A Service Delivery Architecture

E-government, with its citizen-centric focus and the focus on technology-enabled business transformation, provides the opportunity to improve government service delivery. An architecture, already part of the e-government strategy, allows us to plan and manage the change effectively. Experience has shown, however, that the existing architecture in the e-government strategy needs more detail to make it more usable.

Also, if we are to retain the benefits of agency focus and management efficiency gained from the decentralisation of public management, while pursuing more collaborative, outcome-oriented delivery of results, then we need to have an approach to government service delivery that allows an all-of-government view. The architecture incorporates the strengths of both centralised and decentralised approaches to public management but which relies largely on local, not centralised, implementation. It recognises the business focus achieved by giving chief executives and boards discretion over the way they use information and technology, and reflects the advantages of using common assets, processes, and standards to achieve results.

It allows an all-of-government view of how information and technology and common standards can best enable this. The best way to achieve this is through evolving the current architecture to what is best described as a "service delivery architecture", reflecting its essential purpose from a public perspective. It shows how agencies should aim to make best use of the surrounding e-government information, technology and standards environment in building their future information systems and service delivery processes.

An architecture provides a strategic level view of the components we need for a business system/process to operate, and what is expected of the components - their role, how each operates and how they work together. The purpose of an architecture can be summarised as:

• a description of how service delivery can be achieved more consistently across agencies - planning, managing, implementing and managing change to the environment; and

• a mechanism for communications among stakeholders, by encouraging common understanding of business challenges and available technology enablers.

According to Gartner (2001), over the next two years "70 percent of governments that do not develop an e-government architecture will duplicate efforts and infrastructure, and will fail to meet constituent expectations for service delivery, resulting in complaints and wasted public funds". [ Kreizman, G and E. Fraga, E-Government Architecture: Development and Governance (TG-14-6799) October 2001]

This warning points to the two main functions of an all-of-government service delivery architecture. First, it enables better decisions to be made about investment in information, technology and business processes, based on the simple logic of "build once, use many times" (note: only where this makes strategic sense). Second, it enables agencies to do a better job of delivering services in ways that are proven to be successful, and therefore suitable for leveraging to best effect (e.g. taking a best practice approach to online delivery of licences, or delivery of secure e-correspondence). An architecture is therefore an important component for business operations: its role in enabling business operations, flexibility and growth needs to be fully appreciated. [ For two credible sources see M. Broadbent and P. Weill, Leveraging the new infrastructure: how market leaders capitalise on information technology (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998; and Gartner Group]

This architecture will allow weaknesses of the decentralised approach (e.g. unnecessary duplication of investment and effort, and incompatible systems and processes) to be avoided, without needing to take the risks associated with over-centralisation (e.g. creating single points of failure, constraining innovation, and driving inappropriate levels of standardisation). It brings perspectives of the centre and agencies into balance.

The architecture takes account of, and co-exists with, agency business, and business system operating environments. This virtually guarantees a distributed environment which can build on the benefits of the situation as it currently exists, while introducing mechanisms to allow and encourage cooperation and better delivery of more user-focussed services

The architecture is not:

• a plan for a hard-wired common infrastructure - either at a business process or ICT level;

• a set of standards - it does not replace the e-GIF, but rather it will embody it; or

• a quick fix to existing problems.