E-Government and Cooperation Operations development with IT support in local authorities and county councils
Contents
Summary _________________________________________1 Introduction ______________________________________3 Background, purpose and method _________________4 Results from hearings and seminars _______________5 24-hour public administration __________________ 10 Driving forces for e-Government __________________12 Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions’ recommendations for national initiatives________________________________15
This is the e-Government project In the future fewer and fewer people will be required to provide increased service to ever-larger numbers of people – using limited resources. Goods and services are to be accessible regardless of time and location. Service and efficiency must be improved, which basically means transforming the structure of the public sector to secure welfare. This demands a great deal of leadership, business development, cooperation and effective IT support. To achieve the goals, we need to: • Develop internal processes • Boost cooperation within the public sector • Improve and extend contact with citizens and companies • Develop structures for democracy and local self-government The work must encompass all areas of activity and take place in harmony with development on both a national level and within the EU. The e-Government project within the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions works actively to integrate eGovernment issues into the regular business development, processes and governing models of its members. We do this by:
© The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions 2005 ISBN 91-7164-090-8 text: Bengt Svenson, Department of growth and social structure, telephone: +46 (0)8-452 74 30, e-mail: bengt.svenson@skl.se design: Ordförrådet, Stockholm illustration: Maimi Parik printing: åtta.45, Solna
• Acting as coordinator for representing interests, influencing public opinion, and carrying out activities relating to IT-supported business development • Supporting and facilitating members' strategy work, cooperation and knowledge sharing
Summary
Ilmar Reepalu, chairman of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities, and Lars Isaksson, chairman of the Federation of Swedish County Councils, met ministers Gunnar Lund and Lars-Erik Lövdén in January 2004. They agreed that the central government, local authorities and county councils should cooperate to develop a cohesive e-Government strategy in an effort to increase accessibility and transparency in the public sector. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and the Federation of Swedish County Councils decided to survey local authority initiatives promoting operations development, efficiency measures and cooperation with IT support in order to reveal obstacles and recommend actions to accelerate these developments. They gathered information at hearings and seminars with elected representatives and civil servants in thirty local authorities and six county councils. They also sent a questionnaire to all local authorities and carried out telephone interviews.
They seek cooperation to analyse administrative processes and find solutions for general services such as electronic identification, standards for exchanging information and a ”national patient summary”. County councils and a growing number of local authorities are formulating strategies for government-wide information management for the entire organisation. The goal is to make information in administration and core activities accessible when and where it is needed, regardless of source or storage site. Other objectives are to streamline contact channels, develop e-services and handle information to and from external organisations electronically.
Activities
• Simplifying and streamlining contact channels to the local authority
Local and regional activities involve both cooperation and developing government-wide information management. Cooperation with IT support is based on local and regional needs. General observations: • Small local authorities want to improve efficiency and find advantages of scale by sharing technology and operations with others • In counties with one large local authority and several small ones, the large local authority accepts responsibility for regional development and often strives to support the small ones through cooperative initiatives • County councils and a growing number of local authorities want group-wide information management
The role of IT is seen as a means of • Freeing up resources from administration to core activities • Improving efficiency and quality to allow ”more time for customers” by reducing time spent on associated duties
Obstacles and proposed actions Regardless of size or direction, members provide a relatively consistent picture of obstacles and proposed actions. Internal obstacles mainly involve a strained economy and recruitment problems due to demographic developments, as well as the lack of methods for improving operating procedures and measuring efficiency. External obstacles include legal obstacles associated with the Public Procurement Act (LOU) and its provisions involving cooperation, financial obstacles, as well as inadequate technology and the lack of standards.
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The proposed actions mainly include greater cooperation, revision of the provisions in LOU and the Local Government Act on cooperation, support and incentives for handling cost bulges, investment grants, cost-effective standards for electronic communication, and a description of a long-term sustainable infrastructure to reduce the risk of misguided ventures.
The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions’ proposal for central government initiatives • Central government support for local authorities to draft e-action plans to improve operations and establish cooperation with IT support. These plans, which are a development of the IT infrastructure scheme created during the expansion of broadband service to rural areas, should promote local planning, regional cooperation and central objectives. • Central government financing of a central body to advise and support local authorities to formulate e-action plans and for development projects • Greater central government responsibility for implementation of electronic identification • LOU should allow inter-municipal cooperation to a greater extent and be adapted for procurement of complex services and IT systems. The
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Local Government Act should be revised to allow cooperation in various forms. • Central government financing of a centre of excellence for technological developments
The Swedish Association of Local Authorities 0and Regions’ planned initiatives • Broad support to members by representing their interests, providing strategic support, sharing examples, accumulating knowledge related to IT-supported developments and cooperation and support for various methods • Advice and support to local authorities for formulation of e-action plans and for development projects. (Requires central government financing, see above). As with the broadband project, this includes resolving issues associated with coordinating central government with local and/or regional initiatives. • Building a centre of excellence for technological developments (Requires central government financing, see above). The centre of excellence shall help establish standards for exchanging information electronically using systems based on open source code, and promote a system to ”certify” software and IT systems, similar to the one used during the y2K conversion project.
Introduction
For the past 15 years, IT has been essential for the operations of both local authorities and county councils. The IT systems were designed based on the immediate needs of the local operations. The market developed a number of systems with certain basic functions and these systems were adapted to the requirements of the individual purchaser. In addition, the requirements of central government authorities determined which systems were implemented and how they were designed. In many cases, the various sectors of the central government did not coordinate their requirements, which meant that IT applications at the local and regional level were configured differently depending on point in time and context. When these systems were deployed, neither broadband nor the Internet were available. Consequently, most systems are not tailored to meet current and future communication requirements. Today a medium-sized local authority has at least 150 systems deployed at different times and for different needs. A similar development in the county councils has led to today’s array of isolated medical record systems and applications designed for local activities. We are now entering a new phase in which the expansion of broadband and electronic communication allow cooperation between government offices, responsible organisations and IT systems. Old structures are being shaken loose, allowing new
opportunities for cooperation – with tremendous potential for streamlining and restructuring, as well as for increased accessibility and transparency throughout the public sector. Many people have expressed hopeful visions that the public sector would quickly design e-services for citizens and companies. E-services have greatly benefited large government agencies in particular, with their substantial resources, regulation-based governance, and a large number of cases of the same type (e.g., the Swedish Tax Agency’s tax returns and The Insurance Office’s parental insurance). To achieve this external streamlining through self-service, the activity must be able to handle incoming errands electronically. This internal efficiency also requires new operating procedures. The local authorities and county councils are implementing these internal efficiency measures. Cooperative IT support among government offices, both within one organisation and between different organisations, creates opportunities for efficiency gains and sharing expertise. Resources can be freed up for core activities. Improved efficiency can also create better operational support, which increases opportunities for efficient and qualitative service that is largely personal. This process allows development of e-services for citizens and the business community, patients and relatives, as well as students and parents.
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Background, purpose and method
Background Ilmar Reepalu, chairman of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities, and Lars Isaksson, chairman of the Federation of Swedish County Councils, met ministers Gunnar Lund and Lars-Erik Lövdén in January 2004. They agreed that the central government, local authorities and county councils should cooperate to develop a cohesive e-Government strategy in an effort to increase accessibility and transparency in the public sector. The local authorities intended to base future developments on initiatives underway at the local and regional level.
Purpose The IT division of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and the Federation of Swedish County Councils was commissioned to analyse current local government initiatives in the area and to pinpoint obstacles and propose national actions to accelerate developments.
Method and limitations The group mainly gathered information through discussions with members at hearings and seminars with elected representatives and civil servants in several local authorities and county councils. Main activities: • Seminars with representatives from the municipal government, operations and IT in Botkyrka, Östersund, Surahammar, Hallstahammar, Mellerud, Dals-Ed and Åsele, as well as Kronoberg county council and Östergötland County Council • Three regional hearings with elected representatives and representatives for the municipal and county council governments in Stockholm, Skåne and Norrbotten-Västerbotten Managing director Evert Lindholm headed the hearings. • Questionnaires were sent to all local authority governments to survey cooperative projects that require IT support, as well as telephone interviews with county council IT supervisors 4
• Four meetings with a coordinating committee within the associations • Three meetings with the IT division reference group • Regular contacts and discussions with municipal IT strategists and IT supervisors, as well as presentations and discussions at various hearings and seminars The results of the questionnaire on IT support and cooperation will be posted on the associations’ website. In several cases the questionnaire was followed by phone calls to elaborate on the brief questionnaire answers. Almost without exception, these calls show that people plan to expand and broaden cooperative initiatives. In all, with hearings and seminars we reached about 30 local governments and six county councils. The people involved received feedback from the hearings and seminars. Questions targeted both local authorities and county councils. At the county council level, Carelink develops IT usage for the Swedish healthcare system and social services. Carelink has surveyed Sweden’s local authorities and their current opportunities for using IT support in healthcare, as well as their plans, needs and visions.1 The following points were addressed at hearings and seminars: • Current and planned activities • Reasons and driving forces for development • Vision of 24-hour public administration • Obstacles and factors for success Proposals for comprehensive measures
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Carelink. IT i primärkommunal vård och omsorg – nu och i framtiden. [Carelink. IT in municipal health care and social services – now and in the future.] Carelink report 1/2002
Results from hearings and seminars
Current and planned activities Below are examples of activities mentioned during interviews and other contacts. We divided the activities into cooperation and development of koncern-wide information management.
Cooperation Hearings and seminars pinpointed cooperation and collaboration as crucial factors for meeting economic and demographic challenges. A questionnaire on cooperation with IT support gave 137 responses pertaining to 200 local authorities. The questionnaire was supplemented by telephone interviews with IT managers in the county councils. Seminars, hearings and questionnaires give an overall picture of how local authorities and county councils interact based on local and regional conditions. Cooperation takes place on many levels, from sharing basic technological functions such as Internet connections and spam filters, to sharing IT organisations and administrative offices within a number of specialities. Cooperation also takes place on a more general level to analyse and develop administrative processes prior to joint procurement of IT systems and to find solutions for electronic identification, standards for exchanging information or related to services, such as Carelink’s project to create a ”national patient summary”. Synergistic Effects The interviews noted that cooperation is one of the most important means of achieving a sustainable economy. Frequently groups begin cooperating within a limited area and positive experiences (both effects and because new personal networks are created) generate more extensive cooperation in new areas. The purpose of cooperation is to provide advantages of scale that improve efficiency and service, while retaining the identity and political responsibility of the individual organisation.
Some of the most important advantages and benefits are: • Economic benefits and cost-cutting measures • Organisational benefits such as quality enhancement, improved procedures and service, decreased vulnerability, increased energy and recognition of new areas for improvement • Employees benefit through increased expertise and specialisation, more attractive services, coverage during absence and less duplication of work
Examples of cooperation Below are a few illustrative examples of how cooperation develops between individual local authorities and at the county level. Typically, local authorities cooperate in stages, with a defined objective to increase collaboration and cooperation by sharing personnel, administrative functions and government services, making it possible to offer good and more cost-effective service. Hallstahammar and Surahammar Both are small rural local authorities in Västmanland. Hallstahammar and Surahammar have formed a cooperative council at the management level for an extensive scheme including technology, administration and core activities. Current areas of cooperation: • A new common IT platform • Common financial and personnel administration system • Shared library system • IT in healthcare • Procurement and purchasing • Property surveillance system • Youth guarantee, youth follow up and youth clinic • School for children with disabilities • Knowledge centre 5
The local authorities plan cooperative projects to share resources for child care, geriatric care and institutional care. Discussions at the civil servant level will lead to a common administrative organisation. Discussions are underway at the county level to create a joint administrative network to enable countywide operation of shared systems and functions. IT forum Stockholm Within the scope of IT forum Stockholm, a cooperative organisation for the local authorities in Stockholm county, seven local authorities are analysing and improving operating procedures with associated information management. The forum is initially focusing on improving efficiency in geriatric care and in building permit procedures and will explore the feasibility of creating common requirements for procurement and deployment of IT systems. Another topic of discussion for the local authority group is that citizens and companies that contact the local authority – whether through the Internet, by phone, e-mail, fax or personal visit – should have a single personal portal to the local authority and the person seeking contact should be able to obtain feedback on and follow the case. Local authorities may possibly share this function through outsourcing. Countywide cooperation in Jämtland Cooperation within the county is a political priority and is important for the region. As the largest of the county’s eight local authorities, Östersund has almost half of the county’s residents and acts as a gathering force. The county’s local authorities cooperate in a variety of constellations. • SÖK – Collaboration between Östersund and Krokom. The local authorities share a common payroll system whereby personnel can cover for each other if someone is absent. They are now considering the possibility of a joint payroll office. Östersund takes care of operations of a joint business system. The local authorities are analysing the entire IT operation to find additional opportunities for cooperation. • Östersund, Krokom, Åre and Härjedalen are implementing a joint procurement office
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• Krokom, Östersund and Strömsund have a joint emergency services organisation • Ragunda, Krokom and Östersund are starting an upper secondary school association on 1 July 2005 • Bräcke and Ragunda have an emergency services organisation and are considering a joint technical administration • The county’s local authorities are participating in a concurrent data communications procurement process. The solution must support new technology models that could be required in future areas of cooperation. Countywide cooperation in Dalsland Dalsland consists of five small rural local authorities. The Dalsland Association of Local Authorities is largely responsible for cooperation in the region. The primary objective is to cut costs, improve efficiency and quality, and increase security. These objectives will be achieved by: • Sharing common resources, personnel and expertise among the local authorities • Expanding and enhancing cooperation with common procedures and services within the cooperating local authorities • Sharing operations and administrative systems The local authorities assume responsibility for different areas; for example, Mellerud is responsible for home care and Åmål for GIS. The local authorities are implementing a single business system with common codes and operation, which will make it possible to divide up expertise and tasks among them. The business system is a first step in this cooperative effort and may be followed by common payroll and scheduling modules, as well as various operations systems. Bengtsfors will be responsible for a common telephony solution that also covers Säffle local authority. With this cost-effective solution the local authorities will be able to cover for each other when switchboard operators from the individual local authorities are ill or have time off from work. The local authorities are considering setting up a joint telephony centre. In certain situations cooperation involves a smaller number of local authorities. The Dalsland local authorities are drafting a common
IT strategy that will encourage greater cooperation and in the long term, perhaps a common IT organisation. Administrative cooperation with IT support enables local authorities to share personnel at the employee level and perhaps even at the managerial level. Large local authorities accept regional responsibility A number of counties have one large local authority and several small ones. In counties that have such a structure and that have participated in hearings and seminars, the larger local authorities offer the smaller ones opportunities for technical and operational cooperation to support regional development. Despite differences in size, the individual local authorities have similar needs. In Norrbotten, Luleå is cooperating with three local authorities in the ”Fyrkant” project. The local authorities are implementing common telephony operations and are exploring expanded cooperation related to education, studies, procurement, operations and exchanging services. Hearings and seminars involving Skellefteå, Umeå and Östersund explored similar possibilities. Sambruk – a Platform for Cooperative Use About thirty local authorities of various sizes, located throughout the country, have formed the Sambruk – a Platform for Cooperative Use. The ultimate purpose is to create a common basis for developing municipal e-services and related operating procedures. The objectives of the project are to reduce the local authorities’ costs for development and operation of e-services and to reduce lead times for their development and implementation. The e-services currently under development are:
• Renewed application for economic aid • Digital citizens’ assistant • Upper secondary school options • Application for child care • Grants for sports and leisure-time associations and booking of facilities
Questionnaire on IT support cooperation The questionnaire, which was conducted in May 2004 and targeted municipal management in all local authorities, asked about cooperative projects with IT support. After eliminating duplicates, 137 responses were submitted. Cooperation affects 200 local authorities. A large number of local authorities cooperate with others in many areas.2
Cooperation among county councils The county councils are involved in several national and regional cooperative and development projects. Coordination mainly takes place through Carelink, a nationwide organisation that uses IT to support and streamline health care. Carelink provides general solutions such as secure e-mail, a health care directory and SITHS for identification and signing.
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The results of the questionnaire are available at www.skl.se
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Other cooperative projects include:3 • National Patient Summary: platform that enables all care providers to make certain information about their patients available for other care providers and provides access to such information with patient consent. • Effects of IT initiatives: increases knowledge of the effects of IT initiatives in health care and social services and how to measure such effects. • RIV – Guidelines for Exchanging Information within Health Care and Social Services to implement a common infrastructure for exchanging information electronically within health care and social services. • PALL – Patient medication lists Standardised communications solution for information about medications. The county councils and regions are working with the local authorities to improve cooperation to achieve an uninterrupted care chain. About 40 local authorities are affiliated with Carelink and Sjunet, the healthcare system’s communication network. Carelink and the Västerbotten Association of Local Authorities have studied the need for municipal e-services and IT support in health care and social services. The preliminary study shows many examples of distance-independent solutions over authority boundaries involving both county councils and central government authorities.4
Government-wide information service The county councils and a growing number of local authorities are drafting strategies using IT to develop a cohesive information service for the entire organisation. The objective is to make information in the administration and core activities accessible when and where it is needed. The goal is to create an information management system that allows an errand to be handled electronically even if several government offices are involved and for the person
seeking information to be able to follow the errand. Other objectives include streamlining and enhancing the quality of citizens and companies’ contact channels for the activities, developing e-services and enabling information to and from external organisations to be handled electronically. The result will be more effective handling, increased opportunities for measuring and monitoring quality and changing the organisation and procedures without the barrier of technological ”stovepipe” solutions. Botkyrka Botkyrka has about 70,000 inhabitants and is a suburban local authority outside Stockholm. For many years the local authority has had excellent citizens’ advice bureaus. Citizens’ advice bureaus relieve the burden of the experts in government offices by channelling simple errands to generalists or through electronic channels. One of Botkyrka’s goals is to increase customer benefit by improving internal efficiency. IT should not just support administration; it should permeate and help to reshape the entire operation. A ”from-the-outside-in” approach will be applied to enable citizens to influence municipal operations. One of the objectives is to make it possible for local authority residents to use the channel that suits them best. The idea is to create an ”external” function consisting of citizens’ advice bureaus, front desk personnel and e-services. The development of e-services will help to improve the level of service with greater transparency and visibility and will run parallel to the development of citizens’ advice bureaus to ensure a personalised touch. Achieving this goal requires standardised government-wide information management. Procurement is currently underway for a new IT support system for general electronic document handling and case management. The goal is to achieve more standardised, efficient and user-friendly information management, where many case management tasks can be handled through self-service or by personnel working in citizens’ advice bureaus or at the front desk of the municipal office. Västerås
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The projects are described on Carelink’s website: wwwcarelink.se
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Carelink, sub-report: Local authorities’ needs for e-services in health care and social services. Preliminary study. www.carelink.se
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The city of Västerås intends to meet future economic and demographic challenges by increasing the volume and quantity of services without expanding its organisation. The municipal executive board has adopted an e-vision for Its operations:
”The Västerås website will be perceived as each citizen’s personal municipal office, where people can reach whoever they need to reach for information about municipal services.” This objective places great demands on organisation, procedures and technology. The technical platform currently under development in Västerås shall: • Contain a web portal that will be a cohesive location to link together municipal residents, employees, work groups and knowledge. • Provide authorisation and access to the right information for everyone who handles information in the local authority’s various IT systems. The function will be based on roles for citizens, employees, students and elected representatives as well as other categories. • Release case and document management from the ”stovepipe” solutions currently available and make the systems organisation-wide and organisation-independent. • Allow original documents to become easily accessible and available in just one version.
Summary of current activities The responses at hearings and seminars provide a broad picture of cooperative initiatives among local authorities, among county councils, and between local authorities and county councils. A complex structure is evolving with a large number of intermunicipal networks that have varied tasks, geographic locations and degrees of formality. Cooperation providing services to citizens is an old
tradition. Information technology has strengthened this trend. Cooperative initiatives that bridge traditional boundaries are evolving. For example, local authorities, county councils, or local authorities and county councils are sharing IT systems. Various administrative offices are also developing shared electronic information support services. In general, smaller local authorities want to improve efficiency and achieve advantages of scale through cooperation. Collaboration takes place on many different levels, from sharing basic technological functions such as Internet connections and spam filters, to local authorities that share IT organisation and administrative offices within a number of specialities. In counties that have one large local authority and several small ones, the large local authority often has regional responsibility for development. In this context such local authorities often support the smaller ones by sharing IT support services. County councils and a growing number of local authorities want groupwide information management and to together analyse administrative processes to find solutions for more general services such as electronic identification and standards for exchanging information, as well as for implementing a shared internal e-support such as Carelink’s national patient summary project. Research reports and other studies show that citizens’ services are being developed jointly in various locations for a number of activities. Any IT support developed must be able to handle this activity, regardless of geographic cooperation.
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24-hour public administration
The interviews raised the question of how people view the 24-hour concept and what significance it has for the development of the local authority’s operations. Some people criticised the application of a central government approach to municipal operations because a local authority’s tasks differ from those of government authorities and services. Several local authorities do not feel completely at home with this concept, causing interpretations that are not completely consistent with their own ideas of desirable developments. To some extent, the concept of 24-hour public administration provides guidance in discussions about improving services and increasing access. Opinions are not completely in consensus or unambiguous. Several local authorities feel that in the future e-services will increase in significance and become more common than today. Some people are sceptical, indicating a more cautious ”wait and see” attitude about the benefits of the concept. In the long term, everyone wants to see better service and accessibility, but for many of the local authorities all development projects are overshadowed by the importance of a balanced budget. In the interviews people discussed the need for a strategic model for how organisation, work processes and technology should support core operations and administration as a whole. They will need new types of IT support that can integrate information from other systems, both internally and externally, which will create promote increased efficiency, accessibility and level of service. It is in this context that we must consider the need for e-services. The larger local authorities and county councils view eservices as a natural part of strategic planning; they have larger populations, which means more prospective users. The smaller local authorities, with a small ”customer base,” do not always see the same benefits – nor do they see any great demand, and therefore they question the benefit of an initiative that focuses on e-services.
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Below are some quotes from interviews about the view of the 24-hour public administration concept and its significance for municipal operations: • ”Internal needs must have priority over the trend toward 24-hour public administration. Developing internal operations has the highest priority. We focus heavily on improving internal operations and IT. Sharing administrative resources to achieve synergistic benefits among local authorities is also more important. Right now the most urgent issue is to develop the operations systems and in the long term, create the joint digital government.” • ”The logic about accessibility in the 24-hour concept is OK and a good basis to stand on, but there are essential differences between local authorities and government authorities that are based on different logic; the basic duties of the local authorities include school, health care and social services, as well as social structure. It is an incorrect description of reality to claim that nothing is happening in the local authorities.” • ”There is a basic clarity in the objectives – the current goals are crystal clear – but the descriptions must be adapted to the municipal reality. Local authorities have a decentralised and complex operation, while central government authorities’ operations are centralised and narrower.” • ”Municipal case management is governed by politics, often complex in content and in many cases requiring extensive knowledge and insight into the individual case. Can you create e-services for this? In the long term, designing e-services with ’simple answers to tough questions’ can become a threat to democracy.” • ”The 24-hour concept is unavoidable- but in the longer term. There must be a reality in the vision and developments should be guided more by demand. The goal from the government greatly
resembles the previous focus on e-commerce with high goals and meagre results. Perhaps a maturing process over many years is required even here. E-commerce has developed, but not like the forecasts and standards we discussed at the time. We may see a similar development with 24-hour public administration. We generate pressure with the 24- hour vision, but the results may be 24-hour services with another focus than what we see today.” • ”We lack materials and supporting documentation to illustrate the vision. Creating solutions is difficult and often expensive. For example, we use a system for forms that is perceived as expensive and with limited beneficial effects since data cannot be signed digitally. Our attitude is to let the large local authorities go first and hope that the prices will fall. The ”24-hour government” concept is often interpreted as a vision that only deals with producing
e-services quickly. If you consider all of the vision’s objectives-to streamline public administration to handle future personal and economic challenges and to offer good cooperative public administration managed in line with applicable legislation-obviously all of the interviewed local authorities and county councils consider this to be a high priority goal. The use and development of IT support in local government can be viewed in this perspective. The objectives are: • Freeing up resources from administration to core activities. • Streamlining and improving the quality of the operation to create ”more time for customers” by reducing the time spent on associated duties. • Simplifying and streamlining contact channels to the local authority by implementing various e-services and opening different channels.
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Driving forces for e-Government
A variety of interdependent driving forces are guiding the development of e-Government, several of which are recurring themes at the hearings and seminars: • Companies and citizens’ demands for efficient individualised processing and service • Political endeavours to offer an attractive environment. • Economic and demographic challenges • Endeavours to achieve streamlining, efficiency and quality enhancement • Supply of expertise • Changes in society that place growing demands on flexible operations and organisation, which in turn demand a flexible IT environment that promotes and does not hamper change.
Obstacles and proposals for actions The local authorities and county councils have emphasised both internal and external obstacles that make development and cooperation more difficult. Regardless of size or direction we see a relatively uniform picture of obstacles and proposals for actions. They emphasise the importance of both political and civil service management setting clear goals, coordinating and supervising the work.
Internal factors that hamper development
• Culture and tradition within the local authority may cause resistance to change. • Small local authorities have radically reduced or completely eliminated their resources for development. They are unaware of the possibilities because of inadequate information gathering. • Difficult in carrying out development projects in small local authorities, which have many generalists working in broad fields. Lack of methods for analysing processes and measuring efficiency The discussions repeatedly mention the lack of methods for analysing and developing operating procedures. There is a risk that new technology may be stacked on top of existing processes, without integration or scalability. Another obstacle is the lack of methods for measuring efficiency. Also missing are comparative figures that could make it easier to benefit from other examples.
Proposals for actions that have arisen during dialogue with members
• Develop cooperation with IT support locally, regionally and nationally.
• Strained economy with fewer people employed and a growing percentage of elderly citizens makes long-term development projects more difficult.
• Spread knowledge of the benefits and learn from
• Recruitment difficulties due to demographic trends
fications, measuring efficiency and key IT indicators for business development. These procedures can be shared and reused. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions and Carelink play an important role.
• Ineffective use of existing IT systems’ capacity, based in part on sector-specific solutions • Absence of collaborative tradition within sectors and across organisational boundaries 12
each other through good examples.
• Develop procedures for analytical processes, speci-
• Increased cooperation within the EU
External factors that impede development
Legal obstacles
The local authorities interviewed mention several internal factors that impede development. These obstacles are technical, legal and financial in nature.
The interviews emphasise elaborate requirements for formalities for procurement and cooperation, especially LOU. Cooperation is made difficult by procurement requirements and LOU prevents companies that were involved in developing new services and IT support from participating in procurement of the final product. Interpretation of LOU requires specialist knowledge which many local authorities cannot obtain and there is concern about making mistakes in procurement because of ambiguities. LOU has outlived its time and delays and increases the cost of efforts to improve efficiency and cooperation. Also frequently mentioned is the Local Government Act and its regulations about cooperation. Its rigid superstructures increase costs and hamper cooperation. The following opinions were also expressed during the interviews:
Technical obstacles Integration and cooperation within or between different administrative functions require transfer of information between different systems. Most of the local authorities interviewed mentioned the operations systems’ ”stovepipe” design as a serious impediment to continued development. The systems mainly support a hierarchical organisational structure within a specific operation or administration and prevent opportunities for changing an organisation or its procedures. The technical obstacles for organisational changes are not just found within the local authority. Cooperation between different local authorities and other public players is also difficult because systems cannot exchange information. One example is the need for common planning activities and initiatives between local authorities and county councils. Cooperation is difficult because information systemsi.e., healthcare and patient administrative systems and the medical record systems-are different. Another obstacle is the lack of standards; existing standards are considered too expensive. E-id is often mentioned as an example, as are inadequate standardised terminology within healthcare and the lack of cost-effective communications solution for exchanging information. Several local authorities are searching for a longterm sustainable strategic and architecture. They worry about investing in solutions that may become unusable in the long term.
• ”LOU has not kept up with developments and is not adapted to today’s requirements and activities, which means a risk of increased costs for both developmental processes and procurement.” • ”LOU prevents companies that were involved in the development process from participating in procurement of the product” • ”There is concern about making mistakes in procurement because of all the ambiguities related to interpreting LOU. This delays the process and makes it more expensive.” • ”LOU is not adapted to today’s requirements, is difficult to interpret and requires specialist knowledge, making the entire process much more expensive.”
Proposals for actions that have arisen during dialogue with members • Central government should provide a transparent description of a long-term sustainable standardised infrastructure to minimise the risk of misguided ventures • Provide cost-effective, municipally adapted standards for communication and security, such as the Infrastructure service (Infratjänsten) and e-ID
• Provide central databases for uploading/downloading data including population data, maps and statistics • Develop business models that generate incentive for suppliers to work with local authorities to develop systems that are adapted to the needs of core activities and to the needs for cooperation between local authorities and other responsible organisations
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• ”The Association of Local Authorities and other cooperative structures are rigid with formalities that impede progress. The localisation principle is an obstacle to cooperation.” • ”The Data Protection Act is unwieldy and outdated” • ”Simplify the legalities related to data management” • ”Integrity monitoring, which restricts the exchange of information, versus patient safety, which requires that the right information must be available to the care provider, counteract each other. Today, the integrity issue is hierarchically superior, which hampers the structure of the care chain and directly jeopardises patient safety. Strict application of integrity requirements within healthcare hampers almost all IT development.”
Financial obstacles The interviewees stressed that a cohesive e-Government must be developed based on efficiency, accessibility and quality. They agreed that e-services must be developed in a balance of benefit and service. If a central government initiative focuses on quickly producing e-services that only provide increased accessibility, there is a risk that this will become a cost driver and therefore the financing principle should apply. On several occasions interviewees discussed the ”sowing-reaping-problem complex”, which means that beneficial effects are reaped elsewhere than the places where the investment was made. Many local authorities have scanty resources for planning and development. The development of a cohesive e-Government requires large investments where the benefits are reaped in the long term. An initial cost bulge for investment, conversion and personnel expenses make it difficult to take long-term actions.
Proposals for actions that have arisen during dialogue with members
Proposals for actions that have arisen during dialogue with members
• Change LOU so that local authorities can
• Support for planning initiatives • Incentive grant for municipal cooperation • Initially subsidised infrastructure services and elec-
cooperate without procurement requirements
• Clarifications so LOU can be correctly applied in procurement contexts and cooperative situations
•
Review Local Government Act requirements for types of alliances
• Draft guidelines for handling electronic messages;
tronic ID to develop usage and find new synergistic benefits
• Apply the financing principle if central government
i.e., during registration, deletion and archiving, and handling spam
requirements for increased service according to the 24-hour public administration concept cost local authorities more than what its benefits are worth
• Review legal issues related to handling patient data
• Additional funding for projects that are innovative
and medical records
and of general interest
• Central government aid and incentive to handle ”cost bulges” that occur during development
• Apply the financing principle if the central government assigns new tasks to local authorities to develop integrated e-services
• National initiatives can also be aimed at the regional and county level since it can be difficult for the individual local authority to justify the costs of implementing e-Government while cutting back on funding for schools and geriatric care
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The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions – proposal for national initiatives
Taking into account the above report of activities, obstacles and proposals for actions from hearings and seminars, the association recommends several national initiatives to support this development at the end of this chapter. Two of these require clarification:
Support for local government e-action plans In order to expand broadband services in Sweden, local authorities and county councils are now developing partnerships from the bottom up to bridge traditional boundaries. Groups of local authorities and entire regions are sharing IT systems or developing a government-wide information support service. In the long term, this development will change working methods and procedures. Meanwhile, society’s sectorisation will not only be bridged by work on the local and regional level, but must also include ”top-down” initiatives on the central government level. Open dialogue and long-term coordinated planning among local authorities, county council and central government are needed to create a favourable development that considers the needs of all parties. Standards for society’s electronic communication are currently under development. These standards will become a part of the IT infrastructure that will support efficient public government based on cooperation and transparent IT systems. The associations recommend that the central government support the initiatives of local authorities to formulate e-action plans that will evolve from the IT infrastructure programs created to expand broadband in rural areas. The e-action plans should include descriptions and conditions related to business development and cooperation with IT support (e-Government). The activities should be
backed by political decisions. The conditions can be formulated to support local planning, regional cooperation and central objectives, which will encourage synchronisation across sector boundaries. We recommend that a central government financed function be linked to provide advice and support to local authorities for drafting planning documents and initiating development projects. The support function should work closely with the association’s ”Cooperation in e-Government” project.
Electronic identification (eID) The public sector does not intend to offer services for a private market with free competition; instead, these services will support health care, schools and social services. This initiative requires communications and security solutions that are cost-effective and that stimulate the use of electronic communication and thus also growth. Today’s market-based solution with a number of different eIDs has gained only limited acceptance in local government. One reason is that people cannot see benefits that justify the cost of implementation. Another reason is that the solutions are transaction-based and agreements are required with many suppliers. Furthermore, it is difficult to implement several different identification solutions in complex organisations with many different user groups – citizens, salaried employees both within the organisation and externally, students, providers and recipients of care, parents and relatives, and others. Electronic identification within the public sector constitutes a basic requirement for society and should result in greater public responsibility than what is found today. The association therefore recommends revising the current solution.
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The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions – proposal for initiatives Central government E-action plans
Support to local authorities to formulate plans, which are a development of the IT infrastructure program created when broadband was extended to rural areas. E-action plans should include descriptions and conditions related to business developments and cooperation with IT support and be designed to support local planning, regional cooperation and central objectives.
Central support unit
Financing of a central unit that provides advice and support to local authorities for formulation of the e-action plans and for the project itself.
Electronic ID
Analysis of distribution of electronic identification-related responsibilities. Implementation of electronic identification within the public sector constitutes a basic requirement for society and should result in greater central government responsibility than is currently the case.
LOU
LOU should be reviewed; the Act should support intermunicipal cooperation to a greater extent and it should be adapted to procurement of complex services and IT systems.
Legal obstacles for cooperation
Review of obstacles in the legislation pertaining to types of partnerships.
National centre of excellence
Financing of a centre of excellence for technological developments.
Associations Cooperation in e-Government (SEF)
Support members by representing their interests, providing strategic membership support, sharing examples and knowledge related to ITsupported business development and cooperation. Different forms of support related to implementation of cohesive e-Government.
Support unit related to e-action plans (Requires central government financing, see above)
Advice and support to local authorities for drafting e-action plans and for development projects. Just as with the association’s broadband project, this function has the important role of handling questions that arise when coordinating central and local or regional initiatives.
Centre of excellence for technological development (Requires central government financing, see above)
• Supports formulation of standards for exchanging electronic information • Advice and support related to products developed by the public sector and others, based on open source code • Implement a system for ”certification” of software and IT systems similar to the one used during the y2k conversion
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E-Government and Cooperation
During 2004 the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and the Federation of Swedish County Councils introduced several activities related to the municipal sector’s operations development, streamlining and cooperation with IT support, with the purpose of illuminating obstacles and proposing national actions to support the development. This text reports the results from a questionnaire and a number of hearings and seminars, with suggestions for initiatives from the central government to support the local authorities. Swedish Association of Local Authorities chairman Ilmar Reepalu presented these proposals at a meeting with Minister for Local Government Sven-Erik Österberg in early 2005. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions continues to participate in an associationwide e-Government project during 2005. Bengt Svenson Department of Growth and social structure
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