From governance to service delivery: the challenges facing government

Metrofile`s Paul Mullon and Bob Eedes jointly chaired the recent e-government conference held in Pretoria. In their opening addresses, they addressed some of the challenges facing government.

As we review the year behind us and face the immediate challenges, one thing that is immediately apparent is that the issues confronting private business and government are often the same. The changes in technology that have enabled many e-government initiatives, the opportunities and pitfalls posed by new legislation, the increased focus on security and corporate governance, and a continuing and increasing awareness of the need to control costs, all need to be balanced against the requirement to maximise the value to be extracted from existing and proposed new systems.

At the same time, government continually has to balance the need for improved productivity, while maintaining its societal position as one of the country`s largest employers. Some big challenges indeed, but some of the immediate priorities are:

* The requirement firstly to understand and then comply with corporate governance is a pressing issue. E-governance has a nice ring to it, but we must continually remember that the e-word doesn`t mean an instant change from old systems to this new electronic world. This is an ongoing exercise whereby systems need to be evaluated, new architectures designed, processes modelled, infrastructure built and staff trained. During this building phase, one of the challenges will be to adhere to governance requirements, knowing that information may be resident in a combination of legacy and new systems.

Adherence to e-governance translates directly to availability of and access to all requisite information, regardless of where that information may reside within the various departments. Further to this, e-governance means ensuring that as new methods of conducting business are adopted, so back-end processes must be implemented to secure and protect that information for the period required by legislation.

* Subsequent to this, access to information will increasingly become a focus area, not only to be compliant, but also to service an increasingly computer-literate customer base. As government, business, and private individuals become more literate and computer-enabled, so the need for client self-service will increase. A challenge here will be to balance the demands of a few very literate, very demanding customers, with a majority who will probably never move to the electronic world. This may mean duplicate systems, with information stored in different forms - paper reports and invoices for many, electronic bill presentment and payment for some. As we are all aware, the paperless office is still a long way off, and e-government doesn`t mean e-paperless - yet!

Before we get to that stage, there will need to be a significant mindset change among employees and customers, most of whom are still comfortable working the old way. It will be key to remember that implementing new systems is 10% about technology - the rest is ensuring that the people who will use the technology are adequately trained and comfortable with moving to the new systems. There are many stories about technology implementations which failed purely because the people were resistant to change.

Technology change requires organisational change - new processes require buy-in from staff and other stakeholders. We`ve all seen and heard about the technology, we know it exists - now we need to extract the real benefit that it promises, and this cannot happen unless true change management processes are implemented.

* The word balance seems to crop up often when looking into the immediate future. One of the delicate juggling acts facing us over the next few years will be to satisfy political agendas and social needs, at the same time as moving into a more technological world. In many instances, technology implementations lead to more efficient processes, more automation, and possibly the need for fewer staff. Government`s responsibility to its political partners and constituency must by default have implications for the wellbeing of society at large, and the continuing employment of people in the country. Some trade-offs will need to be made, and the process needs to be carefully managed to ensure that introduction of technology doesn`t lead to reduced employment rates. As the country`s largest employer, government has a responsibility for the wellbeing of its employees which can`t be ignored as new technology is introduced.

* There will also be a constant juggling between the need to make information available in order to meet transparency requirements of corporate governance, versus the security required to prevent unauthorised access to information. Two recent events highlight this dilemma:

* In the private sector we saw one of the largest banks hit by hackers who gained access to individual banking accounts and withdrew money online. Sad indictment that it is, we must not lose sight of the fact that the more information that is made available electronically, the greater the temptation for some to test their hacking skills and defraud the state of potentially significant amounts. While openness is an admirable trait, we have a responsibility to protect our information, one of the state`s greatest assets, with rigorous attention to detail, to ensure that only those with the requisite authority can gain access.

- The second event which highlights the challenges to be faced in protecting information was well publicised last month when it was revealed that Parliament destroyed documents which were crucial to a high-profile investigation. There is an increasing international trend to ensure the protection of critical information, and in SA we too are seeing evidence of this trend. Our challenge will be to manage the ever-increasing volumes of information which will take on different formats as we move to a more electronic world. Paper, microfilm, voice, video, graphics, electronic documents, e-mail, and instant messages will all need to be stored in ways that can be easily retrieved, so as to satisfy legislation and customer demands.

All of this is taking place in a world where IT has suffered many setbacks in the last few years. From the heady successes of the previous decades, where IT was the darling of the international stock markets, to the dot-bomb crash and the resultant demise of previously strong players, we`ve had a wake-up call, and in retrospect, it`s been a long time coming. The days of IT professionals buying unnecessary technology to satisfy some primitive urge for superiority are over.

If we are serious about e-government, then the focus must be on delivery of real, tangible value and return on technology spend. Project proposals must be evaluated on strict criteria, and rejected if there is a risk of not being able to deliver. At the conclusion of projects, the actual deliverables must be measured against these metrics, and implementation teams held accountable for shortfalls.

The responsibility to spend taxpayers` money wisely needs to be a heavy burden on those willing to take on the e-government task. The focus on citizen-centred government imposes new disciplines on our public servants. Not only will we need to learn new technology, but there will need to be an increasing emphasis on customer service. The principles contained in Batho Pele need to be driven hard and taken to heart by all public servants. Openness and transparency, service standards, access, information availability, and delivering best value need to become mantras that permeate through each and every department.

To deliver these principles will require systems which can present information immediately, and new technology and processes to ensure complete and timeous responses to citizen requests. Citizen centricity requires the ability for systems to present a "single view of citizen", regardless of which department holds the information. We`re a long way off, but we`ve started the journey.

Challenges indeed, but the government must be commended on the steps already taken as far as legislation is concerned, and the e-government initiative is further evidence of this commitment. As South African businesses, we look forward to building a stronger economy in conjunction with our partners in government.