With the 2005 deadline for e-enabling public sector services fast approaching, a consortium of leading UK businesses is to publish its verdict next month on the progress so far.
The report, which is being drawn up by the likes of Cadbury Schweppes, Rolls-Royce, Microsoft, Taylor Woodrow and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, is being presented as a framework for e-government and will be unveiled at Parliament in early May. It is intended to motivate senior civil servants and is likely to heap more pressure on those public sector organisations who are lagging behind.
The companies behind the report form part of the BuyIT Network, which is an independent e-business best practice group. It was established to share practical experience and provoke discussion on key technology issues facing the UK.
The framework document will provide an e-government readiness checklist for ministers to assess their progress. It will call for more customer-centred government services and more efficient technology-driven processes. The report's authors say the government still has work to do to get mechanisms in place and the e-business leaders insist that e-government services need to be faster and easier to use. The draft document, which has been seen by Online, refers to the UK social security system as a "maze" and argues that seamless efficient processes are an urgent priority.
"The purpose of the framework is to provoke a discussion," says Graham Colclough, vice president of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. "The purpose is not for it to be an interesting document that stays on the shelf." He stresses that the new framework initiative should not be seen as the private sector telling government what to do. He says it is designed as an opportunity for collaboration and knowledge-sharing on the key outstanding issues.
Colclough believes that customer-centric thinking is a fundamental change which the public sector still has to make in order for the execution of e-government initiatives to be successful on a large scale. "The second most important thing to fulfil customer needs is to think of the public sector as a series of processes to deliver services. It's not a whole bunch of vertical silos."
Getting the public sector to "work as one" with streamlined services which look beyond departmental silos is one of the main messages the report's authors wish to get across. "When you talk about e-business, it's about changing processes as well as changing technology," says Tim Walton, director of e-business for Rolls-Royce.
The fact that people buy books from Amazon and bank online demonstrates that the government can learn a lot from the private sector about how to deliver its own services electronically to the public, Walton says.
The framework document will argue that government departments and public sector bodies need to develop more compelling customer propositions. The document acknowledges that the take-up of e-enabled services is currently below expectations and argues that marketing and communications will become an essential ingredient of success.
The private sector companies who are behind this report are refreshingly candid about their own shortcomings. "I think we have done purchasing very well. We have made inroads on the customer side but there is more to do there," admits Walton.
The commercial sector is generally perceived to have made a fair amount of progress with the e-enabling of its supply chains. In the retail sector in particular, suppliers are being given more timely information and a more transparent and dynamic view of the ordering process so they can plan ahead. In contrast, government suppliers typically have to liaise with different departments in different ways. Using e-business technologies brings more consistent and time-efficient methods to both purchasers and suppliers, the report's authors argue.
Coenraad van der Poel, managing director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for EzGov, says the government did well to set targets for services going online, but he argues that the e-government agenda has moved on. "Today it's about uptake. It's about the user experience and joining up government in the interests of a customer-centric set of services."
The report's authors are keen that senior civil servants recognise the role they can play in driving e-government reforms. Van der Poel says: "This is not something they should leave to the prime minister or their IT departments or a bunch of outside consultants. Senior civil servants can make a lot of this happen. Real success is achievable by their departments today and can by driven by them and their sponsorship."
