The Connected Government Framework for Local and Regional Government

Enabling Business Integration

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Welcome

Local government plays a vitalrole in all our lives. Whether it is the provision of education,housing and recreational facilitiesor caring for the most vulnerablein our society, local governmentprovides many of the foundationson which our communities arebuilt. In an age of increasingexpectations for good customerservice, local governments facechallenges not only in creatingsimple usable solutions forcomplex services, but alsoensuring they reach the whole of the community, not just thosewith online capabilities.

This is the context in which electronic serviceshave to co-exist and compliment traditionalcouncil processes. In addition, as communitiesage over the next few decades localgovernments are likely to be faced with larger,older populations, placing even greaterdemands upon their services.

Meeting the challenge

Against this background of socialtransformation, local governments globally are experiencing reducing levels of resourcesand investment. It’s a seemingly impossibleconundrum. At Microsoft, we believetechnology can help local councils deliverbetter quality and more cost-effective serviceswithin these tight budgetary constraints.

Our strategy is to work in partnership withlocal and regional governments to ensurethat our technology products and partnersolutions meet the immediate and longerterm needs. Our partnering strategy meansthat approximately 96 percent of the valueof projects is delivered by partners, many ofwhom are local, numbering some 200,000across Europe. Our initiative for achieving thisis the Connected Government Framework(CGF) for Local and Regional Government.

Our objective with this framework is to providelocal and regional governments with a clearpicture of where Microsoft technology canallow their organisations to deliver thetransformation needed to support increasingcitizen expectations in a managed, controlledand cost-effective way.

This document is designed to explain theframework in more detail and in particular our strategy for enabling business processintegration through a set of resources known as the E-Government Starter Kit (eGSK). Thisplatform was originally developed in Germanyto support councils integrating numerous backoffice systems. This is now a general solutiondeveloped specifically to support thedeployment of a business integration hub within a local government environment.

Jan MuehlfeitVice PresidentPublic Sector,Microsoft EMEA.

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The Connected Government Framework is a platform which helps local councils sustain communities while operating in a cost-efficient and compliant manner.

...and the platform that makes it happen

The vision for enabling business integration...

Back Office Integration

1 Integrated Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM) systems enable council staff to have one complete view of constituents’ correspondence, paymentsand interactions so that when they contactthe council, staff can provide an informed,personalised service.

2 Microsoft financial and accountingapplications provide integrated, enterprise-wide management of council budgets and finances, reducing paperwork andstreamlining processes.

3 Business process integration is enabled by capturing data only once in the council,and sharing information between manylegacy systems.

Performance Management and Statutory Obligations

4 To meet record-keeping compliancyrequirements, a Microsoft-based ElectronicDocument and Records Management(EDRM) application is integrated across thecouncil creating a standardised process fordocument management by council staff.

5 Microsoft pervasive identity managementincorporating authentication, authorisationand secure communication helps councilscomply with privacy legislation for securestorage of customer records and meet legalrequirements for the processing of onlinefinancial transactions such as rates andlicence payments.

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6 A Microsoft based workflow system enablescase handling to be operated and performedto statutory guidelines enabling staff to focuson performance rather than procedure.

7 Council wide intranet enables projectprogress to be made visible across theorganisation to both the professionalcommunity and the executive managementusing Microsoft® Project Server.

Revenue Collection

8 A Microsoft Dynamics CRM platformenables the council to identify citizensaccurately to prevent fraud and targetintervention appropriately.

9 A Microsoft enabled GeographicInformation System (GIS) enables businessplanning and taxes to be deliveredefficiently and correct assessments tobe completed.

10 A Microsoft integration system allowscitizens to apply for the correct benefitsin a timely manner and help avoid debt.

11 A Microsoft enabled housing managementsystem helps to minimise voids and keepstaff on top of rent collection.

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“Within the public services we have to use technologyto join up and share services rather than duplicatethem. It is a simple fact that we are stronger and moreeffective when we work together than apart.”Tony BlairPrime Minister, United Kingdom

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” With this technology we now have a completelyautomated end-to-endworkflow, without any humanintervention to re-enter datainto the back office. We canhave fewer and faster processes,which gives us a very quickreturn on investment.”

Bernd LehmannIT Manager, Municipality of Siegburg,Germany

To cope with the challenges of legacy systems, many of theearly phases of e-governmentdevelopments focused on re-organising front office servicedelivery, or cosmetic changes thatwould enhance the appeal ofservices and provide informationto citizens. This approach helpedpromote how local governmentwas changing as the needs andexpectations of its citizenschanged, whilst at the same timehighlighting the disconnectednature of much of the processingbetween the front and back officewithin the council environment.

The lack of a cohesive integration strategy hasled to an increased level of disconnectionbetween front office service delivery and backoffice processing. As citizens demand moreflexible services, disconnected systems becomethe main weakness in delivering the visionof a citizen centric, single view into a “onecouncil” organisation.

To resolve these concerns, the IT industry has been focusing on integration technologiesas the key to making sure that systems worktogether properly thus enabling decisions to be better informed. Therefore the councilmust consider integration technologies as astrategic imperative and the costs associatedwith its implementation as a necessary strategicasset and corporate service.

Solving the challenges

We believe that enterprise integration can solvemany of these challenges. In addressing thechallenges of seamless service delivery tocitizens, enterprises need to develop a clearfunctional requirement charter to evaluateintegration technologies. This charter would

encompass requirements that the technologywould enable, such as:

• Developing fully transactional e-enabledcitizen services to improve the efficiencyof the council

• Supporting electronic transactions, throughmultiple citizen access channels, to improvethe accessibility of services to citizens

• Consolidating citizen information into onesystem, improving accuracy and the qualityof service to citizens

• Improving the cost of operations by linking back office systems and new frontoffice systems, removing duplication ofeffort, improving overall time and servicedelivery efficiency

• Helping break down departmental barrierswithin local councils by linking many oftheir disconnected systems

• Reducing the ongoing and future costs of developing citizen-centric services bystandardising the processing and technologyaround a common, open standards basedsolution environment

• Ensuring that the council as a whole issupporting not only its departmental butalso its corporate objectives through theuse of common systems and approaches.

Technology utilisation: pivotal role

Microsoft believes that business integrationtechnologies play a pivotal role in releasingmany of the benefits of e-government andprocess automation to citizens and all parts of the council.

The concept of an integration hub thatmanages processes is central to succeeding in fully integrating service delivery andconsistently delivering excellent and cost-effective services.

Integration software is designed to cost-effectively solve complex business problemswhilst reducing the ever present risks ofimplementation. These can be solved by:

Real World Problems

Challenges

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• Basing your strategy around a marketleading integration environment that offersa strong development roadmap

• Focusing the programme around departmentsthat are facing immediate issues which aredirectly impacting citizen services (quick wins)

• Ensuring that integration is treated as a corporate service and that all futureprocurements adhere to the open standardssupported by your integration software

• Ensuring that the council’s political leadersand senior officers have committed to theprocess and can articulate the benefits totheir own colleagues and staff

• Aligning internal efficiency measures andcost-saving initiatives to the use of thecorporate integration environment

• Ensuring that the business and IT teamsresponsible for the integration projectshave the correct internal support andexternal supplier support to deliversuccessful integrated solutions

• Measuring the benefits post deployment and realise any savings from thedepartments that were agreed as part ofthe business engagement.

Microsoft Connected Government Framework

To address the specific needs of localgovernment, Microsoft developed its CGF to provide, as one of the key enablers, anintegration environment that will help councilsdevelop end-to-end transactional capabilitiesand break the traditional information siloswithin an organisation. The CGF provides theinteroperability blueprint between new andlegacy systems and does this in a way which isultimately completely transparent to employeesand citizens. CGF supports the development ofnew ways of working, ensuring the value investedin current legacy applications is realised by the business and that the value to deliver tocitizens through seamless service delivery canbe focused around the customer, rather thanservice providers.

By treating business integrationas a core building block of amodern, flexible e-governmenttechnology environment, councilscan deliver against the primarychallenges of, improving thequality of service to citizens (andother stakeholders includingbusinesses), working moreeffectively across organisationalboundaries, creating bettertargeted and timely delivery ofservices to citizens, and reducingtotal cost of operations.

“My businessprocesses do not

deliver my customerneeds.”

“We do nothave standard processes

and forms across thebusiness.”

“We haveunreliable systems.”

“All the duplicationcosts us dearly.”

“Our internal systemsare too complex.”

“My business is notcitizen focused.”

“We don’t realiseall the value of ourcorporate systems.”

“We work insilo’s, not as one

organisation.”

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” Microsoft BizTalk® Server takes the basic information and presents it to the relevantdepartment or person. Then theycan make one report and it willgo to the right authority withimmediate feedback.”

Adrian LynchProject Manager, Suffolk Accessible Government Partnership,United Kingdom

In this section we will focus onhow technology, and specificallyMicrosoft software, can support thedelivery of business integrationwithin local councils. Traditionallyprocessing within the front officeor by line managers wascompleted using paper forms orsimple data capture systems. Thisinformation was then duplicatedinto various back officedepartmental systems to initiate workflow activities and to keep records of customerinteraction. The process was notonly time consuming, but alsoprone to error and even fraud in certain circumstances.

Partner Solution: E-Government Starter Kit

Microsoft leverages a worldwide partnerecosystem of over 750,000 partners to maximisethe utilisation capabilities of the Microsoftplatform. The eGSK has been developed to easethe passage of deploying, supporting andmaintaining business processes through acorporate integration hub. Based on standardoff-the shelf Microsoft software, the eGSK has been created solely for the purpose of joining up the disparate services deliveredby local government.

The eGSK embraces many of the standards and procedures that are specific to localgovernment. Based on open standards itfeatures a set of Web service interfaces,utilising XML, that have been developedspecifically by local government customers.Web services remove significant hurdles inthe deployment of the business integrationhub, namely the interoperability betweenbusiness systems. As a result, councils are free

to focus on the culture change programmeneeded to support the development of newcitizen-focused service delivery rather than thecomplex back-end IT processes enabling them.

Transparent to the citizen

Using an integration software solution helpscouncils to build and maintain a single view ofcustomer data and provides for integrated, frontto back processes. This vision is vital if serviceswithin the council are to be truly connected,accurate and up to date. Microsoft’s seamlessservice delivery vision has given birth to provenintegration software capabilities on which marketleading solutions have been built allowing manycouncils to enable transparent processes forcitizens. This transparency is more than thesimple veneer of a slick, well designed portalinterface masking the traditional departmentalsilos. Complex processes that span departmentaland often organisational boundaries can nowbe easily coupled together and automated inefficient and citizen-focused ways.

Improved operational efficiency

Operational efficiency can be greatly improvedby enabling field workers to capture data onlyonce rather than wasting effort in duplication.The council also benefits from reduced data entryand fewer errors, leading to greater operationalefficiency, and improved business performance.

Integrating back and front office

As councils have matured their customer serviceand engagement strategies, the capabilities of technology systems to support the frontoffice processes have increased dramatically.For example, in its release of Microsoft Office2003, Microsoft natively supports XML, and isfully compliant with the W3C open standardspecification. In its next generation of theMicrosoft Office product, Microsoft announcedthe default file format of main office applicationsas being XML. This technology advancementwill offer significant improvements in the waythat citizens and businesses are supported bycouncils, by helping facilitate the integration of front-end citizen data input with back-enddata processing.

Making it Work

Putting it into Practise

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Reduce development time

With solutions such as the eGSK, councils areable to dramatically reduce the developmentand implementation time of seamless servicedelivery, offering them a clear path torealising the benefits of integration withoutbecoming embroiled in the deep technicalcomplexities of joining multiple systemstogether. eGSK provides, for example, anabstraction layer for developers, allowing themto focus on the type and kind of processesthey need to develop, in order to deliverexcellent customer services and meet agreedservice assurance standards.

The eGSK comes as standard with severalinterfaces or adaptors for common localgovernment business processes (such as faultreporting, citizen registrations, licences andpermits and citizen/business/property indexes).

These interfaces can easily be re-used todeploy rapidly these services within a council.In addition, due to the modular nature of thesolution, they can be re-used and extendedfor use across a much broader and morecomplex set of processes, saving the counciltime and money and helping it to meetgovernment performance standards.

“ As a consequence of theautomated workflowenvironment, the parliament has achieved a 60 percentreduction in the time spentsearching for documents andtracing accounts in theprocesses implemented so far.”

Jorge Remuiñán Suárez,Head of Unit Information Technology, The Galician Parliament,Spain

Integration – Practise

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Specific Customer Experiences

Real World Examples

“A lot of councils have the same tasks to do,and we all need to build an interface betweenour front and back offices. The Starter kit is a great platform to integrate these commonkinds of services and applications. More andmore local councils are using it because theysee its potential for simplifying processes.”Bernd Lehmann,IT Manager at Municipality of the City of Sieburg

Business issue

A multitude of back office systems andapplications, that needed to connect to thefront office to enable e-government andfully automated workflows to improveservice delivery to citizens.

Solution

The eGSK has been developed jointly byMicrosoft and its partners specifically forpublic administrations that need to implementelectronic inter-departmental services toimprove the efficiency of workflows.

Benefits

• Shared costs and experience of approximately€31,000 to €94,832 annually

• Integrates front and back offices

• 24/7 service delivery

• Eliminates data re-entry

• Leverages existing technology.

City of Siegburg, Germany

“Thanks to BizTalk, we have better controlover our day-to-day business. For example, wecan trace the activity of the counter personneland manage more effectively any exceptionsthat arise while processing customer requests.”Giovanni Burzomato,Technical Manager For Business Partner Projects ofThe Territorial Network Division, Poste Italiene SPA

Business issue

Driven in part by e-government initiatives tointroduce innovative solutions for citizens andpublic administration, the Poste Italiene GroupSpA realised it needed to focus attentionon customer service and the expansion ofits business network to generate newrevenue streams.

Solution

With the help of Microsoft Consulting Servicesand Microsoft strategic partner Avanade,Poste Italiene SpA has developed andimplemented a standardised infrastructure forbusiness partner integration to maximize theadvantage of its existing infrastructure byusing it as the foundation of a standard capableof supporting wider collaboration with theirbusiness partners, both internal and external.

Benefits

• Standardise infrastructure for businesspartner integration

• Fast time to market for new service initiatives

• Reduced development costs for new service solutions

• Improved commercial agility.

Poste Italiene SpA, Italy

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“One of the major issues for us was finding a supplier who fully understands the issuesinvolved in matching people data and whowas aware of the business challenges facinglocal councils,”Tony Ellis,Head of e-government and Client Index Project Managerof the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham

Business issue

A project which was started in 2001 to matchand link social service client data withNational Health Services data had its scopeexpanded so that the council had thecapability to match and link together itscore customer databases. A key driver forthe project was the Data Protectionrequirement to store accurate and up todate information.

Solution

VisionWare plc has developed MultiVue™, an integrated solution for public sectorcustomers that allows them to provide joined-up services to the citizen. MultiVuewas used to underpin the corporate ClientIndex, the Council’s definitive customerdatabase. This enables a unified view ofcustomers with information collated from anumber of individual back-end systems, whichsupports improved levels of customer servicebased on quick access to more accurate andcomplete information.

Benefits

• Same person record accessible by all departments

• Improved accuracy of information

• Eliminated the duplication of effort

• Supports national initiatives

• Protects existing investments in IT

• Provides adherence to government standards.

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, UK

“The regional e-government pilot portal in the district of Stara Zagora opens andleverages the interaction between publiccouncils, citizens, and business.”Maria Neykova,Governor of the District of Stara Zagora, Republic of Bulgaria

Business issue

The residents of Stara Zagora need everydayadministrative services that are timely, fast,and accessible. In addition, the EuropeanUnion required Bulgaria to have ane-government system with 20 online services in place by the end of 2005.

Solution

The public administration in the District ofStara Zagora worked with CAD Research andDevelopment Center “Progress” to build ane-government portal based on Microsofttechnologies to provide e-governmentservices for the region. The first active servicesof the portal enable businesses and citizens inthe region to receive copies of documents,and submit online complaints, warnings,applications, and suggestions.

Benefits

• Transparent quality services

• Improved productivity

• Time and money savings

• Civil control over councils.

District of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

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The eGSK is an integration solutionbuilt to maximise the power andflexibility of Microsoft software.The Accelerator comes with areference implementation thatdemonstrates two local governmentservices working together, out ofthe box. The solution provides acustomisable framework which canbe used by independent softwarevendors, systems integrators, anddevelopers as a starting point whensolving similar business problemsfor local councils.

Solution components

• Front-End Layer – exposes LocalGovernment services to the public through a Web User Interface

• Integration Layer – utilises Web services andMicrosoft BizTalk Server to process requestscoming from the front-end and route them to a combination of back office systems

• Public Services Layer – this comprises theback office and corporate systems andensures deep integration can take placebetween the front and back office systems.

Solution Summary

Key customer benefits:

• Realise cost savings through the automationof council processes

• Enable consistency in the delivery of e-enabled services to citizens

• Provide a single, transparent mechanism for joining up service delivery

• Improved customer satisfaction through high quality, accurate provision ofinformation and electronic services.

Microsoft software

The Accelerator is based on the followingenterprise Microsoft Server Software:

• Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003

• Microsoft Windows SharePoint® Services

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000

• Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004

• Microsoft Business Solutions

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These applicationsenable CRM and financial controls to be built into the solution.

Business

Governments

Application

Application

Application

Application

GovernmentEmployee

Citizen

InternetInternet

EGSKFront-End

EGSKBack-End

Business

Governments

Application

Application

Application

Application

GovernmentEmployee

Citizen

InternetInternet

EGSKFront-End

EGSKBack-End

Integration – Solution

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Partner Solution MarketPlace (PSMP) aims to help public sector buyers to identify and getin touch with qualified software developersand solution providers. Simultaneously, it alsoprovides a showcase for independent softwarevendors (ISVs) and system integrators (SIs) topresent proven and bespoke solutions targetedtowards the public sector IT decision makers.All of which is designed to help reach goalsfaster and maximise return on IT investment.

The following list of partners have contributed tothe framework by building around the Microsoftplatform described in the document or providekey solutions for local and regional government:

1eEurope www.1eeurope.ch

Aggresso www.agresso.com

Artemis www.artemiscorp.com

Econet www.econet.de

ESRI www.esri.com

Gasso Gestio Local www.gassogl.com

Getronics www.getronics.com

GoPro www.gopro.net

Hewlett Packard www.hp.com

K2 www.k2workflow.com

Logica CMG www.logicacmg.com

Meridio www.meridio.com

Optevia www.optevia.com

PC Ware www.pc-ware.com

Solidsoft www.solidsoft.com

Visionware www.visionwareplc.com

Our PartnersThe Microsoft Public SectorPartner Solutions MarketPlace(PSMP) is a one-stop, online,interactive tool to assist publicsector buyers to identify the right solutions for their needs. The MarketPlace is an ambitiouseffort to create an ecosystem oftechnology providers – systemintegrators (SIs), independentsoftware vendors (ISVs), and consulting and training firms that understand the needs of governments andgovernmental agencies.

www.partnermarketplace.com

World Class Solutions for the Public Sector

Partner Solution MarketPlace

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For further information visit the Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa Web site:www.microsoft.com/emea/government

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, the Microsoft logo, Your Potential. Our Passion., SharePoint, BizTalk and Windows Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the UnitedStates and/or other countries. All other trademarks are held by their respective companies.

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