eolas magazine issue 45 Digital Government report 2021

Freedom to innovate

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Freedom to innovate

Minister of State Ossian Smyth TD (right) with Paul Quinn, Chief Procurement Officer, Office of Government Procurement.

Ireland’s eGovernment policy: Minister of State Ossian Smyth TD As the Government prepares the successor to the eGovernment Strategy 2017–2020, Ciarán Galway speaks with Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement and eGovernment, Ossian Smyth TD. eGovernment, as defined by the OECD, is “the use of information and communications technologies, and particularly the internet, to achieve better government”. In other words, eGovernment is less about the technology and more about making the delivery of public services more efficient, user-orientated and transparent.

“The public, at this stage, expect that the services that they receive from the Government will be as good and as convenient as the services that they obtain commercially,” Minister Smyth says, adding: “This process has been accelerated by the pandemic and, by necessity, many people have been using online services who would otherwise not have done so.”

These services are being developed to meet citizen expectations through the

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use of familiar controls and operations.

For example, while motor tax renewal was available online via basic HTML, now this interface is moving towards video and webchat. “It is a more up-todate and normalised way of providing a service that meets expectations.

Similarly, the Covid Tracker App looks like any commercial app. It’s intuitive and looks similar to and is as good as any commercial application,” Smyth indicates.

Overall, the digital function of government is split across five departments: • the Digital Single Market is the responsibility of Minister of State for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Trade Promotion, Robert Troy TD; • cybersecurity and communications

networks are the responsibility of Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD; • the regulation of social media is the responsibility of Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD; • a coordinating digital government function is the responsibility of the Department of the Taoiseach; and • eGovernment is the responsibility of Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement and eGovernment, Ossian Smyth TD, within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Appointed to his current portfolio in July 2020, Ossian Smyth is a computer science graduate and was first elected to

Freedom to innovate the Dáil in February 2020. In his role as Minister of State, he is responsible for ICT policy and “ensuring that everything is in line to facilitate the delivery of digital services to the public”.

MyGovID Identifying the MyGovID e-ID system as the single most important component of his work, Smyth outlines: “It is very important that the Government can digitally authenticate the public. For example, if you consider healthcare and Covid management, it requires that you keep track of who has had a vaccine, which dose they have had, and that you can locate them for the second dose.

This requires a common identity framework. Really, my focus is going to be on extending the e-ID system, making it stronger and offering more services online.”

MyGovID is a joint initiative, undertaken

by Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Social Protection, the rationale of which is to provide Irish citizens with a safe and secure single site to access digital public services. It is intended to establish a more joined up approach to government with sharing between public bodies. In February 2021, the initiative reached a significant milestone of 1,000,000 verified MyGovID accounts and over 2,500,000 in total (including basic MyGovID accounts).

Asserting the importance of ensuring compliance with the EU’s standard for interoperability of national ID systems, the Minister also recognises the requirement for MyGovID to be fully legal and ethically acceptable to the public. “It is absolutely critical that the public understands that what we are doing is right, proportionate and that we are delivering the services that they want.

People want their privacy respected, but they also want convenience.

“The very basic proposition to people is, ‘do you want to have to use a different

Re-emphasising the catalytic impact of the Covid crisis, Smyth notes: “Many people went online during the pandemic.

We doubled the number of people who have MyGovID accounts over the course of a year, which is a big deal, and we’re going to go further still.”

Limited digital services However, the eGovernment Minister is conscious that while Ireland has a significant proportion of the population signed up to MyGovID accounts, it is lagging in the range of public services which are being delivered digitally.

“I will be ensuring that a much broader range of services is made available. I would say very clearly to anyone in the public sector who is developing a new service aimed at the public and requires the public log in that it should be using MyGovID as the authentication system.

You should not be setting up a system for 500,000 Irish people that tells them to choose a new username and password when they already have one that works on our existing system. I want to see MyGovID by default,” he insists.

Open Data Open Data is a major component of the Public Service ICT Strategy and wider public service reform. As per the sixth EU Open Data Maturity Report published in December 2020, Ireland continues to be ranked among the Open Data ‘trend setters’. Ranked fourth in Europe (behind Denmark, Spain and France), Ireland scored 94 per cent across the four metrics: policy; impact; portal; and quality.

Acknowledging this, the eGovernment Minister indicates that “there is more to do” and highlights the “strains and challenges were shown up during the pandemic”. As an example, he points to the challenge of acquiring accurate data from the General Register Office, within the Department of Social Protection, relating to the number Covid-related deaths.

“In Ireland, a death can be registered within three months, which is not ideal when attempting to record how many people died last week,” Smyth says, adding: “The policy question is: ‘Are things getting worse or are they getting better? Did our policy change work?’ If you’re only getting data as vital and basic as whether someone is alive or not, three months after their death, you have clearly got a problem.”

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“My specific area [of responsibility] is the online delivery of government services to the public, but also it is about ensuring that the public sector is doing everything online internally,” he explains. Smyth is also responsible for open data. “The idea is clear now that the data feeds into the policy. You have that cyclic input and there is public demand for it.”

username and password for every part of the Government when you go to access a service?’ The clear message we have had from the public is no. People want to have one account which can be used to get a tax refund or apply for a welfare payment. I am working on that,” he states.

The Minister is cognisant of the fundamental importance of datainformed government policy decisions in securing public support. “From that perspective, one of the things that is changing is that when a government department is producing data, it should be open by default and the department should be considering how its dashboard should be presented to the public. If you produce open data that is available for people to understand, you can then get buy-in from the public for the policy decisions that are based on that data.”

Public Service Data Catalogue Discussing the impact of the Public Service Data Catalogue as a component of Public Service Data Strategy 20192023, the eGovernment Minister acknowledges the contribution of local government and describes its rationale as being to facilitate greater transparency for citizens in relation to public service data, as well as a more joined-up and efficient public service.

Launched in February 2021, the Public Service Data Catalogue provides descriptive information on over 1,100 datasets across close to 100 public bodies, including their purpose and whether they contain personal or sensitive data.

“One of the frequent criticisms of all governments is that they are not joinedup. This is apparent when two departments collaborate on a project; they often find that they are using a different set of identifiers for datasets which identify the same objects.

“Having the Public Sector Data Catalogue is vital and fits in with the requirements of the new EU Open Data Directive which provides that a collection of datasets must be published freely by every government in the EU.” 4 89

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“Many people went online during the pandemic. We doubled the number of people who have MyGovID accounts over the course of a year, which is a big deal, and we’re going to go further still.”

Berlin Declaration A successor to the 2017 Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment, the Berlin Declaration on Digital Society and Valuebased Digital Government was signed by EU member states in December 2020.

The Berlin Declaration is intended to increase digital participation and inclusion by ensuring that digital transformation in the public sector is informed by a series of agreed principles and associated policy actions.

These principles are: • validity and respect of fundamental rights and democratic values; • social participation and digital inclusion; • empowerment and digital literacy; • trust and security in digital government interactions; • digital sovereignty and interoperability; • human-centred systems and innovative technologies in the public sector; and • a resilient and sustainable digital society.

Upon signing the agreement, Smyth remarked: “It is important that we enable all of our people to engage digitally with public and other services and ensure that no one who wants to participate is left behind.

“During the pandemic, a lot of people were forced to try something for the first time, such as making a video call to an elderly relative or something similar. That option is available to a lot of people.

However, we are never going to stop people from picking up their pension in a post office. You can provide someone with a bank card, but they may still

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prefer to pick it up in cash. There is no policy change on that. We have to be inclusive, and we have to ensure that people are not left behind.”

Climate agenda In particular, the eGovernment Minister and Green Party TD welcomed the Berlin Declaration’s inclusion of the ambition that European digital transformation must closely align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal.

The Declaration states: “The digital transformation in Europe needs to be closely aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement as well as the goals of the European Green Deal. With reference to the current work on Council Conclusions on Digitalisation for the Benefit of the Environment, we need to ensure that a sustainable digital transformation serves our citizens and businesses on an individual level as well as our society as a whole, while at the same time safeguarding the preservation of our natural foundations of life.”

Similarly, the EU’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan contains three priority areas for development across the EU in the context of a massive investment led post-pandemic recovery.

Those three areas are: green transition; digital transition; and retraining.

“There is a paradox with the green recovery because if you are building lots of windfarms and you are investing in transition to electric vehicles and retrofitted homes. That is a lot of economic activity and there are a lot of

emissions associated with that.

“Many of the new technologies require training and much of that training will now take place online. That connects digitalisation and the green recovery. For example, as an engineer, you can log into a wind turbine to service it. Anything in the green sphere requires a lot of ICT, information dissemination, and monitoring and sensing technology,” Smyth maintains.

Vision Concluding, Minister Smyth outlines his ambition for eGovernment in Ireland, indicating that citizens should be enabled to “readily and rapidly access their government services with very little hassle”. Highlighting the work undertaken by the Passport Service to deliver Passport Online as archetypal, the Minister re-emphasises the importance of public trust “when citizens supply information, that the Government is not using that information for purposes other than those intended”.

Overall, he intends to deliver: “A trustworthy, reliable, convenient and broad system that is as good as any other country in Europe and that saves people time and money, while being efficient for the State to run.

Simultaneously, providing that no one is left behind, whether culturally or physically incapable of obtaining their services online, there will always be a human option if they need it. That’s the vision for the future.”

Freedom to innovate

Public sector 20 per cent remote working target

In January 2021, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD, published Ireland’s first National Remote Work Strategy, with the aim of making remote working a permanent option for life after the pandemic.

The strategy acknowledges that the pandemic has accelerated a practice which “might have taken decades had it been planned” and points to economic, spatial, environmental, cultural, and societal change which could be brought about as a result of increased remote working.

The strategy acknowledges demand for remote work beyond that necessitated by the pandemic. NUI Galway research recorded an increase in the desire for remote working opportunities over the period of the pandemic and in October 2020 research found that 94 per cent of participants would like to work remotely post-pandemic.

One of the main actions of the strategy is to mandate for home and remote working to be the norm for 20 per cent of public sector employment. The action is one of many underpinning conditions within the Government’s three pillar approach to increased remote working, namely: the creation of a conducive environment; developing and leveraging remote work infrastructure; and building a remote work policy and guidance framework.

Other key actions included in the strategy relate to:

• reviewing the treatment of remote working for the purposes of tax and expenditure in the next budget; • mapping and investing in a network of remote working hubs across Ireland; • legislating for the right to request remote working; • developing a code of practice for the right to disconnect; and • accelerating the provision of highspeed broadband to all parts of Ireland.

The key actions are designed to not only harness the potential of increased remote working but also to mitigate against some of the recognised downsides that the practice could bring.

The 2016 census recorded an 11 per cent increase in the number of people commuting and a rise of 8 per cent in the number of people commuting by car.

Research previously commissioned by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment estimated that one individual’s commute time to Dublin for work had an estimated economic cost of around 4,000. The strategy recognises the potential for increased remote working to aid the Government’s ambitions to reduce transport carbon emissions.

Another potential advantage is increased labour market participation, included but not limited to workers with disabilities or older workers, while the strategy highlights benefits associated with

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The Government has signalled its intention to ensure remote working is a permanent feature in the Irish workforce post-pandemic, including outlining plans to mandate for 20 per cent of public sector employment to work remotely. improved work/life balance and childcare flexibility for parents.

One of the most recognised potential benefits is accommodation flexibility, relieving some of the pressures in cities, where demand has driven up rent and house prices. NUI Galway research indicates that 7 per cent of people it talked to had already relocated as a result of their experiences of remote working during the pandemic and a further 40 per cent indicated they would or may consider a move.

However, the strategy also recognises that an increase in remote working is not without its challenges. The potential for increased isolation, loneliness and stress is a significant concern in relation to remote workers, as is employer feedback that suggests remote working could lead to an innovation deficit due to less collaboration. There is a recognition that less commuting could have adverse impacts to businesses and local economies designed to complement traditional commuter patterns, while reduced visibility could have negative impacts on career progression ambitions and gender equality in the workplace.

Launching the strategy, Varadkar said: “The requirement to work from home where possible, for reasons of public health, has demonstrated how viable home, remote and blended working can be. Post-pandemic, I want remote working to be part of a whole new world of work and this new government strategy sets out how we will enable it.”

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The cloud is transforming public services: Ireland is poised to lead by example It is similar, in effect, to flipping a switch in your home to turn on the lights. You don’t have to wrestle with the machinery or infrastructure that generates the electricity, much like users of cloud computing no longer need to expend time, money, or resources on server rooms and hardware.

So just why is the cloud, besides its inherent agility, so synonymous with effective public services? We have learnt in AWS, from working with governments around the globe, that the hallmark of a well-delivered service often includes at least four separate factors, all of which are intrinsic features of cloud computing.

The way public services are being delivered, all over the world, is rapidly changing, writes Mark Finlay, Head of Public Sector Ireland at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

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As people make greater use of the internet and smart devices, they want governments to provide better digital services. Covid-19 has only served to accelerate this trend, with a greater expectation than ever that State bodies should be able to operate remotely and at speed. Ireland is no different. The vast majority of Irish people are digitally connected, technologically savvy, and fully comfortable in online environments.

The country’s well-earned status as a global technology hub is also feeding the growing appetite for innovation in the delivery of public services.

This has not been lost on the Irish Government, who have made the better use of new technologies a headline objective. Key official texts, including the 2017 eGovernment Strategy, Our Public Service 2020 and the current Programme for Government, all stress the need to accelerate the digital 92

delivery of services. The recent new innovation strategy, Making Innovation Real, recognises too that new digital solutions must be provided to meet both the expectations and needs of the public.

Cloud computing is key to this burgeoning national and global digital transformation. That’s because the flexibility it provides is fundamental to the responsive and nimble services that people now expect from Government.

As the cloud allows for the on-demand delivery of dynamic IT resources over the internet, State bodies using it no longer have to worry about managing cumbersome and expensive data centres. Instead, they simply access the digital tools they require on an asneeded basis, meaning they can focus on services and outcomes rather than the hardware underpinning them.

The first is elasticity, meaning that the service in question can withstand surges in demand, whether unforeseen or not. If it can’t, systems fail and citizens become frustrated and disaffected. The use of AWS by UCAS, the UK equivalent of the CAO, demonstrates how the cloud helps public authorities to manage demand peaks. Once a year, when it releases ALevel results in August, the UCAS website experiences a massive influx of traffic. AWS allows UCAS to scale up to accommodate that demand and then scale back down to normal loads afterwards, while paying only for what it needs.

The second factor is security and privacy. People care (and rightly so) about how their data is treated by public bodies. If they feel their personal details are not secure, they can quickly lose trust in the public services that utilise them. The cloud though provides the necessary, and reassuring, safeguards that citizens demand. As security is our top priority in AWS, we invest hundreds of millions of dollars every year in firstclass protections. The public services that rely on us therefore benefit from that massive economy of scale and the security it affords. This is a central reason why so many institutions are transitioning to AWS. In 2019, for example, Grand River Hospital, a major

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The third element is innovation. The best delivered public services are often those that use new tools to improve every-day outcomes for people. This quality is actually one of the most exciting things about cloud computing; it allows public bodies access to cuttingedge technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, without the need to invest in costly super computers. The experience of Transport for NSW (TfNSW), an Australian Government Agency responsible for improving public transport, brings that to life. In 2018, TfNSW began using AWS machinelearning to transition from historicallybased analytics to a forward-looking model with predictive capability. The power of those cloud services now means that TfNSW is better able to predict passenger numbers across its entire transport network, thereby improving the experience of all who use it.

Some of the most forward-thinking governments across the world, including

“As security is our top priority in AWS, we invest hundreds of millions of dollars every year in firstclass protections. The public services that rely on us therefore benefit from that massive economy of scale and the security it affords.”

Singapore, Norway, Australia, and Canada, have already recognised these inter-connections between the cloud and first-rate public services. They are now putting the cloud to good use and reaping its benefits.

Ireland is more than ready to catch the crest of that wave. It has a progressive government cloud-first strategy, adopted in 2019, that encourages public sector bodies to maximise cloud opportunities.

It has extensive cloud infrastructure already in place, developed by companies like AWS, ready to be leveraged. And it has the requisite acumen across the public sector to bring big ideas, like wide-scale cloud adoption, fully to fruition.

The use of the cloud in some recent Irish Government projects, such as the Covid smartphone app, which is run on AWS, provides just a glimpse of its wider potential. The full array of possibilities that the cloud opens up across so many different policy and operational areas is really almost

endless. Moving to it, and leaving antiquated computing behind, is also more straightforward than it might seem. AWS has extensive global experience of working with public bodies — including over 7,500 government agencies, 14,000 academic institutions, and 35,000 nonprofits — to make that transition as smooth as possible. And the end result is almost always the same: money is saved, outcomes are improved, and citizens are better served.

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The final factor is the least tangible: aspiration. To be sure, the priority for many people is that governments do the simple things well, but they increasingly want them to think big too and to try achieve goals that were technologically out-of-reach only a decade or two ago.

This is where the cloud comes in, it opens up new horizons in what is possible. Take, for example, AWS data analytics tools that are helping make breakthroughs in how medical conditions are identified and diagnosed.

SkinVision, an international start-up, uses AWS to help identify skin cancer (the most common form of cancer in Ireland). Its free-to-download app, regulated by the EU as a medical device, allows people to scan moles and skin lesions in their own homes. The images are then assessed by machine learning-based algorithms. This is quickening diagnosis, expediting treatment, and saving lives.

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Canadian hospital in the State of Ontario, turned to AWS to house its highly sensitive patient data. The hospital needed to safely store confidential information but also in such a way that it was accessible, as necessary, to the patients concerned under Canadian law. Using the cloud made that possible.

If you want to learn more about how the AWS Cloud can help your organisation to innovate and digitally transform, please contact the Irish AWS Public Sector team.

E: aws-publicsector-ireland@amazon.com

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Freedom to innovate

Transforming the future of digital public services Government of Ireland CIO, Barry Lowry, discusses the importance of delivering the building blocks of transformation and the Covid-19 pandemic’s catalytic impact on the use of digital services.

In December 2019, the Government issued a public commitment to making digital transformation a priority for the year ahead. Usefully, the Government’s statement also included extensive detail and outlined four major principles of this transformation, namely: 1. appointment of a board member responsible for digitalisation in each department; 2. to ensure the most frequently used services are used digitally rather than simply being available online; 3. to ensure that all digital services have

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the same look and feel, are understandable and easy to use, and use available infrastructure as building blocks; and

which the Government has been utilising for some time now.

Progress to date, he asserts, has been underpinned by the driving principle of

4. to ensure that all services are developed in line with best practice, for example, transformational, userdriven, mobile-centric and accessible by all.

enabling people to use government

Responding to a question posed on whether Ireland is ready to transform its digital public services, Lowry says he believes so and points to the digital foundations for digital transformation

of MyGovID from a base of fewer than

services at the time and place of their choosing and a central plank of that principle has been the delivery of MyGovID. Highlighting the growth in use 10,000 accounts five years ago, Lowry indicates that a milestone of over one million verified users was surpassed in February 2021.

Freedom to innovate The Government’s CIO believes that the pandemic has accelerated uptake of MyGovID accounts and attributed to 29 million logins to online government services to date.

Additionally, the Government is in the process of enacting the Data Sharing and Governance Act, signed into law in March 2019, and the Data Governance Board will meet in early 2021. Alongside the Public Service Data Strategy 20192023, which sets out a detailed vision to deliver a more coherent whole-ofGovernment approach to how data is used and managed within the public service, Lowry contends that Ireland is more advanced than any other country in Europe in relation to data and is worthy of its rating as the best in terms of open data.

Discussing the Government’s progress in digital transformation, Lowry states that digital government is something quite different from the previous process of the move from analogue government to egovernment. “E-government is when we took bits of our analogue model and computerised it, whereas digital government is something quite different, where we reimagine services because digital is now available,” he says.

“That’s a space which we are now moving into. We are starting to consult and involve customers more, through various means such as workshops, to really get an understanding of their journeys before we design our digital services.”

By way of example, Lowry points to a partnership between his department and Trinity Business School, where the Department asks 120 digital marketing master’s students to navigate and report on life events, such as entering the higher-level undergraduate education system, navigating the small claims court, registering a business in Ireland, or applying for Irish citizenship.

Outlining how recommendations then inform improvements to the services, Lowry adds: “What is really interesting is that not only are we getting feedback from the generation which is using digital and mobile digital the most but that it is with a group with digital marketing expertise. Additionally, 80 per cent of the students are non-indigenous. At a time when our population is moving towards 20 per cent non-indigenous, it is critical that our digital services meet the demands of all, not just those native to the country.”

public services but for the private sector

Lowry identifies the Covid Tracker app, developed in response to the pandemic, as the “perfect example” of how digital government should work. A user-centred approach to development, ranging from how the app looked to the features embedded within it, alongside utilisation of local SMEs, multi-nationals and internal capability has delivered what is widely regarded as a global exemplar for an app of its nature.

relating to AI supported apps to enable

“I think it is a very good example of how government needs to be rather than how we used to be,” states Lowry.

are doing is transparent and will meet the

Looking towards the future, Lowry believes that the Government should never be satisfied with its performance in relation to digital government but alludes to many positive developments.

deliver offline services better too

The OECD references the concept of ‘Government as a Platform’, which relates to government setting out the standards and approaches to the use of data, and this is intended not just for all

government services.

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Another major component of digitalisation has been Gov.ie, the portal from which all government services are presented and something which Lowry describes as “absolutely critical” throughout the pandemic as the go-toplace for information for citizens on available services.

“Transparency is another major part of what we are doing and everything we do, including the Covid Tracker app.

We work with the Data Protection Commissioner in advance where possible to ensure that what we are doing is transparent and will meet the requirements of GDPR.” also.

Lowry suggests that this approach is a major component of the current workstream and points to e-Credentials, a current programme looking at how citizens can use their government verified credentials for personal use, as a prime example.

Another important element is inclusivity and Lowry points to a further example of ongoing work with a start-up company citizens, whose first language is not English, to better access government services.

He elaborates: “Transparency is another major part of what we are doing and everything we do, including the Covid Tracker app. We work with the Data Protection Commissioner in advance where possible to ensure that what we needs of GDPR. “All of this gives us an opportunity to because we appreciate that we are not likely to, in the near future or even in the medium-term, get to a situation where 100 per cent of people are using digital

“I believe for those who can’t, we can use the freed-up capacity to deliver a much better service,” he concludes.

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eInvoicing: Smart collaboration to drive adoption among suppliers From EU research projects to AI and Blockchain initiatives, IT Sligo’s collaborations with public bodies and business are helping to deliver innovative eInvoicing implementations across the public sector.

Padraig Harte, Lecturer in Computing at IT Sligo, outlines the role his organisation has had in Ireland’s eInvoicing journey, some of the initiatives that are underway and the importance of an education and supports based approach to increasing supplier uptake of eInvoicing going forward.

Agency or the supplier,” recalls Harte.

Subsequently, a Multi-Stakeholder Forum on eInvoicing was established by the EU Commission, which resulted in an eInvoice standard. It was approved through EU National Standards Bodies, and the NSAI in Ireland, and became the only accepted eInvoice standard for the EU.

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While legislation and the national approach are key drivers for establishing an eInvoicing capability within the public sector, academia is also playing an important role in the digital transformation of invoice processing in public procurement. Over the last 10 years, IT Sligo have built up an extensive body of knowledge and expertise in the area of electronic invoicing (eInvoicing). This includes research and development work and collaborations with technology, policy, public administration and business stakeholders, both in Ireland and across Europe.

“We first became involved in eInvoicing in 2012, providing research support and coordination for a pilot electronic invoicing project for the Irish Government. That pilot successfully proved that suppliers could send invoices electronically to Irish Government agencies irrespective of the formats used by the Government

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Since April 2020, all public bodies must be able to receive and process electronic invoices in accordance with the European Directive (2014/55/EU) and the European standard for eInvoicing in public procurement. The implementation of the Directive in Ireland was led by the Office of Government Procurement which established the eInvoicing Ireland Programme to facilitate and enable public bodies to make the necessary provisions to meet their legal obligations.

The eInvoicing standard, Directive and the availability of EU funding facilitated public bodies to collaborate in order to establish their eInvoicing capability. With their expertise in this field, IT Sligo coordinated several important public sector CEF Digital eInvoicing projects in both Ireland and other EU States.

One such project was with the Department of Education and Skills’ Education Shared Business Services function (ESBS). This project upgraded the ESBS’ existing eInvoice processing system to support the European eInvoicing standard (EN) and promoted the uptake of eInvoicing across SMEs in

Ireland. The project helped both large organisations and SMEs to adopt eInvoicing and send them to ESBS, thereby minimising administrative and cost overheads. The project also interfaced purchase card bank-produced files for processing via the eInvoicing system. This has proven to be a very successful European standard compliant eInvoicing initiative in the public service with a significant number of suppliers on-boarded and increasing volumes of eInvoices now being processed by ESBS. Another agency with centralised responsibility for coordinating invoice processing for their sector is the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA). In excess of one million invoices are processed annually across 31 local authority’s. IT Sligo coordinated a project, in collaboration with the LGMA, to establish a central eInvoicing gateway for three local authority’s.

Suppliers can now submit eInvoices, via the national Peppol-based approach, to the LGMA’s eInvoicing exchange gateway which integrates with each local authority’s ERP system. eInvoices are automatically received and validated for compliance with the European standard.

Local requirements are also validated, such as the existence of mandatory information that might be required for processing the invoice as ready for payment. This approach and the lessons learned during the project is being used to roll out eInvoicing within the other 28 local authorities.

Another ongoing project is the eInvoicing

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for Communities project which uses a community-based model. The Tubbercurry area in Sligo is involved and they are Ireland’s first smart community who are focused on how local citizens and businesses can use technology, including eInvoicing, to enhance the way they interact with public bodies to transform their community in significant and positive ways. There is also work ongoing to explore the potential of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to further improve the invoice processing, provide data analytics and to help detect and prevent fraud. One of IT Sligo’s projects involves using an AI machine learning system to identify, and divert into an exception workflow, invoices that are liable for Withholding Tax while another is focused on the automation of invoice processing.

In addition to establishing and promoting the use of digital, “these projects have generated valuable insights into how to encourage the adoption of eInvoicing among suppliers. Our research and the learnings from these projects point to the need for the public sector to take a cohesive national approach and to take proactive measures to educate and assist their suppliers on eInvoicing in terms of how it works, the benefits and the options available to get setup,” explains Harte.

To help address this, IT Sligo developed an innovative massive open online course (MOOC) that deals specifically with eInvoicing, covering these areas and certifying participants who complete the course.

Office of Government Procurement eInvoicing supports for Public Bodies To facilitate public bodies in reaching compliance with the eInvoicing Directive, the Office of Government Procurement

The eInvoicing service providers on the Framework connect public bodies to the Peppol network and offer solutions and services to enable basic compliance with the Directive as well as a more fully integrated approach to eInvoicing, facilitating ‘straight-through processing’. eInvoicing and straight-through

processing helps businesses pay and receive money faster and more efficiently.

Oonagh Hackett, Assistant Principal eInvoicing Ireland Programme Office of Government Procurement Office of Government Procurement, 3A Mayor Street Upper Dublin 1, D01 PF72 E: einvoicing@ogp.gov.ie

For further information Advertorial

While the European Directive, the national approach and the OGP’s Framework for procuring eInvoicing services have been key to building the roadmap for the eInvoicing journey in Ireland, Harte believes “that the eInvoicing standard and a common National and European approach are gaining momentum and will be key in transitioning eInvoicing from being an innovative development to become the predominate method for invoice processing in both public and private sectors”.

established a National Framework Agreement for the provision of eInvoicing and Peppol networking services to the public sector in Ireland.

Please log onto www.ogp.gov.ie/einvoicing or contact: einvoicing@ogp.gov.ie

Accessing the Framework For anyone looking to access the OGP eInvoicing Framework, please log onto the OGP Buyer Zone via www.ogp.gov.ie and select/ search as follows: Category: Managed Services Keyword: ‘PEPPOL’ or ‘eInvoicing systems’ OGP Clients must register to gain access to the Buyer zone available to all public service buyers accessing live contracts/frameworks.

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European Digital Green Certificate on track for summer 2021 In April 2021, EU ambassadors agreed a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on the proposal for a Digital Green Certificate, also known as a Covid passport, as the EU looks to digitally “facilitate the safe free movement of citizens within the EU during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

The legal framework of the Digital Green Certificate is made up of two legislative proposals, the first concerning EU citizens and their families and the second concerning third-country nationals legally residing in an EU member state. Going by these proposals, it will be possible to use the certificate across all EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

After the European Commission presented the proposals for regulations in March, EU ambassadors approved the establishment and mandate of an ad-hoc working party in order to accelerate the matter as a priority. With the negotiation principles now agreed after several working party meetings, the European Parliament is expected to adopt its position by the end of April, with interinstitutional negotiations beginning soon after. Member states have agreed that the framework should be ready for summer 2021.

Five key amendments were introduced by the European Council to the legislative texts: • a reference to the fact that the Digital Green Certificate will not be a precondition for people to exercise free movement and is not a travel

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document “in order to stress the principle of non-discrimination, in particular towards non-vaccinated persons”; • a new article on the international dimension governing certificates issued to EU citizens and thirdcountry EU residents; • data protection provisions have been strengthened, “in particular on the basis of the joint opinion of the European Data Protection Supervision and the European Data Protection Board”; and • a transitional provision to ensure that member states can continue to use the systems currently in place during a six-week period after the entry into force of the main regulation until the framework is fully operational; and • the text of the draft allows Ireland and other member states to mutually accept certificates issued to thirdcountry nationals based on reciprocity.

National authorities will be in charge of issuing the certificate, which could be provided by institutions such as hospitals, test centres or health authorities. The certificate will act as

digital proof that a person has been vaccinated against Covid-19, returned a negative test, or recovered from Covid19. It will be accepted in EU member states to ensure that restrictions currently in place can be lifted in a coordinated manner. Member states who choose to continue to require certificate holders to quarantine or test upon their arrival must notify the Commission and the other member states to justify their decision.

From a technical standpoint, the certificate will contain a QR code with a digital signature to protect it against falsification; to check the certificate the code will be scanned, and the signature verified. Each issuing body has its own digital signature, with each of these to be stored in a database in their country. The European Commission will build a gateway, through which all certificate signatures can be verified across the EU. The personal data embedded in the digital signature is not necessary for its verification and thus will not pass through the gateway with the rest of the digital signature. The Commission has also pledged to help member states to develop as software to check these QR codes.

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Harnessing the power of data with emerging technologies AI reference architectures that make it easy to deploy and consume in a safe and secure manner, allowing organisations to spend less time on the technology and more time on the outcomes; time that can be spent supporting staff to understand how AI can support and enhance their roles, replacing repetitive tasks that take valuable time away from their core duties thereby opening up new working opportunities.

George Maybury, Public Sector Director, Dell Technologies

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The “data deluge” thrives with an explosion of data that continues to be created as more and more organisations accelerate their digital transformation.

The challenge faced is how to create value from this digital gold, writes John O’Donoghue, Emerging Technologies Consultant, and Ryan Heynes, Healthcare Leader, Dell Technologies Ireland.

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Today, many organisations are beginning to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) tools to provide interesting insights into their data, with the goal of developing new products and services, solving problems faster, and attracting new customers.

adoption of AI including data management, ethical bias and, of course, security. Not to mention overcoming the resistance of staff to utilise where there are concerns that the AI solution may reduce staff numbers in the future.

Organisations must consider the layers of complexity which come with the

Operational and ethical issues aside, Dell Technologies continues to develop

“Ireland continues to have a shortage of skills in AI,” says John O’Donoghue, Emerging Technology lead for Dell Technologies, “and it’s vital that we continue to develop skills and prepare students for future work environments.”

A collaboration between Dell Technologies and Munster Technological University has been underway for some time, to develop a system to train the next generation of data scientists as part of the universities master’s degree in AI. However, this shortage in skills is not limited to Ireland, and governments across the globe need to look deeper into how they develop new talent in the field of AI in order to support greater adoption of this technology into public services. AI has the potential to drive more efficiency and better-quality public services, but adopting the technology involves a cultural shift in how we think about data.

A critical need for Ireland is to appoint a Minister for Data, whose responsibility would span how citizens data can be securely managed across departments to deliver better quality services for everyone. There are many legitimate concerns being raised about the inappropriate use of data by governmental bodies. Safeguarding the data and its use is paramount in providing assurance to citizens that their

data will not be accessed without their consent or used for any purpose other than that which it was originally collected for.

Utilising emerging technologies has enabled governments to move from reacting to events, to proactively preparing for or avoiding them completely. Public departments are now starting to collaborate to create new improved services and experiences for citizens. Healthcare services are working across all public service departments to create a holistic view of care provision, moving from the sickness model of treating an illness to a wellness model where they are proactively avoiding it in the first place.

Beyond data being created within healthcare providers, people are now creating their own healthcare data through the growth in wearable lifestyle devices such as fitness watches. Users have the option to share this data as part of their wider patient data profile, which can give additional context to the overall picture of their health and lifestyle.

The potential to utilise this data to improve the patient experience and improve the general health of all citizen needs to be a priority of governments globally. With the development of new medical devices, wearables and environmental data streams, which are collecting data in real-time, our core focus needs to be on driving data and messaging standards to ensure we can use this data effectively.

Ryan Heynes, Healthcare Leader, Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies are currently developing an artificial intelligence Digital Health Twin, in collaboration with the University of Limerick Cancer Network (ULCaN) and the HSE, which has been established as part of the network of Living Labs. The use of AI will enable a new profiling of cancer tissue using digital pathology, advanced AI and machine learning to create a digital twin to determine how patients will respond to treatment and the best pathway of care.

The digital twin is a developing simulated environment of a physical object/being to test potential scenarios.

To create a digital twin to evaluate cancer treatments, multiple data sources are required, starting with digital pathology images and then merging this data with medical record information, genomic data and other environmental sources which use AI to paint a complete picture. With the advanced analysis of this data, researchers and data scientists can then develop predictive models of how patients will respond to cancer treatment and develop a personalised treatment plan with the goal of better patient outcomes and improved utilisation of public services.

key to the development of this project, drawing skills from across several domains. ULCaN has established a team of researchers across multiple disciplines and leveraged the skills of Dell Technologies and the HSE to enable the program.

Governments and organisations across all industries must prepare for a future where machine learning, deep learning and high-performance data analytics are commonplace to stay competitive.

Harnessing the power of AI with high performance computing is closer than you think and within reach for organisations that are ready to take the next step forward on their digital transformation journey.

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Ryan Heynes, Healthcare lead for Dell Technologies says: “AI is rapidly becoming a critical tool in healthcare across a number of areas. We see AI used in decision support, to help make faster and more accurate diagnosis of diseases. It’s used widely in planning and logistics to optimise pathways of care and treatment, and of course it’s being used to speed up genomic sequencing, driving down the cost and time of personalised treatment.”

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Healthcare services are a prime example of how data can be misused, albeit in the patient’s best interest in most cases. There has been a lot of scrutiny about the use of patient data over the years, but with the emergence of the Covid 19 pandemic, we have seen a mind shift in how data can and should be used to support improvements in patient care.

John O’Donoghue Emerging Technologies Consultant Dell Technologies Ireland j_odonoghue@dell.com Ryan Heynes Healthcare Leader Dell Technologies Ireland Ryan_Heynes@dell.com

The collaboration across industry, research and government bodies was

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Mobile policing: Building a smarter organisation Tim Willoughby, Head of Digital Services and Innovation at An Garda Síochána discusses the importance of user-led mobile policing and the accelerating impact of the pandemic on building a smarter organisation.

Albert Einstein famously stated: “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it”.

It’s an approach that resonates with An Garda Síochána’s Head of Digital Services and Innovation, Tim Willoughby, who highlights his understanding that failure to understand a problem will ensure that elements of the problem “will remain well beyond the solution’s inability to solve it”.

Addressing and understanding problems before delivering solutions is a principle which Willoughby brought into his current role and to the organisation, from his background as a civil engineer.

Similarly, Willoughby recognises the importance of bringing diversity of opinion to digital innovation, stressing the importance of avoiding the common pitfall of groupthink in problem solving.

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Using one of his first endeavours in the role as an example, Willoughby highlights the ‘mobility project’ which has seen An Garda Síochána utilise smartphones as a platform for change.

Willoughby’s team has dedicated significant time to working with diverse innovation groups to define problem statements in mobile technology for the organisation and, from the outset, the Head of Digital Services and Innovation has incorporated frontline gardaí into his team.

alongside other principles such as agile working; solution aware prototyping; feedback loops; real time piloting; and team diversity and open standards.

Highlighting a further major switch, Willoughby says, historically, An Garda Síochána’s held firm to its reliance on proofs for concept but have moved to a minimal viable product approach.

Agile

Explaining the approach, he says: “If you think the same, you get the same results, so you need to start thinking differently and the only way to do that is to create different teams than that which you currently have.”

Outlining the reason for an agile approach, Willoughby points to the benefits of short sprints compared to long development cycles, rapid prototyping to address user acceptance, and better business engagement in a siloed organisation, as examples of greater efficiency.

Frontline/end user engagement is a central plank of An Garda Síochána’s approach to innovation in digital mobility,

Another advantage he alludes to is the minimisation of the training process required when integrating new

Freedom to innovate Strapline

technology through user-led design.

As well as end user input, the Head of Digital Services and Innovation also highlights inclusion of data stakeholders in the design of mobility technology.

Explaining the process, Willoughby says: “If you think of a garda at the side of the road they are checking for things like tax, insurance or vehicle roadworthiness.

They are doing that with data which is not ours but belongs to various stakeholders. So, we put an awful lot of onus on those stakeholders coming to our workshops to look at the end-to-end process and put in place greater responsibility on data reliability.”

A major project undertaken by Willoughby and is team was collaboration with users to deliver a set of principles required of any project.

The most prominent principle to emerge from the process was that of ‘once and done’, meaning that gardaí have the ability to start and finish something at the side of the road. Willoughby explains that this principle is now central to all design. One example he illustrates is the use of an application which enables a speed gun to automatically issues tickets for a ‘once and done’ approach.

Willoughby says that of the roughly 670 different offences monitored by An Garda Síochána, 600 are now once and done in nature.

Other principles to emerge include mobile first, or a recognition that technology that does not work on-the-go is of little use; public self-service to improve engagement with the public; and evidence-based policing, ensuring that the necessary evidence to do the job is available.

Core to the latter principle is the need for quality data capture. Willoughby explains: “We have to ensure that the data capture that we undertake is of a high quality. In each app that we have developed, we omit physical data entry, meaning that the information available on the frontline is already readily

“Because of all the familiarisation we had done with making the applications right for the end user we were confident in posting the handsets out, allowing staff to self-enrol and complete online training.” available, within the system, for greater efficiency. It’s vital then that that information is of a high quality.”

Síochána’s whole suite of applications

Pandemic

organisation’s call centre staff in their

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“With an agile approach you have less training because the applications which you are building are designed by users for users. That means that when they receive them, the core focus is on familiarisation rather than training because staff are so familiar with the business process,” explains Willoughby.

via mobile devices. The monitors are now being used by all of the own homes and have facilitated new

Discussing how An Garda Síochána’s approach to mobile policing was impacted by the pandemic, Willoughby points to a pre-existing availability of roughly 70 people in the organisation able to work from home concurrently, mainly comprising senior staff with a need for access to back-end systems.

working environments for guards to

“Where we started from was questioning how we could increase the pools of technology so that our front-end users could work from home. In recognising that our training college was to cease, we dismantled our training environment and scavenged the servers to put into virtual pools to dramatically increase our virtual desktop infrastructure and facilitate greater levels of homeworking,” he says.

employee.

“We had also originally rolled out around 1,200 handheld devices to our frontline and our challenge was how we would increase that rollout. Because of all the familiarisation we had done with making the applications right for the end user we were confident in posting the handsets out, allowing staff to self-enrol and complete online training.”

Explaining how the user-centred approach to application development has been core to current delivery, the Head of Digital Services and Innovation points to the purchasing and rollout of docking monitors, which support USBC and allow the running of An Garda

bubble in their respective teams.

As a result of Covid-19, the organisation has changed its desktop policy and mobile device strategy to ensure that technology rollout is better suited to the needs rather than the rank of the

Challenges One of the major challenges facing greater delivery of mobile policing was that of connectivity and numerous stations which are, as Willoughby describes, “at the edge of the network” and not served well by broadband.

Mobile repeaters and an amplifier inside such stations have facilitated gardaí located in these stations to utilise their mobile devices in the same manner. A similar set up is being used within cars, boosting the mobile signal for guards around the country meaning that their vehicles can now effectively serve as stations.

Concluding, Willoughby re-emphasises the contribution that frontline feedback has made to the delivery of the ambition to build a smarter organisation. “With the right technology, information-led policing is actually making a difference,” he summarises.

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Many consumers won’t feel comfortable shopping on high street until Covid is better controlled The .IE Tipping Point report, Irish e-commerce and digital business in the Covid vaccine era, is the second report analysing consumer and SME digital government report

behaviour and attitudes since the pandemic, writes David Curtin, CEO of .IE, the company that manages .ie domains, the preferred online identity for business in Ireland.

While vaccines offer Ireland a way out of lockdown, until a critical mass is reached and the population is immunised, our economy and society are set to remain in a state of flux. This flux is accelerating major trends in ecommerce and digitalisation. Behaviours and ways of working that boost sales, cut costs or increase convenience are likely to become permanently ingrained.

Key findings The vaccine era but no return to normal While vaccines have laid down a path back to normality, all government and medical advice suggests that economic restrictions and social distancing requirements are likely to remain in place until at least the end of 2021.

Consumers seem to be mostly on the same page. 55 per cent believe that life in 2021 will be mostly the same as life in 2020 or even more restricted.

The Covid consumer

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The way Irish consumers spend online and in-store is changing. 68 per cent of Irish consumers said they spent more online in 2020 than they did in 2019. A sizeable 42 per cent say they will do most of their shopping in physical, bricks-and-mortar stores in 2021, despite the current restrictions, down from 48 per cent in 2020. Greater numbers say they will shop only for necessities in-store but buy most other products online (43 per cent vs 41 per cent) or do most of their shopping online (15 per cent vs 11 per cent).

These changes reflect the current state of the pandemic. The longer compulsory online shopping continues, the more entrenched it will become in consumer behaviour.

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While consumers are keen to support local businesses during the pandemic (this number has risen from 67 per cent to 74 per cent among majority SME shoppers) international businesses continue to prove attractive. Cheaper prices, better product ranges and superior online storefronts were key factors driving behaviours among those that have done most of their shopping with international businesses.

However, consumer behaviour still implies competitive advantages for Irish SMEs. Solidarity and patriotism aside, many consumers think Irish businesses are faster and more reliable, more trustworthy

(which jumped to 48 per cent, up from 41 per cent) and have better order tracking and delivery. With investment in a modern, e-commerce website, Irish SMEs can also win over consumers who are simply seeking a straightforward and convenient online experience.

The Covid SME An increasing proportion of businesses recognise that a digital channel is key to their survival while the pandemic continues. 30 per cent of SMEs now claim to sell their products via an online store, up from 25 per cent in 2020.

Those SMEs with an online store have benefited from consumers spending more online. 86 per cent say they have experienced an increase in sales or sales enquiries from their online store since the pandemic began.

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The number of Irish SMEs that have invested in their online presence has grown remarkably: 55 per cent have invested since the beginning of the pandemic, up from just 21 per cent in 2020. Because of this investment, 78 per cent of SMEs say they have been able to sustain pre-Covid levels of business or are busier than before, up from 46 per cent in the summer of 2020.

It is therefore unsurprising that most fully intend to continue investing in their online presence in 2021. 61 per cent believe that their online presence will be more important to their business this year than last.

E: marketing@weare.ie W: www.weare.ie

Insights Here and now: Local and global factors that are currently influencing consumer behaviour and Irish e-commerce.

1.

2.

Play to your strengths Multinationals with globalised supply chains can be more competitive on price and range. However, Irish SMEs still have competitive USPs, such as trust and reliability. They need to focus on perfecting these advantages, for example, with personalised customer communications or faster delivery services, so that shopping local continuously generates benefits and value-adds for their customers.

Brexit: advantage Ireland?

The UK’s withdrawal from the EU may provide local businesses with some advantages which SMEs should seek to exploit. Because many Irish SMEs ship goods entirely within Ireland, they can pass on cost benefits to consumers, who will not have to pay unforeseen customs charges. Delivery from within Ireland is also faster. Future trends: Short- and medium-term trends with the potential to shape the future of digital Ireland.

4.

Omni-channel is preferred Consumers are spending more online and intend to keep doing so.

Their in-store shopping routines have changed over the last year, and many now favour visiting shops at a certain time of the week, when they view them as safer or less crowded.

This may help to accelerate a long-observed trend that suggests consumers now prefer to buy necessities online during the week, the ‘midweek convenience’, and save discretionary purchases for the weekend ‘experience’. If this behaviour becomes more apparent, bricks-and-mortar SMEs that have invested in an online store since lockdown will have a major advantage over their offline competitors after the pandemic.

5.

Virtual service delivery Services are still purchased only infrequently online by consumers.

This may be because many Irish professional services firms have not yet invested in the tools or methods required to make the consumer experience useful and seamless. Service providers should therefore begin by undertaking an internal assessment of their use and deployment of technology, and whether it is fit for purpose.

6.

No way back From a digital perspective, it is clear that the pandemic is having an accelerant effect. What we view as Ireland’s digitalisation tipping point may, therefore, be an accelerating downward spiral for those who fail to adapt as e-commerce and online interaction become the default. Local authorities and national decision-makers must consider these factors if their digital development plans are to be effective and relevant.

Research was conducted in January 2021 by Core Research with 1,000 Irish consumers and 500 retail and customer-facing professional services SMEs. The .IE Tipping Point Report was prepared in partnership with Digital Business Ireland.

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3.

Buying Irish isn’t enough More consumers who reported doing the majority of their online shopping with Irish SMEs said they did so out of a desire to help local businesses through the pandemic. However, crisis solidarity is not enough for a stable e-commerce strategy. Irish SMEs seeking to sustain sales through their online store can only retain their customers by consistently improving the online customer experience.

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Freedom to innovate

IRELAND REMAINS SIXTH IN DESI RANKINGS Ireland has ranked sixth out of the 27 EU member states plus the UK in the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). Ireland has been the fastest growing member state over the last five years according to the index.

Despite its status as the fastest growing member state, Ireland has remained largely unmoved in its overall ranking. After ranking eighth in 2016 and 2017, sixth in 2018, and seventh in 2019, Ireland has returned to sixth in the rankings for 2020, the last year of the DESI being measured across 28 member states

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as the UK has now left the EU. Ireland sits behind Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Malta. The index is broadly broken down into five sections.

INTEGRATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

For the third year in a row, Ireland has ranked first in the integration of digital technology, having ranked second in 2016 and 2017. When this section is further broken down into seven subsections, Ireland outperforms the EU average in all but one: electronic information sharing, which only 28 per cent of Irish enterprises partake in, compared to an EU average of 38 per cent.

Aside from that, enterprises in Ireland outperform the European average in social media use (44 per cent versus 25 per cent), big data use (20 per cent versus 12 per cent), and cloud use (33 per cent versus 18 per cent). Irish SMEs also outperform the European average in their three subsectors: selling online (35 per cent versus 18 per cent); e-Commerce turnover (29 per cent versus 11 per cent); and selling online cross-border (18 per cent versus 8 per cent).

The European Investment Bank stated that, in terms of financing for SMEs adapting to digital technologies, existing financial channels are “currently sufficient, but there was scope for making better use of them”. It had also noted that, in Ireland, there was a “a lack of overall policy coordination and strategies” in this regard, although the five-year Industry 4.0 strategy does seek to address this.

USE OF INTERNET SERVICES

Ireland ranks eighth in the EU for use of internet services, its second highest ranking section. The rank of eighth continues Ireland’s ascendancy in this section, progressing from 12th in 2019 and 14th in 2018.

Ireland ranks ahead of the EU average in all but three subsections: percentages of internet users using the internet for music, video and games (80 per cent versus 81 per cent) or video calls (50 per cent versus 60 per cent) or for selling goods online (21 per cent versus 23 per cent).

Ireland’s rate of individuals who have never used the internet is the same as the EU average: 9 per cent. Ireland ranks ahead of the EU average in internet users, 88 per cent versus 85 per cent, and in percentages of internet users who access new video on demand, social networks, online courses, banking and shopping online.

DESI scores 2018–2020 69.1 62.1

39.9 35.9

2018

44.7 42.5

50.1 45.7

2019

Connectivity

53

54.2 47.6

56.4 49.3

47.9

50 51.8

55.4 55

2018

2019

2020

Human capital

2018

2019

2020

Use of internet services Ireland

106

63.4

EU

2018

80.6

78.1 71.2

67

72

61.8

58

37.8

2020

74.3

39.8

2019

41.4

2020

Integration of digital technology

2018

2019

2020

Digital public services

Freedom to innovate

DIGITAL PUBLIC SERVICES

Ireland ranks ninth in digital public services, a one-place drop from 2019. Despite this drop, Ireland’s index score has risen in the same time period from 78.1 to 80.6. Of the five subsections, Ireland ranks ahead of the EU average in three (eGovernment users, digital public services for business and open data) and behind the average in two (pre-filled forms and online service completion).

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The DESI account of digital public services in Ireland calls the adaptation of the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 “an important step” in the pursuit of Ireland’s digital governance goals.

HUMAN CAPITAL

Ireland ranks 11th in the human capital section, unmoved from its 2018 and 2019 positions. Overall, Ireland scores above the EU average with an index score of 56.4 compared to the EU’s 49.3.

In the six subsections, Ireland ranks ahead of the EU average in four: percentage of individuals with above basic digital skills; ICT specialists as a percentage of total employment; female ICT specialists as a percentage of total female employment; and ICT specialists as a percentage of graduates.

Ireland ranks behind the EU average in percentages of individuals with at least basic skills in both digital and software.

Perhaps most interesting in this section is that, despite the deficit in those with basic digital and software skills, Ireland’s rate of ICT graduates as part of all graduates (7.3 per cent) is more than double that of the EU’s average (3.6 per cent).

CONNECTIVITY

Ireland’s worst ranking in the index is in connectivity, where it ranks 23rd, a fall of one place from 2019. Despite its low ranking, Ireland ranks ahead of the EU average in four of the eight subsections: fast broadband coverage; 4G coverage; mobile broadband take-up; and 5G readiness.

Ireland is beneath the average in overall fixed broadband take-up; take-up of fixed broadband of at least 100Mbps; fixed very high capacity network; and broadband price index. In each of these subsections, Ireland has recorded increases from 2018 and 2019 levels. The rollout of the National Broadband Plan, which has begun, is said to be key to making up the ground in this area.

OVERVIEW

Overall digital transformation “continues to be one of the core economic policy issues in Ireland”. The launch of the Industry 4.0 strategy, the €300 million Human Capital Initiative and the National Broadband Plan are all cited by the European Commission’s report as measures by which Ireland’s drive to digitisation will be progressed.

Digital Economy and Society Index 8,000 7,000 6,000

3,000 2,000 1,000

lan Sw d ed De en nm Ne a the rk rla nd s Ma lta Ire lan d Es Un ite ton d K ia ing do m Be l g ium Lu xe mb ou rg Sp a Ge in rm an y Au str ia Eu Lithu rop an i ea nU a nio n Fra nc Slo e ve ni Cz a ec hia La tv Po ia rtu ga Cro l ati Hu a ng ar Slo y va kia Po lan d Cy pru s Ita l Ro y ma nia Gre ec Bu e lga ria

0 Fin

Weighted score

5,000 4,000

Connectivity

Human capital

Use of internet

Integration of digital technology

Digital public services 107

Source: EU Commission, Digital Scoreboard

A user-centric approach to digital transformation for the Courts

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solutions can improve the user experience, and allow us to deliver services that are easier, quicker and more cost efficient for all users, we will seek to implement them.”

The Courts Service was firmly in modernisation development mode when the pandemic hit, fortunately exploratory work in the area of remote courts had already commenced, enabling quick mobilisation of a remote court environment for suitable cases and matters. In their first year, remote courts have facilitated tens of thousands of matters across nearly all courts, with the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal using them most prolifically. The result, reduced numbers attending court during the pandemic which supported the Courts Service Covid-19 safety management programme. Video-linked appearances with the Irish Prison Service have increased by 10,000 approximately in the past 12 months, helping to reduce prisoner movement and keep Covid out of the prisons.

Angela Denning, CEO, Courts Service, signing the Our Public Service Declaration on Innovation committing the Courts Service to use innovation as a key enabler in the delivery of public services.

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With 4,400 remote court sessions and over 16,350 videolink appearances in 12 months, it sounds as though the Courts Service is well on track to achieving its ambitious modernisation goals. However, they are only scratching the surface according to Angela Denning, CEO of the Courts Service. Denning explains how the Courts Service is placing the user at the centre of its modernisation plans to digitise court systems, processes and services, to achieve its longterm vision for a world-class justice system in Ireland.

The Courts Service is a statutorily independent state agency, providing frontline services to facilitate the administration and management of the Courts in Ireland. A large organisation, the Courts Service comprises 1,100 staff working across a nationwide network of offices and court venues, providing services in civil, criminal and family law to court users daily. The Courts Service facilitates approximately 445,000

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criminal matters, 233,000 civil matters, and 20,150 domestic violence applications through the Superior, Circuit and District Courts annually. Paper intensive, the plan to digitise such extensive operations is no mean feat.

However, Denning is unphased: “We’re placing the user at the centre of our Modernisation Programme, which will realise our long-term strategic vision of a world-class justice system. Where digital

Supporting the Courts Service’s ambitious plans and recognising how technology has helped to keep courts open and safe during the pandemic, the Government in Budget 2021 allocated over €2.2 million to upgrade courtroom technology. By the end of this year more than 100 courtrooms will have been tech enabled increasing the opportunities for evidence to be given remotely in suitable cases by witnesses including social workers, scientists from Forensic Science Ireland and members of An Garda Síochána. Although remote courts might be here to stay, having been cited

by Sylvia Thompson in her Irish Times feature on 14 March 2021 as one of “16 sweet ideas to improve our country postpandemic”, Denning remains user focused: “We now have much more informed users who have real-life experience of remote courts, we now need to listen to them and their feedback before we decide on solutions for the longer term, a project we’ve already started. Based on initial feedback, our experience to date and that of the judiciary, I would envisage a future of ‘hybrid courts’. A mix of physical and digital courts that would be suitable, to

Source: COLLINS

meet the varying needs of our diverse range of users.”

Denning continues by referencing Chief Justice Bridget McCormack of the Michigan Supreme Court who describes the modernising effect of the pandemic on their Courts as well in terms of “not being the disruption we wanted, but it might have been the disruption courts needed to accelerate change in a way that can produce a justice system that’s more accessible, transparent and efficient”.

In addition to robust Civil and Family Law and Organisational Reform Programmes, encouraging an innovative approach will support modernisation across the Courts Service. Denning explains: “This month sees the launch of our Innovation Strategy complete with innovation pathways, networkers and advocates who will champion sparks of creativity across the organisation to full business case proposals.”

The ICT Strategy will be followed by a data strategy setting out the Courts Service approach to leveraging the value of data to streamline operations, and to

Chief Justice Frank Clarke hearing a Supreme Court case through the remote court facility on the Pexip platform in 2020.

A technology enabled courtroom in the Criminal Courts of Justice, Dublin, 2021.

inform and improve timely and insightful decision making, while enshrining good data protection practices throughout the organisation. Both strategies will reflect the Government’s digital and data approach. Similar strategies are anticipated from other justice sector agencies who are also working to ambitious reform agendas. In full recognition of wider digital reforms planned across the justice sector and the fact that users tend to come into contact with one or more agencies as they journey across the justice system, the Courts Service is keen to collaborate with key partners across the sector.

Denning explains: “Users come into contact with a number of different agencies as they experience the justice system, and they want to be able to transition smoothly from one interaction and one organisation to the next. As users become increasingly more digital savvy, they will expect a more efficient approach to data entry and will not expect to have to enter their data more than once to be in ‘the system’. We therefore need a joined-up approach

across the justice sector without compromising the protection of people’s data rights whilst also ensuring maximum trust and transparency. The Courts Service is keen to continue to collaborate with our key partners to help users to navigate the wider digital reforms planned across the justice sector: to realise a digital vision for the future of the Courts which supports the user experience.”

For more information on the Courts Service visit www.courts.ie

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At the building capability and capacity stage of its Modernisation Programme the Courts Service is introducing several strategies this year across the areas of communications, people and organisation development, estates and energy and ICT. The ICT Strategy will be key to the digital transformation of the Courts as it will set out how the Courts Service plans to develop its IT infrastructure and applications capability to support modernisation and the longterm vision.

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The appetite for innovation demonstrated by Courts Service staff during the pandemic is key to how Denning envisages the Modernisation Programme building on the momentum created by the pandemic: “Through rising to the challenges of the pandemic together, we have learned many lessons and implemented new and creative solutions. The introduction of the iAuditor application is a good example of how our staff are open to digital innovation.

Monitoring compliance levels with our Covid-19 safety management protocols on paper was going to be a real challenge across an expansive estate of court rooms and court offices nationwide. Colleagues identified a digital application which allows our network of Covid-19 worker representatives to upload compliance breaches in real-time so that they can be assessed immediately and addressed.”

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Freedom to innovate

Public Service Data Catalogue In February 2021, the Government launched the Public Service Data Catalogue aimed at enhancing the transparency of public service data by publishing a list of datasets held by almost 100 public bodies.

The catalogue is a key element of the Government’s move to deliver a wholeof-government approach to how data is used and managed within the public service, included in the Public Service Data Strategy 2019-2023.

The Strategy built on the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019, which put in place the safe and secure sharing of data across government.

One of the Strategy’s objectives is to increase the reuse of data for the benefit of citizens, businesses and policy makers. Although a simplistic concept

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when set out, a recognisable barrier to the reuse of data by both the public and private sector is the lack of knowledge that relevant datasets exists.

In 2017, the Economist published an article that argued that data was “the new oil” in the context of growing recognition that data collection from digital platforms was a much soughtafter commodity by those designing marketing and communication strategies.

Much attention for the article was focused on the power of rising data monopolies and the need for controls around personal data flows but an often

overlooked element of the article was the benefits it highlighted for organisations around how new technologies and data could help organisations become better decision-makers and increase business intelligence.

In his Technical Paradigms and Digital Eras book, Giacomo Chiesa points out that while ‘data as an asset’ is a much more widely accepted concept today, “organisations, including from the public sector, often fail to govern, manage and value data in the same way as the other assets that are relevant for their success”.

Freedom to innovate

This, he says, undermines the possibility of taking advantage of the opportunities brought by the “digitisation of a huge amount of information that was previously intangible”.

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The OECD recognises that while data governance is increasingly relevant to data protection practices at a global scale in a more exclusive and explicit fashion, a “strong and unbalanced approach to data overprotection” can reduce the value of data sharing.

Discoverability of data and over protection of data are two distinct issues but both relate to a wider unavailability of data for better efficiencies. The Public Service Data Strategy 2019-2023 recognised that “as proliferation of public service data increases, so too does the challenge of discoverability, which determines the ability of a piece of content, information, or data to be found and accessed”.

A data catalogue, which contains information on data holdings within an organisation, is the main mechanism for making data discoverable.

The launch of the Public Service Data Catalogue in March 2021 is the outworking of a commitment within the Strategy to enable public sector bodies to list and describe their data holdings.

The advantages of the catalogue are numerous in that it not only increases transparency for citizens, presenting a portal for the discovery of datasets and services that are available, but that it also promotes cross-government and internal public sector body data awareness and reuse.

At the time of its launch, the Public Service Data Catalogue was providing information on over 1,200 datasets across almost 100 public sector bodies.

Datasets from public bodies include personal data, business data and data critical to business decisions or service delivery.

Welcoming the catalogue, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD, said: “The Catalogue is a key step in providing more data awareness and data transparency with the public. It will show

“It will show people what data their public service holds, why they hold that data and how it is used.”

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD.

people what data their public service holds, why they hold that data and how it is used.

“The catalogue contains a wide range of datasets from across the public service, all in one place. It demonstrates the benefits of joined-up Government, where public bodies work together to deliver a single unified service.”

The Public Service Data Catalogue is intended to present high-level information on key datasets across the public service. It does not list all the datasets across public service organisations.

The catalogue provides only metadata on datasets it records and does not provide

direct access to the datasets it records.

However, many of datasets listed are available for download via the Open Data Portal, data.gov.ie.

Minister of State for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, with responsibility for Public Procurement and eGovernment, Ossian Smyth TD, added: "Data plays a pivotal role in Government – it drives informed decision-making, shapes public policy and is central to the delivery of public services.

“The Public Service Data Catalogue is part of a wider programme of actions and initiatives in the Public Service Data Strategy that aim to make Ireland an exemplar in how it manages data.”

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Changing citizen demands: How local authorities are adapting to the digital-first world personalised interactions and increased efficiency,” explains Power.

Annertech is Ireland’s leading opensource digital agency, with its core areas of business being the delivery and maintenance of websites and web applications that are developed using the Drupal platform. They have a strong heritage in helping local authorities to deliver digital transformation and count Limerick City and County Council, Fingal County Council and Cork County Council among their clients.

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We all know that the aim of digital public services is to reduce administrative burdens on businesses and citizens by making interactions with public bodies efficient, more convenient, and less costly.

But in the now digital-first world, most local authorities have had to further up their game to meet the expectations of their citizens, writes Stella Power, Managing Director of Annertech.

In the most recent Public Service ICT Strategy (2015–2020), one of its five pillars is a digital-first approach. This tenet called for the “digitisation of key transactional services and the increased use of ICT to deliver improved efficiency within public bodies and provide new digital services to citizens, businesses and public servants”. However, whether it is due to the precipitation of the pandemic or not, the Government’s vision for a Public Service Digital Strategy has stalled at a time when most 112

transactions and interactions need to be online.

The importance of a digital-first approach for local authorities “Efficient and transparent public services have a direct impact on the quality of our lives. It is the digital-enablement of these services that fosters coherent and user-centric processes, improves the quality of services through flexible and

“What we have found through our work with local authorities is that they all share the same pain points and, by and large, have the same challenges when it comes to bringing services online for their citizens and businesses. Though the Government hasn’t been forthcoming with the next five-year strategy, building on the success of previous local authority projects, we are continuing to help the sector to create innovative digital solutions in the digitalfirst world,” continues Power.

Recently Annertech teamed up with McCann Dublin and Enovation to deliver a new, robust, user-centric digital platform for Dublin City Council (DCC) – here is what the project entailed.

Enabling Ireland’s largest local authority serve its citizenry In keeping with the Irish Government’s ICT Strategy, DCC made the commitment to using digital technologies to fundamentally change the way we live, work, and interact with each other.

Part of this commitment is the delivery of a user-friendly, intuitive website that meets the needs of its citizens.

The challenge The DCC website was showing signs of age and was not fit for purpose. Issues included:

• The information architecture had been altered as services grew, and this had an adverse effect on the overall information architecture; • The website did not perform well on all devices leading to users being unable to locate important information; • Searches were returning unexpected results and were reduced in quality by out-of-date content; and

McCann Dublin, Annertech and Enovation were enlisted to deliver a digital experience that would help their users to access services easily while also helping DCC to become more efficient. This required the following approach.

Our approach Discovery The first step was to understand the scale of the problem, from both internal and external perspectives. McCann conducted on-site customer research where we asked people waiting in the Council’s Wood Quay offices whether they had considered using the website or not and recorded their feedback live.

We also held departmental workshops with DCC employees. We used user personas and data gathered from consumer research to help DCC employees to see the site from the user’s perspective.

Content and editorial support

Deirdre Ní Raghallaigh, Senior Executive Officer, DCC discovery and UX/UI phase, Annertech was charged with the delivery of a digital platform that was secure, highperforming, and easy to use by content editors.

To achieve this, we undertook the following: • Implemented Drupal 8 CMS that allows the Council to have complete control over their content whilst keeping within style guidelines by implementing reusable components; • Created a custom theme which responds to the device being used to ensure visibility of content for all; • Custom-built search interfaces for specific resources and fine-tuned search results ensure users can locate the content they need; • Migrated content from a draft repository; • Worked with the Council to create a custom editing interface which meets their needs for internal workflow and content governance; • Extensive testing and bug resolution — systems testing, UAT and performance; and • Worked with their hosting partner, Enovation, to ensure the site was performant and worked well in the production environment.

Information architecture, wireframing and site design

A new behavioural paradigm has emerged in the past 18 months. Not only do people expect ubiquitous digital

During the workshops, the sitemap was optimised with input from DCC employees. This allowed us to develop an informed information architecture and intelligent, accessible wireframes. We designed all site components, as well as the functional spec of more complex elements such as the location finder and search.

Technical solution

How local authorities can thrive in a digitalfirst world

“What has become apparent from our work with local authority clients is that they are grasping that as customer preferences change, an opportunity exists to simplify the channels they offer to their citizens. Also, as people now use digital channels as their first port of call, local authorities need to come up with innovative ways to digitally interact with their citizens,” says Power.

One means to achieving cost savings when developing your digital platform is learning from other councils and indeed building upon what they have done. We have seen this in the code sharing between Limerick City Council and Fingal County Council that adheres to the Government’s build to share principle.

“As build to share and digital-first are the first two pillars of the Government’s ICT Strategy — and will very likely form the bedrock of any new strategic objectives — it is how local authorities coalesce their knowledge to solve common problems that will then free up time, money and resources to focus on innovation and nuanced ways to further meet the expectations of today’s citizens,” Power concludes.

T: 01 524 0312 E: hello@annertech.com W: www.annertech.com

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The new dublincity.ie site required a lot of content, over 700 pages worth. The majority of it was written by DCC employees who had attended our empathy workshops. Before content went into production, we developed templates for every possible kind of page that outlined what information should go where.

interactions but they now want to transact with organisations on their own terms, expecting convenience and a seamless experience across all touch points. This is no more so than with interfacing with local authorities.

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• The look, feel and accessibility of the website no longer met the needs of users.

“The site looks and functions well and has received a lot of praise from councillors, staff and users since launch. From the outset, we were very impressed with your approach to the project, the openness to feedback along with the pragmatic attitude to solving problems as they arose.”

Annertech’s Expertise Founded in 2008, Annertech has grown to become the go to Drupal experts in Ireland and work with a range of clients in both the private and public sectors.

They specialise in developing enterprise Drupal solutions for clients, usually where there are complex requirements such as integration with external systems, multilingual functionality, editorial workflows and large-scale content migrations, including projects where performance, scalability and security are of the utmost importance.

After the completion of the extensive 113

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Digital government key indicators digital government report

Individuals using internet for:

eGovernment performance Penetration (%)

Digitisation (%)

Ireland

69

65

EU27+UK

60

72

Interacting with public authorities Ireland 61% EU28 55%

Relative indicators and environment Government characteristics (%)

User characteristics (%)

Digital skills

ICT usage

Quality

Openness

Connectivity

Digital in the private sector

Ireland

56

62

78

84

46

74

EU27+UK

50

58

70

69

52

44

Obtaining information

Downloading official forms Ireland 44% EU28 33%

Key enablers

Growth

Ireland 46% EU28 44%

Digital context characteristics (%)

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Regular business operations (2019)

Sending filled forms Ireland 55% EU28 38%

Moving (2019)

Owning and Starting a driving a car small claims (2019) procedure (2019)

Ireland

Business start-up (2018)

Family life (2018)

Losing and finding a job (2018)

Studying (2018)

EU27+UK average

Key enablers (%)

Ireland EU27+UK

eID

eDocuments

Authentic

Digital post

42

68

57

31

57.4

68.4

56.9

67.3 Source: Eurostat 2019

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Freedom to innovate

User-centricity

Growth

eGovernment indicators:

120 100 80 60 40 20 0

User-centricity

Moving (2019)

Ireland

Ireland 90% EU27+UK 86.5%

Ireland 42% EU27+UK 61.4%

Losing and finding a job (2018)

Studying (2018)

Family life (2018)

Losing and finding a job (2018)

Studying (2018)

Family life (2018)

Losing and finding a job (2018)

Studying (2018)

EU27+UK average

Growth

Moving (2019)

Citizens’ cross-border mobility Ireland 68% EU27+UK 50.8%

Key enablers

Family life (2018)

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Regular business operations (2019)

Owning and Starting a driving a car small claims (2019) procedure (2019)

Ireland

Business start-up (2018)

EU27+UK average

Transparency 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Growth

Business cross-border mobility Ireland 76% EU27+UK 67%

Business start-up (2018)

Cross-border mobility

Transparency Ireland 69% EU27+UK 65.6%

Owning and Starting a driving a car small claims (2019) procedure (2019)

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Regular business operations (2019)

Regular business operations (2019)

Moving (2019)

Owning and Starting a driving a car small claims (2019) procedure (2019)

Ireland

Business start-up (2018)

EU27+UK average

Source: eGovernment Benchmark report 2020

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Putting Public Sector Front and Centre

Codec's Head of Public Sector Larry Tobin, flanked by his colleagues CFO Fiona Daly and Commercial Director John Roddy, launching Codec's dedicated Public Sector team for Microsoft solutions in Ireland

Reproduced with permission of eolas magazine

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen a big increase of organisations in both the public and private sectors adopting Cloud technologies. Codec has been helping public sector bodies to take advantage of the many benefits of digital transformation and they have now established of a dedicated Public Sector team. eolas speaks to technology veteran, Larry Tobin, about the challenges faced by Public Sector today and why now was the right time for Codec to set out their stall with this new team.

Codec is a local Irish Software company (now in its 37th year) with a fantastic reputation amongst many public sector organisations (over 40 in fact) that use a variety of Microsoft technologies for their day to day operations (e.g. Dynamics 365, Azure, SharePoint, Teams and Power Platform).

Larry (who has 40 years’ experience in the ICT sector) joined Codec in 2010 to set up a new Dynamics CRM practice and over the past 10 years, has been instrumental in helping Codec to build the largest Dynamics practice in Ireland, one that was chosen as Dynamics Partner of Year for five years running.

In late 2020, Codec decided it was time to create a new team that would focus solely on the public sector and Larry was appointed to head up the team in January 2021.

Having previously worked for the LGMA (LGCSB) for 10 years Larry has always had a particular grá for the public sector.

“It’s a great privilege to be asked to head up a team that will be dedicated to helping our public sector to deliver on their digital transformation objectives.

We feel that it is so important that the Irish public sector are aware there is an indigenous (and Microsoft full suite) ICT specialist on their doorstep. With offices in Dublin, Galway and Belfast, Codec has an all-Ireland presence,” he comments.

Codec have seen huge growth over the recent past and FTE staff numbers are currently at 240 and this number is forecasted to increase to 300 by the end of 2021.

Codec are probably best known for helping public sector bodies with their

implementations of Dynamics 365, but Larry’s ambition is to build on their current reputation by helping their customers to take full advantage of the benefits the cloud can offer especially in the areas of Intelligent Automation (RPA, AI, Chatbot) and Azure (Application Modernisation, Windows Virtual Desktop and Data Centre Migration).

As a Microsoft Gold Certified partner providing solutions across the full suite of technologies, Larry suggests that their certifications set them apart from the competition. “We were the first Microsoft Partner in Ireland to achieve the Azure Expert MSP certification. The Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP) program is a new global initiative from Microsoft to highlight and promote only the most capable partners (only 80 partners worldwide have achieved Azure

Delivering Successful Projects in Public Sector

Codec has a fantastic reputation and track record in delivering Dynamics solutions to over 35 public sector bodies (or 15,000 users across public sector bodies) but Codec also has extensive experience in delivering many successful projects using other Microsoft technologies such as Azure, Teams and Power Platform. “With a wealth of experience under our belt, we have been lucky enough to work on some very exciting recent projects within the education and semi-state sectors.”

Windows Virtual Desktop for Queen’s University “Working with Queen’s University in Belfast, we successfully implemented Windows Virtual Desktop for over 1,500 students and staff. Through Windows Virtual Desktop, students can use any device to have access to the full

• Paternity Leave and their Shorter

The net result for the university’s IT department is that instead of having to provide technical support to a potentially enormous range of platforms and devices, it can work with a vastly simplified system. According to Tobin “Over 130 specialised apps are supported through the system which has also greatly enhanced security because the applications are served remotely from the cloud and data is stored in the cloud. In addition, multi-factor authentication has increased security by ensuring that only those that are allowed can access the data,” he adds.

Power Apps has optimised and

Power Apps in Fáilte Ireland

Working Year option

automated elements of the process to enable quicker turnaround times for applicants and a streamlined approval process, whilst saving the need to print, post, scan and repeat.

Following on from the success of this Power App project, Fáilte’s next step in their Digital Workplace initiative is to empower users to deliver Power Apps solutions directly. Codec have empowered users to develop Power Apps within the organisation by providing them with the necessary tools and training.

Many organisations are discovering the value of Power Apps and the ability to automate previously manual and timeconsuming tasks. One such organisation we worked with recently was Fáilte Ireland where, following their migration to the cloud they identified the need that legacy solutions on older platforms be re-designed and optimised to maximise the range of applications available.

Digital Transformation and the Public Sector

Using Power Apps for the HR department, Fáilte Ireland have enabled an auditable digital sign-off process for existing paper-based processes. This has allowed Human Resources to continue to process and manage applications for a range of services such as:

demonstrates our commitment to

• Maternity Leave • Parental Leave

Larry comments: “Digital transformation for public sector organisations can be challenging. Having worked on many such projects, Codec know and understand the complexities involved better than most. In establishing this dedicated Public Sector team, it helping our public sector to deliver transformational solutions.”

Larry Tobin, Head of Public Sector Email: ltobin@codec.ie Phone: 086 774 9881 Web: www.codec.ie

Reproduced with permission of eolas magazine

“We are the largest Irish Microsoft partner and we are very proud of our reputation for delivering solutions around Microsoft technologies but now is the time to bring a new focus and energy by creating this dedicated public sector team,” says Larry.

processing power of the university’s systems remotely.”

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Expert MSP). We have also completed the Windows Virtual Desktop and Cloud Business Application specialisations says Tobin. “This makes us unique and fantastic proof that we are playing ‘senior hurling’ when it comes to the Cloud.”

Clifton House · Lower Fitzwilliam Street · Dublin 2, D02 XT91 · Tel: 01 661 3755