Using e-government components

Certain principles underlie how the components are delivered to agencies, notably:

• The EGU acquires the components and ensures they are compatible with the appropriate standards, but agencies have the autonomy to decide how, where and if they will use them;

• The components are freely available as a matter of right to the core public sector agencies. For entities falling outside this strict description, the components are normally available; however there may be additional licensing or other commercial arrangements that are required to ensure the Government meets all its obligations to external third parties that provide software and other componentry;

• While the components are freely available, they are not free. All services are charged on an incremental cost recovery basis; that is, agencies are responsible for the marginal costs associated with their use of various systems, over and above the base configuration funded by the EGU;

• While costs are recovered, it's important to note that the EGU is not a profit centre, nor are any indirect costs associated with running core EGU infrastructure or systems recovered;

• A Memorandum of Understanding will generally govern the relationship between agencies and the EGU. The intention is to articulate the rights and obligations of both parties in a manner that is clear, easily understood, and has been agreed by all concerned;

• The EGU holds master agreements for software licenses, system hosting, bandwidth and the like. Agencies are free to leverage these existing commercial relationships, both within the context of the component architecture and for other external purposes, although they are under no obligation to do so. EGU can provide guidance as to how an intended usage can be managed within the existing contracts;

• The EGU is willing to assist all agencies with developing and deploying their e-government strategies. However the EGU will not normally take on a project management role unless specifically requested by the agency.

So having established the basic principles, how does an agency go about using some of the components?

The first step is for the agency to define its business requirements and see which of the components will be most useful for the project they have in mind. They can then contact the EGU to get more information on the required systems and some estimates of the incremental costs of usage, and having decided to proceed, can enter into negotiations on the MOU that will govern rights, responsibilities and cost-sharing. Once the commercial arrangements are agreed, both the agency and the EGU can begin activating the systems in accordance with the agency's project plan.

To assist with the early-stage information gathering and assessment phase, the EGU is developing fact sheets on both the core and value-added components and usage fees, designed to allow CIOs, technical managers and business unit managers to gain an overview of how the various systems can be used to bring projects to completion better, faster and cheaper. These fact sheets will progressively be available during Q1 and Q2 2003. For information in the meantime, agencies are encouraged to contact the EGU directly.