Common Themes
Alongside the stories of users of government services, the focus here falls on the perspectives of agencies which deliver government services. In-depth analysis of 60 initiatives undertaken by such agencies reveals four common themes:
These themes are considered in the context of progress towards e government in New Zealand.
User-centric focus
Most of these initiatives demonstrate greater consideration of user needs in the planning or delivery of government services.
Increasingly, government websites have incorporated user needs into their designs to enhance users' ability to find what they are looking for and, drawing on research into user needs, they are beginning to highlight unanticipated information needs. The All-of-government Authentication Programme, for example, undertook extensive research into user needs and expectations to develop a uniquely New Zealand solution designed to protect people's privacy.
User-centric thinking is also reflected in the "one-stop-shop" approach to service delivery. The jobs.govt.nz portal, for example, connects government jobseekers with multiple positions available in government agencies through a single website. This approach is expected to become more widespread and increasingly sophisticated as agencies provide joined-up service delivery. The Ministry of Social Development's Client Management System, for example, will integrate client data across different agencies and allow users to view their personal information online, customise their preferences, and choose preferred channels of communication. Similarly, the CusMod system will enable users to lodge information and documents at a single entry point to fulfil the import, export, and transit requirements of all border agencies.
There are also indications that some agencies might evolve gradually from providing user-centric services to providing user-driven services. As agencies become increasingly adept at monitoring, harvesting, and analysing user needs and preferences, they might also increase their use of emerging Web 2.0 technologies to engage directly with users, enabling users themselves to help shape and drive service delivery.
Building blocks to transformation
Many of these initiatives have entailed incremental steps towards the transformation of government. Some have been infrastructural developments, such as shared systems or networks which can be applied with benefit across government, which will transform how agencies use and exchange information. Agencies have access to significant telecommunications infrastructure at a reasonable price. They are also reducing duplication of systems and processes, and decreasing the investment in and operational costs of multiple systems across government. This will enable important cross-network, value-added services to be developed in the future.
Elsewhere, new processes and practices have been developed, providing a foundation for increased collaboration between agencies. These initiatives are changing fundamentally the ways that organisations can work together and services can be delivered. Significant collaboration has occurred among multiple agencies across government, and with non-governmental agencies, users, and, in some cases, international colleagues.
Systems and processes now being introduced are allowing the consistent capture of information, and flexibility to tailor the information to different purposes, and minimising the need for users to provide the same information to government repeatedly.
Agencies are beginning to explore open-access licensing to encourage the reuse of public sector information.
Agencies are gradually transforming service delivery to allow people to access multiple programmes from one place simultaneously.
Cultural change
All these initiatives signal transformational changes to attitudes, values, and behaviours across government that correspond with the development of transformative building blocks.
Increasingly, collaboration is becoming the assumed way of working across government, and it is progressively more common for a business case for an e-government initiative to take account of interrelationships with initiatives within other agencies. And increasingly, agencies are joining together in sectoral groups to deal with historically intractable problems.
Agencies are gradually more accepting of the idea of sharing infrastructure, so that systems are built once to be shared by many.
Agencies are increasingly user-centric when designing services as they respond to the need to change their understanding of user preferences. In many cases this involves a rethinking of underlying processes to enable required changes to service delivery.
More public sector information is available online than ever before, and better systems are being put in place to make it discoverable. However, many agencies are moving beyond simply uploading written information to enabling transactions to be completed online. The significant infrastructural initiatives being developed will encourage agencies to allow many more transactions to be undertaken online. This, too, is requiring cultural change within agencies as they rethink their approach to service delivery to accommodate the online channel. Further changes will be required in agencies' thinking about service delivery as they move beyond simple online transactions, and increasingly make use of Web 2.0 tools to encourage direct public participation in policy development and service planning.
Changes to government agencies' attitudes to service delivery are also reflected in the blurring of the edges of government, and the increasing use of intermediaries for delivery of government services. As agencies become increasingly adept at delivering services in a manner that best suits their users, they are recognising that this might entail delivery by organisations or individuals outside government. Agencies are developing new ways of operating with and planning for service delivery with these intermediaries.
There are indications that government is increasingly embracing change, and it is valuing agility which enables response to the challenges of transformation. One of the reasons agencies have made use of open-source software, for example, is that it encourages continual innovation; being part of the open-source community encourages agencies to explore creative ways to adapt and extend the tools for additional purposes, and provides capacity to respond to evolving influences and demands. Infrastructure is being developed with the view that it is likely to be used for innovative and creative purposes that have not yet been considered by agencies – and that this is part of the justification for its development.
Changing role of government
These agency initiatives suggest that the role of government is also beginning to be transformed in this dynamic environment. Increasingly, agencies are recognising the need to operate together as a joined-up entity to present a cohesive face to the user. This is changing each agency's role in relation to its users, from being the provider of services to being responsible for only part of a wider range of services, delivered collaboratively with other parts of a much larger entity. From a user's perspective, each part of government will probably be perceived to be less separately distinguishable over time.
As government makes increasing use of Web 2.0 technologies, there will be further challenges to the traditional role of government. Government might function increasingly as facilitator or participant in systems and environments for which it is not directly responsible. It might need to deliver (or make easily discoverable and useful) bits of government information for others to harvest, mash up and reuse – perhaps together with information gathered from other non-government sources – for purposes that are difficult to anticipate.
These new roles will require government employees to have new skills to develop, facilitate, and manage these activities, both across and outside agencies, as services are delivered beyond the traditional bounds of government. As people are increasingly able to participate in policy development and service design, government staff will need to become increasingly adept at ensuring that such engagement is meaningful and useful. Delivery of government services through intermediaries and non-government entities far removed from government control will introduce interesting challenges for the governance of processes and accountability for information.
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