Report on the ISSA workshop on electronic services

1. Report on the ISSA workshop on electronic services Cor Franke ISSA IT Advisory Board, Marrakech, 23-05-2006

2. Reason for the workshop During the Montreal conference the presentations focused mainly on: • successes and results achieved and not so much on • pitfalls and problems encountered

3. Framework • organized by both ISSA and NL DSS • participation by a limited number of experts from 9 different countries • investigating deeply • pitfalls and problems encountered • best practices • do’s and don’t’s

4. Working method • pre-conference discussion paper • plenary discussion of problem statements • 3 working groups, each discussing a limited number of aspects • plenary discussion on the basis of reports from working groups

5. Aspects discussed • infrastructure • (national) data management • standards and responsibilities • client appreciation • flexibility • costs and benefits

6. Infrastructure • Current situation • Varieties within a public infrastructure lead to high maintenance costs • There is a strong risk of duplication of (expensive) infrastructural components between government agencies • Main question • How do we integrate the different infrastructures that are developing now into one public infrastructure?

7. (National) data management • Current situation • Citizens and employers suffer from the Government’s “information hunger” • The quality of government data is low (which is partly caused by redundancy) • Main question • How do we implement data management (leading to broad re-use of data) at government level?

8. Standards/responsibilities • Current situation • No standards, no identification • No standards, no common infrastructure • No standards, no electronic interchange of data • Main question • How do we develop and maintain a set of standards that are common for the public sector?

9. Client appreciation • Current situation • Clients differ (in skills and equipment) • Clients are concerned about privacy issues • It is not clear what clients want and need • Public organizations have to set priorities in developing electronic services • Main question • How do we involve clients in the development of electronic services and how do we measure their appreciation?

10. Flexibility • Current situation • Policy, technology, customer requirements and the institutional environment continue to change • Large volumes and need for continuity • Old legacy systems • Main question • How do we manage the need for flexibility while also guaranteeing undisrupted “going concern”?

11. Costs and benefits • Current situation • Electronic services require substantial investments • It is very difficult to estimate and measure benefits • There is a strong risk of unequal distribution of costs and benefits between participants • Main questions • How do we set up an appropriate budget (for development, implementation and maintenance) • How do we keep track of both costs and benefits

12. The report of the workshop • The report tries to answer the aforementioned questions in a number of ways • Describing solutions (how to ….) • Addressing pitfalls (be aware of …..) • Listing do’s and don’ts • Summarizing illustrative cases (what can be learned from …..)

13. Experiences • all experts involved contributed strongly to the resulting report • participating in the discussions • sharing experiences and problems • providing case studies and do’s and don’t’s • editing the report

14. The value of the report for you • it provides solutions for ‘generic’ problems (experienced by developed and developing countries) • it lists do’s and don’ts (to prevent you from making mistakes that others have already made) • it contains relevant case studies