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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

 

 

With the new government barely ushered in and sitting down in the proverbial hot seat, expectations are already high among a vocal electorate.

 

At the time of writing, constituencies had been demonstrating their frustration with the old guard’s delivery record for weeks. In response, the new government has shown a promising willingness to acknowledge and address any problems head-on.

 

ICT holds an important key to advancing the new government’s cause in this regard, as it has the potential to accelerate service delivery. While technology in and of itself cannot improve a service, it can certainly speed up its delivery or make it more cost-effective or efficient when used in an administrative, monitoring or coordinating role.

 

What government needs is to create a Business Process Management (BPM) culture so that people have an understanding of what their duties are and where the boundary of their decision-making is. Implementing BPM will allow the people in government to work together successfully and break down the barriers between departments.

 

What technologies?

 

Self-service portals have a particularly important role to play in driving efficiency, with their highly evolved online collaboration and communication functions, and their front-end integration of enterprise functionality.

 

External applications: The most visible examples of this can be found in the government-to-citizen and government-to-business (G2C and G2B) spheres, and include service application initiation and forms automation, tracking, record access, fine payments, e-filing and of course constituent updates and communication via electronic means.

 

Internal applications: Portals have even wider application within and between government entities. Government employees with access to tools to collaborate intra- or interdepartmentally benefit from increased access to data from multiple spheres of government, which in turn speeds up service delivery tremendously.

 

Measurable benefits

 

While governments are not profit-driven, the time and money that can be saved with online interaction amount to a big advantage – something that becomes very concrete when one drives past the snaking queues outside SARS at the end of filing season. If more people made use of e-filing, the burden on everyone would be much lighter.

 

But many more opportunities of even more pressing importance exist with portals. Because of the success of their e-government efforts, First World countries are, for example, able to ‘activate’ labour far more quickly. Imagine if the following were possible in South Africa today: A large project requires 5 000 workers of different skill profiles. Matched against the Department of Labour database, this requirement is met instantly. With portals, it is possible.

 

Do we really need ICT?

 

Leaving the obvious benefits of portals aside for a moment, how effective can they be in a country where the effects of a digital divide continue to be felt every day? Studies indicate that South Africa’s youth of all Living Standard Measure groupings already prefer mobile and fixed Internet platforms for their interaction with government. Sooner than we may realise, the digital proficiency of Generations Y and Z could be a hallmark of the majority of SA’s citizenry. In such a scenario, a government that offers its services online sends out the right signals of being committed to both service delivery and communication.

 

Time to open the portal

 

While isolated local examples exist of departments and agencies that offer services online, no large single-entry portal that ties together multiple services in one ‘citizen account’ exists yet.

 

It’s hard to see why. Governments can only benefit from portals, as the examples mentioned above show. Recent examples have further shown that the use of communication tools, such as those in .gov portals and social media platforms, have massively boosted public awareness of service delivery successes.

 

Governments looking to improve their service delivery should seek out portal providers that understand enterprise back-office processes and front-end integration, and can list solid government reference sites.