Agile, efficient, effective & citizen centric Semantic decisions for improving government

1. Agile, efficient, effective & citizen centricSemantic decisions for improving government Geert Rensen Managing Director Marketing & Strategy

2. Be Informed provides governments with a semantically enabled platform for running their business • An infrastructure for managing and running semantic models: • manage knowledge (laws, regulations) separate from applications and processes; • fully automated decisions and decision support; • context driven information, advise and applications; • sharing semantics throughout the government; • Knowledge is recorded in an ontology which is enriched with business rules: • ontology, rules, content, context • All functions use the same ontology: • search; • decisions; • processes; • applications; • forms; • files; • services; • ...

3. From e-government to connected governance The core task of government is governance.‘the job of regulating society’ E-government is about improving the work of all of these branches of government, not just public administration in the narrow sense.

4. Issues with regulating societyMore and more fine grained decisions, laws & legislation • growing complexity of society • growing risk aversity society • speed & impact of change • mass individualisation Anincreasingly complex society requiresincreasingly complex laws, leading to more and more complex applications to execute these laws.

5. Case Study: Immigration and Naturalisation service • irreducible complexity of society • growing risk aversity society • speed & impact of change • mass individualisation Separate the knowfrom the flow Manage the know Automate operationaldecisions&supportdecisionmakingin operationalprocesses • Business Benefits: • implementation of newregulationsfrom 9 months to a few days; • substantialreduction in labour (20%) whileimprovingcustomer service; • business usersfully in control (IT departmentoutsourced)

6. Issues with regulating society Finding your needle in their haystack • red tape / large number of rules • administrative burden • gap citizen and government • lack of transparancy Confrontedwithanoverwhelmingamount of institutions, laws and regulationscitizens and businessesloose track. They do not know whichrulesapply in theirspecificsituation

7. Case study: Modernisation of environmental licensingOne nationwide solution for all permits 600 back offices 1600 different applications 42 systems of permits 2000 pages of legislation • red tape / large number of rules • administrative burden • gap citizen and government • lack of transparancy Providepersonalisedcontex-driven information, advice & services Developsharedcontext ontology semanticstandards Knowledge as a service Oneapplication (e-form) One procedure One competent authority Onedecission • Business Benefits: • reduction in red tape (1 context drivenapplication vs. 1.600 lawdriven) • operationalcostreduction: 33 million euro in year 1 • reducedcosts (10 * - 100 *) forimplementationnewlaws & IT-systems

8. Issues with regulating societyMaking effective policy and execute it consequently • lack of coordination • misunderstandings • bureaucracy • effectiveness of policy • lack of transparency execution & enforcement policy Policiesdo notexist in isolation, but are linked to otherpoliciescreating a complex interdependentlegislative system which is implemented in a and enforcedby a complex government.

9. Case Study : Modernisation of environmental licensing Improving policy with semantic models • lack of coordination • misunderstandings • bureaucracy • effectiveness of policy • lack of transparency execution & enforcement policy Transparentaccess to existingpolicies Developing, simulating and testing models Sharemeaning of bothpoliciesand data • Business Benefits: • improvedpolicy: avoidederrors, ommissions and inconsistencies • reducedadministativeburden • simulateintendedpolicies

10. Be Informed's solution (on an institutional level) Configuredwithsemantic models of laws, policies and information. For instance: permits, grants, fines, taxes

11. Be Informed's solution (on an institutional level) Configuredwithsemantic models of laws, policies and information. For instance: permits, grants, fines, taxes

12. Towards a semantically enabled government E-government building blocks My government Knowledge services Decision services Domain specificfront offices Environmentalpolicies Municipalfront offices Health & Safety Customs and Excise Semantic governmentinfrastructure Private sectorfront offices Authentic registrations Dumb case handlingsystems

13. Towards a semantically enabled government In order to: • really bridge the government – citizens gap; • really facilitate intergovernmental cooperation; • really support the process from policy formulation to implementation we need semantic models and knowledge services: • it is necessary that citizens, corporations andgovernments understand each others language: • within the public domain; • between the public and private domain; • from policy formulation to implementation and evaluation. • they are supported in finding (given their specific context)the relevant knowledge, rules and information. We therefore help develop nationwide semantic standards.

14. Addressing the challenges Be Informed helps: • bridge the gap between government organizations and citizens; • organizations to adapt to changing laws & legislation (from 9 months to a few days) • reduce operational costs (with 20% - 80%) • reduce development costs (10x – 100x) for new systems and solutions; • reduce errors and improve compliance • facilitate effective cooperation between both public and private institutions. • formulate effective policies; All enabled by semantics ! Red tape Mistakes Bureaucracy Inefficient Am I eligible for legal assistance? My employer went bankrupt. What now ? 1600organisations How much am Iallowed to earnas a student? 50.000laws & regulations When was this regulation changed ? 10.000’sproducts & services Where do I applyfor this benefit ? 1.000.000’sdocument announcements Lack of coordination Costs Administrative burden 14

15. Thank you for your attention!

16. Architecture model for a semantic government Prefill context ontology event unification model products and services law and regulations government registrations Taxonomy I am … Environmental permit GBA General administrative law act Environmental Licensing General Provisions Bill Treaty for protection of human rights & fundamental freedoms Taxonomy Residence permit Taxonomy Subsidized legal assistance BAG I go … Taxonomy … …… …… …… WOZ BRI