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Online e-Procurement Platform

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Dubai e-government service management INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Improving profitability through efficient e-procurement EVENT DIARY

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Learnings from e-Procurement experiences of India, Malaysia and Singapore

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Cover Features

6

Leveraging IT Tools and Best Practices of e-Government Procurement

14

e-Procurement in Andhra Pradesh K Bikshapathi

8 14

Enhancing Supply Chain Performance e-Prolehan

Maniam Kalianan and Dr Halimah Awang

GeBIZ

Innovative IT Solutions for India’s Burgeoning e-Governance Market Kailash Agarwal

17 27

DG Market Online e-Procurement Platform

Interview: Mark Fleeton, CEO, Development Gateway

Electronic Cards for Foodgrain Procurement and Distribution

Chandrasen Kumar

municipal governance

MCD’s Initiatives for e-Procurement in Delhi

16

industry perspective

cover image courtesy: http://www.execupundit.com/uploaded_images/j0399350-779304.jpg

Improving Profitability through Efficient e-Procurement

17

20

country focus: UAE

Dubai e-Government

29

Interview: Rehab Lootah, Director, e-Services, Dubai Government

Service Management

31

Dr Mihyar Hesson and Okan Geray

regional focus: uttar pradesh

An e-ffort to Empower Citizen

36

Amod Kumar, Amarpal Singh and Amit Shukla

36

commentary

ICT Master Plan

43

Jeffrey Liang and Lyle Raquipiso

EVENT DIARY

International e-Partnership Summit

42

NEWS REVIE W

44

REGULAR F EATURES

What’s On

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April 2007

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Editorial Guidelines eGov is a monthly magazine providing a much needed platform to the voices of various stakeholders in the arena of e-Government, apart from being a repository of valuable information and meaningful discussion on issues of e-governance in general, and e-Government in particular -- both to the specialist and the generalist.

Contributions to egov magazine should be in the form of articles, case studies, book reviews, event report and news related to eGovernment project and initiatives, which are of immense value for practitioners, professionals, corporate and academicians.

We would like the contributors to follow these guidelines, while submitting their material for publication.

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Articles / Case studies should not exceed

2500 words. For book reviews and event report, the word limit is 800.

An abstract of the article/case study not exceeding 200 words should be submitted along with the article/case study.

All articles / case studies should provide proper references. Authors should give in writing stating that the work is new and has not been published in any form so far.

Book reviews should include details of the book like the title, name of the author(s), publisher, year of publication, price and number of pages and also send the cover photograph of the book in JPEG/TIFF (resolution 300 dpi). Book reviews of books on e-Governance related themes, published from

year 2002 onwards, are preferable. In case of website, provide the URL. The manuscripts should be typed in a standard printable font (Times New Roman 12 font size, titles in bold) and submitted either through mail or post.

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Please send in your papers/articles/comments to: The Editor, eGov, G-4, Sector 39, NOIDA (UP) 201 301, India. tel: +91 120 2502180-87, fax: +91 120 2500060, email: info@egovonline.net

Editorial Calendar 2007 Month

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application focus

APRIL

meta data and data standards

e-procurement

MAY

network and information security

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JUNE rfid & smart card passport & visa JULY localisation and language technology land records AUGUST

e-forms and document management income tax/commercial taxes

SEPTEMBER interoperability and open standards

central excise

OCTOBER

wireless

municipalities

NOVEMBER

e-governance architecture

courts

DECEMBER

mobility police

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A. Narayan (ed@apt.int) The March issue (http://egovonline.net/pdf/ march07.pdf) overall looks great, including the WiMAX article..

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M

ore acceleration in domestic e-Governance plans is on cards.

The higher budget allocation for e-Governance in the Union budget for 2007 is a pointer in this direction. Jumping from INR 395 crore to INR 719 crore, the allocation confirms the good intentions of the government of India in ensuring the speedy flow of good governance to its 1.3 billion people. Many mission mode projects, infrastructure building and capacity building measures are evidently in the pipeline. A glimpse of the impending action comes from Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications and IT, who announced establishing 100,000 broadband enabled internet Common Services Centres (CSCs) in rural areas to connect the citizens of rural India to the World Wide Web. With lot more action expected, it is but logical to expect more partnerships in the offing as no single player is endowed with the complete expertise and requisite tools. The leading players and stakeholders, both at regional and global level now need to rev up the action to forge concrete alliances and partnerships. Thematic debates on this issue would be coming up at the eIndia conference and exhibition to be held in New Delhi from July 30-August 3 (www.eindia.net.in).

This issue of the egov magazine has e-Procurement as the key theme.

The sector is very alive with a slew of new players scripting hot new trends across the spectrum. Through e-Procurement, enterprises and organizations are amassing new experience in business-to-business, buyer-vendor transactions including electronic procurement and swiftly integrating the electronic supply chain right from the customer to the supplier.

Government and organisations across the world are discovering the enormous efficiency and savings from e-Procurement, making it indispensable to any organisation’s overall e-Business strategy. A lateral extension of this study is the contribution of electronic trading communities comprising online e-Markets, auctions, reverse auctions, and exchanges significantly stepping up the action and revolutionising the relationship between buyers and sellers in every industry.

Andhra Pradesh e-Procurement project in India demonstrates better value for money through increased competition and the prevention of cartels and syndicates, standardisation of procurement processes across government departments and agencies, increase in the buying power through demand aggregation, providing single-stop shop for all procurements, equal opportunity to all vendors, more transparency and ultimately reduced corruption.

accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided. egov is published in collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in) Š Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies 2007 www.csdms.in

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April 2007

Ravi Gupta ravi.gupta@csdms.in

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COVER FEATURE

Leveraging IT Tools and Best Practices of e-Government Procurement e-Procurement in Andhra Pradesh K. Bikshapathi

Procurement is generally regarded as a sensitive function in the Public sector and is rarely transparent . It is for this reason; government procurement is one of the sectors that remains insulated against any process improvements. The inadequacies in the traditional systems of procurement and its associated delays, increased costs were adversely affecting the delivery of development projects, goods and services to the citizens. In the year 2000, a Cabinet Committee of the Ministers of government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP), India, recommended to embark on e-Procurement for government agencies in the state as a strategy to reform the public procurement.

Andhra Pradesh government is the pioneering state in India to implement electronic procurement by leveraging the Information Technology tools and the best practices of e-Government procurement. e-Procurement is included as an important and integral part of e-Governance initiatives embarked upon by the state. The prime objectives of eProcurement are demand aggregation, transparency, accountability, fiscal savings, standardization of procurement processes across government entities to bring in administrative efficiency.

The state government has set up a statewide e-Procurement portal (www.eprocurement.gov.in) that can be utilized by all GoAP departments, Co-operative sectors, public sectors units and urban local bodies along with their vendors. The project is implemented for the State Government by a private vendor on Application Service Provider model. In this model, the service provider had invested in the hardware, software and customization of the project and it recovers the investment through service charges paid by the participating bidders for transactions carried out on the portal.

Website: http://www.eprocurement.gov.in/ Started: January 2003 Current Status: Implemented successfully in all major procurement agencies i.e.,16 Government Departments, 19 Public Sector Undertakings (PSU), 82 Urban Local Bodies, 5 universities

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The e-Procurement system offers a superior level of security with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, strong authentication with digital certificates and speed to conduct real time bidding from remote locations over the Internet.

The initiative is implemented in phases, the pilot phase was launched in January 2003 in 5 selected departments for procurement costing above INR 1 Crore (USD 231,639) to test proof the concept. After successful testing of the pilot, the state government has rolled out the initiative to all the procurements in the state in July 2004 for values exceeding INR 10 lakhs (USD 23,163). Currently e-Procurement is implemented successfully in all major procurement agencies i.e.,16 government departments, 19 Public Sector Undertakings (PSU), 82 Urban Local Bodies, 5 universities spread across length and breadth of the state, the portal has processed 29384 transactions worth INR 45,036 Crores (USD 10,436 million). The year wise break up of transactions are as follows.

• FY 2003-04: 564 Numbers worth INR 1982 Cr (USD 459.22 million) • FY 2004-05: 2215 Numbers worth INR 15600 Cr (USD 3614 million) • FY 2005-06: 9981 Numbers worth INR 15808 Cr (USD 3662 million) • FY 2006-07: 16624 Numbers worth INR 11646 Cr (USD 2698 million) e-Procurement has secured demonstrable and significant benefits by way of cost and time savings to the government, brought transparency and empowered the small & medium suppliers. The path breaking initiative has proved that transparency, fairness and equal opportunity to private entrepreneurs who bid for govt contracts, sell products or expertise to government agencies will not only result in healthy competition, significant contribution to the economy but also makes significant social impact as the citizens are now assured that their money is properly spent . As a matter of fact the successful implementation of this initiative by the state of Andhra Pradesh has motivated the Government of India and several other state governments have to www.egovonline.net

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embark on e-Procurement initiatives. While setting up a procurements portal is not such a unique technological task but it is the scale of this project, enormous change management efforts that are required to rope in the stakeholders and the social impact it creates, which makes the project a role model

•

Institutional compliance of statute/ process changes through application at one go Improved Institutional memory due to storage of electronic records Improved efficiency in tender processing as the departments are now able to take enhanced procurement work load with the existing staff

• •

Benefits Awards to the project

•

INR 2700 Crores (USD 625 million) Cost savings due to competitive (discounted) quotations by suppliers: Significant cost savings in print media advertisement cost due to abridged tender notices Elimination of supplier Cartels, Syndicates due to remote bidding.

Significant reduction in tender process time (from 3 to 4 months to 35 days) due to automatic work flows Transparency in procurement process Generated transaction Database to act as Decision support system Strong MIS reports Empowerment of small & medium bidders as the entire content and bid submission is online

• • • • • • •

•

Topped the overall assessment of 39 eGov projects conducted by the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India (GoI) with a score of 83.7 on a scale of 0-100.

GoAP- eProcurement case study is published in the World Bank website.

The PC Quest Award for Best IT implementation in India for the year 2005 Golden Icon Award from GoI in the Year 2003 for Exemplary eGovernance Initiative Short listed for the Prime Minister’s Award for excellence

• • • •

K. Bikshapathi, Project Manager, eProcurement, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India

Key Lessons of GoAP e-Procurement Project •

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•

•

•

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The support of political leadership and the formation of a high-powered steering committee (project implementation committee) with a mandate to take decisions on all issues were important factors for successful implementation of the e-Procurement project.

Insistence on a single mode of bid submission through the e-Procurement platform was a decisive factor in the adoption of the system by suppliers.

A participative design process that involved workshops attended by department users, suppliers/contractors was used to draw user requirements. Subsequent training of users was a major factor in developing the application to the satisfaction of users.

The pool of Chief Information Officers from various government departments trained at IIM-A (Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad), acted as change agents in implementing e-Procurement. The pace of implementation accelerated with Chief Information Officers from different domains taking over as project champions.

Implementation needed enormous efforts in change management. The users were slow to adapt to the changes in initial period but the project ramped up once the users became comfortable with the new system.

The selected Application Service Provider (ASP) business model under Public Private Partnership was helpful in scaling up the transactions during roll out, as the private partner has resources to meet the challenge.

April 2007

http://www.eprocurement.gov.in/

•

•

A rational and affordable Pricing model based on value and number of bids per tender is also very important for sustaining the e-Procurement initiative. Cost to government with ‘No Cost’ to supplier in the Pilot phase, and Cost to supplier with ‘No Cost’ to government departments in the roll out phase, facilitated easy acceptance from suppliers in the early stages and speedy roll outs to government departments in the later stages.

Committed project teams from both the service provider and the Government, 24X7 help desk, strong security features, deployment architecture and MIS have contributed to the overall success of the e-Procurement platform in AP.

K. Bikshapathi, Project Manager, e-Procurement, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India RamaRaju, Chief Engineer, Irrigation Department, Govt of Andhra Pradesh, India and Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar, IIM, Ahmedabad, India.

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COVER F EATURE

Enhancing Supply Chain Performance e-Perolehan Electronic Procurement (e-Procurement) or locally known as e-Perolehan in Malaysia was initiated as one of the projects under the Electronic Government Flagship Programme. The aim of the government is to make all the suppliers and federal government agencies become electronic procurement enabled users by the year 2010.

Maniam Kalianan and Associate Prof. Dr. Halimah Awang

G

overnments all over the world have demonstrated the need to improve the service delivery and be able to handle issues swiftly and satisfactorily.

The advent of Internet Technology has made it possible for governments to transform themselves by offering various traditional services online.

The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in general, has also changed government service delivery process, business models and people’s expectations of the quality and efficiency of information sharing and service delivery. e-Government systems are not confined to automation of government service delivery systems targeted towards citizens’ at large (G2C). e-Government platforms also include the use of ICT to streamline the procurement processes within public sectors (G2G & G2B). e-Procurement refers to “the use of electronic methods in every stage of the purchasing process from identification of requirements through payment, and potentially to contract management”.

There are significant benefits in adopting e-Procurement technologies. These benefits are expected to accelerate the rate of adoption of these technologies once the uncertainties that remain are reduced to levels that encourage significant resource commitments. Organisations that use e-Procurement technologies report savings 42 percent in purchasing transaction costs, says A. Davila, M. Gupta, R. Palmer, in their article ‘Moving Procurement Systems to the Internet: The Adoption and Use of e-Procurement Technology Models’ published in the European Management Journal. This cost reduction is associated with less paperwork, Website: http://home.eperolehan.com.my/ Started: October 2006 Current Status: Final (on-going) phase of the project started in January 2004, with the objective of improving e-Procurement system

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which translates into fewer mistakes and a more efficient purchasing process. e-Procurement initiative in Malaysia

The electronic procurement system streamlines government procurement activities and improves the quality of service it provides. It was officially launched in Malaysia in 1999 as one of the Electronic Government Flagship project. e-Procurement converts traditional manual procurement processes in the government machinery to electronic procurement on the Internet. The new procurement system allows the Government ministries to electronically select items to be procured from the computer, initiate an electronic approval process and also create, submit and receive purchase orders, delivery orders and other related documents electronically.

The Malaysian Government’s allocation of budget for procurement increased substantially from RM 6.1 million (USD1.75 million) in 1999 to RM14.2 million (USD 4.09 million) in 2003 and RM 21.4 million (USD 6.17 million) in 2006 (refer to Table 1).

On the supplier’s side, e-Procurement allows them to present their products on the World Wide Web (www), receive, manage and process purchase orders and receive payments from government agencies via the Internet. The supplier’s product catalogue, which can be viewed from any desktop with a web browser. The supplier is able to submit quotations, obtain tender document and submit tender bid through e-Perolehan. eProcurement allows suppliers to register or renew their registration with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) through the Internet. Suppliers are able to submit application, check application status and pay registration fees through e-Perolehan. www.egovonline.net

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enhancing supply chain performance

Table 1: Malaysian Government Budget on Procurement Year

Total Government Budget (RM million)

Percentage for Procurement (%)

Total Allocation (RM million)

2006

134 748

15.9

21 425

2005

117 445

16.0

18 791

2004

109 990

15.6

17 158

2003

71 737

19.9

14 253

2002

66 706

17.8

11 854

2001

63 757

16.8

10 703

2000

56 547

13.0

7 360

1999

46 699

13.0

6 074

Source: www.mof.gov.my

By subscribing to the e-Procurement system, suppliers will be able to participate in the procurement exercise by the government. Upon final implementation of the e-Procurement system, full services will be available to all four types of procurement that is: Phase 1: Supplier Registration, Central Contract

Phase 2: Direct Purchase, Quotation and Tender Starting from 6 October 2000, all new registrations, renewals and re-application of suppliers of products and services with Ministry of Finance were made online through the eProcurement system. In order to transact with government agencies, suppliers are required to be e-Procurement enabled. Figure 1 summarises the five step process that must be completed by all government suppliers, prior achieving full status as an e-Procurement enabled supplier (www. commercedc.com.my): e-Procurement will be the single point of registration for the suppliers. All approvals of the application for registration remain with the Registration Department of MOF. Services available in the supplier registration module include the following (www.commercedc.com.my): Supplier registration can be done online via the Internet using the e-Procurement website e-Procurement routes all successful suppliers’ applications for online approval by the relevant authority upon full submission of completed documents. e-Procurement facilitates generation of certificate for registered and successful supplier.

The supplier registration module supports online renewal of registration by the suppliers.

The supplier registration allows online application for registration of additional category or “bidang”. e-Procurement supports online suspension or termination of the supplier registration. e-Procurement Business Model

Figure 1: e-Procurement Registration Process

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The business model that is used for the im plementation of eProcurement is an end-to-end model. Procurement requires a www.egovonline.net

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e-Procurement Business Model

complete integration of services from the buyer to the supplier and vice-versa. To ensure the success and consistency of procurement services, the responding organisation shall provide an end-to-end solution. In this model, there are three distinct communities, namely the supplier community, the buyer community, and the procurement service provider.

The above figure illustrates the three core entities involved in Malaysia’s e-Procurement initiative.

Bhd.), provides the electronic concept solution which enables the full transaction of the procurement process between the buyer and the seller. The end-to-end model requires the service provider to provide a total solution to both the supplier and the buyer community. This includes application, hardware and software if necessary and more importantly the capability to exchange business documents between the communities e.g. Purchase Orders, Request for Quotation, and Request for Tender Document etc. The security and confidentiality of this document shall be ensured so as not to comprise the confidence of both communities. The service provider shall also adhere to all necessary government procurement policies and legal requirements. However, Commerce.Com can provide advice and give suggestions to the government if necessary with the aim of improving the current processes in order to enhance the efficiency and to lower the cost of operation for the government. Currently, Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd is involved in 2 modules for e-Perolehan: • Module 1 – Registration of the suppliers on-line with Ministry of Finance • Module 2 – Transactions – Central Contract, Direct Purchase, Quotation and Tender. e-Procurement Benefits

Supplier Community

The supplier community consists of suppliers who have registered with the MOF to provide supplies and services to the government. There are more than 100,000 registered suppliers (www.commercedc.com.my) supplying goods under four categories i.e. Central Contract, Direct Purchase, Quotation and Tender purchase. These suppliers bear the responsibility to coordinate with the procurement service provider and register onto the new system with the Government Procurement Management Division, within MOF. All suppliers are required to provide and update the necessary information regarding the items that they supply online.

Buyer Community

The government is the buyer community. The Malaysian government spent about RM 18 791 million (USD 5,444 million) on procurement in the year 2005 and has increased the amount to RM 21 425 million (USD 6,207 million) in for the year 2006 (www.mof.gov.my). The cost of processing and managing this process is extremely high with increasing expectation from the supplier side for the government to be more efficient. It is the responsibility of the buyer i.e. government to have the necessary information in place to be able to accept and respond to the supplier electronically in the process of procurement.

Procurement Service Provider

The procurement service provider (Commerce. Com Sdn. ov

April 2007

The findings from the interview with the parties concerned, suggest several benefits of e-Procurement for the government. The system firstly, offers more effective and efficient procurement process in line with the country’s transformation to the knowledge based economy (KEconomy). E-Procurement is a vehicle for the government to leapfrog into the new economy and promote the widespread adoption of e-Business in the country. The system also is stated to lower the operational cost for the government over time. In addition, the government will be able to reduce administration and operational costs through the usage of e-Procurement as business processes are reduced and streamlined. From the government’s perspective, the e-Procurement system provides latest product information and pricing available on-line. e-Procurement will always be up to date with the latest information that will help the buyer to make a more accurate procurement decision. A government buyer would have immediate access to a wide variety of products and services available to them via e-Perolehan, which will make them a better informed buyer. Overall, the government will benefit from improved purchasing control, scale economies and greater accuracy in the ordering and billing process. Off-contract and uncontrolled purchases that drive up product cost and reduce negotiation leverage will be minimised. It also prevents corruption by eliminating gate-keepers and reduces abuse of discretion and other opportunities for corruption. Besides that, information such as status of back orders and delivery status will be up-to-date and available electronically. This will help the government agencies in planning and budgeting process. The government ministries will also still maintain the freedom and responsiveness of decentralized purchasing, given the relevant information on the products and specification.

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cover feature

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enhancing supply chain performance

For the suppliers, the benefits cited from adoption of the eProcurement system include greater accessibility to government buyers, provides an opportunity to transition into e-Business, providing an entry point for e-Business capability, and also enable adoption of e-Business concept more rapidly, through the usage of e-Procurement system. The system also proffers faster and more cost-effective advertising for suppliers, as through the Internet platform, suppliers would virtually have a borderless advertising channel at a very low cost. In terms of process, the system simplifies the overall procurement process for the suppliers by reducing administrative and operational costs. Through e-Perolehan, almost all the business operations will be automated, thus not only leading to lower operational costs, but also faster turnaround time to the buyer. Suppliers would also be able to receive payments faster through electronic payment. Supported by a highly secured network infrastructure, suppliers would be able to receive payments for goods and services in a shorter period.

Through the e-Procurement system, the suppliers are able to use a single electronic catalogue for all government ministries while extending a global reach electronically to existing and new customers on the service (www.eperolehan.com).

Suppliers shall also benefit from improved information accuracy, increased productivity and reduced operational cost with the electronic retrieval and submission of quotation and tender information. Efficient processing on both supplier and buyer community will also translate to faster payment turnaround time.

According the government’s official document the main aim of e-Procurement is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the purchasing transactions between government and suppliers. The Government has appointed a company called Details A. Suppliers • Total Registered Suppliers • Total Active Suppliers • Total e-Procurement Enabled Suppliers • Transacting eProcurement Enabled Suppliers • Non-Transacting e-Procurement Enabled Suppliers B. Government Responsibility Centres • Total Government Responsibility Centres • Total e-Procurement Enabled Government Responsibility Centers e-Procurement Statistics

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Total

Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. for the purpose of developing, managing and maintaining e-Procurement under the scheme of Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT). e-Procurement- Project Update

The scope of work and implementation schedule for e-Procurement will be carried out in four phases: Phase 1

The first phase of the e-Procurement initiative started in October 2000, with the intention of developing an eProcurement system for the purchase of goods involving Responsibility Centres (Pusat Tanggungjawab / PTJ) within the government. The first phase of the project involved four central agencies namely, the Administration Department, MOF, the Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), Head Office, National Accountant Department (JPN), and the Head Office, National Audit Department (JAN). The objective of Phase 1 was to develop an online registration system in order to register suppliers/companies who supplies goods and services with the Department of Government Purchases, MOF. Phase 2

The second phase of the project started in January 2001. The objective of this phase was to expand e-Procurement system to one PTJ at the following Departments and Ministries: Prime Minister’s Department, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Ministry of Energy, Water and Telecommunications, and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations. Under Phase 2, the idea was to develop e-Procurement system for purchases through tender, quotation and direct purchase for all agencies involved.

118 438 Phase 3

76 955 51 865 6 216

Phase 3 of the e-Procurement project started in January 2002.

The focus of this phase was to roll-out the systems developed in Phase 1 and 2. Stated differently, while the phase 1 and 2 were akin to strategic formulation of the e-Procurement initiative, the goal of Phase 3 was to get the various entities involved in the initiative into an execution mode.

45 649 Phase 4

2 679

The final (on-going) phase of the project started in January 2004, with the objective of improving e-Procurement system accordingly, based on feedback received from all three parties involved in the procurement process, i.e. the service provider, the buyer community and the various PTJ’s within the government sector.

1 055 Issues and Challenges

Table 2 presents the e-Procurement statistics, which clearly indicates the low level of adoption and usage of e-Procurement www.egovonline.net

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services in Malaysia even though it has been implemented since the year 2000.

The following points highlight the key issues inherent within Malaysia’s e-Procurement initiative that prevents the government and the service provider from maximizing the value potential of the. These facts are gathered from the suppliers during the interview process: Cost

There are costs involved before a supplier becomes eProcurement enabled. Specifically, suppliers have to bear the cost of purchasing a smartcard for transaction, pay for training, and also any software renewal cost that occurs. These payments are directed towards Commerce DotCom Sdn Bhd. Given that the majority of the suppliers within the traditional category belong to the small-medium size operations scale, it is only natural that they are not keen in becoming players within e-Perolehan, given the costs involved, to become eProcurement enabled.

Infrastructure and Skills

As mentioned the majority of the supplier community fall within the small-medium size industry grouping.

Traditionally, this sector has not been well versed with use of state of the art information systems. Issues such as lack of bandwidth support, poor computing and information systems architecture in general, prevents the majority of the suppliers from playing a more active part in e-Perolehan.

Business Focus/Change Management

The majority of the suppliers are not keen to do business with the federal government, given the e-Procurement requirement. Suppliers prefer to do business with local and state governments as they can use traditional methods for selling tier products. Furthermore e-Procurement still has not gone into tender and quotation compared to direct purchase and central contract, which is small in volume. This issue is also in line with the need for better change management to convert the mindset of traditional sellers to embrace change and use technology in the procurement process in general.

System Constraints

The system in its current incarnation is not robust on several aspects. For examples, a supplier registered with the system, can only upload product information for ten different product areas, for free. Additional charges will; be incurred if more product lines are listed within the system. In short, for a company that has a wide product line, the additional cost involved to market the product via the system, might not be attractive.

Government Policy

Although the federal government encourages suppliers to become e-Procurement enabled, the government can decide if it is willing to transact with a non e-Procurement company, as long as the company is registered with Ministry of Finance.

Stated differently, although in theory the supplier community must become part of the e-Procurement system, in practice, this requirement has not been made mandatory as yet. ov

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Discussion and Recommendations

One of the main challenges for an e-Procurement project is the establishment of an appropriate and context tailored strategy. Every project or initiative needs to be rooted in a very careful, analytical and dynamic strategy.

This seems to be a very difficult task, requiring a focus on many aspects and processes, a holistic vision, long-term focus and objectives. Many public institutions limit their activities to a simple transfer of their information and services online without taking into consideration the re-engineering process needed to grasp the full benefits. The government must have a clear strategy to overcome the barriers to change.

Part of the strategy is to engage in a rigorous assessment of the current situation, the reality on the ground and the inventory of projects, articulate costs, impacts and benefits of programme as well as continuously monitor and evaluate the project upgrading. Borrowing a lesson from the private sector, e-Procurement must be customer-driven and service oriented. This means that a vision of e-Procurement implies providing greater access to information as well as better, more equal services and procedures for public and businesses.

Conclusion

The e-Procurement initiative in Malaysia is pretty much at an infant stage, albeit significant time, money, and efforts already invested into the project. To ensure the true potential and benefits of e-Procurement is realised by all parties involved, emulating success stories from e-Procurement initiative such as in West Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada and in Andhra Pradesh, India, is a must for the Malaysian government. For a start, significant change to the mindset of the traditional suppliers is required. This can be done via active and continuous promotion and education of e-Procurement and the benefits it brings to the supplier community, and also to the government. In addition, the service providers, namely, Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd, should reconsider reducing the cost of training and purchasing of the smart card, particularly for the small scale suppliers.

Lastly, the federal government should craft out policies that are favourable and non-conflicting with the policy objectives and implementation plan inherent within the e-Procurement initiative.

Maniam Kaliannan, (maniam@salam.uitm.edu.my), is Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA. Maniam is a Ph.D. Scholar in Faculty of Economics & Public Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He has published and presented papers on Electronic Government both in local and overseas conferences.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Halimah Awang, (halima@um.edu.my), Halimah Awang is an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean in charge of Research and Development at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, Malaysia. She obtained her doctorate in Applied Statistics from the Department of Statistics at Macquarie University, Australia.

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GeBIZ Innovative IT Solutions for India’s Burgeoning e-Governance Market Great progress has been made in the area of e-Procurement, which is an example of the PPP model in action.

Online tenders are now a reality in India. Soon, the Government’s entire tendering process is expected to happen online. Spurred by the large, rapidly expanding potential of the e-Governance market, a host of IT solutions providers are jumping into the fray with an array of offerings.

Kailash Agarwal

E

-Governance has become a key priority for India’s central and state Governments for the past few years. Intent on improving its interface with citizens and enhancing the delivery of services to ordinary people, the Government has been spending thousands of crores of rupees on e-Governance projects.

Initially, e-Governance programmes in India were being implemented individually in various states, leading to regional imbalances in the development of e-Governance in the country.

As a solution, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) initiated an integrated approach, termed the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), for rolling out e-Governance uniformly across India. The NeGP includes 26 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and eight support components. The Mission Mode Projects are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007. The Plan itself carries an allocation of a massive INR 23,000 crores for e-Governance projects. In addition, several Indian states have devoted large resources for eGovernance rollouts. In 2005-06 alone, IT spending by the Government increased 30 percent, to touch INR 6934 crores (USD 1.5 billion).

Clearly, these are a sign of the times. As e-Governance becomes serious business in India, a huge opportunity is emerging for IT solutions providers keen on addressing this segment. Increasingly, IT organisations are looking at solutions that fit the requirements of e-Governance in an innovative, cost effective and productive manner.

The Indian Government itself, is keen on building Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to further the cause of e-Governance and create an infrastructure of private sector support for its projects.

A directive from the Prime Minister’s office in

January 2003 to a large number of ministries, in fact, asked them to buy services from the private sector for automation/ e-Governance rollouts.

In line with this directive, various projects have been implemented by the Government of India and state governments in association with private players, primarily IT companies. The notable ones include the Bhoomi project of the Karnataka state government, MCA-21 of the Ministry of Company Affairs, the eCOP project of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government, the e-Krishi Vipanan, a PPP in the area of agricultural marketing, among others.

Great progress has also been made in the area of eProcurement, which again is an example of the PPP model in action. Online tenders are now a reality in India. Soon, the Government’s entire tendering process is expected to happen online.

Spurred by the large, rapidly expanding potential of the e-Governance market, a host of IT solutions providers are jumping into the fray with an array of offerings. NIIT

Website: http://www.gebiz.gov.sg/ Started: Year 2000 Current Status: around 150 government agencies, representing approximately 15,000 users, upload their quotation requests and tenders on GeBIZ.

14 }

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Technologies, a leading global IT corporation has been building its credentials in the Government market, and more recently in the Indian e-Governance space.

The company has been providing several cutting-edge solutions to demanding Government customers like the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force). It has also created GIS solutions for several departments in the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Very recently, the company inked a strategic contract with Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), to cement the partnership between the two organisations and support e-Governance initiatives being unveiled in that country.

As part of the contract, DSTA will be outsourcing the development and maintenance support of its Government Electronic Business portal (GeBIZ) to NIIT Technologies.

GeBIZ, developed by DSTA, was successfully implemented for Singapore’s government agencies in 2000. The GeBIZ portal (www.gebiz.gov.sg), is a one-stop e-Business site which facilitates trading between government organisations and their local and overseas suppliers, on an “anytime, anywhere” basis.

Currently, around 150 government agencies, representing approximately 15,000 users, upload their quotation requests and tenders on GeBIZ. Around 20,000 suppliers use GeBIZ ov

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to submit their bids online and undertake transactions with various Government entities. The fully electronic process has resulted in significant time and cost savings for its users.

NIIT Technologies will be productising the application and marketing the solution to other Governments in South Asia, Middle East and Central Europe. It is this solution that NIIT Technologies is also keenly positioning in the Indian market.

Currently, the processes for tendering and bid assessment used by the Government are inappropriate and pose a challenge.

NIIT Technologies’ e-Procurement solution is expected to revolutionise the system using which the Government makes its crucial purchases, and create a smooth interface between Government departments and their suppliers.

Going forward, NIIT Technologies will be actively marketing GeBIZ in India, targeting the solution at the central and state Governments in the process of unveiling crucial eGovernance plans.

Kailash Agarwal, (kagarwal@niit-tech.com.sg), is Regional Head e-Governance Practice, NIIT Technologies, Singapore.

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municipal governance

MCD’s Initiatives for e-Procurement in Delhi http://www.mcdonline.gov.in/ Arun Kumar vision and strategy for e-Procurement in Delhi

With the purpose to enhance transparency in governance especially with regard to procurement and tendering it was realised to shift to electronic mode. This was initiated on first priority because of day-to-day increasing instances and complaints of mal-practices in the process of procurement and tendering. The basic aspect behind e-Procuring/e-Tendering was to minimise the individual interaction between the vendor and buyer. Moreover, MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) is committed to adopt the administrative reforms promulgated by Government of India regarding e-Governance and other procedural reforms which is also a pre-requisite for qualifying for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

application it is in public domain and transparency is not at all doubtable. However, it also has inbuilt checks to reduce the probability of mal-practices in the process.

Training and capacity building process

Before the launch of e-Procurement/e-Tendering system, MCD notified through media to all concerned vendors / buyers to get themselves fully acquainted with the process for which an infrastructure for training at the fixed venue was created.

Registered vendors of MCD were also communicated through letters with specific allotment of date and batch for training.

Later on even open options were given to vendors to get them trained. Training was also organised for departmental users like tender clerks, accountants, and so on.

Key sectors where e-Procurement has been initiated Change Management Issues

MCD has now shifted to total online procurement / tendering for all types of procurements in almost all the departments.

Some of departments are at initial stages of its adoption. cost-reduction, efficiency, transparency achieved

So far MCD has been able to reduce the stationery in the form of bid documents and allied manual workload.

The tender fee being charged from the vendors is more than the processing fee and allied expenditure on http://www.mcdonline.gov.in/ e-Tendering module.

The another sector of cost deduction which is in sight is advertisement cost for tenders / procurements from registered vendors of MCD and this will be a major cost reduction in millions of Indian Rupees every year.

Despite the fact that the software is still under process of customisation it has contributed efficiency enhancement by way of removal of repetitive typing and printing activities with regard to procurement / tendering. Being a web based 16 }

For adoption of e-Procurement/e-Tendering some process re-engineering were also required and those have been implemented in phases, however there is still scope of further process changes along with phase–II customisation of software for e-Procurement/e-Tendering of process. Payment gateways integration have also been initiated with UTI Bank.

Initially the site was hosted at vendor’s server. Now it has been shifted to MCD server at C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing). After three years of maintenance of the software by the vendor, MCD will decide further change in the management of site and software.

Future initiatives planned

MCD has planned the complete customisation inclusive of payment gateway integration of the system by next financial year. It has also been planned to integrate with online working of the department for which software is at final stage of launching. Thereafter the entire process, right from estimation till execution as well as payment will be online.

Arun Kumar, (arunkmcd@gmail.com), Executive Engineer (Civil), Municipal Corporation of Delhi, India.

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DG MARKET Online e-Procurement Platform

http://www.dgmarket.com/ e-Procurement solutions at the national level (e.g. rules allowing eauctions or e-bidding processes; legal requirements for identification of bidders and suppliers)?

The Development Gateway Foundation specializes in providing tools for development. While we have been engaged in providing legal advice on procurement reforms in the past, now we focus on offering partner governments an online procurement platform (called dgMarket) that enables them to launch a national online procurement system comparable to that in the EU or Canada in a matter of weeks.

“We seek to accelerate the introduction of web-based tendering in developing countries, eventually leading to a “one-stop shop” for government tenders worldwide”, informs Mark Fleeton, CEO, Development Gateway, to Prachi Shirur of egov

Q

What is the broad goal and vision of e-Government programme of Development Gateway Foundation in general and e-Procurement programme in particular?

The Development Gateway Foundation provides web-based tools to strengthen governance and make development efforts more effective by increasing efficiency in government procurement, improving financial management and aid coordination, and enabling knowledge sharing and collaboration among development practitioners around the world. The Foundation specializes in affordable solutions for developing countries based on open source software and common standards.

The objective of the e-Procurement

A

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program is to increase competition for government contracts, thereby cutting costs, while giving small and mediumsized enterprises easy access to business opportunities. We seek to accelerate the introduction of web-based tendering in developing countries, eventually leading to a “one-stop shop” for government tenders worldwide. In addition, the Foundation provides small e-Procurement grants to provide wider capacity-building and institutional reform in countries such as Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Development Gateway Foundation is assisting partner governments in bringing out Procurement reforms.

Have you introduced the necessary laws and regulations to support

What are the main features of your organisational approach to e-Procurement? What kind of procurement activity is e-enabled and at which stage?

Most of the public sector procurement in the world is done through sealed bid auctions (tenders). In industrial countries, it has been estimated that the introduction of e-Procurement systems, supported by updated laws and regulations, has led to cost savings of at least 5 percent. Importantly, most of the savings are due to benefits that are associated with relatively simple first steps of introducing e-Procurement solutions: making tenders mandatory for all large contracts, and publishing notices, bidding documents, and contract awards via the Internet. We focus on providing a platform that supports these important steps.

What are the main technical challenges in maintaining and developing IT systems, which support procurement solutions?

The biggest challenge in developing eProcurement systems is the lack of widely adopted data exchange standards, which 17

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dg market

leads to the incompatibility of various procurement systems. As a result, government procurement markets are heavily fragmented. For example, in the United States, where state and local governments do not participate in a common system, there are several hundred procurements systems that do not talk to each other. The situation in the developing world is somewhat similar. Only large companies can track multiple procurement markets simultaneously. This cost is prohibitive for small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the same time, smaller procurement markets mean higher prices for governments. In order to facilitate information exchange, dgMarket aims at integrating information from various national procurement markets. For example, a representative of a Turkish construction company once told us that he does not have time to search newspapers and Web sites for contracts.

Through dgMarket he was able to bid on and win four contracts in Romania.

Have you developed technical standards (e.g. for data exchange) and requirements to allow systems interoperability? How successful is the application of these standards?

Yes, recently we introduced a simple XML standard for exchanging data with our partners. Currently, it is used by our

into larger financial management and procurement systems.

dgMarket enables national and local government agencies, as well as multilateral development banks, to post their procurement notices online. partners in five countries and we plan to continue adding several countries every year. dgMarket complies with European Union e-Procurement standards. It uses standard procurement terminology and allows data exchange with other tender information systems, for example at the provincial and local level. In addition, it may be integrated

Tell us about dgMarkets tender publishing platform. How are they helping the governments in developing countries in saving government spending and achieving transparency in procurement process? dgMarket enables national and local government agencies, as well as multilateral development banks, to post their procurement notices online.

It includes tenders funded by the World Bank and other aid agencies, plus all large tenders for over 30 countries, whose data is integrated either via data exchange or by hosting national versions. Presently, dgMarket is available in 20 languages and carries about 30,000 tenders at any given time, which amounts to $530 billion worth of procurement each year.

Various studies indicate savings from transparent and competitive procurement range from 5 percent in stronger environments to 20 percent in weaker ones. A Foundation study of the impact of dgMarket on World Bank procurement alone shows savings of $50-150 million per year. A 5 percent reduction in public procurement costs across developing countries would yield savings roughly equivalent to the total amount of global aid ($100 billion).

http://www.dgmarket.com/

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Electronic Procurement e-Procurement is the purchasing of goods and services using the internet. It includes the following: • Covers full life cycle of purchasing (indent to receipt of goods) • Connects buyers and suppliers through electronic exchange of Tenders, catalouges, contracts, invoices etc • Electronic Tendering is carrying out the traditional tendering process in an electronic form, using the internet.

Using e-Tendering the concerned departments can conduct

on-contract and off-contract buying. e-Tendering includes a variety of off techniques such as RFPs, quotes, auctions and reverse auctions.

The security features incorporated in the application ensures that all activities are logged, no unauthorised person has access to data, all sensitive data is encrypted and system can be restore in a minimal possible time in case of a disaster or system crash.

• • • • • • • • •

Benefits Some other key benefits are: • Improved Image and Transparency • Cost Reduction • Better Decision Making • Process Efficiency • Centralised rate contract with de- centralised delivery schedule • Audit Trail • 24*7 Availability • Price / Supplier behaviour forecasting • Supplier performance monitoring

•

Source: https://tender.eprocurement.gov.in/html/ about_us.asp Nasscom

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Industry perspective

Improving profitability through efficient e-Procurement http://www.wipro.com

Wipro Infotech

“Our e-Procurement solutions provide the facility from requisition to pay, with integration with payment gateways and net banking.

The solution is PKI (public key infrastructure) enabled...” tells Ramanath Iram, General Manager - Consulting, Wipro Infotech, in conversation with Prachi Shirur of egov magazine.

Q A

What is the e-Government vision of Wipro.

Government Organisations and other agencies undertaking procurement of

goods, works and services subject to tendering process and are accountable to public scrutiny of processes and optimum utilisation of public/ government funds. The major private sector players in this sector are: SAP; Ariba; PWC; Oracle; and Hewlett Packard.

Tell us about Wipro’s e-Procurement solutions. In what ways do your solutions have an edge over the other market players in this sector?

Our e-Procurement solutions provide the facility from requisition to pay, with integration with payment gateways and net banking. The solution is PKI (public key infrastructure) enabled which compliance to the IT Act and relevant Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines. Our patented Secure Bid

To be a leading end-to-end service provider in the domain of e-Governance to consult and assist government departments in providing transparent efficient, and reliable services to citizens What are the advantages of deploying e-Procurement solutions, especially in the public sector?

The modular diagram as shown in figure 1 encapsulates advantages of deployment of e-Procurement solution.

How vast is the Indian e-Procurement market and who are the major players? e-Procurement solution is being adopted by all the Public Sector Units, 20 }

Figure 1: Advantages of e-Procurement

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acceptance and endurance of e-Procurement implementation and continuance.

Which are the States in India where you have implemented e-Procurement?

A partial list of our implementation:

Figure 2: Features of e-Procurement Solution

Process and Key Manager features which ensures confidentiality of bids in an electronic scenario and encryption management gives us an edge over the other solutions available in the market. The service is offered by the Consulting arm of the organisation, consultants with domain expertise and with the synergy of technical capabilities enhances the implementation of solution leading to e-Governance.

How do you get a buy-in among all the stakeholdersenterprises, public sector, employees- in implementing e-Procurement in their organisations?

Champions driving e-Governance and procurement officers looking for transparency, time and cost advantages drive the change management internally in the organisation and facilitates in implementation of e-Procurement.

CVC guidelines and other communiqués from the Central Government have provided the guidelines for e-Procurement initiative amongst various organisations.

Our philosophy of e-Procurement enablers is represented in figure 3.

Figure 3: e-Procurement Enablers

What are some of the technical and cultural blocks to be crossed to be able to implement a successful e-Procurement solution?

Low penetration of computers, internet connectivity, and nonacceptance to change were the major technical and cultural bottlenecks in effective implementation of e-Procurement projects.

Repeated workshops & trainings and visible benefits (time and cost) have been the key parameters to build confidence for ov

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Government Sector: • Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) – Completed more than 32,000 transactions (tenders online) • Government of Assam – Department of Public Works • Government of Chhattisgarh (5 departments –State Wide Implementation on Process) • Government of Madhya Pradesh (Initial Stages of State Wide Implementation) Public Sector Undertaking; • National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC Ltd.) • Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) • Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) • Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL) • Rashtrya Chemical Fertilizers (RCF) • National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) Nationalised Bank; • A leading nationalised bank in India • Other State Government Corporation • Karnataka State Polic Housing Corporation Limited • Karnataka Rural Road Development Agency How has your e-Procurement solutions helped these state governments in bringing about savings, benefits and return on investment in the quickest possible time.

On-line availability of the tender has increased the participations, resulting into increased competition resulting in cost advantage thereby increasing the savings. eProcurement has resulted into a transparent system and also has facilitated computer awareness amongst the organisation and community as a whole.

What are some of the challenges you faced in implementing e-Procurement, especially in the public sector? How have these been overcome?

Initial adoption to the system was the major challenge other than low penetration of computers and computer literacy in the organisations. Awareness programs and knowledge transfer propositions facilitated to overcome the challenges for successful implementation of e-Procurement project.

Tell us about your future plans in e-Procurement sector in terms of expanding your market and innovating newer solutions.

We are targeting to continue our focus to use our competence in total IT delivery packed with our strength in implementation of e-Procurement solution resulting in competitive and effective services which has an edge over the market services available.

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Ariba Spend Management Solutions http://www.ariba.com gain a competitive advantage and improve bottom line results. With the adoption of Spend Management, governments can not Visibility only save costs but also increase operational efficiency dramatically. The savings in turn will help the government to invest in other Supplier productive areas for improved and tangible Sourcing Management returns. Spend management also marks an evolution in e-governance with a government to Business (GtoB) approach that allows eSPEND MANAGEMENT transaction between government agencies and private businesses. This change actually brings more accountability, transparency, and fairness to all government business Invoice and Contract transactions.

Payment Management Ariba, Inc. is the leading Spend Management solutions provider. Ariba is the pioneer and a proven leader in creating powerful Spend Procurement Management solutions for major companies and Expense worldwide—including many of the Fortune 100. The Ariba Spend Management Solutions comprise software, services and expertise that enable companies to rapidly master their spend and accelerate their journey toward Spend Management (SM) is a new category of solutions that bottom-line success-without costly customization or internal is designed to enhance company’s sourcing and procurement IT alignment issues Combined with our comprehensive, strategy. By allowing companies to combine their analysis, scalable Ariba Supplier Network, Ariba solutions drive more sourcing, contracting, procurement and reconciliation business volume between buyers and suppliers than any processes into a single, cohesive system, SM provides closer other spend management system. That’s why Ariba visibility over its spend. Spend management helps companies applications currently operate on nearly four million desktops to efficiently manage their purchasing functions and thereby around the world.

Ariba Spend Management Solutions

ANNOUNCEMENT CompTIA announces first SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards for 2007 The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) recently announced that it will recognise innovation and creativity in the software industry with the presentation of the first SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards later this year.

Software companies, software service providers and companies serving the software industry are eligible for the awards. Criteria for the awards include: Scope – What business problem or opportunity does the software innovation address? What is the size of the problem/ opportunity?

Impact – What practical results, such as sales, users or profits, has the innovation had on a software product or on the software industry? The innovation must be new and have both a current and future impact.

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Novel – How does the innovation break with traditional ideas or processes?

Winners of the SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards will be honored at Breakaway, the information technology industry’s premiere partnering and educational event, scheduled for July 31-Aug. 2 in Las Vegas.

About CompTIA

In 2007, CompTIA is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Just as the IT industry it serves has grown, CompTIA has also enjoyed remarkable growth over the past 25 years.

The organization was founded by representatives of five micro-computer dealerships working together to find better ways to do business. Today, CompTIA has more than 22,000 member companies in over 100 countries around the world; and serves as the voice of the world’s $1 trillion-plus IT industry.

Deadline for submission of entries: April 30, 2007 For more information: Web: http://www.softwareceo.com/ Contact: Michael Mudd Email: mmudd@comptia.org www.egovonline.net

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India's Premier ICT4D event 30 July - 03 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India www.eINDIA.net.in

eINDIA2007 unites seven specialised conferences and exhibitions

ommun ty Rad o

The National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is a comprehensive programme designed to leverage the capabilities of ICT to promote good governance across the country. The Indian economy is growing at a steady rate of 8-9%. For this growth to be sustainable there is a need to increase efficacy of business processes especially those directly controlled by the government. The eGov track of the eIndia2007 aims to bring together key stakeholders to forge the path to good governance for citizens and businesses in India, ensuring cross-pollination of information & knowledge across socio-economic and geographic boundaries.

INDIA

2007

While India has made huge strides and has been a key player in the Information technology revolution, vast digital divide still exists that inhibits a sustained all-inclusive growth for the society. India is bracing itself to catalyse the potential of ICTs in all spheres of development and creating opportunities for private investment and initiatives to supplement its development. In this immense growth environment, there is also a need for strategic planning, knowledge sharing and collaborative vision building between the government and the private sector to leverage the country’s growth potential and steer the country to lead the knowledge revolution. eINDIA 2007 is an inclusive, consultative and constructive ICT for Development forum – the largest and only one of its kind in India – promoting and propagating the use of ICT4D through its seven seminal conferences. Through its seven different but interrelated conferences namely, ● egovIndia2007, ● Digital Learning India 2007, ● Indian Telecentre Forum 2007, ● eHealth India 2007, ● mServe India 2007, ● Community Radio India 2007 and ● eAgriculture India 2007.

The conference will address the issues of digital divide and identify and explore opportunities for Digital India.

India is trying to achieve the 'Education for All' goal in one hand and investing in building infrastructure and initiating programmes to build a world class human resource capacity on the other. The National Knowledge Commission has emphasised the need for extensive use of ICTs for 2007 research, collaboration and university networking for building ICT skills, sharing education resources and reaching the un-reached in higher education though distance learning. Digital Learning India 2007 will take on the existing debates and provide a platform for all stakeholders to deliberate on the issues of enabling and strengthening capacities to achieve the national goals of education.

INDIA

INDIA

2007

INDIA

2007

With the launch of a national programme, 100,000 Community Service Centres, the Indian telecentre movement is at a vibrant stage of development, with the key stakeholders representing government, private sector and civil society besides donors being engaged in fulfilling the aspirations of the grassroots community to join the knowledge economy. Second year in the series of annual consultations, the Indian Telecentre Forum 2007 will provide the platform to take stock of what has happened. The Forum will shape the way forward for the telecentre movement within India, and for creating an example for the world to learn from.

Telemedicine has been a technological takeaway for the developed countries. Defined as the use of communication networks for the exchange healthcare information to enable clinical care, it is increasingly being viewed as a tool for improving care and enhancing access to healthcare. Telemedicine helps to connect remote rural hospitals/health centres to super specialty hospitals located in the cities and helps patients in remote and rural areas to avail timely consultations from specialist doctors without the ordeal of travelling. eHealth India 2007 will deliberate on such initiatives and many other excellent though scattered efforts in this field and bring it together to form a conduit of critical information.

INDIA

2007

ommun ty Rad o

INDIA

2007

The Indian telecom sector after liberalisation has shown tremendous growth with its growth rate being one of the highest in the world. The mobile phones apart from bringing in the aspect of mobility in connectivity have an inherent ease in terms of usage unlike computer-based connectivity, which requires people to be literate and e-Literate at the same time. In a nation plagued by connectivity lapses, mobile technology may well emerge as the key to bridging the digital divide. mServe India 2007 will showcase the immense potential of mobile technology in the implementation of existing and future m-Government, m-education, m-agriculture and other applications.

Amongst all the broadcasting media in India radio has the highest penetration and thus makes it the media which can reach the rural and remote areas servicing even the unlettered and illiterates. Realising its potential in November 2006, after seven long years INDIA of lobbying by groups like the Community Radio Forum, that the government finally 2007 accepted to make changes in the Community Radio Policy, to allow community based groups to set up their own radio stations. Community Radio India 2007 will bring together key stakeholders on a common platform to take the community radio movement in India to the next level.

e-Agriculture India 2007 will explore the opportunities of how ICTs can be used to improve the lives of the rural communities. Timely information on weather, disasters, improved agricultural practices, commodity prices and market information would greatly benefit farmers directly to minimize the risks and provide opportunities for enhanced incomes while cutting out high debt servicing costs, and taking informed decisions. The impact is felt directly with improved incomes and savings, access to services and valuable connections with stakeholders. The Universities, policy makers, industry leaders, development specialists and NGOs working for the farmers’ interests would explore the current developments and scalability of experiments.

www.eINDiA.net.in

i4d Film Festival “A picture speaks a thousand words”… The audio-visual medium is obviously an extremely powerful tool that can change the way global dialogues take place.

first ICT4D film festival. The film festival will cater to all sections of the ICT4D domain.

The first attempt of its kind in this arena, CSDMS will bring together over 50 films at the upcoming eIndia2007 forum. The features, long and short, will be gathered from around the world through the well-established networks that we already foster.

Grassroots representation from not only India but around the world in the various cinematic forms will constitute the world's

Interested persons are requested to visit our website at http://www.eINDIA.net.in/films to download the application form and guidelines. All submissions will be reviewed by the festival committee. Please be advised that we do not return VHS tapes or DVDs. We will contact those film-makers whose films/videos are accepted to participate in the festival.

Potential Participation International Development Agencies: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) telecentre.org International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) Unted States Agency for International Development United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Bank Asian Development Bank (ADB) International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Indian Government Organisations: ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India Ministry of Health, Govt. of India National Informatics Centre, Government of India National Institute for Smart Government, India Department of Telecommunications, Government of India

! ! ! !

Department of Posts, Government of India National Rural Health Mission, India Planning Commission, India State IT and Education Departments

Research & Academic Institutions: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Delhi University, India Centre for Good Governance, India Jawaharlal Nehru University, India National Council for Educational Research and Training IGNOU, Government of India Kendriya Vidhyala Sangathan, India University Grants Commission, Government of India IITs

National and International Networking Thematic Programmes: ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Mission 2007 Med-e-tel Euro India ICT Cooperation Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) Asian E-learning Network (AEN), Japan Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation

Past Sponsors and Exhibitors

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Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), G-4, Sector - 39, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phones: +91-120-2502180-85 Fax: 91-120-2500060 For any information/enquiry contact Sulakshana Bhattacharya Tel: +91-9811925253 email: sulakshana@eINDIA.net.in

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C O V ER F EAT U RE

Electronic Cards for Foodgrain Procurement and Distribution A Vision for FCI

http://fciweb.nic.in/

Chandrasen Kumar Understanding the Concept

The term e-Procurement and e-Distribution is already in use in several contexts. So it may give rise to various kinds of thoughts in the minds of readers depending on their perspectives. To have a fresh approach on this subject, let us understand this as “e-Procurement and e-Distribution of foodgrains in order to empower farmers and below poverty line people largely residing in rural India, together consisting of about 70 percent of the Indian population.

Basically the whole concept rests on use of IT/ICT in: 1. Agriculture sector, especially for the purpose of procurement of food grains from the farmers, ‘for which the Government of India is committed by providing Minimum Support Price (MSP) in order to save them from distress sale’ and flow of agricultural credits to them. This system can further be extended to procure other commodities as well for which MSP is guaranteed by the Government 2. Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) through which Government is committed to ensure food security of every citizen especially to the vulnerable sections of the society, belonging to below poverty line category.

The former can be accomplished by electronically registering each sale/purchase of agricultural produce by any farmer to any agency, whether Government or Private, by means of electronic cards provided to each one of them and swiping it through swipe machine or inserting in computer system of the purchasing agency so that credit or the cost of grains sold is directly credited in the account of respective farmers.

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swiping electronic ration cards provided to each family in lieu of ration cards in the form of booklets.

Now before we talk of method of implementation and benefits thereon it is important to know the present status of functioning in this area, mainly of Food Corporation of India (FCI) which is the nodal agency of Government of India in maintaining food security and safeguarding the interest of farmers.

About Food Corporation of India

FCI is an important undertaking of the Government of India under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (Min. of CAF & PD) involved in the food security management of the whole Nation. Established in 1965 under an act of Parliament called Food Corporations Act 1964, it has been mandated with following important responsibilities: • To provide the farmers remunerative prices • To make foodgrains available at reasonable prices, particularly to the vulnerable section of the society • To maintain buffer stocks as a measure of Food Security • To intervene in the market for price stabilisation With these objectives, FCI in its over four decades of existence has seen India coming out of food scarcity and becoming not only a food sufficient and but also a food surplus nation. This has been possible due to two pronged policy of supporting farmers by guaranteeing MSP i.e. saving them from distress sale in order to grow more and more of food grains and providing food grains to people all over the country under public distribution system. In this journey it has seen many highs and lows. At present due to its vast operations covering huge sections of society, it has assumed an important role in the development of rural India.

At present, FCI’s huge operations involve procurement of more than 41 Million Metric Tonnes (MT) of wheat and rice in a year from farmers, directly or indirectly by operating at more than 14,000 purchase centers through out the country.

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Electronic cards for foodgrain procurement and distribution

SHORTCOMINGS OF UNIFORM MSP AND ITS SOLUTION

In principle, every farmer should be able to get at least MSP for wheat or rice (paddy) they produce. But at present it is limited to only medium or large holding farmers in few states growing food grains in bulk, like Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh etc., where the system of procurement is centralised and mechanism is working smoothly. The benefits of MSP is not being availed much by farmers of decentralised states and other states which have low production, either due to lack of will of local state Government or due to lack of infrastructure.

Besides there are instances of recycling of rice, delivered under levy system i.e. rice issued for distribution coming back to FCI, in the name of paddy procured by the farmers.

In many cases traders buy wheat and rice from smaller farmers in remote areas at much below MSP and sell it to Government agencies at MSP. Millers deliver levy rice at very high prices with certification from local authorities that they have purchased paddy by paying MSP whereas they have not actually paid MSP to farmers. So to plug in these leakages IT can be introduced in this whole process. For this purpose every farmer should be issued ‘Farmers Credit Card’ (in fact there is already provision of Kisan Credit Card) which should be linked with his Bank Account. This card should also incorporate the farmers’ land holding details and income.

Now for any transaction to take place, swiping of this card be made necessary by the purchasing agency, at least by those who ultimately deliver the procured quantity to Government or its agencies. Therefore every purchasing agency must have its bank account linked with card swipe machine which can generate data base required for verification.

Benefits of such a system: 1. MSP guaranteed by the Government will actually reach farmers account directly.

2. Recycling of grains by millers would be reduced to zero, as they cannot deliver any quantity without purchase from farmers by paying at least MSP. 3. Small farmers would not be blackmailed and duped by middlemen and cooperative societies as they can actually register their sale.

4. Depending on the capacity of production by a particular farmer, agricultural credits can be simplified and made available to the farmers on time for investing in farms through the same account. Such credits extended can be debited from their account at the time of sale. It may be noted that agricultural credits available at present is at higher rates as compared to many other loans available in the market for simple reason that recovery is difficult. In states where there is not much infrastructure of procurement, private parties such as local traders, millers can be encouraged to undertake procurement safely on behalf of Government at specified quality and prices.

5. Once this system picks up, details like plot holding, number of family members, labours engaged, their income etc. can be linked with the card to plan other activities of development such as passing on incentives for growing a particular crop, crop holidaying for any 28

season, support in buying seeds, crop insurance, contract farming and many other activities in times to come.

6. Taxation of high income group farmers can be initiated after this system spans the whole country.

7. The agriculture sector can be regularised and monitoring of activities like contract farming, involvement of private sector in procurement etc would be simplified.

LEAKAGES UNDER DISTRIBUTION AND POSSIBLE SOLUTION

Like in procurement, there are lacunae in the distribution of food grains as well. According to many surveys done by various agencies, at least 30% of food grains meant for TPDS goes into market and do not actually reach those for whom it is issued at subsidised rate. Food grains allocated by the Central Government to different states under various schemes are issued to agencies of the concerned state Government

by FCI field offices at specified subsidised rates of specified quality. But once it leaves the FCI Godown premises, it does not go to the intended ration shops. Instead it finds way to open market where it is sold at higher rates. Poor ration card holders are either not issued food grains at all or they - are given lesser quantity than entitled on the pretext of fictitious reasons. In many cases food grains of lower quality are bought from the market and sold to ration card holders on the plea that poor quality food grains have been issued for TPDS. To check such leakages, Government has already recognised this as a problem area and in its 10th Five Year Plan, Planning Commission of India has already initiated a system of Smart Ration Card in place of normal Ration Cards similar to one being suggested in this paper. However the proposed system here envisages that all types of ration cards should be made electronic with family details, their profession, income and educational level etc. Simultaneously all Fare Price Shops (FPS) i.e. ration shops be equipped with swipe machines linked to local administrative unit. Once the system is in place ration or food grains should be issued only through swiping of cards and not without them.

Long Term Benefits:

It can be seen that involvement of IT in any sector has accelerated the pace of development. As agriculture sector is contributing about 23.5% in GDP, its future planning has to be addressed for maintaining the pace of growth and of course for maintaining food security of the nation.

Introduction of such a marketing system enabled with IT would not only prepare us for future but also help the pace of development in rural/agrarian India. Similarly IT in distribution of foodgrains can empower rural people for claiming all the benefits they are entitled for so that they can come up and contribute in the development of the whole nation.

Chandrasen Kumar, (chandrasenkumar@gmail.com), is with the Food Corporation of India (FCI), a Government of India undertaking, involved in Food Security Management of the country, in the capacity of Manager for the last 5 years. Initiated the concept of e-Procurement and e-Distribution to check recycling and diversion of food grains meant for distribution under various welfare schemes run by the Government of India.

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country focus: uae

Dubai e-Government Connecting Governments with citizens

http://www.dubai.ae/

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ubai e-Government has recently taken several initiatives such as launching the web portal (www.dubai.ae) and the mobile portal. What are some of the aims and objectives behind these initiatives?

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he launch of our web and mobile portals was broadly aimed at providing maximum number of government services online to citizens, residents, visitors and businesses in Dubai, while encouraging the use of electronic services to complement Dubai’s vision of e-Governance.

With these portals, citizens no longer have to go to different departments to apply for one single service as they will be able to access them through easy 24/7 channels.

What advantages these services provide to the citizens in terms of access to government services and carrying out transactions with the government?

The availability of government services online means that citizens and visitors can access these services from the comfort of their homes or offices. They do not have to personally visit different government offices to avail various services, resulting in significant savings in time for the users and the government departments.

How do you see the success of the mobile portal in Dubai considering the increasing mobile penetration in Dubai – one of the largest in the world?

Dubai’s fast growing mobile penetration rate has made the launch of our mobile portal all the more significant to the Emirate. Ever since its launch, the number of users of the mobile portal has been rising steadily which is a clear indication that Dubai is extremely receptive to innovative services.

What are the other e-Government initiatives being taken?

We are introducing electronic kiosks in malls and prominent areas in Dubai. This will enable individuals who do not have web access or knowledge of Internet browsing to use simple touch-screens for e-Services and utility payments.

To integrate all Dubai government departments, together with Tejari and the Department of Economic Development, we have created an electronic Dashboard which provides on-the-fly reporting and monitoring of electronic transactions. This feature is extremely valuable to all decision makers involved in eGovernment initiatives. ov

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“We need to provide services built around customer needs. Many public sector enterprises concentrate their budgets and IT around their organisational structure and become islands of knowledge that cannot be tapped, says Rehab Lootah, Director, e-Services,Dubai Government to Prachi Shirur of egov magazine.

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and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, who said: “A man has two choices, either to be a follower or to show initiative, and we greatly desire to be pioneers.”

Where do you see e-Government in Middle East as compared to that in the Asian countries? e-Government in the Middle East is certainly picking up and we are catching up with Asian and Western countries in this regard. Governments in the region have realised the importance of electronic governance and provision of e-Services, which have resulted in faster adoption and implementation.

What is your opinion regarding importance of publicity and awareness generation among the public about eGovernment services?

Creating awareness and generating publicity about eGovernment services are vital to ensuring the increased adoption of e-Services by the public. Once the people are aware of the benefits of using online services, they will be compelled to use these services. There is a need to spread awareness on the ease of using e-Services, which will then automatically lead to increased use.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has held Dubai up as an example of extraordinary development based on excellent leadership, management, teamwork and timely decision-making. In Dubai his leadership has resulted in major infrastructure projects, including internationally renowned sporting facilities, an impressive road network, modern parks and gardens, and public libraries. Dubai International Airport has also been expanded and improved to reflect the emirate’s status as the regional aviation hub.

What is your take on public-private partnerships (PPP) in terms of the value addition to eGovernment? How keen do you think are the private sector, in the Middle East, towards PPP? We recognize the fact that the private sector is the engine of the development process. In line with this fact, we have embraced public-private partnerships right from our inception and will continue to strengthen and sustain our relationships with our private partners.

What are the key factors that public sector should bear in mind while implementing e-Government solutions?

We need to provide services built around customer needs.

Many public sector enterprises concentrate their budgets and IT around their organisational structure and become islands of knowledge that cannot be tapped. The eGovernment initiative has become the hub, which connects these islands, with the objective of creating a lasting knowledge economy in Dubai.

What are the challenges in Middle East in implementing e-Government?

Since this is a pioneering venture, our successes will be replicated by other regional governments who want to learn from us. Along the way, we do have the pitfalls and the occasionally long learning curve. However, we prefer to lead from the front, in line with the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President 30

India's Premier ICT4D event

30 July - 03 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan New Delhi, India

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country focus: uae

service management A Case Study on Dubai e-Government Services ITIL is a set of best practices standards for Information Technology service management that provides businesses with the best practices to achieve quality service and overcome difficulties associated with the growth of IT systems*. Dubai e-Government (DEG), which was officially launched in December 2001, is selected as a case study for service management assessment based on ITIL standards.

Dr. Mihyar Hesson and Okan Geray Introduction

The advances in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have raised new opportunities for the implementation of novel applications and the provision of high quality services over global networks. The aim is to utilise this ‘information society era’ for improving the quality of life for all citizens. This is in terms of disseminating knowledge, strengthening social cohesion, generating earnings and finally ensuring that organisations and public bodies remain competitive in the global electronic marketplace. eGovernment is the term reflecting the use of ICT in public administration in an attempt to ease access to governmental information and services for citizens, businesses, and government agencies. e-Government Strategies, Implementation and Problems e-Government Strategies

There are different strategies to build an e-Government and deliver its services to the public. Some countries have created comprehensive long-term plans. Others have chosen to identify just a few key areas as the focus of early projects. In all cases, however, the countries identified as most successful have begun with smaller projects in phases on which to build a structure. Many e-Government projects faced serious problems and some ended in failure. In addition, the level and quality of services vary significantly and therefore, a proper measure is required to assess these services. An e-Government strategy is a fundamental element in modernising the public sector, through identifying and developing organisational structure, the ways of interactions with citizens and business, and reducing cost and layers of organisational business processes. It provides a wide variety of information to citizens Website: http://www.dubai.ae/ Started: December 2001 Current Status: 1900 government services are online

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and businesses through Internet. e-Government can develop the strategic connections between public sector organisations and their departments, and make a communication between government levels (e.g. central, city, and local). e-Government Implementation Phases

The process of e-Government implementation is divided into three phases. These three phases are usually identified as: information, communication, and transactions. (http://www. cdt.org/egov/handbook/part1.shtml).

Phase 1: Information services: deliver government information via static and dynamic web pages.

Phase 2: Communication services: involves two-way communications, starting with basic functions like email contact information for government officials or feedback forms that allow users to submit comments on governmental or policy proposals.

Phase 3: Transaction services: use online forms, workflow and payment systems to allow citizens and business partners to take care of their business with government online just like a transact website which offers a direct link to government services, available at any time. e- Government Transformation

In order to realise efficiencies, governments need to develop a citizen-centric model that involves key stakeholders. These include businesses, trade associations, scientists, academics, and NGOs. Without their input, e-Government projects may not be able to achieve their ultimate objectives. Mikadze, A. and Esebua, K. (Council for ICT) have emphasised five elements of successful e-Government transformation; these are: Process Reform, Leadership, Strategic Investment, Collaboration and Civic Engagement. e- Government Problems:

Like any other new technology, e-Government is subjected to different types of problems. Some of the main problems that may be encountered in e-Government implementations are related to: building and maintaining governmental websites, use of electronic mail through the e-Government 31

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website, web publishing, publication of information of legal value, access to information databases through the website and the availability to all potential users. Governments and IT organisations attempting to increase service levels, decrease costs and improve security are usually looking to the ITIL framework for guidance. ITIL, or the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is widely accepted as the world’s leading compilation of IT best practices.

ITIL and e-Government

e-Government enables provisioning of public services over innovative channels. e-Government services require certain service levels to be achieved as they replace services over the traditional channels. e-Government also increases the dependence of government agencies on information technology based services. High quality services entail high performance, availability and scalability among other service characteristics. Defining the requisite service levels for such service characteristics is a key activity. ITIL provides a systematic approach for achieving pre-defined service levels for various service characteristics. The processes identified, designed and implemented as part of ITIL framework can be considered as a tool or means to achieve the pre-defined service levels for e-Government services. The actual ITIL processes can be thought of as strategic trade-offs among different alternatives. Needless to say, targeting 99.5% versus

the clock in its advancement in cyberspace, particularly its e-Government migration. A day can hardly pass without enhancing an existing eService, offering a new eService, launching an electronic initiative, or starting a journey towards the digital world. Dubai e-Government has been officially launched. The re-evaluation of eServices is timely in view of the target of conducting 90% of government services electroni­cally by the year 2007. At present, the status is 81%, with a total of 1,900 eServices. The real challenge for the depart­ments is meeting the target of 50% of government transactions on electronic channels. This demands that depart­ments reach a unique level of quality, and make these services compete with their conventional counterparts (DEGe4all, the Official Magazine of Dubai e-Government, Issue 33, July 2006, pp. 12).

Self Assessment Plan

The aim of the assessment plan is to evaluate the level of service of DEG and to find out how well it is performing compared to ITIL best practice. The assessment plan also aims to create awareness of management and control issues that may be addressed to improve the overall process capability. Table 1 illustrates how the assessment is categorized.

The assessment is based on a generic framework, which recognises that there are a number of structural elements, which need to be in place for process management and

Table 1 Assessment Categories

99.9% availability (service level) of an e-Government service will inherently require different processes for achieving them.

Hence target service levels will impose constraints on target service delivery processes. ITIL allows decision makers, planners and managers to address IT services related issues in a coherent and unified framework. It also allows concomitant management of information technology services.

Dubai e-Government as a Case Study Dubai e-Government

Dubai is a city of population of over 1.5 million and has a blend of over 150 nationalities live in harmony. Dubai is expanding fast and is increasingly housing international business, entertainment, media and technology. The most common spoken languages in official circles are English and Arabic. Besides its spatial expansion, Dubai is racing against 32

for it to satisfy the overall intent and meet the needs of the customer.

To establish where a particular organisation stands in relation to the process capability framework, a variable number of service criteria should be met. These criteria are weighted, i.e. those, which are deemed as having higher significance, are considered mandatory for a ‘Yes’ answer at each level of capability. These service criteria are denoted by an ‘M’ symbol (indicating that a ‘Yes’ answer is required if the level is to be achieved).

Eleven different categories were evaluated: six of them under Service Delivery and the other five under Service Support. Each category has nine different levels starting from level 1 and ends at level 5. At each level a number of service criteria are identified. This number varies from a level to another and from a service to another. To pass a level, it is not necessary to pass all the listed service criteria but a subset of it. However some of these services are mandatory to pass www.egovonline.net

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for the whole level to be considered a pass. Starting at Level 1 and continue up the levels until the service criteria for the current level are not met. For example, should the service criteria be satisfied for Levels 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, but not met for Level 3, then no further checks need to be attempted and the organization’s capability level is deemed to be 2.5. This is so even if the service criteria are met at level 3 and/or any other higher level.

This process is repeated for all the other categories. At each level of a category there are a variable number of service criteria to be met. These service criteria are different at each level of the same category and also at the similar levels of the different categories.

Customer Interface requirements are not satisfied by any component of Dubai e-Government Service Support.

A Service Support implementation plan for Dubai eGovernment should focus on Customer Interface level.

To fairly rank Dubai e-Government Service Support based on ITIL, we propose to give one point by each achieved level and divide this by the total number of levels for all components as follows (First level is 1 and maximum number of levels is 9): Total Number of Achieved Levels / Total Number of Levels = 44 / 54 = 81.5% Service Delivery Assessment

Assessment Analysis Highlights

The self assessment of Dubai e-Government with respect to ITIL standards gives very mixed results. On one hand it has scored fairly well in Service Support categories while on the other hand it did not do well in Service Delivery. For instance, it achieved level 4.5 for Configuration, Change and Release Management, and level 3.5 for Service Desk and Problem Management (Figure 2). The status is different with ITIL Service Delivery. Dubai e-Government has achieved level 2 for Capacity Management, level 1.5 for Service Level Management and Continuity Management, and level 1 for Financial and Availability Management (Figure 3).

The following are some analysis notes on the ITIL Service Delivery Assessment Results: Figure 3 shows the maximum achieved level by each ITIL Service Delivery component with all lower levels achieved.

Prerequisites requirements of ITIL Service Delivery are satisfied.

Service Support Assessment

The following are some analysis notes on the ITIL Service Support Assessment Results: Figure 2 shows the maximum achieved level by each ITIL Service Support component with all lower levels achieved.

Prerequisites, Management Intent, Process Capability, Internal Integration, Products and Quality Control requirements of ITIL Service Support are satisfied by Dubai e-Government.

Service Desk has achieved level 4.5 but failed to achieve level 4. Therefore the recognized level is set to 3.5. Little work is required to raise this category to level 4.5.

Similarly, Problem Management has achieved level 4.5 but failed to achieve level 4. . Little work is also required to raise this category to level 4.5.

service delivery assessment results analysia

Process Capability (Level 2) of Capacity Management is the maximum achieved level for all Service Delivery components of Dubai e-Government.

To mark Dubai e-Government Service Delivery based on ITIL, we propose to give one point by each achieved level and divide this by the total number of levels for all components as follows(First level is 1 and maximum number of levels is 9): Total Number of Achieved Levels / Total Number of Levels = 9/45= 20% More Detailed Assessment Analysis

Service support assessment results

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In the above highlight analysis we only showed if a particular service has achieved a specific level or not. It is not clear how good or bad the service is. The reason we are saying that is that the range between the minimum accepted level for a pass and the maximum level that could be achieved can be wide. In many cases the achieved levels are on the minimum 33

country focus: UAE

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side while some of not-achieved levels are just below the minimum. This is actually not very helpful for the people DEG to judge how much work is required at each level whether it is achieved or not. Therefore a detailed analysis for each service at the different nine levels is required.

Recommendations for Implementation

The beauty of ITIL is that it is not a fixed methodology, it is a framework. One does not have to follow it step by step. It is more important for the organisation planning to implement ITIL to have a clear vision about the expected achievements. They should determine if they simply want to raise operations to a new level to satisfy customer demands or they are merely looking for their IT team to earn certification in an internationally recognised standard. Not every aspect of ITIL might be applicable for a particular organisation. They have to extract the best practices that will really help their

organisation and their business move forward and leave out those that they do not believe will add any value. The following are some common wrong practices in the implementation of ITIL that DEG should avoid: • Running the implementation as an IT project instead of an organisation change project.

• Improper balance between strategic efforts and shortterm wins.

• Sole focus on one or several ITIL processes instead of all service support and delivery processes.

• Over-designing the ITIL process solutions.

• Scoping the implementation to one processing location.

• Lack of implementation governance.

• Too much emphasis on process maturity as a goal or end state.

• Treating the implementation as a one-time project.

• Staffing the implementation effort with people in the wrong positions.

The above assessment enables DEG to determine where their IT service operations on the ITIL continuum are, and how their current operating practices compare to ITIL best practices. Once DEG is done with the analysis of where they 34

are and where they want to be, they need to look at the cost in terms of time and effort it will take them to get there.

The following are some Critical factors for successful ITIL implementation for DEG: • Full management commitment and involvement with the ITIL implementation.

A phased approach.

• Consistent and thorough training of staff and management.

• Making ITIL improvements in service provision and cost reduction sufficiently visible.

• Sufficient investments in ITIL support tools.

Conclusion

This work is aimed to assess the level of service management of Dubai e-Government as a case study of the application of ITIL in e-Governments. This requires that DEG e-Services will have to match the international standards of e-Government service management, both in Service Delivery and Service Support.

The bulk of the work was devoted to draw a comprehensive self-assessment plan that can be used to evaluate the DEG current and future e-Services. This plan was carefully drawn after a thorough investigation of the quality standards of the e-Services of e-Governments and other IT services worldwide This plan represents the core of the DEG Gap Analysis that is conducted by the authors of this project under the full cooperation of the DEG officials.

Eleven different categories of service management were evaluated; six of them under Service Delivery and the other five under Service Support. DEG scored fairly well in the Service Support with a score of 81.5%. Service Desk, for instance, has achieved level 4.5 but failed to achieve level 4. Therefore the recognized level is set to 3.5. Similarly, Problem Management has achieved level 4.5 but failed to achieve level 4. Little work is required to raise these two categories to level 4.5 and hence raise the overall score to 88.9%.

When it comes to the performance of the Service Delivery, the picture is completely different. None of these remaining five categories has scored well. The overall performance of DEG Service Delivery could not achieve more than 20% on ITIL standards. DEG is required to do a hard work to improve their Service Delivery to an acceptable ITIL level.

Dr. Mihyar Hesson (m.hesson@alainuniversity.ac.ae), is a Professor of Computer/Software Engineering with more than twenty years of academic experience in international universities and industrial experience in IT companies in USA and Canada. Received his PhD degree from Dundee University, U.K., 1986.

Okan Geray, Ph.D., (Okan.Geray@dubai-e.gov.ae), Strategic Planning, Dubai e-Government, Dubai, UAE.

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CSI-SIGeGov announces the 5th International Conference on E-Governance, ICEG 2007, www.iceg.net/2007 28-30 December 2007, Hyderabad, India Theme Host

Under the aegis: Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management About

(A unit of Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management (www.giftsociety.org)

International Congress of E-government (www.iceg.net)

Co hosts:

: E-Gov Dream to Reality : Computer Society of India-Special Interest Group on E-governance (CSI-SIGeGOV) - School of Management Studies ,University of Hyderabad - ICT Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh - National Institute for Smart Governance (NISG), Hyderabad - International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad - Institute of Electronic Governance (IEG), Hyderabad

Official Media Partner

ICEG-2007 is the fifth event in series. It aims to provide a forum for discussing research findings, strategies, policies, and technologies in the field of egovernance.

A significant milestone in the e-governance arena, the conference promises to be an invigorating confluence of the best brains from the academia and the industry. Scientists, faculty, and students from prestigious universities across the globe have expressed a keen desire to be part of this mammoth event. Assured industry participation and most importantly, key government officers and NGO/community volunteers have guaranteed strong representation of the user community.

An International Advisory Committee (IAC), comprising international experts and representatives from the government as guides the development of the conference program. A Program Committee (PC) supplements the activities of IAC including identification of moderators and speakers, as well as the agenda for the conferences.

Call for Papers

Authors are invited to submit original and unpublished papers, nominating a theme-related track or designating the paper as non-theme related ("Other"). Accepted papers will appear in the edited books provided that at least one author registers for and attends the conference. High quality papers will be nominated for the Best Paper award. Better papers may be selected for publication in suitable journals. The conference program will be organized into submission topics but not limited to: • Leaders/ Lawmakers for E-government • E-government & Policy • Reforms & Acts • Reengineering Government • Technology in Government • Open Source Platform for Sustainability • E-democracy and Citizen Empowerment • ICT & Society • Inter-governmental Issues • Best Practices in E-government • Crisis in Human Capital • Competitiveness • Assessment of Government Portals & Ranking • E-government Adoption and Diffusion • E-government: Economics & Development • Public Private Partnerships • Lessons from e-Business Corporations • E-government Applications (G-G, G-C, G-B, G-E etc.)

• Cultural, Social and Political Issues in e-Government Please email your papers and / or queries to the ICEG contact emails provided below Special Sessions • Privacy, Security and Homeland defense in E-government • E-government Standards & Architecture • Data mining in Government • Application of Advance Technologies • Manpower for e-Government

Key Elements The three-day conference offers attendees a holistic educational experience, with following opportunities • Three plenary sessions with nine keynote presentations by experts • Six half-day Industry sessions & Tutorials • Thirty thought-provoking sessions running along five tracks • A Best Paper award for each track

IMPORTANT DATES Last date for submission of papers 1 July 2007 Acceptance/Rejection notification 1 Sept 2007 Camera ready papers 1 Oct 2007 CONTACT FOR OTHER DETAILS ICEG 2007 Secretariat (http://www.iceg.net/2007) Dr. Ashok K. Agarwal (Conference Chair) Convener CSI-SIGeGov and Director, ACS Technologies Ltd., Hyderabad, India conf_chair@iceg.net, Agarwal.ashok.k@gmail.com

G. P. Sahu (Programme Chair) School of Management Studies M.N. National Institute of Technology Allahabad – 211004 (India) gpsahu@iceg.net, gsahu@mnnit.ac.in

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regional focus: Uttar pradesh

an e-ffort to empower citizen Lokvani Lokvani is a single window, self-sustainable e-Governance solution providing transparent, accountable and responsive administration for grievance handling; land record maintenance as well as an eclectic mixture of essential services. Lokvani is an e-effort to empower citizens through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in rural areas.

Amod Kumar, Amarpal Singh and Amit Shukla Introduction

e-Governance is defined as the use of Information Technology for the purpose of enabling and improving the efficiency with which government services and information are provided to the citizens, employees, businesses, and other government agencies (Ref. McClure, David: Electronic Government Challenges Must Be Addressed with Effective Leadership and Management, 2001). e-Governance supports good governance, which in turn promotes progress in developing countries. Another key benefit is that the democratic, business and governmental aspects of governance are simplified and improved. This further leads to a reduction in costs with provisions of better services to citizens and businesses. Hence numerous governments are in the process of modeling innovative and efficient models of electronic governance. This also leads to a reduction of multiple and redundant points of contact between government and citizens.

Lokvani is a public-private partnership e-Governance programme, which has been initiated with the combined efforts of both the district administration as well as the National Informatics Centre in the district of Sitapur, India, which has 88% rural population with 38.86% literacy rate. It is an outstanding example of a highly cost-efficient, economically self-reliant and user financed community network. This solution is targeted at 3.6 million citizens residing within the district, located in the province of Uttar Pradesh, the world’s fifth largest political entity in terms of population. Lokvani has been projected as a commitment to

the people in providing them with transparent, credible and accountable systems of governance. This system is grounded in the rule of law, encompassing civil, political as well as economic and social rights underpinned by accountable and efficient public administration for multiphase development of rural people. The primary objective of the IT solution is to bridge the digital divide and “connect” the common man to the strategy makers in a seamless fashion.

Operational Model of Lokvani

“Lokvani” in Hindi means the voice of the people. The Lokvani model has been formulated keeping in mind the three key stakeholders – (a) citizens, (b) government and (c) IT entrepreneurs/Kiosk operators. Essentially, since the IT literacy (and also any form of literacy) is very low in Sitapur, hence the kiosks form an interface between the IT enabled government and the IT illiterate citizens.

Website: http://www.sitapur.nic.in/lokvani/ Started: December 2004 Services Online: Land Records, Online Public Grievance Redrassal, Tender Forms, Arms licence applications status, EPF accounts of basic education teachers

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Key Players The key players in the model are as follows:

Government: A society by the name of Lokvani was constituted at the district level to implement the project autonomously to reduce some of the bureaucratic pressures. All the financial decisions have been under the purview of the society itself.

The rationale for such a framework is that the budgets of small districts have a limited scope for extra expenditure and the process of getting finance is long drawn and complicated process.

The Lokvani society meets its recurring expenses from the money received from the registration of kiosks, short term and lifetime membership fees. The initial costs for setting up the society were also negligible as the hosting services was provided free of cost by the National Informatics Centre.

IT entrepreneurs / Kiosk owners: The key achievement of the solution is its self-sustainability and long-term financial viability. The conversion of existing cyber cafes/ computer training institutes into Lokvani Centers was a key factor driving the financial success. This step ensured that extraneous capital was not a vital requirement fo the solution.

The society signed contracts with existing kiosk owners for the purpose of registering them as Lokvani franchisees with only a nominal annual fee of INR 1,000 (USD 22).

The kiosks are run by IT entrepreneurs. A typical kiosk has an internet enabled PC, a printer and a webcam. It also has a CD ROM drive. Some kiosks also have a power backup (typically, power is available 5 hours a day).

Kiosks earn profits through the income generated from various services of Lokvani provided to the citizens. In addition, the kiosks can also generate some extra revenue by providing disparate facilities like computer education, computer typing, digital photography, internet access resulting in cross sales.

Citizens: The citizens are the reason as well the force behind the solution. Although, the kiosk owners and the government seem to be the driving force, it is the citizen, who finally is the target audience. The citizens form the customer base for which the model has been designed.

The citizens save tremendous amount of opportunity cost and effort in getting government services. In an economy riddled with poverty, it is an enormous burden on the citizens to forego daily wages to obtain government services.

Geographical spread: There are 42 uniformly distributed kiosk centers at the block and tehsil level. A black dot in map below represents the location of a kiosk centre in Sitapur. More than one kiosk can be situated at the same place.

Layout of Lokvani Kiosks with Black Dots representing the Kiosk location ov

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regional focus: uttar pradesh

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an e-ffort to empower citizen

Services offered by Lokvani

Information about Development Works

Lokvani system has empowered the citizens by generating awareness towards their rights through a seamless flow of information. It is an outstanding manifestation of the “right to information�. The services offered by Lokvani encompass a wide range of government departments such as Department of Public Grievances, District Administration, Development Department and Department of Land and revenue). The services offered by Lokvani include (a) grievance and petitions, (b) land records, (c) tender service, (d) employment services, (e) information related to government schemes and (f) information about government services.

Lokvani also provides a list of developmental programs which are running under various departments like Educational Department, Jal Nigam, Electricity Department, Food and Civil Supply Department, Social Welfare Department, Public Works Department, Revenue Department and other Development Departments. It also provides information about the people who have received employment under the National Food for Work Scheme and allotees of homes under the Indira Awas Yojana. Information about the development work done under various schemes like National Food for Work Scheme, Member of Parliament Development Scheme, and Member of Legislative Assembly Development Scheme is also available online.

Lokvani Grievance and Petitions Services

This is the most popularly used service of the Lokvani system as of now. This service allows citizens to register and then track the status of their petition via a nearby Kiosk centre. The complaint is then transferred to designated officials, who can read but cannot modify it. It has many unique features including one, which enables the citizens to follow up on their complaint on the move with the help of a mobile phone.

Single Window System

Lokvani Single window system deals with the filing of application for Birth, Death, Income and Domicile Certificates at the Kiosk centers. These certificates are received after the due completion of the verification process. The system has been introduced on a trial run basis.

Land Record System

Information about the type of land, list of villages and details regarding the allotment of land in villages is available online in the local language. Individuals can view the land records through just a nominal payment. In the case that the information regarding a particular land record is not available online at the kiosk centre, the applicant gets to receive it within a stipulated period of 5 days by speed post.

Tender Services

Notices regarding the tenders and their terms and conditions are published under the Lokvani Tender Service. The forms are also available for download. Interested contractors can send the filled tender forms through speed post to the concerned offices. Results and comparative charts of all bids are displayed on Internet within 24 hours of allotment.

Employment Services

The Lokvani system provides information on all vacancies in the district as well as downloadable application forms for job seekers. Detailed information regarding the financial help provided by the government under various self-employment schemes is also available.

Information Relating to Government Schemes

The data of various schemes funded by the Central and State Governments through various Development schemes and Social Welfare Departments is accessible via Lokvani.

Application forms for social schemes like Old Age Pension Scheme, National Family Benefit Scheme, Professional and Vocational Education, Loan for the Physically Handicapped, Loan for the Development of Small Scale/Handicraft/Cottage industry are made available for download. Citizens can down load these forms and submit them through traditional methods.

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Benefits of the Lokvani System

Some of the key beneficiaries of the Lokvani system are: Citizens

Citizens can easily obtain pertinent information from the kiosks that are conveniently located in every block and in a few villages as well. Unlike the traditional method, people are not required to visit the district/ tehsil headquarter and as a result save on precious time, money and effort.

Filing of grievances and their follow up has also been streamlined. Citizens can receive disposal reports and can track the status of their filed complaint without personally visiting any government officer.

Computesisation of land records has precluded the dependence on the Lekhpal (land record keeper) for furnishing the official documents. Citizens can access information about various government schemes and their preconditions through kiosks. They can also obtain the list of persons who are benefiting under various schemes. A complaint can be filed against the concerned officer in the case of any discrepancy.

Moreover teachers can view their EPF (Employee Provident Fund) account detail at any kiosk. Previously, they had to wait week ends to visit banks for their account details.

Online tender services have significantly reduced the preexisting monopoly of some influential contractors.

Results and comparative charts of all bids are displayed on Lokvani within 24 hours of the allotment. This has drastically abated the likelihood of illegal negotiations after the allocation of tender. www.egovonline.net

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INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCES MOHAN NAGAR, GHAZIABAD

I.T.S, Ghaziabad, an ISO 9001-2000 certified Institute, established in 1995 is a part of professionally run I.T.S group having interest in IT, Management, Dental, Paramedical & Engineering education through its four campuses at Mohan Nagar, Murad Nagar & Greater Noida. ITS has made phenomenal progress within a short span of time. Campus1 of ITS at Mohan Nagar is recognized as one of the most sought after B schools in Northern India offering MCA, PGDM (equivalent to MBA) & MBA courses approved by AICTE & Affiliated to UP Technical University, Lucknow.

announces

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON Emerging Technologies And Trends In IT 2007 NCET-2007 April 06-07, 2007 at INDIA HABITAT CENTRE, NEW DELHI SPONSOR

MEDIA PARTNER

ORAGANISED BY Institute of Technology and Science Department of IT, Mohan Nagar, Ghaziabad (U.P)-201007 Tel: 0120-2657325/258/59,2659014 IT Dept :0120-2657217 Fax: 0120-2657082, 2657041 Mo:9311377847, 9211336599, 9911046870 E-Mail: itsbp@vsnl.com Website: http://www.itsgzb.ac.in

an e-ffort to empower citizen

regional focus: uttar pradesh

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The self-sustainability of Lokvani is derived from the innovative operational model wherein existing cyber cafes are being leveraged to act as franchisees of the system. Such a strategy avoids upfront investments from the government to set up such kiosks as well as avoids any operational support from the government. This is possible as the system generates its own funds from the citizens and contributes to the earnings of the kiosk operators.

Government

Before the implementation of Lokvani, there existed no easy method of checking the time taken by an officer for solving his assigned complaints. This encourages a lackadaisical approach and dereliction in solving problems. However in the new system, the officer is assigned a fixed period of 15 days within which he has to redress the issue. This strict schedule has dramatically increased the efficiency and accountability of officers. Moreover the District Magistrate and the citizens can access the progress report of the work by any officer.

Transparency brought about by the easy availability of information on land records has reduced the possibility of land scams.

Kiosks

Kiosk operators are earning extra money besides their regular income, without any extra investment. This has caused the number of registrations to climb up drastically.

Apart from this their earnings from their staple business also went up.

Hence each and every one of the level benefits from Lokvani model. This is a highly desirable feature which although quite hard to achieve, can be single handedly attributed to the success of any e-Governance solution.

Conclusion and Key Learnings

Lokvani system is a self-sustainable solution that efficiently and effectively caters to the needs of its three key stakeholders that are (a) citizens, (b) administrators and (c) kiosks operators/ the IT entrepreneurs.

The self-sustainability of Lokvani is derived from the innovative operational model wherein existing cyber cafes are being leveraged to act as franchisees of the system. Such a strategy avoids upfront investments from the government to set up such kiosks as well as avoids any operational support from the government. This is possible as the system generates its own funds from the citizens and contributes to the earnings of the kiosk operators.

Another dimension of sustainability is provided by the transparency created by the system, which has allowed the press to take up issues related to administrative efficacy. This has created tremendous citizen pressure, which will ensure 40

that the system continues to exist even when the champions of the system move out.

The citizens are obviously the key beneficiaries from the solution as is evident from the number of petitions filed per day and the efficiency with which they are now being resolved.

The system has also made government more approachable for the ordinary citizen who had to earlier forego wages to stand in a queue to merely file in a petition. The citizen would then have to follow it up with countless visits to various government offices to find out the status and outcome of the petition that was filed. Clearly, with the Lokvani system, the citizen is able to put his or her time to a more productive use which definitely adds up to the local GDP. The Lokvani project has successfully showcased a paradigm that can be incorporated by other administrative organisations. It has also proved that a low literacy rate and financial constraint is not a barrier for implementing a successful e-Governance project.

Sitapur has a negligible computer literacy rate. However this did not prove to be a deterrent to the project as the existing kiosks were used as an interface between the systems and the citizens.

A key learning from this solution is that word of mouth is the most effective and efficient mechanism for generating awareness among rural and semi-urban citizens that have low literacy rates.

Change management was identified as the toughest task for this project. Attitudes of officers towards learning new technology have not been up to the desired levels.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a programmatic approach to change management in order to ensure an effective implementation of the system. In order to make the solution robust and scalable, the solution is now being migrated to Oracle 10G. Lokvani has brought about, a well appreciated transparency to the workings of the administration. People were unaware of their rights as well the possible support provided by the government under various schemes. Widespread awareness as well as a stronger formulated public opinion can go a long way in the fight against corruption.

The success of any project is gauged by the extent of which it achieves its pre-defined goals. Going by this metrics, the Lokvani system has proved to be a major success in the field of e-Governance. It has not only met the expectations but has surpassed them in every imaginable way.

Amod Kumar [amodkumar71@yahoo.co.in], District Magistrate, Faizabad, State-Uttar Pradesh, India

Amarpal Singh [up-sit@hub2.nic.in], Technical Director, National Informatics Centre, State-Uttar Pradesh, India

Amit Shukla [amit.shukla1@wipro.com], Associate Consultant “e-Governance�, Wipro Ltd.

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From now on, I'll connect... my own way

INDIA

2007 Discuss your stories at mServe India 2007 held along with eINDIA 2007 at Pragati Maidan from July 30 till August 3, 2007. Log on to 'www.eIndia.net.in/mserve' to send your papers.

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event diary

International e-Partnership Summit Collaborative Efforts to Bridge the Digital Divide in Commonwealth Countries

THE

Commonwealth Connects 2007 International e-Partnership Summit, was held in New Delhi, India, from 23 to 24 March 2007. Organised by the Ministry of Communication and IT, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Commonwealth Business Council in New Delhi, the Summit aimed to bring together information and communication technology (ICT) ministers, as well as industry experts, private sector organisations, government representatives, civil society and other delegates from across the Commonwealth. They discussed collaborative efforts to enhance the Commonwealth’s competitiveness and its development capacity by bridging the digital divide within and among communities and countries.

Prior to the Summit, Dr Michael Frendo, Chairperson of Commonwealth Connects, had said in an interview in London : “The India summit will enhance the visibility of Commonwealth Connects and facilitate engagement with the private sector and civil society to take forward the five key areas of ICT for development.� They include building ICT policy and regulatory capacity; modernising education and skills development; entrepreneurship for poverty reduction; promoting local access and connectivity; and improving regional networking, local content and knowledge Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, President of India, while inaugurating the Summit said that if technology was to make a real difference to the lives of common people, the governments of the 53 Commonwealth countries, especially

A P J Abdul kalam, president of india delivering the inaugural address at international e-partnership summit

those of Africa and Asia, must consider ways of providing communication bandwidth free of cost, on March 23, 2007. Dr Kalam said if the Indian experience in connectivity was any guide to the creation of a Commonwealth-wide knowledge grid, the large-scale adaptation of local languages that empowered people to access and make use of technology would be needed. This in turn would power the spread of education, healthcare and a range of other crucial services to a wider base of people than ever before. Referring to bandwidth as a demolisher of knowledgebarriers, Dr Kalam also said providing it free made good economic sense in the long term, considering that the costs could be easily recouped from the boom in offtake of services and products that it would enable.

Dr. Mohan Kaul, Director General, Commonwealth Business Council announced that a delegates from commonwealth countries participating in the working group would be summit

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formed to provide ICT expertise and assistance to those countries that are lagging behind in ICT capacity. He said that Indian companies are leaders in providing ICT services and Commonwealth Connects should find a new model of public - private partnership to bring low cost technology from these companies to all the commonwealth nations.

Commonwealth Connects has a task to bridge the digital divide in 53 countries to reach the economically backward people, said Mr. Don McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary General. Fifteen commonwealth countries have made coherent ICT policies whereas thirty-eight countries still need support for using technology and creating policies, he said. Commonwealth Connects will assist in formulation of national ICT strategies as means to address digital divide, he added. Mr. McKinnon also mentioned that Commonwealth Connects will act as a catalyst for regional networking between government, business and civil society assisting with capacity building for information sharing and collaboration. http://www.thecommonwealth.org/ http://www.ciionline.org/news_new/ newsMain23-03-2007_2.asp

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commentary

ICT Master Plan For Customs and Tax Reforms and Modernisation Jeffrey Liang and Lyle Raquipiso

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ost modernisation programmes on revenue administration include the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) to integrate traditional manual customs and tax processes and procedures into a unified automated information system (UAIS). This requires a holistic and integrated ICT master plan to guide the revenue administration’s strategic investment and usage of ICT. The ICT master plan should be developed within the broader context of the customs and tax reform and modernisation master plan. Experiences in the Republic of Korea and Singapore show that having an ICT master plan is crucial. The ICT master plan aims to define the directions of revenue administration through UAIS (Universal Automatic Identification System), and subsequently address the gap between the current situation and the desired state, based on a comprehensive assessment and a diagnostic study of the current situation.

The components of an ICT master plan broadly include the (i) UAIS architectural design, (ii) legal framework, (iii) security, (iv) implementation strategy, (v) maintenance plan, and (vi) other elements.

UAIS architecture: The ICT master plan should describe clearly the overall proposed UAIS architecture, with detailed functional and technical specification of key modules of customs and tax regimes, and how automation will benefit the revenue administration and trade community.

Legal framework: The master plan should address issues such as the legality of electronic data, elimination of paper documents, and manual signatures and stamps. It should also assess current legislation pertaining to acceptance of electronic data, & propose changes, if needed.

Security: The master plan should ensure that (i) data sent across and stored in the system are protected, (ii) users are authenticated, (iii) data confidentiality and integrity are preserved, and (iv) non-repudiation is achieved.

Implementation strategy. An implementation plan should include (i) phased implementation that will prioritize functions that get implemented first and why, (ii) change management that will identify whose and what concerns have to be addressed first; (iii) interim measures to achieve the full plan; and (iv) proposed timetable or scheduled targets.

Maintenance plan: Systems are implemented and left to use and deteriorate in some cases without support, upgrade, and enhancement to meet business environment changes.

To prevent this, a maintenance plan should be in place for (i) hardware maintenance by making available parts and back-up equipment; and (ii) software with vendor support ov

April 2007

to fix bugs/resolve problems, helpdesk/call center support, scalability, support for system software upgrades such as a new version of the database or operating system.

Other elements: Depending on the situation and sensitivity of the systems, a business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan may have to be included to address full data duplication, and the timeframe within which the system must be recovered in degraded or full operational mode.

Promoting ICT master planning through regional cooperation: Currently, the Asian Development Bank is supporting customs master planning of the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan in line with the implementation of the regional customs modernization and infrastructure development project; and jointly with the Government of Republic of Korea, the development of an ICT master plan for Mongolia customs in support of a trade facilitation and customs modernization project to be financed by ADB. Singapore’s experience: An example of ICT master planning. Singapore’s track record in harnessing ICT, particularly, TradeNet and E-Customs Management, resulted to significant improvements in the (i) efficiency of customs inspection and risk management procedures, (ii) turnaround time for processing trade documentation, and (iii) approval of applications submitted by shippers and freight forwarders.

Singapore has deployed an automated immigration clearance system using smart cards and biometrics at key immigration and customs checkpoints. Recently, the Government has commissioned the development and operation of TradeXchange, the next-generation ICT platform for trade and logistics to facilitate information exchange among commercial entities and government agencies that will enable more efficient movement of goods within, and in and out of Singapore.

The success of Singapore’s ICT master planning and e-trade and customs initiatives is attributed to a strong partnership among government agencies, private industry, academia, research institutes, community groups, and civic and voluntary organisations. Each player will contribute toward developing the initial concept of the ICT master plan and refining the strategies and plans.

Jeffrey Liang [jeffreyliang@adb.org] is Unit Chief of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Resident Mission in the People’s Republic of China.

Lyle Raquipiso [lraquipiso@adb.org] is Economic Officer in ADB’s Central and West Asia Department.

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news review

Public Sector Undertakings in India offers opportunities for e-Procurement projects to companies e-Commerce companies in India have a large Potential to share the huge market of e-Procurement by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). This is in wake of the directive by the Centre’s Department of Expenditure (DoE) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) that public sector units in the country should replace their current paperbased procurement systems with electronic procurement by April 1, 2007. It is estimated that government departments, agencies and pubic sector units in the country procure materials worth as much as INR 5,00,000 crore (USD 115,982 million) per annum. Thus a huge market of e-Procrurement awaits the e-Commerce companies.

The companies are publicising their works to their stakeholders. For instance, Wipro’s Business Optimisation Services (BOS), US-based Ariba, CommerceOne and mjunction services

Limited (MSL) are all conducting seminars to this effect.

As per Viresh Oberoi, MSL Managing Director, “With emphasis being put on e-Governance by central and state governments, e-Procurement plays a major role in bringing transparency and efficiency into the existing processes.” MSL, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Steel & Sail has developed a robst solution called the Enterprise Procurement System (EPS). EPS is an independent platform, and is a scalable sourcing solution that addresses the problems arising in the procurement business. A team has also been assinged to present to the clients how organisations could use their existing IT infrastructure to implement e-Procurement without additional investment.

Single market for GenX wireless devices The European Commission has announced its decision to make the use of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology mandatory in the next generation wireless devices all across the European Union (EU). This is just a step closer to a single market for a new generation of mass-market consumer electronics (laptops, mobile phones, digital cameras, TVs and so on), that can exchange data wirelessly at very high rates over short distances.

The decision also heralds implementation of the Commission’s strategy to make the use of the radio spectrum in the European Union more flexible and more efficient.

UWB devices can transmit data at very high rates by “spreading” the signal over very broad ranges of the radio spectrum. With rates comparable to devices connected by cable, UWB is an attractive technology for the increasingly bandwidth-hungry consumer electronics industry.

According to EU Telecoms and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding, “By removing the cables that link the electronic devices we use in everyday life, ultra-wideband technology can extend the Information Society in many areas of society,” She further said, “However, to benefit our citizens, it is important that we establish a functioning single market for these devices in the European Union. By adopting a harmonising decision today, the Commission allows innovators to use this new technology throughout the EU, while ensuring no interference takes place with other wireless users.”

Estonia holds world’s first e-Voting

Estonia became the world’s first in conducting online parliamentary elections. This was another feather in the cap of Estonia, which is also known to be at the cutting edge of technology, and as the ‘most corruption-free country’ in Central and Eastern Europe.Nearly all Estonian citizens have been issued an electronic ID card by the government. The card needs to be swiped via an electronic reader, which is available for 95 kroons (equivalent of $9). Voters need type in a code to confirm their identity, along with a digital signature required to confirm the e-Ballot choice.

However, Estonia’s election watchdog, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was concerned about monitoring e-Voting, since this is their first experience in Internet elections, and that they would follow the use of remote voting by Internet, but could not go into the voting system itself. On the other hand, Tallinn, Ivar Tallo, Director of the e-Governance Academy in Tallinn was very optimistic of the system, base on the fact that 82 percent Estonians already file their tax returns online without any problem.

Government websites launched in Sri Lanka Sril Lankan government officially launced a host of its departmental websites. This was as part of the Government Web Development project under the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka. The websites that were launched includes: Official Website of the Government of Sri Lanka; Department of Government Analyst; Department of Industries (Western Province); Department of Motor Traffic; Department of National Archives; Department of Rubber Development; Geological Survey and Mines Bureau; Ministry of Road Development; Ministry of Science and Technology; Ministry of Transport; National Engineering Research and Development Centre of Sri Lanka; National Physical Planning Department; Nenasala Project - Rural Telecentre Project; Public Trustee Department; Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation; and Water Resources Board.

The Government Web Development project aims to increase the web presence of the Sri Lankan Government. It seeks to encourage public sector organisations to-wards the dissemination of information and delivery of services through the Internet.

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INDIA

2007 30 July - 3 August, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi e-Agriculture 2007 is introduced as a new track in the country’s biggest ICT event, eINDIA2007. The event seeks to provide a national level platform to policy makers, corporate stakeholders, researchers, ICT professionals working in domain of agriculture and allied fields, and farmers. The conference is conceived as an opportunity of great importance in light of improving progress of our economy and still more important in context of our primary sector as it faces a host of challenges ahead. It will be instrumental in the development of an approach, to make best use of the contemporary breakthroughs in ICT, for an integrated development of the sector.

With rapid structural changes happening in Agriculture, the focus is shifting from production to technological interventions, management of finance, capacity building, and marketing.

Developing farm-level information systems to fulfill these needs is a major challenge, which calls for a paradigmatic shift in strategies.

Conference Key Topics

Call for Papers

Policy paradigm in India Second green revolution ICT for well-informed decision-making in agriculture Who owns the productive lands and natural resources?

Role of ICTs - land records, mapping, and conflict resolution, etc.

Agri-Marketing Agriculture marketing and ICT Accessing global markets through ICT Agriculture Extension Transfer of technology- concept of knowledge systems (Local and Global) Development of ICT sector for agriculture and role of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Agriculture Production Food security through ICT Precision farming- optimum use of available resources Agri-Finance Agri-finance management with ICT Innvoative Financial Products: Agriculture credit and insurance solutions with ICT Agri- Education and Research Making ICTs usable & useful in context of Indian Agriculture Higher Education in agriculture - are they ICT ready?

We invite you to participate actively in this event and send us relevant papers for presentation.

Submit your abstracts online at www.eIndia.net.in/eAgriculture The last date for abstract submission: 25th May 2007 Abstract Acceptance: 6th June 2007 Full Paper Submission: 30th June 2007 Contact Details: Anaam Sharma anaam@csdms.in or call at +91 9910597744 Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) G-4, Sector - 39, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phones: +91-120-2502180-85 Fax: 91-120-2500060

www.eIndia.net.in/eAgriculture

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whats on 10 - 13 April 2007 ARES 2007 - The Second International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security Vienna, Austria

8 - 11 July 2007 WMSCI 2007 - 11th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics Florida, USA

www.bundesarchiv.de/instada/en/index.html?lang=en

11 - 13 April 2007 5th Eastern European e|Gov Days 2007 Prague, Czech Republic http://egov.ocg.at/

www.mait.com/newsletters/news183-MAIT%20Events%2 0Guide%2023.pdf

2 May 2007

16 - 20 July 2007

e-Government Forum Sydney, Australia

April 15-17 govNET Summit 2007 Hot Springs Virginia

www.agimo.gov.au/resources/events/2006/cebit_2007 http://www.govnetsummit.com/

2 May 2007 e-Access ’07 - Third annual conference London, United Kingdom

16 - 18 April 2007 EISCO 2007 - European Information Society Conference Hämeenlinna, Finland http://www.hameenliitto.fi/eisco2007/

19 April 2007

http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess07/

http://www.i-b-e.co.uk/forthcoming_events/performance_ measurement_and_management_in_the_public_sector. phtml

24 - 26 April 2007 International Standards for Digital Archives Berlin, Germany www.bundesarchiv.de/instada/en/index.html? lang=en

25 - 27 April 2007

CeBIT Australia 2007 Sydney, Australia

8 - 10 May 2007 SIN 2007 - International Conference on Security of Information and Networks North Cyprus, Turkey

July 23 The first International Workshop on Web Mining for E-commerce and E-services Tokyo Japan

www.icinco.org/

http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/wimaxvision/asia

ICEMC2 2007 - 2nd International Conference on Embedded Systems, Mobile Communication and Computing Bangalore, India

18 - 19 September 2007 Global Biometrics Summit 2007 Brussels, Belgium www.biometricssummit.com

19 September 2007

European Forum on Electronic Signature 2007 Miedzyzdroje Poland

World e-ID 2007 Sophia Antipolis, France www.strategiestm.com/conferences/we-id/07/index.htm http://www.efpe.eu

The Asia Pacific E-Gov Forum 2007 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia http://cto.int/index.php?dir=02&sd=12&id=165&back=in dex.php%3Fdir%3D02%26sd%3D10

09 October 2007 eGovINTEROP’07 - eGovernment Interoperability Campus 2007 Paris, France http://www.egovinterop.net/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=Sho wDoc&DocID=2736&LangID=1

21 - 2 2 June 2007

24 October 2007

ECEG 2007: 7th European Conference on eGovernment The Hague, The Netherlands

Challenges e-2007 Conference and Exhibition The Hague, The Netherlands

www.academic.conferences.org/eceg/eceg2007/eceg07home.htm www.eIndia.net.in

3 - 5 August 2007

May 30-1

29 - 31 May 2007

Pragati Maidan, New Delhi , India

http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~derrick/WMEE2007

www.pes.edu/mcnc/icemc2/index.html

http://www.datamatixgroup.com/conferences/agenda. asp?id=306

30 July- 03 august 2007

www.enase.org/index.htm

ICINCO 2007 - 4th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics Angers, France

13th GCC eGovernments and eServices Forum Dubai United Arab Emirates

ommun ty Rad o

ENASE 2007 - 2nd International Working Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering Barcelona, Spain

9 - 12 May 2007

May 26-30

India's Premier ICT4D event

23 - 25 July 2007

www.sinconf.org/

2nd Annual WiMAX Asia Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore

http://international.fhso.ch/ted/ted

22 - 25 July 2007

www.icsoft.org/index.htm

15-17 May 2007

TED Conference on eGovernment Olten, Switzerland

http://icwe.como.polimi.it/index.php?option=com_ frontpage&Itemid=1

ICSOFT 2007 -- 2nd International Conference on Software and Data Technologies Barcelona, Spain

1 - 3 May 2007 www.agimo.gov.au/resources/events/2006/cebit_2007

Performance Measurement and Management in the Public Sector London, United Kingdom

ICWE 2007 - 7th International Conference on Web Engineering Como, Italy

25 - 28 June 2007 EEE ‘07 - The 2007 International Conference on e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government Nevada, USA www.world-academy-of-science.org/worldcomp07/ws/ EEE07

http://www.echallenges.org/e2007/

09 November 2007 2nd Annual Data Protection Practical Compliance Conference Dublin Ireland http://www.pdp.ie/

27-29 November 2007 WIMAX Eastern Europe Eastern Europe http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/wimaxvision/

46 }

www.egovonline.net

ov

INDIA

2007 30 July - 3 August, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Call for Papers Introduction The egov India 2007 Conference Series being organised as part of eIndia event intends to assess the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) implementation. The plan launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is a comprehensive programme designed to leverage the capabilities of ICT to promote good governance across the country. egov India 2007 aims to discuss in detail about the progress on NeGP, success stories, failures, statewise progress and learning from the states which are far ahead in implementing the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs).

The annual conference will bring together policymakers, practitioners, industry leaders and academicians from India, South Asia and beyond, to forge the path to good governance for citizens and businesses in India, ensuring exchange of information & knowledge.

Structure of the Conference & Key Topics e-Government Implementation in key sectors in MMPs will be discussed and deliberated upon from 3 different angles: G2G, G2B and G2C.These sectors include: • • • • • •

Citizen Centric Services Income tax/Commercial tax Municipal e-Government Police departments Transport National ID Card

• • • • •

Land Records Passport department Postal department Registration services Treasuries automation

The implementation process, successes, failures, key issues and future plans will be discussed through panel discussions, workshops and presentations of case studies and best practices.

Besides this, the conference will also cover wide range of topics, such as: • • • • •

e-Democracy and Citizen Participation e-Government Design and Architecture Framework e-Procurement e-Administration Interoperability and Standards, Semantic and Technical Interoperability • International and Regional Projects Case Studies and Best Practices

• Trust and Security: Provisions and Instruments • Emerging Technologies in e-Government - Mobile and Wireless Technologies, RFID and Smart Cards • Cyber Law and Intellectual Property • Polices for IT Enabled Public Administration (e-Policy) Individuals working in central/state government departments, national/international government agencies, bi-lateral/multilateral organisations, research and academic institutes, development organisations and NGOs and IT/Telecom companies involved with e-Government and/or public sector ICT projects, technology development, policy research, implementation etc. are encouraged to submit abstracts of original papers for presentation in the conference. The abstract should summarise and indicate the key research/points to be further presented and discussed in the session. After evaluation of abstracts, selected authors would be asked to send full paper.

Send your papers to: prachi@csdms.in Important Dates: Abstract Submission: 25 - 05 - 2007 Abstract Acceptance: 06 - 06 - 2007 Full Paper Submission: 30 June 2007 Contact Details eIndia 2007 Secretariat Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) G-4, Sector 39, Noida, India - 201301 Tel. : +91-120-2502181- 87, Fax: +91-120-2500060

www.eIndia.net.in/egov