Project Report

On

E-Government of India and Australia

Submitted To:-Mr. Manoj Kumar

Submitted By:-Muhammad Arif

Saad MazharHasan Aleem

Sajid Hussain

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all I thank to ALLAH ALMIGHTY .We are very grateful to our respected Sir Manoj

Kumar who gave me this opportunity. This is to acknowledge that our instructor has excellently

treated us and shared his experiences and expertise with al the group members and helped us

through out the prepration of this report as well as presentation. Therefore all the members of the

group are heartly thankful to Sir Manoj for his co-operation and precious time. We Saad

Mazhar,Muhammad Arif, Hasan Aleem and Sajid Hussain dedicate this complete presentation to

her for his kindness and support.

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INTRODUCTION OF E-GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

E-Government can be defined as the use of information and communications technologies by

governments to enhance the range and quality of information and services provided to citizens,

businesses, civil society organizations, and other government agencies in an efficient, cost-

effective and convenient manner, making government processes more transparent and

accountable and strengthening democracy.

Defining e-Governance

Although the term ‘e-Governance’ has gained currency in recent years, there is no standard

definition of this term. Different governments and organizations define this term to suit their own

aims and objectives. Sometimes, the term ‘e-government’ is also used instead of ‘e-Governance’.

Some widely used definitions are listed below:

According to the World Bank

“E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such

as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform

relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve

a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved

interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information,

or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption,

increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/ or cost reductions.”

Thus, the stress here is on use of information technologies in improving citizen-

government interactions, cost-cutting and generation of revenue and transparency.

Basically, e-Governance is generally understood as the use of Information and

communications Technology (ICT) at all levels of the Government in order to provide services to

the citizens, interaction with business enterprises and communication and exchange of

information between different agencies of the Government in a speedy, convenient efficient

and transparent manner. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, has visualized e-Governance in the Indian

context to mean:

“A transparent smart e-Governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of

information crossing the interdepartmental barrier and providing a fair and unbiased service to the

citizen.”

The goal of e-Government is not merely to computerize governmental records; to the contrary,

the ultimate goal of e-Government is to transform government. Indeed, successful e-Government

is at most 20% technology and at least 80% about people, processes, and organizations. It is

important, therefore, to recognize that e-Government is not an end; it is an enabler. “e-

Government” should eventually disappear as a distinct concept, because “government” rather

than technology is at the core of e-Government and technology will eventually pervade all

governmental operations. The key question, therefore, is whether the integration of government

and technology will serve the interests of the public.

WHY E-GOVERNANCE

E-Government can transform citizen service, provide access to information to empower citizens,

enable their participation in government and enhance citizen economic and social opportunities,

so that they can make better lives, for themselves and for the next generation.

Components of E-governance

The following components can be identified:

Technological Component with Electronic dimension.

Social Component with Egalitarian dimension.

Cultural Component with Ethical dimension.

Political Component with Enactment dimension.

Psychological Component with Extensional dimension.

Service Component with Empowerment dimension

Technological Component

This relates to educate people who are in the bureaucratic structure or outside its periphery

regarding use of electronic means to develop better connectivity within and with the system. It

requires use of computers

(a) In developing the data-base,

(b) In networking to facilitate the communication,

(c) In creating e- knowledge workers so as to increase their potentiality. This focuses on “e” of

electronic knowledge and its proper utilization.

Social Component

The fundamental duty of any government is to educe a society which is based on the principles of

equality and justice. A society which is classless with no distinction between haves and haves-

not, where nobody is marginalized from the main stream, and is committed to provide a

respectful essence of life to its people without any discrimination.

Of cast or race must be set up. This is possible when people will be aware of their rights & duties

on the one hand, and know about the governmental policies made for them on related issues on

the other, hence a vigilant society can be evolved where they can raise their voices by questioning

the governmental decisions. This would help in attaining the “e” of egalitarian society with thrust

on equality.

Cultural Component :

With the advent of the era of knowledge explosion there is a need to reorient some of the value

patterns without eroding the fundamental normative structure of any social system. The need to

create value patterns conducive for e- governance to operate focusing on work ethos therefore

cannot be denied. Thus to work out the ethical framework is the key to move further by

discarding obsolete set of values that come in the way of potential utilization. Thus “e” of ethical

framework has to be the focal point in constructing a morality-based system.

Political Component :

The political system is essential aspect of governance. It holds responsibility of rationalizing

various operative frameworks by enacting laws. This helps to maintain & sustain the cohesive

force that is required by society to integrate its people and abide them to follow a uniform policy

to fulfill their targets. This refers to the importance of “e” of enactment of laws to stop society

from disintegration.

Psychological Component:

Developing required psyche so as to facilitate formation and inculcation of right type of attitudes

in the people is prerequisite for efficiency. Apart form this; readiness to connect to people, to

listen to their queries, to look for solutions, to improve communicative skills etc. will be

necessary elements for behavioral modifications. Hence personality adjustments must be carried

out to cater to the needs of common man. This specifically relates to “e” of extension of self so as

to have constructive collaborative social relationships.

Service Component :

The ultimate function of any welfare government is to serve. As a provider of good services to its

people it has to assimilate the basic needs and also expectations of common man in to the

documentation of policy, which then has to be implemented in the right spirit. This develops a

constant pressure on the government to respond to public demands as this leads to the realization

of power they can exercise on government to maintain impartiality, integrity and transparency in

its functioning. This explains “e” of empowerment of people in any system.

TYPES OF INTERACTION IN E-GOVERNANCE

E-Governance facilitates interaction between different stake holders in governance. These

interactions may be described as follows:

G2G (Government to Government)

In this case, Information and Communications Technology is used not only to restructure

the governmental processes involved in the functioning of government entities but also to

increase the flow of information and services within and between different entities. This

kind of interaction is only within the sphere of government and can be both horizontal i.e.

between different government agencies as well as between different functional areas

within an organization, or vertical i.e. between national, provincial and local government

agencies as well as between different levels within an organization. The primary

objective is to increase efficiency, performance and output.

G2C (Government to Citizens)

In this case, an interface is created between the government and citizens who enables the

citizens to benefit from efficient delivery of a large range of public services. This

expands the availability and accessibility of public services on the one hand and improves

the quality of services on the other. It gives citizens the choice of when to interact with

the government (e.g. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), from where to interact with the

government (e.g. service centre, unattended kiosk or from one’s home/workplace) and

how to interact with the government (e.g. through internet, fax, telephone, email, face-to-

face, etc). The primary purpose is to make government, citizen-friendly.

G2B (Government to Business)

Here, e-Governance tools are used to aid the business community – providers of goods

and services – to seamlessly interact with the government. The objective is to cut red

tape, save time, reduce operational costs and to create a more transparent business

environment when dealing with the government. The G2Binitiatives can be transactional,

such as in licensing, permits, procurement and revenue collection. They can also be

promotional and facilitative, such as in trade, tourism and investment. These measures

help to provide a congenial environment to businesses to enable them to perform more

efficiently.

G2E (Government to Employees)

Government is by far the biggest employer and like any organization, it has to interact

with its employees on a regular basis. This interaction is a two-way process between the

organization and the employee. Use of ICT tools helps in making these interactions fast

and efficient on the one hand and increase satisfaction levels of employees on the other.

INTERVENTIONAL STRATEGIES OF E-

GOVERNANCE

As e-Governance has shortened the gap between different cultures by trying to create a global

society with mega cultural emphasis the following strategies can be identified, the use of which

will facilitate achievement of this objective, though management of these would vary in pace in

different countries.

Transitive Counseling:

In order to reduce the resistance, people need to be prepared for coming out of transitional

phase. Thus proper counseling is required regarding changes in attitudes, reorienting mind

sets etc. at various levels of governmental functioning.

Electronic Accessibility:

There is a need to equip people with necessary knowledge regarding use of electronic multi

media by imparting it through various Institutions. Technologically advanced Institutes with

expertise must be set up which must established themselves as the centers of excellence by

imparting to people the e-knowledge.

Institutional Networking:

Various agencies needed at different levels of governmental functionaries must be brought

within the purview of constitutional framework by enacting laws for controlling their formal

as well as informal constituents. A large-scale connectivity has to be ensured.

Ethical Framework:

Apart from legal framework morality has to be the key area where any society must work out

strategic plan by designing ethos before adopting e- governance. The framework has to be

supportive of fundamental societal normative pattern so that it gets extra leverage for

perpetuating necessary values patterns.

Role Shifting Strategies :

New stresses are the by products of knowledge based society. Hence more humanitarian

psychological coping mechanisms based on collaborative role shifts 2have to be introduced.

Each role, organizational as well as personal must shift in such a way that effects of change

can be managed without resulting into situation of crisis. This is to be learn that how & where

role shift is required.

6. Benefits of e-Governance

In the end, e-Governance is about reform in governance, facilitated by the creative use of

Information and Communications Technology. It is expected that this would lead to:

Better access to information and quality services for citizens:

ICT would make available timely and reliable information on various aspects of

governance. In the initial phase, information would be made available with respect to

simple aspects of governance such as forms, laws, rules, procedures etc later extending to

detailed information including reports (including performance reports), public database,

decision making processes etc. As regards services, there would be an immediate impact

in terms of savings in time, effort and money, resulting from online and one-point

accessibility of public services backed up by automation of back end processes. The

ultimate objective of e-Governance is to reach out to citizens by adopting a life-cycle

approach i.e. providing public services to citizens which would be required right from

birth to death.

Simplicity, efficiency and accountability in the government:

Application of ICT to governance combined with detailed business process reengineering

would lead to simplification of complicated processes, weeding out of redundant processes,

simplification in structures and changes in statutes and regulations. The end result would be

simplification of the functioning of government, enhanced decision making abilities and

increased efficiency across government – all contributing to an overall environment of a more

accountable government machinery. This, in turn, would result in enhanced productivity and

efficiency in all sectors.

Expanded reach of governance:

Rapid growth of communications technology and its adoption in governance would help in

bringing government machinery to the doorsteps of the citizens. Expansion of telephone

network, rapid strides in mobile telephony, spread of internet and strengthening of other

communications infrastructure would facilitate delivery of a large number of services

provided by the government.

E-GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES SPECIFIC TO

INDIA

We list down some of the challenges which are specific to India - (Some of the inputs are taken

from an officer from NIC).

• Lack of Integrated Services: Most of the e governance Services being offered by state

or central governments are not integrated. This can mainly be attributed to Lack of

Communication between different Departments. So the information that resides with

one department has no or very little meaning to some other department of Government.

• Lack of Key Persons: e Governance projects lack key persons, not only from

technological aspect, but from other aspects as well.

• Population: This is probably the biggest challenge. Apart from being an asset to the

country it offers some unique issues, an important one being Establishing Person

Identities. There is no unique identity of a person in India. Apart from this, measuring

the population, keeping the database of all Indian nationals (& keeping it updated) are

some other related challenges.

• Different Languages: A challenge due to the diversity of the country. It enforces need to

do governance (up to certain level), in local languages. Ensuring e Governance in local

language is a big task to achieve.

• According to an officer from NIC, success factors of e-Gov projects -

o 10% Technology

o 60% Process

o 20% Change Management

8. Its Relevance to India:

The Government of India, in various forums, has indicated its commitment to provide efficient

and transparent government to all strata of society. E-Governance is now mainly seen as a key

element of the country’s governance and administrative reform agenda. The Government of India

aspires to provide:

Governance that is easily understood by and accountable to the citizens, open to

democratic involvement and scrutiny (an open and transparent government)

Citizen-centric governance that will cover all of its services and respect everyone as

individuals by providing personalized services.

An effective government that delivers maximum value for taxpayers’ money (quick and

efficient services)

Hence the Government of India views e-Governance as a vehicle to initiate and sustain reforms

by focusing on three broad areas:

Governance

• Transparency

• People’s participation

• Promotion of a democratic society

Public services

• Efficient, cost-effective and responsive governance

• Convenient services to citizens and businesses

• Greater citizen access to public information

• Accountability in delivery of services to citizens

Management

• Simplicity, efficiency and accountability

• Managing voluminous information and data effectively

• Information services

• Swift and secure communication

9. Initiative till Date

Recognizing that e-Governance is playing an increasingly important role in modern Governance,

various agencies of the Government and civil society organizations have taken a large number of

initiatives across the country. Indicated below are some of the key initiatives taken in the country

across some of the important citizen/business related departments

Customs and Excise (Government of India)

• 98% of export and 90-95% of import documentation computerized

• Electronic filing through ICEGATE at 3 locations (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai)

• 80% of Service Tax returns electronically processed

Indian Railways (Government of India)

• Anywhere to anywhere reservation from anywhere.

• Electronic Booking of tickets on select sectors.

• Online Information on Railway reservation on Internet

Postal Department (Government of India)

• Direct e-credit of Monthly Income Scheme returns into the investors accounts

• Dematerialization of Savings Certificate (NSC) and Vikas Patras (KVP), offering full portability

Passport / Visa (Government of India)

• 100% passport information computerized

• All 33 Regional Passport Offices covered

• Machine readable passports at some locations

AP Online (State Government of Andhra Pradesh)

An Integrated Citizen Services Portal providing citizen centric services such as: Birth/Death

Certificates, Property Registration, Driver’s License, Govt. Applications & Forms, Payment of

taxes / utility bills etc.

Bhoomi – Automation of Land Records (State Government of Karnataka)

It provides computerized Record of Rights Tenancy & Crops (RTC) - needed by farmer to obtain

bank loans, settle land disputes etc. It has also ensured increased transparency and reliability,

significant reduction in corruption, exploitation and oppression of farmers. This project has

benefited 20 million rural land records covering 6.7 million farmers.

CARD – Registration Project (State Government of Andhra Pradesh)

Computerization Administration of Registration Department (CARD) impacting 10 million

citizens over a period of 3 years. It has completed registration of 2.8 million titles with title

searches made in 1.4 million cases. The system ensures transparency in valuation of property and

efficient document management system. The estimated saving of 70 million man-hours of citizen

time valued at US$ 35 mil (investment in CARD - US$ 6million). Similar initiatives in other

states like SARITA (State Government of Maharashtra) STAR (State Government of Tamil

Nadu), etc. have further built upon this initiative.

In India, most citizen services are provided by state i.e. provincial governments and very few by

the central i.e. federal government. However, both central and state governments provide

different services to business and industry

Gyandoot: Intranet in Tribal District of Dhar (State Government of Madhya Pradesh)

This project offers e-governance services including online registration of applications, rural e-

mail facility, village auction site etc. It also provides services such as Information on Mandi (farm

products market) rates, On-line public grievance redressed, caste & income certificates and Rural

Market (Gaon ka Bazaar).

LOKMITRA (State Government of Himachal Pradesh)

• Offers e-governance services:

Online registration of applications,

Rural e-mail facility, village auction site etc.

• Key services provided to citizens

Information on Mandi (farm products market) rates

On-line public grievance redressal

Sending and receiving information regarding land records, income certificates,

Caste certificates and other official documents.

Market rates of vegetables, fruits and other items

e- Mitra - Integrated Citizen Services Center (State Government of Rajasthan)

• Implemented using a PPP (Public Private Partnership) model

• Private partner paid by the government department / agency

• G2C services like:

Payment of electricity, water, telephone bills

Payment of taxes

Ticket Reservations

Filing of Passport applications

Registration of birth/death

Payment by cash/cheque/ credit card

The above cases of e-Governance initiatives are only illustrative. Many of the State Governments

have successfully implemented several such initiatives. This has positively impacted the quality

of life of citizens. Hence e-Governance affords an excellent opportunity for India to radically

improve the quality of governance and thereby:

Allow for two-way communication between government and citizens not only for service

delivery but also to receive opinions of citizens on policies and government performance.

Provide greater access to excluded groups, who have few opportunities to interact with

government and benefit from its services and schemes

Include all sections of the society in the mainstream of development

Enabling rural and traditionally marginalized segments of the population to gain fast and

convenient access to services in their own neighborhoods.

NATIONAL E-GOVERNANCE PROGRAM

Taking note of the potential of e-governance to improve the quality of life of the vast population

of the country, the Government of India has formulated a national program – the National e-

governance Plan (NEGP). This plan attempts to cover all the important areas relating to e-

Governance – Policy, Infrastructure, Finances, Project Management, Government Process

Reengineering, Capacity Building, Training, Assessment and Awareness etc. across the Central

and State Governments.

The vision of NEGP is to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his

locality through common service delivery outlets. The implementation strategy envisages clear

definition of service goals and metrics for each project and structured stakeholder consultations

with all stakeholders including citizens and civil society organizations before the service goals of

each project are firmed up. Even at the stage of formulation of the NEGP, its vision and proposed

strategy were held with various stakeholders including state governments, ministries/departments,

IT industry representatives and civil society organizations. The focus of the plan includes the

following sectors/projects:

Agriculture

E-governance projects in the agricultural sector can provide benefit to farmers and the rural

people and also enhance the lives of urban poor. There are numerous sub-projects pertaining

to provision of timely expert advice to farmers, food security, marketability and commercial

information relating to agricultural products, enhancing crop productivity, enhancing the

reach of and ease of access to micro-credit, etc.

Municipalities

The coordinating agency is the Ministry of Urban Development. The main programs relevant

to vulnerable and marginalized groups are registration of births and deaths, grievances and

suggestions, health programs, etc.

Gram Panchayats (elected village administration)

The important programs being implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development for

poverty reduction are employment generation, provision of basic services, infrastructure

development etc. The objective is to increase participation of rural population in the

government and women empowerment.

Common Service Centers (CSCs)

It is one of the integrated projects envisioned in NEGP. The CSCs provide assisted

community access points – a necessity in a country with relatively low levels of literacy and

ICT penetration in rural areas. These centers are very effective in providing multiple services

provided by different departments at a single location. For a common citizen, it is often

confusing and time-consuming to have to visit different departments and identify the right

official or office to avail of some service. This one stop shop is also helpful in increasing

accessibility, enabling faster service delivery, curbing corruption and reducing difficulties

faced by vulnerable and marginalized groups. Under this program, it is aimed to establish

100,000 CSCs predominantly in the rural areas to serve the needs of the traditionally

underserved areas.

SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN E-GOVERNANCE

PROJECTS

This section is dedicated to the analysis of success and failure in the use of information and

communication technologies (ICTs) in governmental activities.

We can divide e-government initiatives into three camps:

• Total failure: the initiative was never implemented or was implemented but immediately

abandoned.

• Partial failure: major goals for the initiative were not attained and/or there were

significant undesirable outcomes.

• Success: most stakeholder groups attained their major goals and did not experience

significant undesirable outcomes.

UNDERSTANDING E-GOVERNMENT SUCCESS

AND FAILURE

The working estimates from the two surveys suggest that more than one-third of e-government

projects in developing/transitional countries are total failures; a further half are partial failures;

and roughly one-seventh are successes.

Because of limitations in the methods used, we cannot use these figures as evidence that e-

government failure rates are higher in developing/transitional countries than in industrialized

countries. However, the clear weight of evidence is that the great majority of e-government

projects are failures of some kind.

Systematic analysis of the individual cases suggests a mix of points and issues. One plain

conclusion is that, the higher up the management pyramid you go, the greater the likelihood of

failure. In simple terms, the management pyramid goes from clerical/operational functions at the

bottom, through middle/tactical management in the middle, to senior/strategic management

functions at the top.

Most of the successes are operational-level systems that automate basic clerical functions like

data processing. Many of the partial failures are systems in which the operational component

works, but in which the tactical or strategic management components do not work.

From analyzing these and other cases, the Exchange explains the causes of e-government failure

and success. Two models for understanding these causes have been developed. The Factor Model

identifies a set of ten key factors: external pressure, internal political desire, overall

vision/strategy, project management, change management, politics/self-interest, design,

competencies, technological infrastructure, and other. Presence or absence of these factors will

determine success or failure.

The Design-Reality Gap Model identifies a gap that exists for all e-government projects between

the design assumptions/requirements and the reality of the client public agency. The larger this

gap between design and reality, the greater the risk that the project will fail. The smaller the gap,

the greater the chance of success.

CONCLUSION

It is evident from above discussion that objectives of achieving e-governance and transforming

India goes far beyond mere computerization of stand alone back office operations. It means, to

fundamentally change as to how the government operates, and this implies a new set of

responsibilities for the executive and politicians. It will require basic change in work culture and

goal orientation, and simultaneous change in the existing processes. Foremost of them is to create

a culture of maintaining, processing and retrieving the information through an electronic system

and use that information for decision making. It will require skilled navigation to ensure a smooth

transition from old processes and manual operations to new automated services without

hampering the existing services. This can be achieved by initially moving ahead in smaller

informed initiatives in a time bound manner and avoiding large and expensive steps without

understanding the full social implications. Every small step thus taken should be used to learn

about hurdles and improve upon the next steps, both in terms of direction and magnitude. The

proposed changes are likely to be met with a lot of inertia which can not be overcome by lower

and middle level officials with half hearted attempts to diffuse the technology. The change in the

mindset to develop and accept the distributed and flat structured e-governance system is required

at the top level system to beat the inertia.

INTRODUCTION OF E-GOVERNMENT OF

AUSTRALIA

E-Government enables the electronic delivery of government transaction and information

services to citizens. The group manages www.sa.gov.au as a whole of government website,

Bizgate for online payment processing and application/website development, and hosting

services. Last year the sa.gov.au website had 3.8 million visits (73,000 every week) and 11.4

million page views. Bizgate processed in excess of 2.4 million transactions online.

Australia, like Canada is considered in the forefront of e-Government development and ICT

usage. Both governments having extensively deployed Land Information Systems LIS (80’s &

90’s) to integrate diverse data sets, integrate e-government services, e.g. land registration,

conveyance, valuation, and the land cadastre, in order to answer spatially oriented questions that

prevail on government.

However, like Switzerland, Australia has a Federal system of Government which affords a high

degree of autonomy to State Governments and some Territories. This makes it difficult to

implement ‘whole-of-government’ e-government initiatives.

Whilst the Federal Government manages the normal affairs of a nation, defines, foreign affairs,

etc., the interlinking between Federal and State Government in the life events of Australian

citizens can become highly complicated and is subject to change. For example, whilst formal

authority over primary and secondary education falls to the States, in practice most of the funding

comes from the Federal Government. Making any e-Government service process span more than

one jurisdiction and requiring extensive interoperability.

Governments internationally are confronting the challenges of progressing e-government. To

more sophisticated and complex transactions, online interactions, and greater Responsiveness to

customer expectations and preferences. Australia is generally regarded as a leader in e-

government, but is experiencing the challenges of moving to a stage of service transformation

that involves an agreed vision about future services and processes in an environment requiring

greater integration and citizen focus. Several major services delivery agencies are well

advanced in integrating programs online, but there are

unresolved complexities in lifting service integration across agencies and governments to

another level.

CATEGORIZING E-COMMERCE

E-Governance facilitates interaction between different stake holders in governance. These

interactions may be described as follows:

G2G (Government to Government)

In this case, Information and Communications Technology is used not only to restructure

the governmental processes involved in the functioning of government entities but also to

increase the flow of information and services within and between different entities. This

kind of interaction is only within the sphere of government and can be both horizontal i.e.

between different government agencies as well as between different functional areas

within an organization, or vertical i.e. between national, provincial and local government

agencies as well as between different levels within an organization. The primary

objective is to increase efficiency, performance and output.

G2C (Government to Citizens)

In this case, an interface is created between the government and citizens which enables

the citizens to benefit from efficient delivery of a large range of public services. This

expands the availability and accessibility of public services on the one hand and improves

the quality of services on the other. It gives citizens the choice of when to interact with

the government (e.g. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), from where to interact with the

government (e.g. service centre, unattended kiosk or from one’s home/workplace) and

how to interact with the government (e.g. through internet, fax, telephone, email, face-to-

face, etc). The primary purpose is to make government, citizen-friendly.

G2B (Government to Business)

Here, e-Governance tools are used to aid the business community – providers of goods

and services – to seamlessly interact with the government. The objective is to cut red

tape, save time, reduce operational costs and to create a more transparent business

environment when dealing with the government. The G2Binitiatives can be transactional,

such as in licensing, permits, procurement and revenue collection. They can also be

promotional and facilitative, such as in trade, tourism and investment. These measures

help to provide a congenial environment to businesses to enable them to perform more

efficiently.

G2E (Government to Employees)

Government is by far the biggest employer and like any organization, it has to

interact with its employees on a regular basis. This interaction is a two-way

process between the organization and the employee. Use of ICT tools helps in

making these interactions fast and efficient on the one hand and increase satisfaction

levels of employees on the other.

ACCESSING THE B2G CHANNEL

To become a PPSR Account Customer with access to the B2G Channel, you must complete the

following steps. Please note that you are not required to create new accounts in Discovery and

Production. You may continue to use existing accounts.

1. Apply for your IP address to be whitelisted for the Discovery environment.

2. Once whitelisted, create an account in the Discovery environment

3. Provide your Discovery account details to the National Service Centre (NSC) for B2G

configuration.

4. Build your B2G interface to PPSR.

5. Test your B2G interface to PPSR in the Discovery environment.

6. Create an account in the Production environment .

7. Apply for B2G access for your account in the PPSR Production environment.

These steps are discussed in detail below.

1. Apply for Discovery access

To apply for Discovery access, email enquiries@ppsr.gov.au and request the PPSR Discovery

Environment Access Request form. When completing the PPSR Discovery Environment Access

Request form, make sure you tick the 'Access via B2G' box.

You must provide the external IP address that you will be using to test your B2G interface from.

Please ensure that you list all external IP addresses for all computers that will use the Discovery

environment. (All computers on the same network should have the same external IP address.)

We need these IP addresses so that we can whitelist you through the Discovery firewalls.

To assist us in maintaining a secure environment, we ask that you limit the total number of IP

addresses in your application to as few as possible. If the IP range(s) in your application appear(s)

to be too large, speak to your network administrator. They will be able to determine which IP

addresses within the range(s) are essential, allowing you to remove the entries that will not be

accessing PPSR.

Configure your spam filter

The PPSR sends a number of notifications via email. To ensure that you receive all PPSR

notifications, whitelist the email address below. The volume of notifications from this email

address can trigger your spam filter.

• notifications@ppsr.gov.au

2. Create an account in the Discovery environment

Once your IP address has been whitelisted, you will be able to create an account in the Discovery

environment. The link below takes you to the Discovery environment to create your account. If

the link does not work for you, your IP address has not yet been whitelisted (step 1 has not

completed).

• Create a Discovery account

When creating your account, answer the following questions as below.

• Step 1 of 5 - Would you like to create a single user or multi user account? Multi

• Step 3 of 5 - Account payment type: Pre-pay

Only Pre-pay and credit accounts can transact over the B2G channel.

In Discovery, select a Pre-Pay account payment type, even if you intend to transact in Production

as a credit account customer.

You will not be able to test paid transactions via B2G without first pre-paying funds to the

account, using a test credit card. Email the NSC for provision of the test credit card numbers at

enquiries@ppsr.gov.au.

Keep your Discovery and Production account details separate

Make sure that you keep all your Discovery and Production data separate. This includes:

• account details

• user details

• registration numbers

• registration tokens

• secured party group numbers

• Secured party group access codes.

Make sure you set this up at the beginning. These details are not transferrable between the two

environments. They only work in the environment they were created in.

3. Apply for B2G access to the Discovery environment

When you have set up your account, update the PPSR Discovery Environment Access Request

form with the details of your PPSR account. Email the form to enquiries@ppsr.gov.au.

AFSA will configure your B2G access to Discovery by configuring firewall rules to allow access

from the nominated IP address range, assigning B2G roles to your account within Discovery and

notifying you of your account customer location user ID and password details.

Once access is completed, your Discovery account will be configured to allow access to the B2G

channel. You will now have access to both the Web and B2G channels. There is no need for

separate accounts for access to each channel.

Connecting to Discovery for the first time

WS-Security is used for authentication of B2G customers. You must provide your B2G account

customer location username and password in the SOAP header of your B2G messages. The

username and password are assigned by the PPSR, and will be provided to you when your

account is configured for B2G access. You must change your password using the Change B2G

password operation of the Register Operations web service before calling any other operations.

Provide the username and password as a Username Token in a WS-Security SOAP header. For

examples, please refer to the B2G Interface Specification Document.

4. Build your B2G interface to PPSR

To interact with the PPSR via the B2G channel, you must develop your own client interface,

using the PPSR B2G Interface Specification.

The PPSR B2G channel uses the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Both SOAP 1.1 and

SOAP 1.2 are supported.

Services that involve sending or receiving files can use SOAP Message Transmission

Optimization Mechanism (MTOM).

The SOAP HTTP Binding is used. SSL is used to provide transport layer encryption of messages.

Note that client certificates are not used for authentication.

SOAP provides for XML-based exchange of structured information between systems. PPSR uses

SOAP to provide request/response message exchanges between PPSR and client systems. For

more information on SOAP, refer to the W3C SOAP online manual.

Web Service Description Language (WSDL) is used to define the web service contracts and can

be used by many development tools to generate code for connecting to and invoking the web

services.

All messages sent to and received from the PPSR need to comply with the WSDL.

Read the full B2G specification

Everything that you need to know on how to interact with PPSR is included in the PPSR B2G

Interface Specification. Before you start building your systems we recommend that you read the

document in its entirety. Particular areas you will want to implement correctly are:

• namespaces

• endpoints

• fault codes

• date and time considerations

• Change B2G password.

5. Test your B2G interface to PPSR

To test your B2G interface with PPSR, you must apply for access to the Discovery environment,

as outlined in step 1 above.

Within Discovery, you must set up an account and have it configured for B2G access, as outlined

in step 2 above.

Continue to develop your interface to the PPSR and test it against the services provided in the

Discovery environment. You can use the web interface in the Discovery environment to set up

test data and to verify functionality.

The Discovery environment contains test data. When using Discovery, you need to be aware of

the following differences from the Production environment:

• Though Discovery is available 24 hours per day, there are no high availability features,

and the environment may be unavailable for maintenance without notice. Weekly

maintenance is currently scheduled every Thursday 10pm to 1am Friday (Canberra time).

Best endeavors are used to notify customers of any unplanned outages.

• All data is test data only. Do not use real data. Any test data entered in the system is

available and visible to all users of the system (there is a single shared database between

all customers, not a database for each customer).

• The Discovery environment database does not have production capacity. The Discovery

environment cannot support high volume load testing. You are requested to mock out the

Register interfaces if load testing your own system.

No test cases will be supplied by AFSA and there is no requirement to provide any results of B2G

testing to AFSA.

Once you have tested all your B2G operations successfully in Discovery, you can apply for

access to the Production environment.

Connection checks

You will not be able to transact in either Discovery or Production via B2G unless you have:

• your Account Payment option set to either Pre-Pay or Credit

• reset your initial password via your B2G interface

• Funds available to make transactions.

6. Create an account in the Production environment

You need to create an account in the Production environment, in the same way as you did in the

Discovery environment in step 2 above.

• Create a Production account

When creating your account, answer the following questions as below.

• Step 1 of 5 - Would you like to create a single user or multi user account? Multi

• Step 3 of 5 - Account payment type: Pre-pay

Only Pre-pay and credit accounts can transact over the B2G channel.

If you wish to transact as a credit account, you must apply to AFSA for credit. When your credit

application is approved, AFSA will change your account payment type to Credit.

• Credit application form

If you are transacting as a Pre-pay account, you must pre-pay money into your account before

you can do any paid transactions over the B2G channel.

7. Apply for B2G access to the PPSR Production environment

When you have set up your account, fill in the B2G Account application form, with the details of

your PPSR account and your IP addresses to be used by your B2G connection.

• Production B2G Account Application Form

AFSA will configure your B2G access to Production by configuring firewall rules to allow access

from the nominated IP address range, assigning B2G roles to your account within Production and

notifying you of your account customer location user ID, and password details.

Once access is completed, your Production account will be configured to allow access to the B2G

channel. You will now have access to both the Web and B2G channels. There is no need for

separate accounts for access to each channel.

To assist us in maintaining a secure environment, we ask that you limit the total number of IP

addresses in your application to as few as possible. If the IP range(s) in your application appear(s)

to be too large, speak to your network administrator. They will be able to determine which IP

addresses within the range(s) are essential, allowing you to remove the entries that will not be

accessing PPSR.

Connecting to Production for the first time

Make sure that you are calling the ‘production’ namespace when you first connect to the

Production B2G. Make sure that you are not still connecting to the ‘discovery’ environment

namespace.

You will have to change your B2G account customer location password before calling any other

operations.

Connection checks

You will not be able to transact in either Discovery or Production via B2G unless you have:

• your Account Payment option set to either Pre-Pay or Credit

• reset your initial password via your B2G interface

CHALLENGES AND ISSUES

The Australian government’s greatest challenge is to successfully gain whole-of-government

support and consistency of interpretation.

Despite the presence of peak forums for inter-jurisdictional exchange and consensus within

COAG and its OCC; the somewhat anachronistic National Government Information Sharing

Strategy NGISS – indicates that there is still a major obstacle to innovative government reform

across the entire spectrum of Australian Government.

That said – Australian culture embraces a high level of inter-state rivalry on many fronts – sport,

tourism, socio-economic development, etc., which if it could be harnessed as a force for

government reform could propel Australia into the forefront of the e-Government Gov. 2.0

initiative world-wide.

Additionally, reforms to Federal Government funding for States and Territories has rationalized

the number of Specific Purpose Payments to the States from over 90 to five with specific themes

that address national objectives and providing an additional $7.1 billion over five years:

• $60.5 billion in a National Healthcare SPP;

• $18 billion in a National Schools SPP;

• $6.7 billion in a National Skills and Workforce Development SPP;

• $5.3 billion in a National Disability Services SPP; and

• $6.2 billion in a National Affordable Housing SPP.

This may well provide the added incentive for States to be more proactive and forward thinking

in meeting whole-of-government objectives and may provide the federal government with the

necessary funding carrot for its e-service strategies.

Further, each SPP is associated with a National Agreement that contains the objectives,

outcomes, outputs and performance indicators, and clarifies the roles and responsibilities that will

guide the Commonwealth and States in the delivery of services across the relevant sectors.

COAG agreed to six new National Agreements – National Healthcare Agreement, National

Education Agreement, National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development, National

Disability Agreement, National Affordable Housing Agreement, and the National Indigenous

Reform Agreement.

Like the UK, the Australian government has also committed to providing universal access to all

of Australia with high speed broadband access of 100 Mbs to 90% and the remainder to at least

10 Mbs - a fundamental tenet for successful e-Government service adoption and take-up.

The size of the country makes this a huge task – estimated to take 8 years and naturally crosses

multiple jurisdictions. In 2009 the Australian government established the National Broadband

Network Company NBN with a 51% stake by government and the remainder by the private sector

and went out to tender for the first tranche ($4.7 billion of a $43 billion) of an 8 year roll-out of a

national FTTH network.

However, the tender was abandoned in April on the basis of unacceptable bids amongst cries of

‘foul play’ – leading to a full audit of the tender process by the Australian National Audit Office

ANAO. Findings Analysis

One of Australia’s key strength is the high level of innovative spatial development undertaken by

the government (both State and Federal) since the 70’s. In addition, Australia has a long history

of taking-up new technologies in the public, private and third sectors.

Its approach to Gov 2.0 sets it apart from most countries, including to some extent the UK, in that

it is heavily empirical, e.g. mash up Australia www.mashupaustralia.org/ and www.govhack.org/,

although it is supported by CSIRO. The competitions showed the potential for entirely new e-

Government services provided by the government or independent of government.

Australia benefits (from an infrastructure development perspective) from a high level of

urbanization (though its cities cover very large geographical areas), however, the enormous

physical size of Australia (and desert interior) still makes achieving universal access to high-

speed broadband a major hurdle to overcome as does the fragmented and highly competitive

telecom sector in Australia (still largely dominated by the Telstra owned infrastructure).

The intention is for NBN to develop and own the initial infrastructure (independent of Telstra,

who are already seen as have a monopoly in the last mile copper connections) and for the

government to sell off its stake in 5 years.

Difficulties with the tendering process (see previous section) and the fact that the ANAO is not

due to report until mid-2010 could delay moving forward on this important program.

However, in the meantime Tasmania (home to the TIGER e-Government trials) has moved ahead

with the commissioning of its NBN network through NBN Tasmania – a subsidiary of NBN Pty

Limited. The cooperation of the States and Territories is important to establishing a new truly

national high speed network and it is perhaps surprising that the SPP funding mechanism wasn’t

used to help lubricate jurisdictional compliance.

The clear opportunity for Australia is to create a whole-of-government approach to e-Government

and implement it – however, the States have always exercised their autonomy over infrastructure

and socio-economic development since the inauguration of the Commonwealth of States (6) in

1901. Although trend is not destiny – it remains to be seen whether cooperation will be higher in

terms of whole-of-government e-Government initiatives.

Despite this, Australia’s population is growing through high levels of immigration – each State is

in itself a major regional socio-economic entity, which may justify an independent interpretation

of the future of e-government in each State and emphasize the need for a more pragmatic

approach to cross border transfer of information – similar to the EU.

gov 2.0 is being enthusiastically pursued by left of centre governments around the world, e.g.

Rudd (Australia), Brown (UK) and Obama (US) as part of their e-Government agendas and the

radical reform of government along more socially inclusive lines – a change of administration in

any of these countries (not least in Australia) could threaten further expansion of this aspect of

government reform.

PAYMENT METHODS

Connection checks

You will not be able to transact in either Discovery or Production via B2G unless you have:

• your Account Payment option set to either Pre-Pay or Credit

• reset your initial password via your B2G interface

• Funds available to make transactions.

Create an account in the Production environment

You need to create an account in the Production environment, in the same way as you did in the

Discovery environment in step 2 above.

• Create a Production account

When creating your account, answer the following questions as below.

• Step 1 of 5 - Would you like to create a single user or multi user account? Multi

• Step 3 of 5 - Account payment type: Pre-pay

Only Pre-pay and credit accounts can transact over the B2G channel.

If you wish to transact as a credit account, you must apply to AFSA for credit. When your credit

application is approved, AFSA will change your account payment type to Credit.

• Credit application form

If you are transacting as a Pre-pay account, you must pre-pay money into your account before

you can do any paid transactions over the B2G channel.

E-BUSINESS MODEL

Australia’s E-Business Core Model is being modeled Ocean E-Governance.

• The Internet has enabled Australian federal government provide the same quality of public

services to Australia in rural areas as for those living in bigger Australian

• As part of e-government, following milestones were government:

– To have all federal government services available online b

– To establish a Government Information Centre as a main access to information about

government services;

– To establish a government-wide Intranet for secure online communication; and

– To establish electronic payments as the normal means for payments by 2000.

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

The term 'suppliers' comprises all sources for inputs that are needed in order to provide goods or

services.

Supplier bargaining power is likely to be high when:

· The market is dominated by a few large suppliers rather than a fragmented source of supply,

· There are no substitutes for the particular input,

· The supplier’s customers are fragmented, so their bargaining power is low,

· The switching costs from one supplier to another are high,

· There is the possibility of the supplier integrating forwards in order to obtain higher prices

and margins. This threat is especially high when

· The buying industry has a higher profitability than the supplying industry,

· Forward integration provides economies of scale for the supplier,

· The buying industry hinders the supplying industry in their development (e.g. reluctance to

accept new releases of products),

· The buying industry has low barriers to entry.

In such situations, the buying industry often faces a high pressure on margins from their

suppliers. The relationship to powerful suppliers can potentially reduce strategic options for the

organization.

Bargaining Power of Customer

Similarly, the bargaining power of customers determines how much customers can impose

pressure on margins and volumes.

Customers bargaining power is likely to be high when

· They buy large volumes, there is a concentration of buyers,

· The supplying industry comprises a large number of small operators

· The supplying industry operates with high fixed costs,

· The product is undifferentiated and can be replaces by substitutes,

· Switching to an alternative product is relatively simple and is not related to high costs,

· Customers have low margins and are price-sensitive,

· Customers could produce the product themselves,

· The product is not of strategically importance for the customer,

· The customer knows about the production costs of the product

· There is the possibility for the customer integrating backwards.

Threat of New Entrants

The competition in an industry will be the higher, the easier it is for other companies to enter this

industry. In such a situation, new entrants could change major determinants of the market

environment (e.g. market shares, prices, customer loyalty) at any time. There is always a latent

pressure for reaction and adjustment for existing players in this industry.

The threat of new entries will depend on the extent to which there are barriers to entry. These are

typically

· Economies of scale (minimum size requirements for profitable operations),

· High initial investments and fixed costs,

· Cost advantages of existing players due to experience curve effects of operation with fully

depreciated assets,

· Brand loyalty of customers

· Protected intellectual property like patents, licenses etc,

· Scarcity of important resources, e.g. qualified expert staff

· Access to raw materials is controlled by existing players,

· Distribution channels are controlled by existing players,

· Existing players have close customer relations, e.g. from long-term service contracts,

· High switching costs for customers

· Legislation and government action

Threat of Substitutes

A threat from substitutes exists if there are alternative products with lower prices of better

performance parameters for the same purpose. They could potentially attract a significant

proportion of market volume and hence reduce the potential sales volume for existing players.

This category also relates to complementary products.

Similarly to the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes is determined by factors like

· Brand loyalty of customers,

· Close customer relationships,

· Switching costs for customers,

· The relative price for performance of substitutes,

· Current trends.

Competitive Rivalry between Existing Players

This force describes the intensity of competition between existing players (companies) in

an industry. High competitive pressure results in pressure on prices, margins, and hence,

on profitability for every single company in the industry.

Competition between existing players is likely to be high when

· There are many players of about the same size,

· Players have similar strategies

· There is not much differentiation between players and their products, hence, there is much

price competition

· Low market growth rates (growth of a particular company is possible only at the expense of

a competitor),

· Barriers for exit are high (e.g. expensive and highly specialized equipment).

CONCLUSION

Australia is clearly an e-government leader when measured against global benchmarks, although

the rate of increase is slowing as more complex e-government activities and problems are

addressed. With Australia's federated structure of government, vertical integration of electronic

government remains one of the key challenges if seamless government is to be achieved. The

goal of increased citizen interaction with government may also conflict with the provision of the

most efficient online services, and digital divide issues will continue to be an issue in a large

country with a small population.