Government to Citizen Electronic Service Delivery and Strategies for Government Portals: BizPaL

1. Government to Citizen Electronic Service Delivery and Strategies for Government Portals: BizPaL Guylaine Brunet & Alec Lumsden Industry Canada E-Gov Forum & Expo August 30, 2005

2. Overview • What is BizPaL? • The client need • Partner governments • What the client sees • System diagram • Lessons Learned

3. What is BizPaL? • A Shared On-Line Tool for Licenses and Permits • On-line tool providing information on licenses and permits • Organized by business line • Arranged by permit/license work flow • Directs businesses to jurisdictional information on the licences and permits needed to start and manage their enterprises • A Collaboration • Feb 2003: Forum involving all provinces and territories • Proof of concept developed with provinces and municipalities • 19 provincial and municipal governments contributed to BizPaL GOL Business Case • Pilot Project participants: Yukon, Whitehorse; BC, Kamloops; Manitoba, Winnipeg; Ontario, Halton Region, Milton, Halton Hills • In discussion: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ottawa • Goals • Reduce burden of compliance by: • Improving Cross-Jurisdictional Collaboration in Service Delivery • Streamline permit and license services for businesses • Help support broader transformation of compliance requirements • Lay foundation for expanded service (transactions) • Increase coverage from Permits and Licences to other regulations • Expand to new partner governments

4. Government Service to Business • Service to Business • 2 million entities, 98% with less than 100 employees • Extensive use of intermediaries to interact with government • Regular interaction with government • Most interactions relate to compliance (eg: tax, customs, patents, transport) • Work with all three levels of government • Strong use of all channels: in-person, phone, mail, and on-line (most popular) • Key Issue • Reducing burden/cost of compliance for business and streamlining access to programs across governments

5. Client Experience – Start-up • Despite efforts to streamline and reduce red-tape, recent service mapping has indicated that clients continue to experience a complex and overlapping service environment. • Jurisdictional Outputs • Municipal service outputs • Regional service outputs • Provincial service outputs • Federal service outputs

6. BizPaL Pilot Partners

7. Access Ready Set Go! Select your Industry Sector… Go to your entry point … Answer some simple questions… Receive a customized list of permits and licenses… Clients’ view of BizPaL

8. BizPaL System Diagram Current procedures and authority recorded BizPaL XML schema Inquiring client on web Admin module Web services Business Process Wizard Govt staff build business process maps for each jurisdiction • Jurisdictions • Sectors • Permit & Licence info • Questions BizPaL service available from multiple websites

9. Administration Module: UI and Functions • Jurisdictions: distributed control – centralized hardware • Managing Permits & Licence information • Managing Industry Sector Configurations • Approving Industry sector configurations and the structure of cross-jurisdictional cooperation • Publishing across multiple governments • Other administration functions and roles

10. # 9 - Consultation • Consultation with key stakeholders (open forum) • Provide high level vision • Build prototype • Seek views, interest and engagement from stakeholder provincial/territorial, municipal and other federal departments • Be transparent about participation and sustainability

11. Source: Joint Forum Survey of 710 Businesses #8 - Business Case • Develop a Strong Business Case • Based on a client stated needs • Analysis and research of similar project in other counties • Needs validated by BTEP exercise • What would help your business better comply with regulations? • Reduce Existing Regulations • Reduce the total number of regulations • Make business owners aware of regulations • Improve Government customer services • Provide examples of what constitutes compliance

12. #7 - Government Priorities • Align with government priorities • Paper Burden reduction • Smart Regulation • Competitiveness • Measure impact of service on Paper Burden • Risk of non-compliance – complex environment and poor information can increase risk of involuntary non-compliance • Unclear requirements, interpretation, and enforcement can lead to inadvertent errors in compliance and reporting • Small business disproportionately impacted • Lack of resources - effort required to understand regulatory requirements detracts from business activities • Diversion of resources potentially undermines the productivity and competitiveness of small firms • 2001 – CFIB survey identifies regulatory burden as highest priority for small business after tax burden and EI

13. * * * #6 - Collaboration • Collaboration • Partners participate in requirements gathering (buy-in) • Involved in any and all decisions (engagement) • Partners retain ownership of data (responsible & accountable) • Recognize and engage early adopters

14. #5 - Branding, Federal Identity & CLF • Branding, Federal Identity Program and Common Look and Feel • Use solution that minimize challenges (web-services) • Work within guidelines but be prepared to be flexible • Involve key players early (TBS, legal, etc)

15. #4 - Technology • Technology Solution • Keep the Solution Simple • Provide solution to meet the need of all existing and potential partners • From technically savvy to basic capabilities • Keep it low-cost, any costs can be prohibitive to some partners • Web services & In-line frames

16. #3 - Governance • Governance Structure • Develop trust – takes time • Owned by the consortium • Keep it simple • Partners agree to existing structure until it doesn’t work • Representation from each partner • Senior and manager levels • Define Roles and Responsibilities

17. #2 - Funding • Funding • Agree to terms early • Cost share based on size of partner • Seed funding • enough funds to ensure appropriate governance is in place • Minimize centralized activities to keep costs low • Efficiency • survival • Agree on cost formulas to decrease cost over time

18. Bed and Breakfast Permits and Licenses Business/Service Process Points # 1 - Process Mapping • Process Mapping • Provide the information necessary to understand the solution requirement • Mapping is essential for understanding gaps, overlaps, and duplication • Mapping can yield immediate results for information services – As Is State • Mapping points the way for long-term alignment – To Be State • Provides the information necessary to get to Service Transformation