DESIGN OF A GENERIC E-

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT TOOL

Fekade Getahun (PhD)

Department of Computer Science

Addis Ababa University

fekadegetahun@gmail.com 1

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1. Introduction

2. Motivation

3. Functional Requirements

4. Our approach

5. Prototype

6. Conclusion

Outline

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ICTs is recognized as a tool that supports the socio-economic

development of a country.

It plays a key role in facilitating and improving public service delivery

to citizens, residents, businesses and brings Government closer to

its stakeholders.

Service deliver through the use of ICT improves the service delivery,

minimize cost for both the citizen and government, improve

accessibility of the service and facilitate accountability and

transparency in government process.

e-Government, e-Administration, e-service

ICT

Scupola et al [1], it is a service delivered electronically.

Rowley [2], “deeds, efforts or performances whose delivery is

mediated by information technology (including the Web,

information kiosks and mobile devices). …”

de Ruyter et al. [3], “... an interactive, content-centered and

Internet-based customer service, driven by the customer and

integrated with related organizational customer support

processes and technologies with the goal of strengthening the

customer-service provider relationship”.

What is e-Service?

1. Scupola, A., Henten, A., Nicolajsen, H.: E-Services: Characteristics, Scope and Conceptual Strengths. IJESMA 1(3),

1-16 (2009)

2. Rowley, J.: An analysis of the e-service literature: towards a research agenda. Internet Research., 339-359 (2006)

3. de Ruyter, K., Wetzels, M., Kleijnen, M.: Customer adoption of e-service: an experimental., 184-207 (2001)

Governmental organizations (e.g., Sweden, Germany, France,

Denmark, Netherlands, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Saudi

Arabia) take the initiative in developing e-service

Government e-service allows citizens to access government

information easily and enjoy one-stop government services.

Why e-services?

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enhances the use of customer focused service delivery channels

allows a department to present information, applications, and services in

a single consolidated browser view.

provides a secure and individualized view of multiple online resources

and interactive services.

offers a single access point to critical information and the primary

applications necessary for an individual to avail the services.

Why e-services?

E-Services acts like an interface between the government and the citizens.

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Informational services - do not require any parameter as

an input from the customer or citizen. for example, Status and

alerts, News and information of local events, any broadcasts or

marketing messages etc.

Transactional services - bidirectional or multidirectional

interaction between the citizen/ end user and the government

agencies and also allow the end user to change/ update his/her

service related information. Example, request for driving

license, …

Types of government 2 citizen e-services

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2. Motivation

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Scenario 1: Citizen request

Apply

Submit

Citizen web

Select

Service

File form Application no

Store it

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Scenario 2: Case worker

Submit

Employee web

Login

Work list

File form

Message

Application no

Store it

Citizen

applications

?access

Message

Application no

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3. Functional Requirements

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The key requirements associated to this tool are summarized as

follows:

1. Allow citizens make request for services extracted from a

given organization

2. Define Workflow Management/process management which

includes generating Generic workflow of a business process

3. Maintain documents and records produced as result of the

workflow

4. Provide workflow tracking

Functional Requirements

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5. Provide escalation mechanism for delayed steps/activities

6. Ensure that all occurrences of process workflow are allocated

a system identifier which is unique within the system

7. The system should provide Application form management

which gives administrator/responsible personnel the ability to

add, delete, modify forms

8. Appointment management – scheduler

9. Notification in SMS or Email

Functional Requirements …

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4. Our approach

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Solution architecture – SOA [1]

Operational layer - existing systems that may expose part of

their functionality/data to others using core services.

Middle layer - services comprise of associated units of

functionality such as business process

Presentation layer - interfaces that allow citizens to interact

with the e-service system.

Our approach

1. Emig, C., Langer, K., Krutz, K., Link, S., Momm, C., Abeck, S.: The SOA's Layers. (2006)

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System architecture of generic eservice system

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Composed of Business Process Management (BPM),

appointment, notification and security services.

BPM it handles the business process of organizations

configured with configuration module.

Business Layer

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Business Process/Service

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Sample Process definition

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Form designer

ticket number, date & time

office number

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e-Appointment

eAppointment

Work-list

Calendar

(Employee)

Blocked/scheduled

slots

Candidate schedule Span length

Task information

Working days to

provide service

Organizational

information

Blocked

schedule/slot

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Notification

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5. Prototype

5. Prototype

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Development environment – Visual studio, C#

Web service – WCF

Security - ASP NET security

Backend database - MS SQL server 2005

Portal framework - Community version Open source portal

framework DotNet Nuke 6.1

Prototype …

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Web portal

Sample service request form

filled by Citizen

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Prototype …

Work-list of an government employee

BPM buttons

6. Conclusion

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The paper introduced the concept of generic one-stop e-service development tool.

The tool is designed to assist MCIT Ethiopia in configuring e-services extracted from governmental organization.

However, the tool is not yet integrated with the legacy and operational application of organizations.

Case worker has to use existing system and put manually the result in the new system.

In the future, we believe that concerned organizations will take the initiative to integrate their legacy application with the e-service.

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Thank you