Information Management

Agency Initiatives - Categories

The Agency Initiatives have been structured around categories, according to which best portrays the relevance of each initiative to achievement of the E-government Strategy:

Category 2: Information management

Increasingly, government agencies' initiatives to manage information are achieving e government objectives. They are using redesigned, more user-centric systems, gaining significant efficiencies in service delivery, and establishing the foundations for future innovation and collaboration across government.

For some initiatives, open-source software has been selected as the most appropriate vehicle to achieve information management objectives. This aspect is noteworthy because agencies report that the collaborative nature of development and support for open-source software encourages continual innovation. Agencies have found that being part of the open-source community encourages them to explore ways to creatively adapt and extend the tools for additional purposes. Such capacity to respond to evolving influences and demands will contribute to an agency's ability to be part of the e government transformation process.

Important initiatives (some using proprietary software and others open-source software) include the following:

• Client Management System – a Ministry of Social Development (MSD) initiative to provide a single interface for case managers to interact with the Ministry’s various information systems, providing a single view of the client and the services they are receiving, a detailed record of client and case manager interactions, and workflow functions to guide staff in determining eligibility and entitlement to services.
• Justice Sector Information Strategy – this recognises that the justice system is an information-rich, integrated and highly complex environment. The Strategy provides a framework for improved collaboration to manage and share relevant information amongst justice sector agencies from a collective perspective. The sector includes the Ministry of Justice, New Zealand Police, Department of Corrections, Land Transport New Zealand, Legal Services Agency, Crown Law Office, and Ministry of Social Development. This is the third iteration of the Strategy over the past 12 years. Some initiatives included in this framework are:
  • development of common standards and protocols for justice sector information exchange
  • development of a sector-wide repository for all justice sector system changes, to allow agencies to request changes, assess the impact of any changes others may want, and agree or disagree prior to their implementation
  • development of a data-quality methodology that has enabled analysis of justice sector data quality; assessments of identity data, ethnicity, and offences have been completed
  • electronic filing of infringements to enable a common approach across agencies, including local government, for collecting and processing outstanding infringement fines levied through the courts
  • establishment of a central electronic database of information to support justice sector research and policy development.
• Initiatives using open-source software, such as:
  • New Zealand History Online – a Ministry for Culture and Heritage website showcasing themes in New Zealand history; a sophisticated open-source content management system, and features such as Google Maps, has enabled the site to become a valuable resource for historians, students and teachers
  • Electoral Enrolment Centre – maintains databases of information to support the operation of elections in New Zealand; databases using an open-source platform contain details of all citizens eligible to vote in New Zealand current to the day before any election
  • War Art Online – an interactive website that presents 1,400 digitised images of the National Collection of War Art held by Archives New Zealand, plus multimedia content about the art and artists in the collection; the open-source content management system includes participatory features that allow the public to comment on and tag the digital works
  • New Zealand Pharmaceutical Schedule – a complex and extensive document managed by the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (Pharmac) listing 2,600 prescription medicines subsidised by the Government, distributed to 11,000 health professionals and libraries, updated monthly, and published three times a year; Pharmac uses an open-source solution to produce both the web and print versions of the Schedule.

Key points

• User-centric functionality and focus
• Enhanced efficiency

User-centric functionality and focus

MSD's Client Management System is part of an overall initiative that has a core objective to be more "client-centric" and improve client services. The system will better equip case workers to ensure clients receive appropriate products and services. Flexible approval processes and automated prompts will allow supervisors and managers to respond to the needs of individual clients. Consistent capture of information and flexibility to tailor the same information to different purposes should minimise the need for people to provide the same information to the agency repeatedly.

The New Zealand History Online initiative was also driven by the need to serve users better. The information architecture of the previous website was very traditional, prompting users to step through structured content, and provided little possibility for flexible movement through the site. The site overhaul, based on user research, resulted in a dynamic content management system. It now provides a fresh, contemporary presentation of history which connects with its audience through interactive features, encouraging discovery through multiple navigation methods on every page.

The War Art Online initiative has become more accessible and interactive. People can now view works of art easily online without having to travel to Wellington and make special arrangements with Archives New Zealand to see them. Many of these works are too fragile to allow such access, and have not been shown in public for a long time. Furthermore, from a participation perspective, the system allows the user to add new information about the art works, including personal anecdotes, which can then be shared through the online community. This process, known as "tagging", has become associated with the emerging generation of Internet development (Web 2.0). This informal approach, allowing users to index material themselves, brings a social context to such resources and allows content to be found and shared more intuitively.

Enhanced efficiency

MSD's Client Management System has introduced several efficiencies into the organisation's information management processes. The system's single point of entry, automated processes, and quicker processing reduce administration time. The integration of client data across different parts of MSD enables improved decision making and streamlining of the case management process. Work allocation and work scheduling capabilities allow supervisors to manage their case and claim loads. Changes to work queues, allocations, and schedules can be implemented in real time, and the system is flexible enough to manage contacts, relationships, and services and programmes, as well as payments.

Already, the Justice Sector Information Strategy has led to significant efficiencies through the reuse of justice sector data across agencies. The Strategy provides for a principled approach to sharing large volumes of information across the justice sector. Since the first iteration of the Strategy in 1996, information has been routinely shared across a secure virtual network of seven operational systems on a daily basis. Approximately 32 data exchange interfaces facilitate around 13 million annual transactions. Improved access to quality information provides a more robust foundation for investigations, intelligence, evaluations of existing services, and improved forward planning. The electronic filing of infringements will reduce paperwork and associated costs, and creates a common approach across agencies for collecting and processing outstanding infringement fines. The Electoral Enrolment Centre initiative has efficiently consolidated the electoral rolls and replaced a disparate and geographically dispersed group of databases. This consolidation has reduced administration costs, increased the accuracy of the electoral roll, and enables real-time updating of information and the ability to track changes. The key challenge for the New Zealand History Online initiative was to develop a more efficient information management system to support the revamped website. It required conversion of 4,000 pages of content into a new content management system, while retaining relationships between pages wherever possible. The initial business analysis suggested that the structure of the previous website had a large amount of content duplication and manually created relationships. The new, dynamic content management system, and updated content structure, are far more efficient and flexible. Interactive features are continually being developed. The website now provides information about historical events with interactive features, historical footage, sound files, and thousands of images.

The publishing process for the New Zealand Pharmaceutical Schedule is now far more efficient. The schedule can be published directly from the same database that is used to process the 40 million prescription medicine subsidy claims per year. Previously, there were no links between the database and the published schedule. Furthermore, the new system has greatly improved accuracy. Users can now enter data directly into the database and be immediately notified of any errors. The new process is so cost effective that Pharmac is considering publishing monthly instead of three times a year.

Implications

These information management-related initiatives have introduced significant efficiencies and improved users' experiences. They have also laid groundwork for important future developments that will contribute to progress in achieving e-government objectives. MSD’s Client Management System initially focused on its Work and Income service line. However, it is expected that the platform will be used in future across all of MSD's services, which include Child, Youth and Family, StudyLink, Benefit Integrity Services, War Pensions, Family and Community Services, and the Community Services Card. It is expected that, eventually, there will be increased access by other organisations to selected information held by the Ministry. The system has been designed to support the integration of client data – potentially across different agencies. Ultimately, the agencies' clients are expected to benefit from these developments by being able to view their details online from any location, customise their information and communications preferences, log their interaction history, and choose preferred channels to receive reminders to carry out certain tasks. The system has also been designed to facilitate continued evolution and responses to change through its ability to run "What if?" scenarios and inform creative problem solving and strategic planning.

The Justice Sector Information Strategy has led major improvements in the way information is managed and shared within the justice sector. The Strategy looks ahead to better understand the dynamics of how the various justice sector components interrelate, and identifies opportunities for future interagency collaboration in research, policy, and strategic decision making. Building on the robust foundations established, the Strategy now includes the wider justice and social sectors. This enhances information-sharing capabilities across a broader spectrum, through the development of an integrated youth justice dataset for example. The Strategy signals that efforts to extend best practice across agencies will continue, by piloting video conferencing for example.

The Strategy acknowledges that members of the public want better access to information on their rights and responsibilities under the law. An information guide provides coordinated justice information via the Internet on a topic basis, for example, "Getting Legal Aid". Additional topics are planned and will be introduced progressively to meet public information needs. The Strategy provides the framework to ensure that agencies’ future information and technology investments take into account their impact on other justice agencies, and new initiatives and improved services maximise opportunities to enhance service delivery.

The War Art Online initiative has been a pilot project for Archives New Zealand to experiment with the best ways to make its holdings available in digital form and develop the infrastructure to do so. Archives New Zealand is also expanding its capacity for more large-scale digitisation work and long-term development of programmes around digital sustainability, online service delivery, and descriptive systems. It is expected that in the coming years Archives New Zealand will make more digital material available on the Internet with similar "public participation" features as the tagging functionality of War Art Online.

The Electoral Enrolment Centre's information management systems use Internet-based applications and infrastructure that enable real-time updating of information and the ability to track changes. However, such automation has not occurred throughout the entire business. For example, data gathering using handheld devices for real-time updating and authenticating details is not feasible due to existing legislative constraints. As public expectations and corresponding legislation might evolve over time, the infrastructure has enabled the Electoral Enrolment Centre to be well positioned for such changes, or the addition of new applications, in the future.