Malta Information Technology Agency Strategic Plan 2009 - 2012 by Roderick Spiteri

Strategic Plan 2009 - 2012

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

Ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Introduction

Over the past twenty years we have made great strides in the ICT arena. From being considered as an under-developed laggard, Malta is today recognised internationally as a front-runner in the ICT sector. This is tangibly supported by the excellent results that our country has garnered, such as the multitude of high rankings achieved by various e-Government services in recognition of their sophistication, availability, proven credibility and excellence in delivery. The achievement in the application of ICT to improve the way Government delivers its services has not happened by chance. It is the result of our political foresight and commitment, ambitious and well thought-out strategies and plans, substantial investment both in terms of financial and human resources, and a firm belief that we can do it. We are on the right track. We will not stop here; we have a vision that will enable us to address the challenges we shall be facing and concurrently continue to confirm us as a leader in the field of ICT application for Government services.

The Prime Minister has declared that ICT will be one of Maltaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aspiring six centres of excellence which are to be realised by 2015. Against this backdrop, we shall map the path for Malta to become one of the leading information societies in the world through the leveraging of ICT and its application for social equalization and economic growth. The application of technologies remains the key protagonist in our agenda and definitely is the primer to achieve the quantum leap we envisage for Malta. Government has set up MITA with the execution of this vision in mind. Under my stewardship, and together with the Malta Communication Authority, MITA will execute the realisation of the key programmes and initiatives of the Smart Island Strategy which the Government and its stakeholders launched in 2008. By entrusting the Agency with the implementation of the activities as established in this Strategic Plan (2009-2012) and by realising the benefits from the programmes/projects, we will achieve our vision and further improve the quality of life of all our citizens.

Hon. Austin Gatt, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

Chairman’s Introduction

The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented rate of technological developments in Malta – what seemed a distant sci-fi dream today has translated itself into an ever-growing information society and a vibrant knowledge economy. The Smart Island Strategy has charted the path for Malta to become one of the most advanced and networked countries, hence preparing the pillars for the realisation of the Government’s 2015 vision. In this context Government has entrusted us to manage the execution of the national efforts to realise this vision. In fulfilling our role, we shall be the central driver in the evolution of Malta into a world class information society and economy, nurturing the growth of a strong global knowledge workforce and transforming public services through innovation within an incessant aspiration for excellence. Operationally, we have taken over the responsibilities previously carried out by MITTS Ltd and a number of other executive offices and are now converging our efforts into the delivery of a focused set of programmes and initiatives.

This Strategic Plan defines how we intend to reach our goals: in our drive to transform public service delivery through the application of ICT we shall spearhead and enable the growth of the local knowledge economy; we shall re-invent ourselves in building an underlying robust, resilient and secure ICT infrastructure as a critical building block capable to sustain our national aspirations; we will converge all our efforts into our ultimate endeavour – to deliver a better quality of life to all Maltese citizens through citizen-centric applications and services. In articulating this Plan we involved our workforce, the industry and other policy-makers to ensure that it is relevant and applicable for the wider community rather than just the Agency itself. We believe that the successful implementation of this Plan will mark a quantum leap of the local ICT ecosystem to the next level of sophistication, once again enabling us to be ahead of the curve in policy-making for the digital age, nurturing Malta’s global reputation as an advanced information society and one of the European ICT pioneers.

Mr. Claudio Grech, Chairman, MITA

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

The Strategic Plan

Background

The Mandate of MITA

Governments have been prioritising IT in their agenda for more than two decades. Over this period, Malta has progressed in leaps and bounds from its infancy stage to a fully fledged leader in all aspects of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) spectrum, both according to local and international standards. A consistent central pillar of this rapid improvement was public policy and investment in ICT. The quantum leaps in the sector have led Government in declaring ICT as one of its aspiring six centres of excellence to be realised by 2015. The groundwork towards the fulfilment of this aspiration is set out in The Smart Island – the National ICT Strategy for Malta for the period 2008-2010. The Strategy articulates in no uncertain terms the aggressive determination of Government for Malta to become one of the leading information societies in the world, leveraging the ubiquitous presence of technology and its application for social equalization and economic growth.

MITA was established by way of a public Statute approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on 6th May 2008, and was given the following purpose:

The Smart Island Strategy (the Strategy) also sets out the role of the main driving agency of the measures, namely the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA), capitalizing and building on the legacy and experience accumulated by Malta Information Technology and Training Services Limited (MITTS Ltd) in its eighteen years of operation since its commencement of a journey that had public sector change as its primary mission. Essentially, MITA is the next evolutionary step of MITTS Ltd into a wider-encompassing organisation which now does not only look within the boundaries of the public sector but also beyond, towards the application of ICTs across all sectors of society and economy.

(d) To proliferate the further application and take-up of information and communications technologies in society and the economy.

(a) To serve as the central driver of information and communications technology policy, programmes and initiatives in Malta. (b) To deliver and manage the execution of all programmes related to the implementation of information technology and related systems in Government with the aim of enhancing public service delivery. (c) To provide efficient and effective information and communications technology infrastructure services to Government as directed by the Minister from time to time.

(e) To promote and deliver programmes aimed at enhancing ICT education and the use of ICT as a learning tool. The Agency operates under the direction of the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Communications (MITC), and together with the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) serves as the Agency entrusted with the execution of the programmes and initiatives arising out of the Strategy. MITA was formally set up on 18th August 2008 by way of a public deed and as of 1st January 2009 has taken over all administrative and operational activities from MITTS Ltd. All the former MITTS Ltd employees and the Ministry employees attached to MITTS Ltd are today employees of the Agency.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

The Context MITA is not commencing its operations in a vacuum or on a blank page. It does not only follow a legacy of eighteen years of its predecessors (Management Systems Unit [MSU], Management Efficiency Unit [MEU] and MITTS Ltd) but it comes into play within an internal and external context, the key aspects of which should be taken note of due to their strategic relevance for the execution of the Agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activities:

(d) The advent of new pervasive (and disruptive) technologies such as Web 2.0, Enterprise-wide Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Software as a Service (SaaS)/utility computing models and cloud computing are posing unprecedented opportunities to enhance delivery and maximise return on investment for those with sufficient foresight and capacity availability to apply such technologies.

(a) The Agency is commencing its operations within an already defined national ICT vision, strategy and programme of works. A number of activities are already underway hence requiring operational adjustment and possible re-alignment of priorities. This factor calls for an open-minded approach by the Agency in allocating resources towards projects with higher national priorities against those that are of high organisational importance.

(e) In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stark reality, information security threats are becoming the order of the day. No one is immune, irrespective of the strength of the information security framework used. The Agency must maintain continual vigilance and state of readiness in all aspects of information security. When incidents do happen, MITA needs to be able to respond quickly and effectively to neutralise any negative outcomes. The public must be assured that Government protects their privacy through the use of a robust infrastructure which provides the highest levels of security. The Agency expects nothing less than the highest levels of trust, competence, technology, innovation and excellence.

(b) The Agency inherits a robust administrative and corporate structure which has been developed and refined over time. Corporate governance, human resources management and financial control are all functions which have evolved into a mature state comparable to the best practices in the corporate sector. (c) Notwithstanding a sizeable turnover in resources over the last years, MITA is taking over an organisation which has a strong capacity in terms of complex programme management of large-scale projects. This skills-set coupled with the in-house capabilities in managing and operating wide enterprise-based infrastructures is the main asset of the organisation and needs to be duly protected.

(f) The Agency is faced with a significant challenge which single-handedly could make or break its success, human resources. The ever-increasingly competitive ICT labour market, the booming of the iGaming sector, the consequences of the security incident and the elevated mobility in the international labour market are a dangerous recipe which calls for immediate, incessant and incisive action to protect and nurture the organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s human capital from further substantial depletion. These major contextual factors are critical issues to be given significant weight when considering the MITA Strategic Plan (the Plan) set out in this document.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

Key Guiding Principles Whilst establishing the parameters on which the Plan was developed and is set to be executed, the following series of key strategic principles have been applied: (a) HUMAN CAPITAL AT THE FOREFRONT: MITA is a knowledge-driven organisation. Without its people the Agency cannot be the change and knowledge-economy driver it aspires to be. The Agency will therefore place the nurturing of its human capital at the forefront of its policies and operations to ensure it has the best and brightest resources available to deliver its programme effectively and efficiently. (b) MINDSET SHIFT: The workforce needs to make a shift in its mindset from being a mere software development shop to an elite programme management and critical core service delivery operation. (c) NEW BLOOD: The organisation needs to open itself to new blood across all its tiers in order to import new ideas, new technologies, new approaches, new methodologies and most importantly new ways of doing things. (d) RESPONSIVE STRUCTURE: The Agency’s organisational structure has been based on effective delivery, focused management, delegation of authority and responsibility, horizontalisation of services and removal of unproductive inward-looking activities. (e) CULTURE OF A TECHNOLOGY PLAYER: MITA will be an organisation akin to a young, fresh, dynamic cuttingedge IT services player. This will not only be reflected in the way the organisation is perceived but also in its dayto-day practices and interaction with its clients. (f) FOCUS ON THE CORE: MITA will focus on what is core to its operations and fundamental to Government’s success in its national programmes. (g) PRIORITISE NATIONAL TARGETS: MITA will prioritise its operations and delivery in line with the national priorities not its internal requirements. The targets in the Strategy are the overarching priorities which require the organisation to align itself to them.

(h) ICT WORKFORCE: The Agency will take a leading role in the development of the knowledge-based workforce with the aim of creating a national educational platform which is sufficiently dynamic to harness the opportunities created by the global developments in the knowledgeeconomy. (i) INVESTMENT IS A MUST: For the ICT framework of Government to be sustained and made to match the aspirations of Government, the Agency will need to invest to continually refresh technology to deliver effectively and efficiently. (j) ZERO TOLERANCE: The Agency will practice a zerotolerant approach in its compliance role fulfilment. The Agency will not over-regulate but will ensure that it duly fulfils its role as the primary guardian of public data held within Government. No compromises will be made on security and the Agency’s actions will be guided by a riskaverse approach as a matter of policy. (k) OPEN: MITA will embrace the application of open standards and technologies as a matter of policy coupled with the smart application of open source applications and systems, this approach will ensure that the Agency is geared towards harnessing its benefits in large-scale public implementations. (l) EXCELLENT INDUSTRY RELATIONS: The Agency will build, nurture and sustain excellent relations with the local and international IT industry within an aggressive outsourcing policy framework and programme, wherein the industry’s capabilities will be used to the largest extent possible. These principles are the guiding points towards a successful fulfilment of the Plan set out herein. They are also important factors to keep in mind constantly in the organisational transformation journey.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

Strategic Orientation

The Mission Statement of MITA The overall vision of MITA is set out in The Smart Island Strategy, primarily in Strategic Streams 3, 4, 5 and 7. The Strategy encapsulates the desired state of the various facets of the Maltese information society and economy, carved within the overall aspiration of harnessing knowledge to enhance our citizens’ quality of life, to transform our economy into one based on knowledge and to take public service delivery into a new paradigm driven by citizen-centricity. This visionary backdrop is what defines MITA’s mission statement.

MITA Mission Statement “We shall be the central driver in the evolution of Malta into a world class information society and economy, nurturing the growth of a strong global knowledge workforce and transforming public services through innovation within an incessant aspiration for excellence.”

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

The Three Institutional Drivers The Mission Statement of MITA establishes the Agency’s raison d’être. Underpinning this statement and its effective execution are three fundamental components which will permeate the organisation as institutional drivers reflected in the Agency’s culture and its way of doing business: Transformation, Innovation and Excellence. The convergence of these three institutional drivers into a coherent mission is also reflected in the Agency’s logo with the three organisational colours representing the three distinct drivers.

(a) TRANSFORMATION: Since the early days of public service change in 1989, the Agency’s predecessor – MSU – played a central role not only in the deployment of information systems but also in the aggressive execution of reform in the then beleaguered Public Service. As the Public Service evolved and MSU was split in MITTS Ltd and MEU, the transformational role of the organisation was lost. Since then technologies have evolved and have now become significant change-enablers, particularly in citizen-driven settings. Whilst acknowledging the fact that technology is not an end in itself but a means to an end, there is no doubt about the fact that ICTs bring about transformation in the way services (both those provided by the state and those by the private sector) are delivered to the public.

MITA will approach programmes and projects with a view to transform the way services are delivered, the way they are internally engineered, the return they provide from the public investment put into them and the enhancement of all-round value they effectively provide. The paradigm shift for the Agency from focusing merely on technologically sound systems as successful deliverables to the search for transformed services and marked performance enhancement as the real result is the rationale underpinning the modal shift of approaching the core business of the Agency. In applying this driver, MITA will utilise technologies to, among others, take service delivery into a completely new league that is led by the principles of citizen-centricity, servicepersonalisation, multiple-channel delivery, virtualisation and aggregation. Most importantly this transformation is accompanied also by rationalisation of resources, process and costs, to deliver faster, cheaper and leaner services.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

(b) INNOVATION: The Agency will not be engaging solely in research and innovation activities as part of its operation.

MITA will be aspiring to become the leading innovator within the public sector and one of the prime movers in the innovation circuit in Malta. Innovation will not be merely confined to research and development projects or to the classical laboratory approach. MITA innovation has to be part of the mindset of the organisation and each employee. The need to think creatively and out of the box, whilst continuously monitoring and adopting the emerging trends and technologies is set to become an integral part of the day-to-day operations of the organisation. Apart from projects, innovation will be applied to: •

People: By devising innovative ways for the Agency to be able to equip the workforce with the emerging cutting-edge skills and to motivate people, as well as to develop creative ways in order to attract and retain the best and brightest.

•

Technology: By monitoring emerging trends in the technology and information society fields with a view of applying them to accelerate and enhance the execution of the programmes and initiatives entrusted to the Agency.

•

Operations: By detaching from hard-and-fast technological or methodogical dogmas by continuously re-engineering the way the Agency operates to generate more value-added for stakeholders and to cut back on the net cost to Government.

(c) EXCELLENCE: Excellence has been on the organisation’s agenda for time immemorial as reflected in the methodologies applied and the administrative procedures practised by MITTS Ltd. MITA will build on the successful facets of this legacy and enhance it to focus more on the external outputs of the organisation rather than just (albeit necessary) the inward-looking aspects of it. As a matter of policy, Excellence will be applied on a 360° notion, focusing on the following areas: •

Governance

•

Project execution

•

Human capital

•

Service delivery

•

Data guardianship

•

Infrastructure

•

Return on investment

MITA will strive for Real Excellence. This is not attained through a mere certification process. Real Excellence is a constant journey based on an organisational craving for continuous improvement – from the mundane call centre notification for email downtime to the effective management of the most complex programme.

The Agency will attain these objectives by adopting an incremental yet radical approach towards the horizontalisation of innovation across the public sector with a view to realising value.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

Strategic Priorities MITA takes on from where MITTS Ltd and the IT policy arm of the Ministry left off and therefore the Agency’s strategic orientation must look beyond the continuation of the programme delivery of the current activity and ensuring a smooth transition between the execution arms.

The Agency has to drive through an evolutionary process which takes ICT policy development and implementation into a higher level consistent with the heightened expectations of Government as a client to the Agency’s services and also to the increased relevance of ICT in the national social and economic setting. With this context in mind, the Agency was allocated five Strategic Priorities (SP1 – SP5, as depicted in Fig. 1).

SP1

SP5

SP3

SP4 SP2

Fig. 1 – Strategic Priorities

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

SP1. To lead ICT strategy development and drive the deployment of an effective ICT Governance Framework within the public sector

SP2.

To deliver and sustain a robust, resilient and secure ICT infrastructure and IT services to Government

SP3.

To transform public service delivery through the application of ICTs

SP4.

To enable the growth of the knowledge economy through the engendering of a life-long ICT learning framework

SP5.

To deliver quality of life improvements through innovative citizen-centric application of ICTs

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

Strategic Priority 1 To lead ICT strategy development and drive the deployment of an effective ICT Governance Framework within the public sector MITA is the central strategic driver for ICT policy development and execution in Malta and jointly with MCA is responsible of establishing and implementing ICT strategies at multiple levels to duly reflect the wider vision and strategy which Government wants to attain from ICT development in Malta. The Agency will establish and propagate effective ICT governance as a key tenet of its operations. Mature ICT environments increasingly require adequate levels of governance to be deployed across the enterprise and its information systems. MITA will not only be promulgating ICT governance within itself but will also serve as the driver for the framework to be adopted and implemented within the wider Public Sector. Governance responsibilities will include the effective regulation of Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) related processes and activities through establishment of standards, policies and procedures together with the appropriate degree of compliance and audit mechanisms necessary to enforce the provisions therein. Whilst consolidation together with enterprise planning will be extended across the public sector, MITA will permeate best practice in the deployment of the ICT Governance Framework through the crucial capacity building of the Office of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and the gradual authority delegation process to empower them to operate within the new paradigm of decentralised IT and IS management. CIOs will be built to take up more vertical operational responsibilities whilst widening their strategic oversight on their Ministries’ activities in line with the objectives set out for them. In its efforts to translate the strategy into results, MITA will be leading the IT operational and financial planning processes to ensure the agreed programmes and initiatives are prioritised, adequately funded and effectively monitored in the attainment of their intended objectives. The Agency will also be serving an advisory capacity for the evaluation of the ICT capital investment and operational expenditure submissions to the Ministry of Finance, Economy and Investment made by the various line Ministries as part of the annual business and budgetary planning process.

The Agency will take the lead in the promotion of enhanced professionalism in the ICT sector in Malta from both corporate and individual professional standpoints, with a view of nurturing the industry and its workforce into a globally reputable and renowned ecosystem of choice. The Agency will also establish a new dimension of consultation and stakeholder involvement as part of its policy shaping and programme execution activities. It will interact intensively and continuously with the relevant constituted bodies, local and international ICT industry, the key stakeholders internal and external to Government and the IT student associations. The ultimate purpose of MITA’s consultative framework is to be in a position to establish, prioritise, and effectively govern the shaping and execution of the national and governmental ICT policies, programmes and initiatives set out for implementation by Government, from time to time. As part of its elevated profile, the Agency will take on the handling of the management of external and international relations related to the ICT field mainly by adopting a more proactive and intensive involvement in processes and programmes related to the European Union, the Commonwealth, other governments and international ICTrelated institutions. A primary objective in this regard is the acquisition and organisational adoption of international best practice in the relevant areas. Finally as an integral part of its strategic activities, MITA will establish a Research and Innovation function within it to stimulate innovation across the organisation and enable a structured approach through which research can be adequately conducted and employee ideas and/or innovations can be nurtured within the right environment.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

The Strategic Coverages of Strategic Priority 1 are:

Ref

Strategic coverage

Develop and monitor the execution of the key ICT strategies, including the National ICT Strategy, public sector IT/IS strategies, the Information System Strategic Plan, MITA Strategy and theme-specific strategic plans (e.g. e-Government Strategy).

Establish, own, drive and sustain the ICT Governance Framework of the public sector by establishing a comprehensive body of standards, policies, procedures and directives to be adhered to by public sector entities and employees.

Adopt and disseminate international best practice in matters related to effective ICT Governance through knowledge management and other educational techniques.

Establish rigorous and extensive audit, compliance and enforcement mechanisms to complement the fulfilment of the objectives of the ICT Governance Framework.

Jointly with the auditing and investigation structures of Government, engage in a multiannual programme aimed at ingraining IS Audits into the normal course of public sector governance activity.

Lead the structuring and permanent establishment of a streamlined ‘Office of the CIO’ in line Ministries and major public sector entities, with the aim of establishing strong nodes of operational competence in the wider ICT operation of Government.

Conduct a decentralisation and delegation process of certain IS/IT functions which can be delivered more effectively in line Ministries by the respective Offices of the CIO. Where necessary engage in the provision of a finite period of ‘lifecycle management’ services to major departments and public sector entities adopting a build-operate-transfer approach in utilising information to generate true business value for the entity.

Establish a standing mechanism to consider, advise, determine and prioritise the annual operational and financial IT/IS plans of line Ministries as part of the annual business planning and budgeting process conducted by the Ministry of Finance, Economy and Investment.

Consider, recommend terms and approve or otherwise requests from line Ministries or public sector entities for capital investment in IT/IS projects or sub-projects, in line with criteria established by the Agency from time to time.

Devise and execute a review procedure intended to assess the value being derived out of IT/IS investments in line Ministries and/or public sector entities and recommend value optimisation programmes.

Establish transparent mechanisms through which ICT enterprises submit to accreditation processes to establish their professional standing against set benchmarks of diligence, ethical conduct of business, effective corporate governance and investment in their workforce.

Spearhead the establishment of a National ICT Professional Body and the adoption of rigorous self-regulatory professional and ethical guidelines together with a code of conduct for ICT professionals.

Serve as a primary supporting arm for the Ministry’s effective execution and management of the operations of the National Information Society Advisory Council.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

Establish a structured dialogue process with the key stakeholders in the following three sectors: • IT/IS Procurement Outlooks (covering joint industry-Agency positions on subjects such as Preferred Technologies, Pre-qualification Mechanisms, Vendor Selection, etc). •

ICT workforce (converging thoughts on ICT education and labour supply of public agencies, educational institutions and industry).

•

Research and Innovation (focusing on opportunity identification for industry partnerships and EU-funded initiatives linked to MITA’s activities).

Establish an ICT International Relations function and programme of activities related to the bi-lateral and multi-lateral relations of the Agency and Government on IT/IS-related matters including the management of relationships with the European Union, other governments, the Commonwealth and international ICT institutions and bodies.

Extend the strategic and alliance relationships with major multi-national vendors with a view to maximising the return on investment which Government makes in products and/or services procured from these vendors.

Establish and operate innovative and effective procurement structures for the IT/IS requirements of the Agency and Government with the ability to realise economies of scale, swifter and less bureaucratic procurement processes and enhanced competitive offerings for Government.

Define and promulgate a horizontal Research and Innovation capacity in the Agency with an enabling objective for the transformation of employee-driven ideas into applicable and viable products, services and methodologies for the enterprise.

Establish a knowledge-management function for IT- and IS-related matters in Government, encouraging the sharing of information, best practices, research and related materials to enhance the knowledge and appreciation of decision-makers on the respective subjects.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

Strategic Priority 2 To deliver and sustain a robust, resilient and secure ICT infrastructure and IT services to Government Increasingly, the core business of Public Sector and governance itself are running on information systems and automated environments which operate on the ICT infrastructure (previously owned and managed by MITTS Ltd). MITA will be taking over the complete role of infrastructure service provider to Government with the primary responsibility of fulfilling the requirements of the Public Sector in this regard. Nevertheless it will be reinventing the way technology deployment is practised in the Public Sector, delivering a marked departure from the current modus operandi.

A core element of the architecture is the reach, resilience, scalability and availability of the Government network – the network managed by MITA will be the vehicle for the delivery of the transformation. The network infrastructure of Government has to prepare the path towards the definition of the roadmap for Fibre-to-the-Unit (FttU) developments – Government offices, schools, hospitals and health centres will be fibre-lit by MITA in the pursuit of the effective implementation of bandwidth-intensive applications which make a difference in the delivery of Government’s core operations.

Whilst MITA will sustain the development of the ICT infrastructure in Government, it will in parallel drive a fundamental paradigm shift in the organisational appreciation of technology as a core function in the organisation rather than as a mere support role. Complementing this functional concentration, technology will also be subject to a strong degree of alignment with the business goals of the Agency and Government at large. Whilst maintaining their integrity, key technology decisions need to be taken within the context of the business goals of the organisation and not within an exclusively technology-based isolated vacuum.

MITA will accelerate and extend the consolidation approach towards the critical and core components of, primarily, the strategic and high availability systems and, gradually, the other information systems. Consolidation will be based on consistent focus on the reduction of the total cost of ownership and the maximisation of return on investment made by Government in the infrastructural assets.

MITA will strive to deliver an infrastructural and technological experience to its user community within the Public Sector which is second to none in terms of scalability, resilience, security and enabling of business applications. Technology will be the driver enabling transformation through the proactive application of innovative solutions, both proven and emerging. Technology will also be at the core of the delivery of electronic public services to citizens and businesses, hence also transforming the client experience in a permanent fashion. At the core of the Agency, the major development will be the internal aggregation of all technology-related decision-making activities with the objective of creating a coherent approach towards the alignment of the enterprise technology and corporate business strategies. The design and execution of the enterprise architecture blueprint will be a central consolidated responsibility – no compromise will be made on the governance of this function.

The data centre infrastructure of Government will be taken into an entirely new dimension, with the primary focus being on uninterruptible scalability together with easier and faster integration of new types of technologies in a single environment. Increased operational efficiency, lower power footprint, service-oriented predisposition, rapid service delivery, security and resilience will be the core drivers for the new enterprise data centre of Government developed and operated by MITA. The most rigorous standards of infrastructure and information security will be pursued by the Agency with a view of enhancing the clients’ and users’ confidence in the infrastructure and systems used by Government in its IT/IS operations. Security will not be merely defined by the internal parameters but will be largely sized to respond immediately and effectively to today’s stark reality where information assets are exposed to ever-increasing threats. Governed by an overall prudent and diligent risk management approach, the information security strategy of the Agency will be driven by this heightened importance which will be given to the notion of data guardianship.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

The execution of the technology operations of the Agency will be carried out in a re-dimensioned context of setting open standards as a common technological denominator at policy and operational levels. The Agency will aggressively pursue the dissemination and adoption of open standards as a core IT/IS strategic directional waypoint. Triangulating with excellence in technology and effective IT/IS governance will be the cornerstone of quality assurance, which will be developed into a separate competence with the objective of transforming it into a strategic pillar of the performance of the organisation. Quality assurance will not be positioned as an inconvenient check-box to be ticked; it will be established as a continuous improvement activity necessary for the further evolution and maturity of the Agency and Government’s IT/IS assets.

Overall, the fresh approach towards technological policy and deployment converges the organisation’s technical efforts into a single coherent direction aligning technology to business.

The Agency’s foremost priority will be to transform infrastructure and services into fulfilment enablers rather than just mere components in the operational technology block diagram of Government.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

The Strategic Coverages of Strategic Priority 2 are:

Ref

Strategic coverage

Engage in a process of alignment of the enterprise infrastructure and technology frameworks with the business goals of the Agency and Government.

Aggregate the technology ownership and directional activities in Government into a single, streamlined and coherent function to ensure the effective execution of the enterprise IT strategy.

Develop and sustain a consolidated enterprise architecture which is secure, scalable, reliable, cost-effective and adequately responsive to the IT/IS requirements imposed by the business activities of Government.

Deploy, manage, operate and enhance core ICT Infrastructure Services that are key to Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operations to provide increased levels of connectivity performance, resilience and scalability.

Lead the development of a Next-Generation-Network based on Fibre-to-the-Unit (FttU) across Government, serving as a pathfinder in the roll-out and application of next generation networking in Malta.

Extend and accelerate the consolidation and centralisation programme with a view to consolidating those strategic, core and mission critical systems/applications which will realise efficiency gains through this approach.

Build and disseminate enterprise-wide programmes aimed at systemising mechanisms that continuously reduce the Total Cost of Ownership of the infrastructure and maximise its Return On Investment (ROI).

Establish a framework through which the industry is aware of the preferred technologies of the Agency through the publication of a regular Technology Outlook and Roadmap, enhancing long-term vendor relationship.

Develop a new Enterprise Data Centre in a cost-effective environment which is sufficiently scalable, secure and resilient to fulfil the forecasted long-term IS requirements of Government.

Lead the conduct of intensive applied research to test the ROI and infrastructural benefits derived from the application of virtualisation and grid computing, on an enterprise-wide scale.

Develop an Enterprise Information Security Strategy and operate and enhance a corporate information security function focusing on business continuity, data guardianship and effective governance as the primary tenets.

Establish a comprehensive enterprise risk management framework for the Agency and the information assets which are entrusted to MITAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operations, with a view to continuously assess present and emerging threats.

Actively review the capabilities and effectiveness of mobile computing and communications solutions with a view to establishing a mobile ICT enterprise architecture for Government.

Disseminate the culture of Open Standards and lead their corporate adoption as a rule in all technology-related decisions, making proprietary technologies an exception.

Establish a rigorous enterprise interoperability framework to be adopted as a standard requirement to be adhered to, across all systems deployment in Government.

Accelerate the adoption of cost-effective and non-disruptive deployments of Open Source solutions in Government.

Expand and operate the quality assurance function of the Agency into a horizontal continuous improvement process, focused on enhancing the performance and delivery of IT/IS assets in Government and within MITA.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

Strategic Priority 3 To transform public service delivery through the application of ICTs ICTs are increasingly offering transformation opportunities to organisations, not least to those engaged in the delivery of public services. Technology is increasingly poised to deliver business and organisational change in complex public sector organisations, in a climate of heightened client expectations, increased constituency participation and unprecedented Government aspirations for transparency, accountability and good governance.

The Agency will not only serve as the programme manager for the deployment of information systems and application of technology but will also be the driver leading the realisation of transformation through technology, mainly by adopting a threepronged approach in the implementation and application of information systems: 1. IT/IS for policy-shaping: information systems will be used to translate data into meaningful business intelligence, trends and foresight to enable decision makers to devise proactive policies and rapid reaction to emerging social and economic conditions. 2. Internal efficiency gains: ICTs drive automation, process streamlining and simplification which in turn create opportunities for the realization of internal efficiency gains and the reallocation of resources to areas which require more employee attention, such as frontline positions. 3. Revolutionised service delivery: ICTs and their rapid and widespread take-up by citizens and businesses (in particular broadband and mobile devices) created a new level of public service delivery and better regulation, driven by ‘Just-in-Time’ public services, personalisation and aggregation of procedures.

MITA will build on the legacy of the success attained to date in this field and will strive to define a long-term roadmap to plot the path of the investments which Government will be making in terms of core and strategic information systems. The Information Systems Master Plan will guide Government, users and industry on how the IS map of the Public Sector will evolve over the medium term hence enhancing the visibility of the strategic intent over a longer planning horizon. Building on the resilience and robustness of the ICT infrastructure available to Government, central to the whole programme will be the development and aggregation of core information systems into a coherent framework of ‘Clusters’ of stable and resilient inter-related systems which share common thematic, business or administrative interests. This approach will not only ensure the execution of a horizontal approach towards core information systems but will also ensure tighter integration within and between clusters. The establishment of the Clusters will pave the way for a series of waves of technology refresh and upgrade of the core information systems belonging to them. The new paradigm of delivering ‘Software-as-a-Service’ (SaaS) will be actively pursued in the light of the lower capital intensity required for such deployments on large enterprise-wide scales such as the Public Sector. The extent and prioritisation of the deployment will be based on the overall availability of funds, the mission-criticality of the systems and the overall political programme of Government.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

E-GOVERNMENT / WEB SYSTEMS • Established as a horizontal function • E-Government 2.0 development • Web2.0 applications • Accelerate citizen participation tools • Mygov.mt - single platform for all e-Government

MINOR SYSTEMS • Transferred to line Ministries • Overall responsibility taken over by PS & CIO • MITA personnel handling system relocated to Ministries • MITA to provide advisory support services to Ministries • Systems have to be associated with a System Cluster

INFORMATION SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK CORE INFORMATION SYSTEM CLUSTERS

CORPORATE SHARED SERVICES

• Focal points of MITA

• Based on the Core Services Model

• Self-contained groups of professionals and technicians

• MITA (+3rd parties) to operate shared services

• Line Ministries retain ownership

• Provision of common services required by all entities (e.g. unified communications and messaging systems)

• Cluster takes over management • Development of inter-related Core Information Systems

Fig. 2 – The new Integrated Information Systems Framework for the Public Sector

In its endeavours to realise this strategic priority, MITA will establish a new integrated systems framework (Fig. 2) aimed at providing the right environment for the engendering of information systems within the Public Sector. This approach will strengthen the IS governance, promote structured interoperability, the attainment of real seamless integration and the definition of the demarcation of the multiple stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities in the effective deployment of information systems.

MITA will also take the established notion of the provision of ‘core services’ into a higher level of enterprise service delivery through the implementation of a series of horizontal ‘corporate shared services’ (such as unified communications and Geographic Information Systems [GIS] services), common to all Public Sector users which cut across all information systems. Corporate shared services will be horizontal platforms which enable the provision of high-demand services to a large number of users across the enterprise.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

The deployment of these services will serve as a strong vehicle for effective change management in the way the Public Sector operates since they are not only intended to bring about an enhanced quality of working life but also to open up avenues for the realisation of efficiency gains through process transformation. MITA cannot be everything for everyone. From an operational standpoint, MITA will be gearing itself to focus on complex and enterprise-oriented activity which is incongruent with the vertical activity required around the ‘non-core systems’. In this context, MITA will transfer the knowledge, resources, operational and administrative responsibilities of both the current and the new ‘non-core systems’ to the line Ministries. In the light of the strong impetus being given to the Offices of CIOs, the delegation for these ‘non-core systems’ will ensure that the specific requirements, enhancements and new developments would be decided upon directly by line Ministries, within the wider direction and standardsetting environment of MITA. It does not make financial or operational sense to centralize this operation any further, hence also avoiding the potential stifling of initiative in this regard. In the fulfilment of this strategic priority, the Agency will partner with industry to develop an enhanced procurement framework for the acquisition of core information systems, with the two-pronged objectives of increasing the number of capable bidders competing for the provision of services to Government and shortening the procurement cycle from requirement definition to implementation. Apart from increased visibility of Government’s procurement intentions, the Agency will also accelerate the adoption of ‘pre-qualification processes’, standard contracting documentation, price cap pre-notification and simplification of functional requirements. Equally critical will be MITA’s role in ensuring that Government’s investment in IT/IS solutions is adequately protected through a standard effective contractual framework which needs to be adhered to in all major IT/IS procurement processes. This framework will determine not only the standard contractual terms and conditions but will also cover key value aspects such as service delivery benchmarks and performance metrics intended to be derived from the systems.

The radical overhaul of Government’s information systems framework will require a significant investment to be effectively delivered and therefore a new financing model will be put in place. Primarily the model should provide long-term visibility on how major investments are made and how the maintenance and support operations are adequately financed, with sustainability being the common denominator. The cost of the full lifecycle of a core information system should be known to Government at the outset. The model will also take into consideration the need to cushion the cash-impact of the major capital investments to be carried out in a relatively short period of time. Moreover, the new model should gradually entrench into it the promised direct and indirect benefits and/or return on investment, including the tangible realisation of efficiency gains and of revenue generation sources available to the project. E-Government is the flag-bearer of the advanced state of the Maltese information society: The global reputation earned by Malta in this sector establishes the country as one of the European pioneers in the advent of fully-transaction based online public services.

MITA takes on the e-Government leadership role with a determined resolve to take e-Government and online public services into a completely transformed and innovative dimension, wherein the dominant factor will be citizen-centricity. The Agency will build a next generation e-Government environment, which will depart from the current vertical service-based approach and move towards the establishment of a platform enabling services to be created in a rapid ‘justin-time’ approach through which services are deployed at source by the public service provider in a streamlined, open environment. User experience will be simplified through a ‘dashboard-style’ access to all services from one single point – not merely a portal collecting links but a complete online service centre fulfilling citizen and business requirements at the most sophisticated level possible.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

All current e-Government services will be retro-fitted and consolidated onto this platform with a view of aggregating services into meaningful ‘life-events’ which enhance the association of public services with actual citizen requirements and not the other way around. The final link in the chain will be the integration of third party (non-public) services onto the platform, enabling trusted private and nongovernmental organisations to benefit from this outstanding online infrastructure to deliver services to their client base. The platform operating e-Government services will also be distinctly customised for the provision of Government to Business (G2B) services. Jointly with the constituted bodies representing the business community, the public services provided to businesses will be thoroughly reviewed, simplified and aggregated with the aim of smoothing even further the administrative requirements placed on businesses through regulation and Government procedures.

The flag bearer of this transformation process will be the e-Procurement framework which will catalyse the way Government procures products and services from the private sector. A fundamental programme of public service transformation arising from this next-generation e-Government will be the deployment of ‘Agents’ – individuals or organisations who can deliver public services in an over-the-counter fashion to their client bases or constituencies. ‘Agents’ will extend the value of e-Government out of the digital environment, where it could be required. This will extend the delivery of services to more citizen-friendly settings and will also ensure that those who do not have access to technology may still benefit from the transformational capabilities of ICTs in Government.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

A horizontal technological layer enabling all these services will be the implementation of the next steps of the National Identity Management Systems Framework. The further propagation of the use of digital certificates and digital signing through the e-ID platform will open a window on unprecedented opportunities for smart electronic services through any device and virtually from any point connected to the Internet. The ultimate link bonding the ecosystem will be the dissemination of electronic ID cards which will serve as mobile digital gateways to the citizens’ data, hence revolutionising the notion of service delivery through multiple channels and points of delivery.

The Agency shall work on changing the prevalent IT/IS culture among senior decision makers with the aim of triggering demand-side mechanisms towards the more effective deployment of solutions in the Public Sector. Success in transformation will not be attained by simply having an excellent Agency operation – the Agency is an enabler for success to be delivered by line Ministries and Public Sector entities.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

The Strategic Coverages of Strategic Priority 3 are:

Ref

Strategic coverage

Define and maintain an Information Systems Master Plan for the public sector, articulating the planned deployment of major information systems in Government over a rolling fiveyear period.

Establish and operate a new information systems framework integrating the implementation of core information systems, corporate shared services, e-Government systems and minor systems.

Set up a number of Business Clusters serving as portfolios of a number of current and/or new core information systems which are closely inter-related in their business goals, operational objectives and client-base, irrespective of their administrative distribution. MITA will maintain, operate and support the core and strategic systems that fall within these clusters. The initial set of clusters will be: • Social Policy and Health •

Transport, Environment and Utilities

•

Education

•

Identity and Property Management

•

Revenue, Finance and Administration

Engage in the procurement and deployment of the first wave of Cluster-based core information systems.

Deploy the following corporate shared services on an enterprise-wide basis using the ‘core services’ model approach: • Unified Collaborative and Messaging System •

Human Resources Management and Payroll Services

•

Geographical Information System Services

•

Business Intelligence Services

•

Customer Relationship Management Services

•

Corporate Document and Record Management Services

Within the wider context of building the capacity of the Offices of the CIOs, the knowledge and responsibility for non-core systems currently controlled by MITA will be transferred to line Ministries.

Jointly with industry, develop and implement a flexible and robust procurement framework for core information systems focusing on the introduction of ‘pre-qualification processes’, standard contracts, price cap pre-notification and simplification of functional requirements.

Basing on international best practice, establish and operate a common/standard IT/ IS contractual framework for the commissioning of major core information systems in Government and other ICT frameworks.

Introduce a new financing model for investment and operational maintenance, and support of new core information systems and corporate shared services with an emphasis on longterm sustainability, spread cash-outlay and adequate fulfilment of direct/indirect benefits to Government.

Design, develop and operate a state-of-the-art next-generation e-Government platform, based on open technologies, serving as a unique user experience, pan-European and single point of contact for all online public services.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

Retro-fit all current e-Government services into the new e-Government platform to enhance the consolidation effect of having a single point of contact for citizens’ access to online public services.

Develop a secure, scalable and open technological layer to enable trusted third parties to integrate their electronic services with the facilities offered by the next generation e-Government platform.

Establish a Government-to-Business (G2B) variant of the e-Government platform intended to aggregate, consolidate and simplify government-related administrative services, processes, notifications and procedures which businesses need to go through in their relations with Government.

Develop and deploy an e-procurement system, allowing the local and EU-based commercial community to be in a position to be alerted on public procurement processes and also to submit their tenders electronically.

Develop a policy framework and implement a mechanism to enrol and enable trusted third party individuals and organisations to serve as ‘Agents’ for the delivery of over-the-counter public services through the use of the agent-enabling capability e-Government platform.

Develop and deploy the next phases of the National Identity Management Systems with a view to consolidating all identity management databases into a single framework and enhancing the integrity and non-repudiation characteristics of electronic identity credentials held by citizens.

Implement the necessary infrastructure and enable Government to carry out a national dissemination programme for electronic ID cards including biometric features.

Deploy the enabling infrastructure and systems to facilitate the secure access to core information systems and e-Government services from multiple points of delivery via the electronic ID cards.

Deliver a corporate skills development programme aimed at disseminating the appreciation of the transformational capabilities of IT/IS solutions in the public sector.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

Strategic Priority 4 To enable the growth of the knowledge economy through the engendering of a life-long ICT learning framework The knowledge-based industry, primarily driven by the ICT sector, is becoming an increasingly relevant market in the economy and consistently heading to become a long-term economic pillar. The value-adding activity which the sector provides is a timely substitute for the inevitable downturn in activity in the traditional low-value, high-volume manufacturing industries. Many streams of activity have been undertaken over the last years to stimulate interest in the sector and to provide appropriate training avenues to students. MITA will now be taking on the leading role in this skills transformation programme which is vital for the ongoing growth of the ICT sector and the growth of the knowledge economy. The Agency will be building on the experiences and results attained to date to form a multi-stakeholder public-private skills alliance to define, provide and nurture the skills sets required for sustaining a resilient, scalable and competitive workforce which is adequate for participating at the highest levels of the industry and which is agile enough to adapt itself to address the gaps created in the markets from time to time.

The Agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objectives under this Strategic Priority are to widen and deepen the range of skills sets available in Malta to cover the complete spectrum of requirements in the target segments, and to increase the volume of graduates and specialists qualifying with the skills sets required in the respective target segments. In fulfilling its leadership role, the Agency will provide direction to the stakeholders on the target segments which are most congruent to the growth of the knowledge economy in Malta, with a view to enhancing the focus on specialization rather than on the generalist approach. In this mission, the Agency will take up an enabling capacity whereby it will partner with public educational institutions and private training industry players to provide programmes and initiatives to fulfil the overall objectives. MITA will focus its delivery by pursuing the deployment of the strategic measures set out in the Strategy, with the overall view of attaining the annual target of 1,500 qualified graduates and specialists from public and private educational institutions by the end of the 2010/11 academic year.

A long-term basic building block which the Agency will be putting in place is the wide acceptance of an e-Skills Competence Framework which clearly defines the skills and competences required for the fulfilment of the various job categories in the industry with a specific focus on those sectors which would have been identified as target segments. This Framework will enable the structuring of academic and professional paths, certifications and the development of customized programmes aimed at accelerating take-up of the specific skills sets. The Framework will provide the turf on which Malta has to play the e-skills match. Its absence would mean the perpetuation of fragmented efforts with possible small successes but no collective wins. The adjacent building block to the Competence Framework is the adequate monitoring of demand and supply of ICT skills. The Agency will use the Framework to create an e-Skills Taxonomy aimed at standardizing the method and interpretation of skills requirements and availability in Malta. The Agency will then manage the operation of an e-Skills Demand and Supply Monitor which will gauge the present and forecasted availability of skills and how this matches the anticipated demand in the industry. In delivering this crucial component of labour market intelligence the Agency will deeply engage the industry to ensure the results are significantly representative of the real situation. MITA will strive to enhance and extend the ICT curricula and training made available to students in primary and secondary schools. There is no doubt that these are the crucial years in which the knowledge workforce of the future has to be developed, nurtured and equipped with the competitive competence advantage empowering it to reap the opportunities being sowed today. The Agency will sustain its long-standing positive relationship and experience with the ICT Institute within the Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology (MCAST) by striving to attract further specializations and investment to the Institute to enable it to grow and extend its offerings. Equally the Agency will seek to enter into a strategic alliance and close collaborative relationship with the ICT Faculty of the University of Malta with a view of contributing towards its growth and also of the creation of an applied research programme, providing MITA-driven research and innovation opportunities to students.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

The Agency will be intensely engaging the Private Training Industry (PTI) for the delivery of these programmes. The Agency will develop a long-term programme aimed at identifying mechanisms through which the PTI can contribute effectively towards the attainment of the goals set in this Strategic Priority. The programme will provide incentives to players seeking international accreditation as well as investors in this area with a view of expanding the specialization offerings available for the local workforce. The Agency will also extend its academic relations to capture the interest and participation of ICT academic institutions of international repute, with a view to attracting them to establish satellite operations in Malta. Likewise the Agency will also engage major global and regional vendors and service providers to extend the range of specializations through the proliferation of vendor-driven academic programmes linked directly to the inherent specialization requirements of the specific industry and the major vendors. Reflecting a central aim of the Smart Island Strategy, the Agency will devise a plan on how Malta can gradually transform itself into an ICT campus destination, serving as a regional hub for ICT training activity. MITA’s role will be to determine the distinct components required for the fulfilment of this visionary target and collectively establish them into a coherent ecosystem along a roadmap agreed between Government and the PTI. The supply-side activity will be balanced with demand-side initiatives primarily aimed at incentivising students and employees to take up knowledge-driven specializations and academic programmes through fiscal or other incentives.

The Agency will work with Malta Enterprise to enhance the ‘myPotential’ scheme with a view of taking it to a next level, also including potential assistance to employers along the lines of the current international trend in this regard. Equally the Agency will sustain its efforts to enable the unemployed or those at risk of unemployment to be provided with the foundation ICT skills necessary to start a career in the industry, whilst it will develop conversion programmes aimed at enabling graduates in different disciplines to migrate their career into an ICT stream. A cornerstone of these programmes will be the incessant efforts required to accelerate female participation in the ICT industry.

MITA is the largest IT organisation in Malta and will spearhead the development and engendering of the ICT profession in the economy through an aggressive enabling suite of measures aimed at consolidating the local ICT workforce into a mainstay of our knowledge economy. MITA will lead this educational impetus; the public educational institutions will provide the platform for longterm growth; the private training providers will catalyse the challenges into the creation of a niche market; and the workforce will live up to the opportunities being made available to translate them into quality jobs and economic growth.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

The Strategic Coverages of Strategic Priority 4 are:

Ref

Strategic coverage

Converge the ICT educational and workforce-related efforts of public and private stakeholders into one streamlined programme (promoting life-long ICT learning) led by a National ICT Skills Alliance, driven and supported by MITA.

Develop an e-Skills Competence Framework aimed at establishing the job categories in the ICT industry and target segments identified together with the skills and competencies required for the adequate fulfilment of the requirements in the said job categories.

Deploy the necessary structures at national administrative and also commercial levels to introduce an e-skills taxonomy which will enable the common interpretation of skills requirements on the basis of the e-Skills Competence Framework.

Develop and operate an e-Skills Demand and Supply Monitor regularly releasing updates and analysis on the availability of skills and the projected demand by the industry on the basis of the defined taxonomy.

Engage intensively with public, Church and private primary and secondary schools to enhance and extend the intensity of the ICT educational curricula.

Seek further vertical specializations (both vendor-driven and vendor-neutral) to be integrated in the offerings of the ICT Institute within MCAST, whilst devising programmes to attract further investment and industry assistance for the further expansion of the Institute.

Establish a long-term strategic alliance with the ICT Faculty in the University of Malta aimed at supporting the expansion of the Faculty, establishing an applied research programme for its undergraduates and post-graduates and to offer work placements and/or traineeships.

Jointly with the University and Malta Enterprise, devise a Clusters Framework primarily aimed at creating the core competences in the specific clusters.

Develop an incentive programme for the private training industry to encourage investment, international accreditation and the augmentation of specializations delivered through local institutions.

Partner with major ICT educational institutions of international repute to establish satellite operations in Malta providing academic offerings to local students and employees.

Define a framework and a supporting roadmap for the development of a national ecosystem aimed at establishing Malta as an ICT campus destination.

Jointly with Malta Enterprise and the Private Training Industry, review the ‘myPotential’ scheme to extend it into variants with coverage for employers, ICT educators and parents.

Sustain the delivery of basic ICT educational programmes aimed at enabling employees in the manufacturing/low-value industries who are at risk of unemployment to acquire basic ICT skills essential for participating in the industry.

Lead the development of ‘conversion programmes’ for graduates from other disciplines to migrate into the ICT career stream, primarily through the adaptation of their specialization for the knowledge-based industry.

Increase female participation in the ICT industry by developing and operating ICT training programmes; and partner with the industry to offer job placement to all those ICT students studying at level 5 of Malta’s National Qualifications Framework for life-long learning.

Engage into collaborative efforts with educational institutions and teacher representative bodies to enhance the career prospects and overall conditions of ICT educators.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

Strategic Priority 5

To deliver quality of life improvements through innovative citizen-centric application of ICTs The practical application of ICTs offers tremendous potential for improvement in the quality of life of citizens across all sectors of society and economy. Indeed, this technological application is mooted to become a protagonist in Malta’s forward-looking posture, portraying the quantum leap in Malta’s aspirations and serving as a basic building block for the accomplishment of the 2015 vision.

The Agency has been entrusted with the exciting and challenging task to map the path through the realisation of these aspirations into programmes and initiatives translated into tangible improvements in our citizens’ quality of life through the pervasive application of ICTs.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

This Strategic Priority portrays the complete rationale for the transition towards the national role of MITA and the apex of its mission. The fulfilment of this Priority will impose a cultural change towards an out-of-the-box mindset wherein the dominant factor is the positive impact on the daily activities of citizens – in essence, applying ICTs to realise better living: bringing to fruition the underlying notion of the Smart Island. Capitalising on the widespread take-up of technology in households and businesses together with the pervasiveness and cultural absorption of the mobile digital technology, the Agency will take the lead to implement the measures set out in Strategic Stream 4 of The Smart Island Strategy. This will be achieved by integrating ICTs with citizen-centric everyday activities, which go beyond the conventional online administrative services. Among the myriad of initiatives the Agency shall be taking up, there are four central programmes around which this Strategic Priority revolves: 1. E-Health 2. Smart Learning 3. ICT in transport 4. Enhanced citizen participation and e-Democracy MITA played a central role in the delivery of the first phase of the Integrated Health Information System.

Through the e-Health programme, MITA – jointly with the Ministry for Social Policy and the healthcare professionals – will make healthcare more accessible, transparent, efficient and patient-centric for citizens. Patients will have secure electronic patient records that will enable them or their trusted practitioners to access their personal clinical data anytime and anywhere. Moreover, healthcare professionals will be able to make more effective decisions as they will have highly reliable and more immediate access to their patients’ medical records.

In partnership with the educational authorities, MITA will take the lead in pursuing further the Smart Learning strategy of Government with the clear aim of extending education beyond the boundaries of the classroom and of making learning more engaging for students, parents and teachers. The Agency will sustain the efforts to extend access to the latest technologies by students in their classroom through the deployment of new computing equipment and a Fibre-to-the-School network, enabling bandwidth intensive applications to be accessed by students. On top of this infrastructure and leveraging the advent of Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies, the Agency will lead the

deployment of an innovative e-Learning platform which will transform teaching and learning into an unprecedented value-added experience, providing content, tools and applications to complement the classroom-based educational framework. The national reform in public transport is one of the foremost priorities of Government in the next years. The Agency will play a key supporting role in this reform by spearheading development of programmes and initiatives aimed at using ICT as an enabler in the wider reform process which is underway. The application of technology in transport offers tremendous opportunities for realisation of efficiency gains, enhancing road safety and security, addressing environmental issues, improving public transport user experience and relieving traffic congestion. Jointly with the transport authorities, the Agency will develop an e-Transport strategy and implement a set of complementing initiatives aimed at supporting the business, environmental and societal goals of the reform. Basing itself on the power and take-up of Web 2.0 solutions and eventually Web 3.0 technologies, the Agency will also engage in the proliferation of services aimed at enhancing citizen participation and e-democracy-oriented applications. MITA will seek to build communication and interaction bridges between policy makers and constituencies with a view to using technology to complement the public dialogue and consultative policy-shaping process adopted by Government on a wider scale.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

A central development in the propagation of these citizencentric programmes is the availability of a next generation access infrastructure across Malta and Gozo, namely the Fibre-to-the-Unit (“FttU” or “Fttx”) network. Fttx will allow the delivery of high speeds over the national network, hence enabling the effective use of bandwidth-intensive applications required for most of the programmes under this Strategic Priority. The Agency will be actively contributing towards the policy development in this regard and will adopt an application viewpoint to enhance the definition of the value to be derived from the network. A key tenet which MITA will pursue – jointly with MCA – is the need to ensure that the benefits of these programmes are accessible to all. Accessibility for persons with disabilities will be at the core of the Agency’s activity, not only for public services but also on a national basis. In fact, MITA will partner with the National Commission Persons with Disability (KNPD) and the Foundation for Information Technology Accessibility (FITA) to spread the best practices adopted in the Public Sector to the national access environment. Equally important is the Agency’s role to popularize the use of ICT and make citizens aware of the opportunities for quality of life improvements arising from the application of technologies – MITA will go into local communities to educate, explain and empower people to use what Government is investing in.

The Agency will deploy these national-scale programmes on the basis of the results derived from the initiatives set out in the other Strategic Priorities. These measures will build on the high availability of scalable and resilient infrastructure, on the successfully operational core information systems as back-end systems for consumption by these services implemented and managed by a highly competent workforce operating in an effectively governed and secure IT/IS environment. In delivering these activities, the Agency will simultaneously put into play the three institutional drivers of Transformation, Innovation and Excellence – the deployment of these

improvements will not only have a local impact but will also elevate the country’s global positioning in terms of competitiveness, technology readiness and quality of living. These are key determinants to enhance Malta’s investment destination credentials, going forward in an increasingly global competitive environment.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

The Strategic Coverages of Strategic Priority 5 are:

Ref

Strategic coverage

Jointly with the Ministry of Social Policy, develop an e-Health strategy with the provision of widespread electronic patient-centric services and improvement in the cost-effectiveness of healthcare services delivery as its core objectives.

Building on the effective deployment of the core information systems in the ‘Social Policy and Health Cluster’, implement an e-Health layer of technological services revolving around electronic patient records at hospital and primary levels.

Jointly with the Ministry of Education, lead the deployment of new computing equipment in primary and secondary schools based on the ratio of one computer for every four students.

Deliver an FttS (Fibre-to-the-School) project, providing real broadband facilities to all students in Malta and Gozo.

Lead the development and implementation of a highly engaging e-Learning platform for primary and secondary school students, aggressively adopting Web 2.0 solutions, allowing the facility for the development of ancillary applications and solutions interfacing with the platform to provide specific content and services to students, parents and teachers.

Implement an Intelligent Transport Management System that comprises a suite of ICT applications aimed at supporting the business, environmental and societal goals of the public transport reform led by the transport authorities.

Develop an open platform to serve as a tool for the proliferation of electronic services aimed at encouraging and facilitating citizen participation in Government-led consultative processes.

Contribute effectively to Government’s policy development process on the deployment of a nation-wide next generation access infrastructure, providing primary focus on the exploitation of the network capacity by MITA-driven applications and programmes.

Partner with KNPD and FITA to extend the best practices adopted in the public sector on ‘accessibility for all’ to the wider national community to ensure that the benefits of the programmes are adequately accessible to persons with disability too.

Engage Local Councils, non-governmental organisations and special interest groups to deliver awareness and educational programmes on the better-living opportunities that can be derived from the programmes under this Strategic Priority.

Set up a permanent programme to establish links with third parties and engage in projects funded by the European Union, with objectives in line with the ICT applications under this strategic priority.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

12 Key Deliverables

Institute the key ICT strategies, policies and technological standards that will direct National and Governmental ICT priorities and operations, and use the established targets to monitor MITA’s performance.

Work with the key stakeholders to establish, monitor and re-calibrate ICT budget requirements and to find innovative methods for a long-term funding of the ICT priorities.

Develop, operate and enhance a corporate information security setup focused on business continuity, data guardianship and effective governance.

Design and develop a new Enterprise Data Centre and a scalable, secure, reliable and cost-effective ICT infrastructure to sustain the long-term IS requirements of Government.

Continue to provide enhanced core ICT Infrastructure Services which are underlying for Government’s operations.

Implement Core Information Systems (including the replacement of the Government’s Financial Management System and Utilities and Transportation Systems) which are strategic and critical for Government operations and which will be instrumental for the continued transformation of public services.

MITA Strategic Plan 2009-2012

Rollout innovative Corporate Shared Services (including Payroll and Human Resource Management Systems) across Government as an enterprise.

Establish a state-of-the-art next-generation e-Government platform, and implement systems, which will serve to deliver more citizen-centric services and an effective platform for easier interaction between Government and businesses.

Deploy an innovative e-Learning platform which will transform teaching and learning into an unprecedented value-added experience for students, teachers and parents.

Implement the necessary infrastructure to enable a National dissemination of electronic ID cards that will allow the secure access to core information systems and e-Government services from multiple points of delivery.

Implement an e-Health layer of technological services that will facilitate the widespread use of electronic patient-centric services and an improvement in the cost-effectiveness of healthcare services.

In collaboration with University, MCAST and private sector ICT industry, enable the growth of the knowledge economy through a number of projects to foster the further growth of an inclusive information society.

TRANSFORMATION • INNOVATION • EXCELLENCE

The Agency’s Values

Professionalism We believe that we should adopt a professional attitude in all of our transactions with clients, suppliers, employees and management. As an Agency we will cultivate and project a professional image of transparency and honesty.

Client Focus We believe that our clients and suppliers are partners in our success. As an Agency we will provide added-value in all that we do, excellent customer-care and products and services of the highest quality within an environment of cautious cost-containment.

People We believe that our people are central to our success. As an Agency we will engender respect for one another through the management of diversity, we will honour our commitments with our employees, work co-operatively in the spirit of team work, promote open communication and value individual ability and equity.

Empowerment We believe that our managers are professionals and as such they should be given autonomy to take decisions that drive the Agency forward. As an Agency we will provide the necessary support for effective and high-quality decisions where we would be able to exceed our limits in an environment of complete accountability.

Continuous Improvement We believe that we must promote continuous self-improvement and cultivate innovation and creativity. As an Agency we will encourage life-long learning and on-going development and aim to develop and harness the potential of our people.