Tag Archive for 'Commission of European Communities'

4.14 International alignment and coordination

Published on January 22, 2010 in Strategies. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

INTERNATIONAL ALIGNMENT AND CO-ORDINATION

Working across borders and alignment with international agreements is critical to the delivery of effective ICT solutions.

To deliver cross-border services and policies set out by the EU, Member States need secure electronic networks, agreed data protocols, and common information framework.

Our engagement goes beyond Europe and reaches out to international forums across the world.

The UK public sector operates in over 145 countries; there are over four million UK citizens living abroad who still require public services from the UK and many international agreements with which our technology and systems must interface and comply.

Within the EU, UK businesses are free to trade, and UK citizens are free to live and work, in any EU Member State. Similarly, citizens and businesses from any EU Member State are free to live and work or trade in the UK. ICT-enabled public services can make this happen more simply than traditional paper-based methods. However, to take full advantage of this freedom, Europe needs common policies and agreements around ICT, and this requires Member States to work together to implement European legislative requirements.

To deliver the ICT-enabled cross-border services and policies set out in a wide range of EU agreements, decisions and treaties, Member States need secure electronic networks, agreed data protocols and common information frameworks to work to. The information sent over these networks varies widely – from farm subsidies to vehicle details, professional qualifications and social security information. Creating such networks and agreements across 27 Member States is challenging, and every effort must be made to ensure that Member States avoid duplicating the same solutions.

The UK is seen as one of the leaders in ICT-enabled service delivery, and we continue to share our experience with other governments around the world. Learning from our international peers helps the UK to improve existing services and innovate in new areas.

Historically, the Office of the Government CIO and its predecessors have engaged internationally through ongoing policy and delivery commitments with the rest of Europe, and multinational networks for knowledge and best-practice sharing, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Office of the Government CIO also maintains two substantial commitments within an EU context:

  • taking forward the i2010 Ministerial eGovernment Declarations, which form part of the umbrella i2010 European Union Information Society strategy, and delivering against the subsequent action plans, and
  • providing, along with other Member States, committee oversight of the current Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to Administrations, Businesses and Citizens programme.

We are also involved in other wider networks such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Network for Senior eGovernment Officials, the 5-Nations CIO Group (members of which are the relevant government bodies in Australia, Canada, the USA, New Zealand and the UK), the International Council for IT in Government Administration and the European Public Administrations Network.

Bringing together senior policy and delivery officials across government and the devolved administrations, the Office of the Government CIO is the secretariat for the European Interest Group, which aims to share knowledge and best practice, solve common problems and overcome barriers in the delivery of ICT-enabled EU projects and programmes.

As individual strategy leads, the Office of the Government CIO officials also provides specialist policy and delivery guidance to other government departments who work on their own sectoral commitments to Europe. Much progress has been made in recent years to build understanding and common ground and approaches, although more remains to be done. Our focus, looking ahead, is on the following:

  • Sharing best practice – We will engage further with our international and European counterparts, learning from their best practice in service delivery. We will work with other European Member States to overcome obstacles that hinder delivery of efficient and effective public services across Europe.
  • Aligning interoperable strategies and technology – In order to remain at the forefront of ICT strategy development, we will continue to engage with European and multinational networks. Without the support of our external peers, we risk developing our own strategy in a vacuum. When so much of our service delivery crosses borders, it is imperative that we maintain these links.
  • Simplification, standardisation and interoperability – To deliver on the aims of the various initiatives, common frameworks and guidelines must be established. The Office of the Government CIO will increase its engagement in the development and implementation of the European Interoperability Strategy and Framework. Without common agreement, duplication will be rife and business processes multiplied unnecessarily.

4.7 Architecture and standards

Published on January 22, 2010 in Strategies. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

STANDARDS AND ARCHITECTURE

A set of standards and a common architecture are essential for the delivery of all elements of the ICT strategy. It enables the sharing of data between systems, provides opportunities for reuse of ICT components and facilitates transition between suppliers and products.

The use of standards ensures that as technology develops public sector ICT assets can be easily adapted.

The architecture and standards strand underpins all elements of the ICT Strategy. Through setting the right standards, we will ensure that each element of the strategy can interoperate with each other and, through defining a consistent architecture, we will ensure that it can be reused and deployed across the whole of the public sector.

4.7.1 Enterprise architecture

The cross-Government Enterprise Architecture (xGEA) was a fundamental element of Transformational Government. The first release focused on building the initial portfolio of opportunities to share information and processes. It was supported by:

the cross-Government Enterprise Architecture Reference Model (xGEARM), to enable communication through an agreed set of terms and definitions

  • a repository with enterprise architecture assets captured for all government to use
  • an opportunity portfolio of potential exemplars, and
  • a set of processes, based on industry practices, for describing the exemplars and the enterprise architecture models.

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Council has continued to focus on the necessary technical work which underpins the development and adoption of the cross-Government Enterprise Architecture. Work is now in progress on:

  • developing a common infrastructure based on open standards and proven interoperability
  • setting common standards to help facilitate reuse and sharing
  • ensuring that information assurance is included in all aspects of design and build
  • rationalising government data and voice networks, and
  • adopting a consistent approach to identity management.

4.7.2 Information architecture

Common information architecture is vital to ensuring that information and data can flow across government to provide seamless, efficient, secure and trusted services. It provides opportunities for the reuse of public data, benefiting the economy and fuelling innovation.

The Information Domain of the CTO Council works closely with the Knowledge Council, the Location Council and the Making Public Data Public initiative to ensure that their aims are supported through ICT.

The CTO Council is currently drawing together a public sector information architecture covering seven key themes:

  • semantics – the meaning of information
  • syntax – the format of information
  • data quality – how to give people the confidence to reuse information
  • use rights – covering the right to use information
  • authentication – how to establish who is using information
  • transport – how to move information, and
  • information assurance and governance – the behaviour and culture to protect and
    exploit information.

The public sector information architecture will also consider how the public sector should manage its information: for example, will the public sector hold multiple copies of information or will it be held centrally and accessed by many? This has implications for all of the strands within the ICT Strategy, particularly data centre rationalisation, the Government Cloud and information assurance and security. It also affects decisions core to the Public Sector Network as it will impact on bandwidth requirements and likely volumes of data transfer.

The technical infrastructure and enterprise and information architectures are the foundations that underpin successful delivery of all elements of the ICT Strategy. Provision of common technical standards and designs that are available through the Government Cloud and Government Applications Store will be a key enabler of efficient reuse of solutions and assets. These standards ensure interoperability, assure information security and will maximise the opportunity from open source code and open standards.

4.7.3 Standards

Delivering better public services tailored to the needs of the citizen and businesses requires the seamless flow of information across government. The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) set out the Government’s technical policies and specifications for achieving interoperability and ICT systems coherence across the public sector. It defined the essential prerequisites for joined-up and web-enabled government, and adopted the internet and World Wide Web specifications for all government systems. Work has now started to update the standards captured in the e-Government Interoperability Framework and align them with the public sector assets that have been identified for reuse.

As part of developing the cross-Government Enterprise Architecture, the specification of ICT standards rests with the CTO Council, through its domain teams. (The CIO Council retains authority for approving the strategy.) The CTO Council will centrally manage only the standards that are required across a number of organisations and that are not specific to a particular business area (for example, education, taxation or transport). Accordingly, three types of standard have been identified:

  • universal: fundamental standards that are required by all public sector organisations (for example, XML)
  • common: standards used across multiple business domains (for example, champions), and
  • local: where responsibility is held by local domains/businesses/regions.

Domain teams will focus only on universal and common standards. They will liaise with external standards bodies, monitoring their activities to ensure that government interests are supported and not compromised. Precedence is given to standards with the broadest remit, so appropriate international standards will take precedence over EU standards, and EU standards will take precedence over UK standards.

Standards are primarily driven by the needs of citizen- and business-facing services. As a result, the CTO Council is prioritising standards that serve the requirements of generic services or processes that are used across many public sector organisations. The other priority strand is concerned with agreeing standards that will facilitate new, joined-up services and interorganisational processes.

3.4 Common capability

Published on January 22, 2010 in Strategies. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

The ICT Strategy incorporates building capability as well as capacity in ICT. The strategy can only be delivered through the people who work within public sector ICT, and a cultural change in ICT usage and procurement.

Professionalising IT-enabled change: Increasing the capability of our staff will not only improve the performance of our IT, it will also reduce the amount the public sector spends on ICT consultants and contractors by some 50% by 2020. The Government IT Profession provides a focal point for increasing the professionalism of IT delivery within the public sector. The Government IT Profession skills and competency framework is now being used for recruitment, training and performance management of IT professionals. The launch of the Technology in Business Fast Stream has been extremely successful and is now the preferred route for graduate recruitment into government IT.

Reliable project delivery: Reliable project delivery is a cross-government approach that was introduced in response to perceptions of significant project failure in the public sector. It seeks to provide a clear understanding of issues and to address areas of poor delivery. The Cabinet Office works closely with the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to identify those major programmes and projects that have a high complexity and associated high delivery risk, and take a more proactive role in managing them and overseeing progress. This more structured approach to skills matching, reporting and management of portfolios will be a key enabler for consistent high delivery of public sector programmes and projects.

Supply management: Approximately 65% of government ICT is outsourced to the private sector. While this brings capable resources and efficiency, government has not always managed these relationships effectively. The supply management strand builds on the work already undertaken by the CIO Council, OGC and private sector partners to deliver a step change in the efficiency and effectiveness of outsourced government ICT. This will incorporate delivery of the ICT procurement strategy for government, which will provide the procurement vehicles to enable implementation of this ICT Strategy.

International alignment and coordination: ICT does not stop at international borders and the UK public sector operates in over 145 countries. A key element of this strategy, therefore, is to ensure alignment and compliance with EU agreements, decisions and treaties to support international working. The Cabinet Office also regularly interacts with ICT peers from the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to share best practice and help solve common problems. This approach ensures that we continue to exploit technology to its full effect in our efforts to deliver constantly improving services.

2. UK Public Sector ICT in the 21st Century

Published on January 22, 2010 in Strategies. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

UK public services have moved on radically since 1994, when the Cabinet Office announced that all central government and agency websites would be routed through open.gov.uk. Since then, the use of technology to deliver improved public services has adapted and developed in a way that could never have been foreseen in the mid-1990s.

But while technology has played a key role in improved service delivery, this has been matched by a greater understanding of its potential. Expectations have changed, as have demands – and these changes have made it easier for government not only to carry out its dayto- day business but also to help those who most need help. Technology can be used to provide access to citizens who might otherwise be excluded from services delivered using traditional methods – for example, using websites to inform teenagers/children about the dangers of drugs (FRANK – talktofrank.com), or providing online learning for young people excluded from mainstream education through NotSchool.net. ((NotSchool.net is a national project, originally commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. It provides alternative education provision for young people who cannot cope with traditional schooling, home schooling or other specialist units (source: The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion, PWC 2009).))

While the UK is not alone in its successful embrace of ICT, we are one of the leaders in using technology in the public sector. Delivery of citizen-based services ((A citizen-based service is a service specifically focused on citizens rather than businesses or other public service recipients.)) is benchmarked by the European Commission approximately every 18 months. Between 2004 and 2009, the rate of growth in the percentage of fully online services ((A ‘fully online’ service is defined by the EU as one that enables two-way interaction between government and the citizen. No survey was undertaken by the EU in 2005 or 2008. Measures are taken from a sample of government services.)) delivered across the UK has exceeded the European Union (EU) average. Today, 100% of citizen-based services in the UK are fully online, compared with the EU average of just 71%.

The EU also measures the overall development of online services, towards the ultimate goal of a proactive automated service. Against these criteria, by 2009 the UK had reached 94% sophistication compared with the EU average of 83% (see chart opposite), ensuring that most citizens and businesses can make use of services online in addition to other routes.

Action Plan

Published on January 22, 2010 in Action Plans. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

7. The key actions for Government are therefore:

Action 1: Clarity in procurement: The CIO Council, with the Office for Government Commerce, will develop clear and open guidance for ensuring that open source and proprietary products are considered equally and systematically for value for money.  This guidance will be published and will include:

(a) The specification and evaluation of compliance with open standards and of potential for re-use across the public sector.

(b) A standard form of words for Statements of Requirements to state positively that the Government’s policy is to consider open source solutions on their merits according to total lifetime cost of ownership.

(c) Authoritative advice for public sector purchasers to the particular licensing, warranty and indemnity issues associated with open source.

(d) Clear guidance that where public sector organisations have procured ‘perpetual licences’ from proprietary vendors, a shadow licence cost will need to be applied to the cost of the licences.  Where an agreement has been reached on behalf of the Crown, this price will be applied as the shadow cost.  Where no agreement has been reached on behalf of the Crown, the shadow cost will be the non-discounted list price of that product from the vendor.

Action 2: Increasing capability within Government: The CIO Council and the OGC, working with industry and drawing on best practice from other countries, will institute a programme of education and capability-building for the Government IT and Procurement professions on the skills needed to evaluate and make the best use of open source solutions.  The aim will be to raise the level of awareness, skills and confidence in the professions in the different licensing, support, commercial and cost models associated with open source solutions.

Action 3: Re-use as a practical principle: Learning from others is a key aspect of the CIO Council’s operating principles.  Where open source solutions are evaluated and approved by one part of Government, that evaluation should not be repeated but should be shared.   To support this, Departments will keep and share records of their approval and use of open source, including open source components within composite solutions.  Where possible and practical we will ensure that this knowledge and the availability of these systems are available in the proposed Government Applications Store.

Action 4: Maturity and sustainability: Open source software covers a multitude of products.  Given the nature of Government work, a degree of confidence that a product is mature, that the code base is secure, that the project itself is sustainable is needed.  The CIO Council will regularly assess products for maturity and recommend a list of products and implementations that meet agreed criteria.

Action 5: Supplier Challenge: Building on the actions above, Government Departments will challenge their suppliers to demonstrate that they have capability in open source and that open source products have been actively considered in whole or as part of the business solution which they are proposing.  Where no overall open source solution is available suppliers will be expected to provide evidence that they have considered the use of open source products within the overall solution to optimise the cost of ownership.  Particular scrutiny will be directed where mature open source products exist and have already been used elsewhere in government.  Suppliers putting forward non-open source products will be asked to provide evidence that they have carefully considered open source alternatives and to explain why they have been rejected. If they are unable to provide evidence of fair consideration of open source solutions, their bid will be deemed non-compliant with government policy and the proposal is likely to be automatically be delisted from the procurement.

Action 6: International examples and policies, and keeping up to date with developments: The UK Government will actively seek examples from other countries and sectors to encourage the development of product knowledge and better to challenge suppliers.  The UK will actively engage in the development of policies across the EU and internationally.

Action 7: Industry/Government joint working: The CIO Council will work with systems integrators and software suppliers to open up their solutions to meet open standards, to include open source, and to facilitate re-use.  The Government will encourage and facilitate closer links between open source providers (including organisations which provide support for open source) and system integrators.  The Government will share with industry information about current deployments of open source and testing already performed so that knowledge can be re-used.

Action 8: Open Standards: The Government will specify requirements by reference to open standards and require compliance with open standards in solutions where feasible.  It will support the use of HTML(ISO/IEC 15445:2000), Open Document Format (ISO/IEC 26300:2006) as well as emerging open versions of previously proprietary standards (eg ISO 320000-1:2008 (“PDF”) and ISO/IEC 29500 (“Office Open XML formats”).  It will work to ensure that government information is available in open formats, and it will make this a required standard for government websites.  

Action 9: Open Source techniques and re-use within Government, and appropriate release of code: Government purchasers will use a standard OGC-approved OJEU clause to make clear that solutions are purchased on the basis that they may be re-used elsewhere in the public sector.  Solutions and licences will have transferability across the public sector and into cloud based service environments.  The OGC Standard Contract Clauses will contain a clause to ensure that the government secures full rights to bespoke software code or customisations of commercial off the shelf products it procures, and that it is clear that these rights cover re-use anywhere else in the public sector and the ability to release the code on an open-source basis.  Where appropriate, general purpose software developed by or for government will be released on an open source basis.

Action 10: Communication, Consultation and Review: Government will communicate this policy and its associated actions widely and will expand it as necessary.  It will engage with the Open Source community and actively encourage projects that might, in due course, develop into ‘Government Class’ products.  It will keep the policy and progress on the actions under review, and report on progress publicly.