.

• Collaboration - as long as it does not reduce local ICT

NOT GONE WELL

It’s all about Planning

Understanding the Adoption Curve

Shared Infrastructure

• Why use– Shared Cost– Reduced local Security– Reduced Local Management– Shared Control

• Why not– Loss of control– Don't count the cost of ongoing management...

IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT USERS

• 26 County Councils• 3 City Councils• Cork City Council (for Housing Loans only)

Local Authority progress with Agresso

• Euro• National Chart of Accounts design• Initial applications – GL,PO,SC,AP• Income Management system (RCS)• Housing Loans• Billing modules

– AR, Rents, Rates, Service Charges, Water Charges, Misc invoicing

Agresso modules in use at LA’s:

• General Ledger• Accounts Payable• Purchasing• Budgeting• Enquiries & Reports• Accounts Receivable• Revenue Collection & Cash Receipting• Utility Invoicing – rents, rates, water, services• Sales Order Processing – all misc. Invoicing• Loan Management – housing loans• Payroll• Annual Financial Statements (AFS)• Fixed Assets• Cash Based Accounting (special reporting)• Expenses*** (Popular now)

ePayments

Currently over 150 Payments ServicesIn Local Government

Core HR

• 20 Sites Hosted Centrally• 7 Hosted Locally• 7 Using same / similar system – own tender /

arrangements

Collaboration at the ICT level

OCSPresenceTelephonyCalendarMail

Core HR SystemClockingAttendanceLeave

Intranet/ Extranet / Web

Governance

• The Minister has 5 Aces

• The Problem with a Bridge is...

Ask your customers what would help them the most

(and keep asking)

Choose applications and delivery platforms that make sense

Pick pilot projects that show quick outcomes

Collaborate and bring in other Councils and delivery partners

Measure your success and tell everyone!

Never Underestimate the Irish!