Government and IT: Time for Change - Essay Example

Government and IT: Time for Change Student’s Name: Institution’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Submission Date: Introduction In the contemporary society there is a wide concern on how the available resources can be used effectively for optimum production. This is an issue alongside the need to deliver quality services to the public. These demands are beating the traditional methods of operations and more especially in the public service (Mishra and Park, 2005). More than ever before, this situation has necessitated the consideration to use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in the public service in order to help deliver services to the public in a more effective and efficient manner. This is clearly reflected in the House of Commons Report ‘Government & IT – a recipe for rip-offs’ and Landscape Report. The concept of ICT also known as the Soft Systems Methodologies (SSM) use in the public will be the focus of this article. The ultimate objective is to try and show how the Checkland’s 5Es (efficacy, efficiency, elegance, effectiveness and ethicality) could be applied in the various issues related to ICT use that have been raised in the two reports. Judicious use of SSM Based on the findings of the Government and IT report, there are specific issues that have been raised in the public services and which could be addressed adequately by the government investing in the ICT tools. Among the issues that have been raised in the reports and that are very instrumental in the delivery of services by the public sector include: availability of information, suppliers’ management and operational uses of ICT. Lack of information: For a very long time, accessing data about the government operations has remained one of the big challenges that the public has continued to experience despite the fact that this is something that is related to transparency and accountability (Chaffey, 2007; Hellawell, 2001 and MacVaugh & Schiavone, 2010). This is the case because with the traditional methods, no single way one can be able to access the data of interest without having to contact the public services officers who in most cases may not be willing to provide the information. However, through the judicious use of SSM, it is possible for one to access data about different Government Departments in order to be able to understand their operations. This is particularly important in helping the public know where they can get served from and the procedure that should be followed. With SSM it is possible to overlook those departments that are not willing to share information about their operations to the public (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2009). For instance, while compiling the report it was held that the process of accessing quality data from the government offices was very poor. Worse of it all, is lack of data about the contracts which is an area of concern for many members of the public who wish to understand how the public resources are utilized (Barnes, 2002 and Walsham, 2006). However, with the ICT initiative which the government seeks to make, it is hoped that access up-to-date and accurate information about the government operations can be easily accessed. This is the reform that judicious use of SSM is able to bring to the government. This is because with proper SSM tools, data could be accessed from a central point online. Suppliers’ management: Apart from information access, the report has also raised the issue of supplier management as an area of concern and that is wanting in terms of reforms. The report had established that because of lack of well integrated information system in the public sector, had led to a situation where only a small number of contractors dominate the government contract list. This is a problem that is attributed to poor performance in IT (Caselli and Coleman, 2001; Klein and Myers, 2001 and Ngai et al. 2012). This is happening despite the fact that study is showing that some of the government projects take too long than the required time to complete or even some of them stall. This is considered a problem that has been caused the small list of contractors that the government is relying on and who have now become cartels to other contractors accessing the government contract. From the report, there is a wide spread consensus by different commentators, academics and the government as well as NAO that too much businesses were owned by a few contractors. This is a problem that could be attributed to the fact that the government offices lacked the systems to manage the large number of suppliers (Melville, 2010; Schneider, 2006 and Ritchie & Brindley, 2011). This finding was also indicated by the SMEs even though many of them would fear to give information for fear to lose business. From this perspective therefore, the judicious SSM is important in ensuring that a large number of suppliers can be maintained and managed in the government database. This will help ensure that all competitive contractors are given equal opportunities to undertake government projects. The judicious use of SSM in this case therefore is important in ensuring that the cartels that are actually in the supply system are eliminated. Operational uses: In addition to ensuring information availability and management of the suppliers, the judicious use of SSM is also important in facilitating different operations in the public sector. Some of the important areas that the report has identified and that the SSM is important in solving include: online services, business intelligence systems, business systems, back office systems and infrastructure. Online services: Reduction of costs of operations in the public sector is already mentioned, is a major issue that is causing a lot of concern among the various stakeholders. This is because the public continue to demand more amid the growing scarcity of resources that are available to serve them (Cushman and McLean, 2008; Robertson et al, 2008 and Wainwright and Waring, 2007). With traditional methods of operations where much of the work is done manually to attain this outcome is next to impossible. This is because it does not support the design and use of new processes of delivering services to the public something that is very important in such businesses as the Agri-business sector where different processes are required to ensure the intended final product is made available (Erl, 2004 and Gardner & Ash, 2003). As a remedy, the judicial SSM use is important in filing tax returns, making online claim, applying for passports and booking for medical appointment among other operations. In this case therefore, ICT is important in information recording, tracking and providing personalized services by the public sector. Business intelligence systems: World over the business landscape has continued to change. This is because there is now possibility of an organisation carrying out some of its operations across borders. The international markets continue to present mixed trends which are important for any organisation to take into account. This is only possible if there are suitable intelligence systems in place (Patel & Hackney, 2008). In the public sector for instance, ICT is particularly instrumental automating the process of collating and presenting financial information something that can be done in line with the prevailing financial trends in the market. SSM is therefore recommendable to be used as a means to navigate through and share various businesses of information between different government departments for the purpose of improving the process of service delivery (Alpay and Russell, 2002; Reynolds & Holwell 2010 & Williams & Williams, 2007) Business systems: To have good operational systems is in the heart of every public service. This is because it affects the level of services that are delivered to the public (Bartholomew et al, 2010). According to the reports, a large number of transactions are being carried out with the public offices. Sometimes it is even difficult to track and account for each and every transaction. This kind of situation for instance hinders the process of collecting taxes and other benefits accrued to the payments. This denies the government important revenue merely because there is no one integrated business system to fast track the process (Henfridsson & Rikard, 2010). For this reason, it is expected that judicial use of SSM will allow for the creation of one large business system that starts with the formation of a business through the operational stage where it can be able to provide customized services to the government. Back office systems: In almost every department of the public sector, the delivery of services to the public is depended on various factors such as human resources, procurement and other facilities management which must work together to ensure effectiveness. According to the report, this is one of the challenges many sectors of the government are experiencing in trying to deliver its services to the public. This is because there is no element of collaboration but the existence of a highly disintegrated system where almost function operates in its own. According to (Waring and Wainwright 2008), SSM is particularly important in helping link the various functions within a department to ensure effective and efficient delivery of services. Infrastructure: What is touching about the report is the fact most of the government departments are still operating using traditional approaches. This is contrary to what should be happening in the modern economy. According to Turban et al (2006) many of the government departments worldwide are being supported are being supported by their respective governments by creating opportunities that will enable them implement ICT innovations in their workplace. This is to ensure that they are in line with the emerging demands of the users globally. From this perspective, it is therefore hoped that judicial use of SSM will help the government sector be more aware of the role of ICT in digital interchange of information. For this reason therefore, SSM is essential in aiding the processing of diffusing new technology into government operations. Application of Checkland’s 5Es to the issues raised in the report According to Checkland (2000), the aspect of quality in Information System (IS) is receiving a lot attention when it becomes into service delivery by the government departments. The quality of the system is defined by its level of usability and the ability to deliver the intended services. The artefact of ICT summarises ICT quality in what is commonly known as the Checkland’s 5Es which stand for efficacy, efficiency, elegance, effectiveness and ethicality). The application of these elements to ICT use by government department will help to a greater extent in addressing some of the issues that have been raised in the two reports and that a remain a big challenging to implementing the most modern ICT instruments in various departments of the government. Efficacy: The aspect of efficacy is used in SSM to determine if the whole process of the transformation work has actually been able to provide the intended output or not. From the two reports, there are major issues that are a hindrance to the implementation of SSM and which include lack of information to use in benchmarking, inability to procure the ICT services competitively, over-specification of the IT integration requirements, competing SSM development approaches between waterfall and agile, security and privacy issues and lack of skills and leadership as well. With efficacy, White (2012) argues that there is need to build a background for developing SSM in order to ensure that every process is supportive and effective. Efficiency: Unlike the aspect of efficacy, efficiency is concerned with determining whether the whole process of transformation is carried out using the minimum resources possible (Baskerville et al, 2009). This is established by dividing the amount of output with the amount of resources used. According to the findings of the report, the concept of efficiency could be used in such areas as procurement, security and privacy and training in order to make sure that the users are conversant with the SSM. This will help reduce the input while optimizing the output of the whole process. Elegance: Further, the aspect of elegance is concerned with ensuring the transformation process of SSM is well designed (White, 2012). This is to say that the SSM is aesthetically attractive, easy to comprehend and not either over or under designed. Even though such judgments are undoubtedly subjective their inclusion is particularly important in incorporating professional experience and competence to the process. This concept based on the report findings could be applied in the government departments to ensure that ICT is made a profession. This is especially important in helping build ICT tools that are customized and attractive to the users who are the government officials. Effectiveness: In ICT implementation according to Tan et al (2009) effectiveness is used to determine whether the whole process of transformation will help ensure the system meet the longer term aims of the business or the government. However, since this is not easy to maintain one technology for a relatively longer period, the application of this concept will mean that the system of SSM need to be designed in such a way that it is compatible and that could be updated whenever need arises. This has more to do with the infrastructure and the software used to design the whole system. In addition to this, there is no need to take full advantage of cloud computing in order to reduce basic costs associated to ICT maintenance for longer term sustainability of the government operations. Ethicality: Finally, ethicality is one of the aspects of Checkland’s 5Es and that is important in ensuring that the whole process of transformation is acceptable based on the judgment of various stakeholders (Wainwright and Waring, 2007). According to the reports, there are various stakeholders in the transformation and who expect to benefit from the new system and who include the government, the users and the general public (Waring and Wainwright, 2002 and Walsham, 2004). In order to ensure that that the whole process is ethical and acceptable by all, but it must address important issues that have reduced in the reports such as privacy and security and involvement of the stakeholders in the designing process. This is to ensure that each and every stakeholder interest is taken into consideration. Conclusion This purpose of this article was to explore the concept ICT use in the public sector. To help tackle the question, two specific areas that attention has been paid include the judicial use of SSM and the application of Checkland’s 5Es in the different issues that have been raised the two reports: Common Report ‘Government & IT – a recipe for rip-offs’, and Landscape Report on ICT in government. In the discussion, it has been established that judicial use of SSM is important in addressing such issues as lack of information about the government operations, suppliers’ management and other operational uses such as online services, business intelligence systems, business systems, back office systems and infrastructure. On the other hand, the discussion has also covered on the Checkland’s 5Es which include efficacy, efficiency, elegance, effectiveness and ethicality and how they can apply to the different issues that have been raised in the two reports with regard to use of ICT in the public sector. Reading List Alpay, L and Russell, A. 2002, Information Technology Training in Primary Care: The Nurses Voice. CIN Computers, Informatics, Nursing: Vol.20 no 4, Pp136-142 Amyas, M. 2011, Information and communications technology in government. Landscape review, London: The Stationery Office. 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