Part 5—Challenges ahead

When the E-government Strategy was revised in December 2001, five major challenges were seen to lie ahead. Deeper understanding of e-government has seen this list of challenges grow considerably in the past twelve months.

Building trust in government - authentication, privacy and security

New Zealanders must be able to trust government. For e-government, this means, for example, that they require confidence that their personal privacy is not threatened. Agencies require confidence that they are delivering information and services to the right person. That information must also be secure from a wide variety of threats.

This is a major issue. Survey results show that many New Zealanders are yet to be widely convinced that using the Internet to deliver government information and services can be trusted.

Developing trust in e-government requires ongoing effort in a variety of areas. Providing the underpinnings of all these efforts are the ethics, values and standards expected of government organisations. In developing e-government, agencies should ensure that these things are reflected in the services that they offer, and the way that they behave and relate to the public. A good example of how this can be achieved is provided by the revised Web Guidelines, which are now organised around core principles of equity, integrity, trust, and economy.

Regarding privacy, New Zealand is fortunate to have a robust privacy environment that provides effective checks against misuse of personal information.

Augmenting this, during 2002/03, much work has gone into development of a policy framework for online authentication. In 2003/04 the focus will be on detailed design of the preferred option for implementing this framework.

In the area of security, during 2002 more agencies have become part of the Secure Electronic Environment (S.E.E.) initiative, which is addressing some of the security challenges that e-government is faced with. Also, the Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection came into operation, and 'Security in the Government Sector', which details the Government's protective security policies, principles, and procedures, was updated.

Despite this, these challenges are ever present, and demand constant attention from agencies if New Zealanders' trust in e-government, and government more broadly, is to increase.

Governance

E-government is a new way of doing business for government. As agencies become more interconnected there will be challenges for public sector governance. In particular, there is a need for decision-making processes that support integrated back office and service delivery strategies and business processes.

During 2002/03, the E-government Unit identified three dimensions of this challenge:

• governance of shared inputs (i.e. joint use of information and technology);

• governance of shared outputs (i.e. integrated service delivery); and

• governance across levels of government (i.e. central and local government working together to deliver information and services).

So far, progress has been made on addressing the first of these. The E-government Unit developed a methodology for allocating decision-rights over shared inputs and has discussed it with agencies. This will be refined and published in 2003/04.

During 2003, work on the shared outputs question will be progressed in two ways. First, it will be explored as part of the service delivery project. Second, work on managing for outcomes will look at questions of governance and accountability in a more integrated outcome-oriented public sector. The Unit will contribute to this work.

Funding

In 2002, the question of how much funding e-government activities require, and how this requirement should best be met, was identified as a major challenge. Work on this question with the Treasury reached the following conclusions:

• it is hard to separate e-government funding from normal departmental expenditure on information and communications technologies;

• e-government funding should not be treated separately from other funding requirements. It should be addressed as part of normal budget processes;

• Government should be prepared to invest in a "portfolio" of e-government initiatives that may have some initiatives with negative fiscal benefits, but positive social or economic benefits. Overall, the portfolio should have positive net benefits; and

• the quantum of e-government funding required in future is currently unknown. A more accurate picture should be revealed through the 2003/04 Budget process.

It was determined that, at this stage, no special funding arrangements for e-government are justified. During 2003/04, the E-government Unit will continue to look at this matter with the Treasury and to work, on request, with agencies preparing business cases for e-initiatives.

Data quality and information management

The nature and quality of the data held by government agencies in their individual business systems presents a major challenge as the e-government programme moves beyond the initial information access phase.

Realising the full potential of e-government will require the progressive introduction of new ways for clients to interact with government electronically, independent of time or place. Consistent with the principles of the Privacy Act 1993, this implies the ability to seamlessly and securely exchange or share data between business systems, both within and across agencies. The delivery of integrated government services will be especially constrained by data problems as agencies confront issues of variable quality and consistency of data.

The data integration work already undertaken in projects such as the Student Loans project (a joint initiative involving Statistics New Zealand, Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Education and the Treasury) highlights the fact that the way agencies collect and manage even common information varies greatly. For example an agency may record a person's name as 'Jane Citizen' in one business system, while in another of their systems the same person may be recorded as "Citizen, Jane', and in yet another as "Citizen, J". The problem increases when data held in multiple agencies' systems are compared.

These data management challenges are compounded by the fact that the same information is not just structured differently in different systems and agencies, but is also stored and managed on disparate software and hardware platforms. Many of these were developed at a time when there was no perceived need to consider the wider collective information management interests of government, or to adopt a more focused approach to clients.

This was inevitable given the stage of computing at the time, the degree of autonomy each agency had in developing its information systems and associated technology investments, and the lack of any unifying whole of government frameworks for service delivery and information management. This diversity of approach to the management of information is now a major obstacle in the way of business process and/or service integration efforts.

Such challenges are not unique to New Zealand. Most developed nations want to take advantage of the opportunities to develop the more adaptive and client-focused government services now possible. More broadly, many businesses in many industries are confronting the same sorts of barriers to progress that are now before the e-government programme.

An important step toward dealing with some of the more technology specific aspects of these challenges has been taken through creation of the E-government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). This framework takes advantage of international work on interoperability through codifying and promulgating various technical standards. Across time, coupled with development of the service delivery architecture and the NZGLS Metadata Standard, this framework will need to evolve to address all of the barriers to cost-effective service integration and delivery created by the disparity of agencies' data quality, information management, and technology environments. Two examples here are the inclusion in the e-GIF of:

• Extensible Name and Address Language [xNAL] as the stipulated means for exchanging name and address data between disparate agency systems; and

• the NZGLS metadata standard as the approach to creating discovery level metadata across government.

On their own, however, the e-GIF and the architecture will not be enough. To make any significant progress, agencies will have to align with the framework, help improve it where it does not meet requirements, and invest in improving their own data, information, and technology management practices to comply with it. A good example of how this challenge will be addressed is the development, under the leadership of Land Information New Zealand, of the Emergency Services and Government Administration (ESA) data standards project. The ESA data standards will be included in the e-GIF.

The digital divide

The full benefits of e-government will come when as many New Zealanders as possible have access to the Internet, and the attitudes and skills to make effective use of it. Even though Internet use in New Zealand compares well internationally and the Government is taking steps to address the issue, the digital divide remains a challenge.

Agencies must ensure that online services can be used by the people they are aimed at, providing alternative service delivery channels for those who currently cannot use the Internet.

Bandwidth & accessibility

The lack of nationwide broadband connectivity, and the problems that many rural people have in accessing information on the Internet, is a major challenge. The project PROBE broadband initiative and the government Web Guidelines are addressing this problem.

The Guidelines aim to make government websites accessible to people with disabilities, and ensure that people with low grade Internet access can use them. During 2003, it is expected that the Government will make use of the Guidelines mandatory across the Public Service.

In the longer run, however, advanced online service delivery and new ways for people to participate in government processes depend on the widespread availability of broadband Internet access.

Participation

One of the aims of the e-government programme, since its inception, is to improve people's ability to participate in government. There are many facets to participation, ranging from being involved in the design and delivery of services, to consultation on policy, and voting in elections. Participation in the online world poses a number of challenges, ranging from ensuring equity of opportunity through to establishing that people are who they say they are and, therefore, that their contributions are valid.

With the early focus of e-government programme on foundation building, there is more work to be done in the area of participation. The authentication project is addressing the question of how you identify people online, and the shared workspace has looked at aspects of participation. There has also been work on the relationship between government and communities, much of which will inform future efforts around e-participation.

E-government for business

Even though the e-government strategy has focused on the benefits for people, it is clear that e-government can deliver just as much to business, especially the possibility of lower compliance costs. The EGU will work with the business-focused agencies to ensure e-government initiatives are coordinated to deliver the maximum benefits for the business community.

Seizing emerging opportunities

Agency e-government initiatives are beginning to emerge with the potential for benefits to wider groups of agencies and their customers. A major challenge over the next 12 months will be to identify these opportunities and respond to them.

Do we need a 'channel strategy'?

The Internet is one of several channels used by government to deliver services. With agencies using the Internet alongside a mix of other channels such as counter services, the mail, call centres, and third party service providers, the question arises: should there be an overarching strategy for e-government's role in supporting these channels to make the best use of them?

The E-government Unit will be looking at this during the next twelve months.

Measuring the uptake and effectiveness of e-government

By mid-2004, Ministers expect to know how well the e-government programme is succeeding. During 2003/04, the E-government Unit will work to determine:

• how much progress agencies have made in creating and delivering e-government; and

• how useful e-government is to people and business.

The E-government Unit will continue to collect information from agencies via the e-awareness project, and will be developing an evaluation framework to assess e-government's value for people and business. This will involve asking people and businesses what does and doesn't work for them.

Building capability in agencies

E-government demands that agencies develop new capabilities. For example, agencies will have to:

• learn how to make best use of the Internet to reach their customers;

• integrate e-government into their overall strategic planning;

• adapt themselves to an environment in which more information and technology is shared, or subject to all-of-government policies and standards; and

• find ways of collaborating with other agencies in potentially complex webs of integrated service delivery.

This challenge rests mostly with agencies as they develop specific capability to meet their needs. The centre will need to support agencies in this.