4. About interoperability

4.1. About this section

This section describes what interoperability means and why it is relevant to the delivery of the Government's vision for e-government.

4.2. What is interoperability?

Interoperability means:

"The ability of government organisations to share information and integrate information and business processes by use of common standards."

New Zealand E-government Strategy, Dec 2001

In the e-government context, interoperability relates specifically to the electronic systems that support business processes

• between agencies and
• between government and people and business.

This does not mean that a central agency is simply dictating common systems and processes. Interoperability can be achieved by the application of a framework of policies, standards and guidelines, that leave decisions about specific hardware and software solutions open for individual agencies or clusters of agencies to resolve.

This document sets out the framework.

4.3. Why interoperate?

4.3.1. Improving the public face of government

People access government services largely out of need rather than choice. Their needs are seldom confined to the business of a single agency. Rather, people typically have to deal with several agencies to achieve their goals or meet their obligations.

One of the aims of the e-government programme is to make it easier for people to deal with multiple agencies by making good use of information and communications technologies (ICT). By making ICT systems and the processes they support interoperate, people will find it easier to do business with government as a whole. This does not mean that everyone has to be online to get the benefits of interoperability. If agency ICT is interoperating effectively, people dealing with public servants face-to-face or on the phone will get better service.

4.3.2. Improving agency use of ICT

The adoption of common technical standards for ICT mean that agencies can focus more on the business outcomes the systems are designed to support, than what may be technical choices that have little impact on service delivery.

Common technical standards also mean that the collection of ICT systems across government is of more value as a whole than the sum of its parts. Disparate systems that cannot work together are only of value in and of themselves.

The adoption of common technical standards also means that, across government, knowledge of these technologies will be concentrated rather than spread more thinly across numerous alternative and often proprietary technologies.

4.3.3. Operating in a global environment

The Internet, and the value that it can deliver to government and people, relies on an agreed standards-based approach. By using the same standards-based approach agencies in a small way support the infrastructure of technologies that they increasingly rely on to deliver services and conduct the business of government.

The adoption of common standards also helps governments in various jurisdictions to interoperate. This becomes important when dealing with matters that can only be handled in a regional and global way.