Annexe 2

E-government programme progress report - 1 January to 31 December 2002

Background

1 The e-government programme commenced with the formal establishment of the E-government Unit (EGU) of the State Services Commission on 1 July 2000. In establishing the Unit, Cabinet noted that it would have the following roles [CAB (00) M14/1(F) refers]:

• Strategy: development of overarching e-government strategy, and common system and data management policies, standards and guidelines;

• Leadership: facilitate the uptake by government agencies of the e-government vision and IS and data management policies, standards and guidelines;

• Co-ordination/collaboration: identify opportunities for beneficial collaboration across government agencies, leverage better returns from existing information management and technology (IM & T) investment, and provide co-ordination for multi-agency e-government projects;

• Policy: provide advice to the Minister of State Services in relation to e-government; and

• Monitoring: monitor progress toward achieving the e-government vision and in relation to IM & T investment (continuation of existing SSC role).

2 Cabinet approved the E-government Strategy on 2 April 2001 [CAB Min (01) 10/12]. The Minister of State Services published a revised version of the strategy in December 2001.

Major activities - E-government Unit

3 Major areas of activity specified in purchase agreements and undertaken by the EGU in 2002 were focused on building foundations for e-government. This included:

• the development and implementation of authentication policy options to ensure people will trust on-line government through appropriate identification and protection of customers;

• progress on development and implementation of a change-of-address strategy;

• evaluation of a whole-of-government electronic purchasing solution (GoProcure™);

• operation of central e-government infrastructure to support the whole-of-government web portal as the primary entry-point to government on-line;

• completion and operation of the E-government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) to provide standards which will enable agencies to use information technology to effectively support interagency collaboration; and

• updating the E-government Strategy to ensure that it remains relevant.

Electronic authentication

4 In April 2002 Cabinet agreed a policy framework to underpin electronic authentication, directed Public Service departments to adopt the policy framework, and agreed that the EGU would report back in June 2003 with:

• a review of public opinion, the political and international climate, and changes in technology regarding an opt-in solution;

• a cost-benefit analysis of implementation options; and

• a detailed design of the preferred option.

[CAB Min (02) 12/2A refers]

5 At 31 December 2002, the Authentication project was on-track for development of papers for consideration by Cabinet in June 2003.

Change of address

6 During the early part of the year initial scoping was undertaken to ascertain what would be required to develop an all-of-government change of address service. Conceptually, such a service would allow people to notify different government agencies of a change of address electronically, using the Internet, in a single transaction.

7 Whilst appearing simple, delivery of a high integrity change of address service requires:

• an authentication mechanism, to ensure the person is who they say they are;

• common data formats, so that information can be shared between the change of address system and agencies' own systems without further intervention; and

• data quality processes, to ensure accuracy of address information provided.

8 Given the complexity of the issue, the focus of the project moved to first developing data standards and quality processes relating to name and address information. The EGU is working with Land Information New Zealand and a range of other agencies to develop a New Zealand version of Extensible Name and Address Language (xNAL) - a standard for inclusion in the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). The standard is due by 30 June 2003.

E-procurement

9 On 28 March 2002, the Ministers of Finance and State Services agreed 'in-principle' to fund the evaluation and start-up costs of GoProcure™, an electronic procurement system intended to automate procurement and realise benefits for public service departments, a selected group of Crown entities, and suppliers to those agencies. This approval was based on a business case that indicated financial benefits for agencies that implement e-procurement. Accordingly, it was determined that, pending the results of an evaluation phase to be run during 2003, an operational e-procurement system should be funded by agencies.

10 In November 2002, Cabinet approved the first phase evaluation and implementation of GoProcure™, with a requirement for new capital of $2.0 million in fiscal year 2002/03, and $1.5 million in the fiscal year 2003/04.

11 The intention was that charges on agencies will cover the repayment by SSC of the $3.5 million capital, plus capital charge, plus the other costs of operating GoProcure™. Total costs to be met by agency charging are $8.0 million over five years.

12 The evaluation phase, a pilot involving rolling an operational system out to 5 - 6 agencies to test whether the systems and business model will work in practice, commenced in November 2002.

E-government infrastructure and the new government Internet portal

13 In November 2001, Cabinet directed the EGU to implement a new Internet portal for government [CAB Min (01) 36/13 refers]. The Prime Minister launched the new portal on 15 November 2002. The portal contains information on over 2,500 government services. This information has been created by over 90 central government agencies, along with creation of generic service information on over 110 services provided by all local government authorities.

14 The portal is meeting all its critical success factors, with traffic levels on average 22% higher than its predecessor, NZGO. Additional resources required to scale the portal up to provide access to information on services from 200 plus agencies, and to provide improved information on local government services, have been provided through the 2003 Budget.

15 The EGU assisted a group of agencies working with the Department of Labour to build a labour market portal (www.worksite.govt.nz) by providing access to the databases underlying the government portal. The Department of Labour estimates that leveraging the government portal infrastructure in this way has had an immediate capital saving of $400,000, with ongoing operating savings in the region of $18,000 per annum, with a marginal cost in the region of $100 -$500 per month for support and data transfers.

16 Further opportunities to leverage the portal development have been identified, and discussions with appropriate agencies in the business services and science and technology sectors have commenced.

E-government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF)

17 Interoperability means the ability of government organisations to share or integrate information, technology, and business processes in a consistent, cost-effective way. The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) applies to every instance where an agency connects electronically with another organisation, whether public or private.

18 On 13 June 2002, Cabinet agreed that the e-GIF would governhow public sector organisations are to achieve electronic interoperability from 1 July 2002 onwards [CAB Min (02) 18/2C refers]. Cabinet directed all Public Service departments, the New Zealand Police, the New Zealand Defence Force, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, and the Government Communications Security Bureau to adopt the e-GIF. Cabinet also requested the Speaker of the House to direct the Office of the Clerk and the Parliamentary Service to adopt the e-GIF.

19 The State Services Commissioner has convened an e-GIF Management Committee with senior managers from 11 central government agencies and a local authority to oversee and direct ongoing development and management of the e-GIF, to ensure that the interests of agencies are properly factored into the e-GIF, and for approving any exemptions from it.

E-government Strategy

20 In December 2001, the Minister of State Services issued a revised version of the E-government Strategy. The revision was timed to provide agencies with up to date information on progress and directions, so that this could be incorporated into their planning and budgeting cycles.

21 In December 2002 a draft version of a second revision was circulated to agencies for the same purpose. As the second revision contains details of the work programme proposed by the EGU, some of which is dependent on new initiatives which are being considered in the 2003 budget round, the Minister of State Services has held off publishing the revision until the bilateral round is completed.

22 The revised strategy retains the structure of the version it replaces, with the following being emphasised:

• a clear statement of the Government's e-government goals;

• new material placing the strategy in a broader context of:

  • Government goals to improve public management;

  • what New Zealanders want from e-government; and

  • public sector ethics, values and standards; and

  • new thinking about how service delivery can be electronically enabled.

23 The strategy also provides:

• a summary of what agencies and the EGU have achieved so far;

• a revamped 'government service delivery architecture' that explains why such an architecture is important, and how the Government expects agencies will implement it;

• identification of major challenges ahead of the e-government programme; and

• details of major all-of-government e-government projects over the next twelve months, and the respective roles and responsibilities of EGU and agencies.

24 Each of the strategy revisions so far confirms that the emphasis on the EGU having a lead role in building e-government foundations, and agencies having responsibility for building e-government on these foundations, is still appropriate.

An additional focus - developing and operating infrastructure

25At the time the e-government programme was set up there was an expectation that the EGU would provide strategic leadership, develop policy, facilitate and coordinate agency and sector initiatives and monitor progress, but that major infrastructural initiatives would be developed and operated by "lead agencies" acting in the collective interest.

26 In practice, lead agencies for all-of-government infrastructure development and operation have not emerged for a range of practical and governance reasons. Therefore the EGU has taken a different focus, which is to:

• develop and operate common e-government infrastructure (e.g. the portal, S.E.E. secure e-mail);

• develop and manage business and technical architectures and standards (e.g. the web guidelines, the NZGLS metadata standard, the e-GIF) jointly with agencies;

• develop a policy framework for determining appropriate governance mechanisms for shared inputs;

• enter into memorandums of understanding with agencies for key components of common infrastructure where this aligns with their core business (e.g. Archives New Zealand manages the NZGLS metadata standard);

• disperse day-to-day management of agency-specific components of infrastructure to the agencies themselves (e.g. S.E.E. secure e-mail, portal metadata records, applying e-GIF standards to agency-specific applications etc); and

• provide technology components of the common e-government infrastructure to agencies for their own use; a building-block approach that will ensure maximum value for money through reuse of technology (e.g. the labour market portal www.worksite.govt.nz).

27 The EGU's experience in this area highlights the practical difficulties of inter-agency collaboration, and the need for continued strategic and operational leadership and support from the central agencies. The EGU contributes its practical experience to the Review of the Centre.

Progress by agencies

28 A large number of agencies have contributed to e-government developments, and are making progress towards their own e-government goals. The following is a sample of the range of online services available today:

• Public Access to Legislation (PAL) - The Parliamentary Counsel Office is undertaking this landmark project which, when completed, will make New Zealand legislation freely available to the public over the Internet. This project makes a major contribution to the Government's e-government participation goals. An interim website of legislation has been established here.

• WorkSite (Labour market portal) - this multi-agency initiative provides an Internet channel for accessing information and services related to the New Zealand labour market. The portal is a good example of inter-agency collaboration, and also of agencies reusing some of the architecture and components of the all-of-government portal, in line with the intent of the service delivery architecture.

• Online immigration services - during the year the New Zealand Immigration Service made it possible for some people to apply for visas or permits over the Internet.

• Landonline - during the year, issuance of certificates of land title moved from a paper based to an online electronic service. Landonline is currently New Zealand's most significant e-government initiative in terms of the transformation of service delivery.

• Community Organisations Grants (COGS) Online - The Community Grants Scheme, administered by the Department of Internal Affairs, provides financial grants to community organisations. The complete management of this process is now online so that community groups (on their own, or working with a Grants Advisor) can enter their application, track its progress, and maintain a history of it for future use. The Grants staff in DIA can process the application online with the Grants Committee members also accessing the system.

• E-licencing -The Department of Internal Affairs administers the issuing and re-issuing of gaming licences (e.g. for Lotto, Housie, Bingo, poker machines etc). Applications from trusts for re-licencing or changes to licenses can now be made online.

• eEnablement of the Inland Revenue Department - The IRD has developed and launched a comprehensive eEnablement Strategy (http://www.ird.govt.nz/aboutir/reports/e-enablement/ ) that sets out a series of 52 linked initiatives that will be implemented over five years. Customers can now use the online calculators to establish their tax position, can file their GST obligations online and can pay their tax liabilities electronically. Work is well underway to provide customers with the ability to file their individual Income Tax Returns electronically and to send and receive emails securely.

• Online Examination Results - The New Zealand Qualifications Authority has recently made 750,000 students' results, and records of learning, available online.

• Diabetes Disease Management - Counties Manukau District Health Board has implemented an integrated diabetes disease management programme, using best care guidelines, patient held care plans, free three monthly reviews, and comprehensive data collection, all supported by a diabetes care coordinator. The programme is notable for inventing, developing and implementing the "Integrated Care Server" (ICS), creating the ability to provide clinicians with feedback on clinical management, and the ability to share information between clinical care providers.

• Department of Conservation extranet - this site provides access to DOC databases and GIS/spatial information. It is accessed by over 20 agencies (e.g. regional councils, Landcare Research, Te Papa etc).

• Public Good Science & Technology investment processes - the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology has implemented two systems for managing these processes. One system allows those successful in obtaining grants to negotiate and complete their contracts online, and provides intelligence to help them match their research with the Foundation's funding. The second system allows researchers to develop and submit research proposals online.

• Online import declarations - businesses can now submit import declarations, manifest information and export data to Customs via an Internet gateway.

• PapersPast - Since April 2001 the National Library has added over 400,000 pages of 19th century newspapers to its website.

• www.marketnewzealand.com - Developed by Trade New Zealand, the Market New Zealand website is New Zealand's gateway to international trade. It providesa database profiling New Zealand exporters' products and services; a trade enquiry systemallowing buyers to register enquiries that are distributed by email to exporters with the appropriate capability and interest; and a news, events, and market intelligence service.

• Online consultation - The Department of Internal Affairs has used its website to consult widely on the Gaming Review, proposed legislative changes in Local Government, and leaking buildings.

• USAR website - a website providing an information source for all the various agencies involved in Urban Search and Rescue in New Zealand was developed.

• NZTopoOnline - Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) is providing free access to topographic information for anyone using its website. The service provides another channel for emergency services, and other key stakeholders to access the most up-to-date topographic information held in the New Zealand Topographic Database, and Internet based delivery of a new published map series called NZTopo50.

• PositioNZ - another LINZ service providing free, satellite-accurate, data to determine the precise position of points on the Earth's surface. PositioNZ enables LINZ's geodetic survey contractors to derive accurate positions with just a single GPS receiver. LINZ is also expecting cadastral surveyors to use PositioNZ for the highest available accuracy points for their own work.

• Bali Bombing: MFAT's "e-appeal" to Overseas New Zealanders - The Bali bombing presented the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) with its biggest ever consular emergency. Within 24 hours of first reports of the bombing, the Ministry found itself trying to locate around 1400 New Zealanders thought to have been on the resort island at the time. After three days, with the missing list still alarmingly large, MFAT realised it needed to use the medium by which most expatriate Kiwis get their news from home: the internet. This worked extremely well. For example, placement of a banner advert on Xtra's hot mail home page for travelling New Zealanders resulted in 460,971 page impressions of the "Call Home" button with around 500 people clicking through to the actual message. MFAT's innovative use of an "e-appeal" to quickly gather important information from the public earned praise from the media and established a valuable new tool in government's crisis management armoury.

A developing culture of collaboration

29 Perhaps the most important aspect of e-government, collaboration is starting to emerge as a new way of developing and delivering e-government. Collaboration is best exemplified by the way that agencies have been working with the centre to develop the e-government portal, especially the collection of NZGLS metadata that underpins the portal.

30 The same spirit of collaboration has made the development of the labour market portal (www.worksite.govt.nz) a success. Here, agencies represented in the portal have collaborated with each other to develop the portal, and with the EGU to leverage the infrastructure of the all-of-government portal and avoid the need for duplicated effort and expenditure, resulting in considerable savings. Similar initiatives are in formative stages, and the EGU is now looking for opportunities to facilitate inter-agency collaboration in actual service delivery.

31 Practical lessons about collaboration that have been learned along the way so far include:

• collaboration has little intrinsic value - it is a means to an end and there must be good business reasons for agencies to collaborate;

• collaboration takes considerable time and money, much of which is currently over and above what agencies are actually funded to do;

• collaboration requires trust between the parties if it is to produce durable results; and

• successful collaboration requires close attention being paid to governance arrangements, especially as horizontal operations and/or integration can be in conflict with vertical funding and accountability arrangements.

International comparisons

32 Over the past few years there have been a plethora of international comparative surveys of progress with e-government initiatives around the world. As major vendors seeking to generate government business have commissioned or conducted many of these surveys, the value of the findings is questionable. In order to gain a better understanding of how New Zealanders were using e-government, during the year the EGU participated in an international study from July to October 2002 conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres, an independent global research firm.

33 The findings of this survey showed that New Zealand had the highest level of per capita Internet usage (71%) out of the 31 countries surveyed. However, among Internet users using e-government services, New Zealand was below the global average of 61% (at 55%). The EGU has used these results to inform the current revision of the strategy and future directions.

34 Also, during the year the United Nations produced an international survey that ranks New Zealand as third on a global e-government leadership index. The report, Benchmarking E-government: A Global Perspective, was produced by the United Nation's division for Public Economics and Public Administration, in association with the American Society for Public Administration. It examines the approach, progress, and commitment to e-government on the part of the UN's member nations during 2001. Of these, 169 have some form of national government web presence.

35 New Zealand was ranked third in the report's overall global e-government leadership index, behind the USA and Australia, and ahead of Singapore, Norway, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. The survey method involved:

• examining the nature of a national government's official web presence and rating it against a five level model of e-government maturity. The rating ranged from having an emerging web presence (level 1) to having a seamless online presence (level 5), and

• looking at other measures of how well positioned UN member states were to deliver e-government. These measures include the development of ICT infrastructures, and measures of human capital.

36 The EGU also maintains ongoing relationships with e-government programmes in a number of other jurisdictions including the Australian Federal and State governments and the governments of the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada. In particular, the EGU enjoys a close and productive relationship with the Victorian State Government's e-government programme.

37 New Zealand gains a lot of benefit from these relationships, as there is considerable exchange of information and experiences. For instance, both the New Zealand government Web Guidelines and the e-Government Interoperability Framework are based on models made available by the UK government.

38 The international comparisons show that the New Zealand e-government programme could be characterised as a "smart follower" programme, exhibiting the following characteristics:

• business, not technology, driven;

• not leading the world with high-risk, high-cost, technology initiatives;

• quick to capitalise on the experiences of other governments, to avoid mistakes and capitalise on opportunities;

• good at small scale innovative solutions;

• fiscally prudent;

• focussed on real business gains; and

• driven by New Zealand's own requirements.

Conclusions

39 The e-government programme has maintained its focus on developing the foundations that agencies will use to deliver e-government. The EGU continues to build and manage a network of inter-agency relationships to support achieving the Government's goals, and continues to revise the e-government strategy to ensure it remains timely and relevant.

40 Working with a wide range of agencies, the EGU has implemented a number of projects and is focused on leveraging these across the public sector to provide greater value. Many agencies are working with the EGU to support the new government Internet portal, and many agencies are developing e-government applications to support their service delivery functions. A culture of inter-agency collaboration is emerging in connection with the e-government programme.