10 February 2003

Enabling eGovernment through Data Integration

By Joe Fitzpatrick, Informatica

eGOVERNMENT: WHAT'S HOLDING US BACK?

Government computer systems contain more data than those of any other business entity, but the usefulness of that data is severely limited by the lack of integration among systems. Satisfying queries that span multiple systems requires manually extracting, correlating, and comparing data-an imprecise and time-consuming task. To reach their full potential for public service, government computer systems must be linked through a common platform so that all data resources are easily accessible.

TOO MANY SYSTEMS, TOO MANY TECHNOLOGIES

One aspect of the integration challenge is the sheer size of government. With hundreds of thousands of existing systems and millions of requestors with differing requirements, integrating government data is a major challenge. The addition of more systems and requests each year further compounds the problem. Plus, the lack of data integration means that many government processes are manually intensive. Data cannot be easily correlated due to different data structures and outdated interfaces. For example, comparing suppliers across procurement systems located in different departments requires manual data export and correlation.

Even though each procurement system offers a reporting capability, there is typically no way to compare information located in different systems, or even across multiple instances of an application running in different arms of the same department. This type of comparison and correlation is critical across the value chain. People with procurement responsibilities must not only compare suppliers, but must use the comparison data to address related issues such as the cause and effect of late deliveries. Even with all the computing resources at the disposal of government agencies, it is virtually impossible to provide the cross platform information views that best serve the public.

TOO DIVERSE TO DISSEMINATE

The audience for disseminating all that data is also diverse. Users need data in a variety of ways, making information dissemination a huge challenge in the government sector. Even a single agency, such as the postal service, may have hundreds of thousands of employees. When the general public is added to the equation, the number of people requesting information from the various systems can reach into the millions. Locating the needed data and using it to turn requests into personalised information is a complex and time-consuming process.

DEALING WITH LEGACY SYSTEMS

Replacing systems with new technology is not the answer. There is not one system that covers all the processes that government organisations need to perform. Further, organisations are challenged to lay the groundwork to take advantage of systems and technology not yet developed. Achieving eGovernment requires leveraging existing resources while taking advantage of new systems and technology.

A NEW APPROACH IS NEEDED

eGovernment must be supported by a new approach to technology, rather than a new technology itself. This approach must address the following objectives to provide the best possible service to the public:

	1	Leverage legacy systems through connectivity with multiple, diverse systems
	2	Support new systems and technologies as they become available
	3	Take advantage of user interfaces that are easy to learn and use without extensive training
	4	Offer extensive analytics that readily transform data into usable information

Meeting these objectives will help drive the transition to an eGovernment that leverages the full potential of government systems to serve users within departments and throughout the general public. Benefits of eGovernment should include:

	1	Better dissemination of information to citizens
	2	More efficient transactions among organisations: business-to- government, government-to-government, government-to-business
	3	Better information collection for use by government employees
	4	More effective delivery of government programmes
	5	Better understanding and management of relationships with the public, suppliers, employees, and government organisations

These benefits can be achieved by adding a layer of intelligence that connects all government systems. Beneath this layer, existing systems will remain intact and continue to perform their current functions. The new layer will integrate data across diverse systems and use appropriate analytics to transform the data according to agency rules or end-user requirements.

Data will then be made available in various formats through third-party query reporting platforms. The ability to integrate and correlate data from diverse sources and then link the results through reporting tools to provide personalised data to different audiences is central to the effectiveness of eGovernment.

ADDING DATA INTEGRATION

Traditionally, investments in government systems have focused on system upgrades and implementing new technology. Both are valuable, but neither addresses the issue of data integration. Adding a data integration layer that provides cross-system communication and analysis will not only enhance the value of government systems today, but it will build a foundation for maximising the value of computing investments for the long term. The data integration layer need not replace systems or technology, because it leverages all systems and all technologies to support current and historical resources. In addition, this layer must work with business intelligence tools and analytic applications from many different vendors to provide the personalisation required by eGovernment. Finally, the issue of scalability and extensibility is central to eGovernment. Governments tend to be large, growing, changing entities. By adding a layer of software rather than attempting to upgrade or change systems, this solution will scale to volume on the same hardware and offer the extensibility to add new sources as they emerge.

Joe Fizpatrick is Marketing Communications Manager of Informatica www.informatica.com who are exhibiting at the Data Best Practice in the Public Sector conference on 12 & 13 March 2003 in London.

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