Catalogue and typology of documents in e-business in public administration

Transcription

1 Catalogue and typology of documents in e-business in public administration Maruška Damjan, MSc. Ministry of Information Society Working hypothesis Accelerated informatisation is one of the most important conditions for transition towards information society, according to experience attained in developed countries (Vlada RS, SEP, 2001). Informatisation as a process encourages all aspects of e-business. The role of the state within this context can be seen as the state being the greatest promoter of new means of doing business along with its efforts in setting-up legal and infrastructural bases for e-business. On its way towards information society, the Republic of Slovenia (RS) shall give the biggest emphasis to introduction of e-business to public administration. The Strategy of E-Commerce in Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for the Period from 2001 until 2004 (hereinafter: the Strategy) is the basic document that defines the key strategic elements of public administrations informatisation. The global objective of public administrations informatisation, described in this document, is the support to common functions of public administration at its key work fields based on e-business principles. This includes unitary equipment of work places, interconnection of administrative registers, introduction of applications for common functions of public administration, adequate support, education and empowerment of all participating in e-business processes. While reaching this objective one must bear in mind that public administrations procedures include communication within public administration itself, as well as with businesses and citizens. Paper documents are the traditional means of such communication, whereas modern information, business and administrative systems share a common characteristic of surpassing the boundaries of an organization and being able to communicate in a much broader level of entities, states, economies, citizens, Europe and the world as a whole. One of the consequences is that classic paper way of doing business is being replaced with electronic means. When introducing such means, it is necessary to assure undisturbed performance of business processes at all levels, thus gradual introduction and interoperablitiy of solutions should be foreseen.

2 RS is at present facing a public administration reform in light of needs for its rationalisation and EU enlargement. Reengineering of public administration processes should be accompanied by appropriate information solutions. Since the rules of doing business are being changed rather often, the so-called electronic spheres strive for as open, accessible, transparent and global operation as possible. Strategic directions and implementation of standardized solutions - both technological and organizational enable such performance. Silič in his research (Silič, 2000) ascertains that public administration, businesses, citizens and last but not least the EU have its own standards, needs and possibilities, while on the other hand the information and communication branch has its own interests. Several strategic documents that are not aligned in their objectives or institutional positioning are being written in different places. Among the objectives, whose implementation should ensure that global goals of informatisation of public administration are achieved, the Strategy quotes the following objectives: Setting up of an institution in charge of implementation of the above mentioned strategy and control over descending projects; Mapping of all procedures within public administration and preparation of studies for informatisation and automatisation thus ensuring unified conduct; Interconnection of all existing and future information systems, administrative registers and other databases of public administration, on basis of internal needs, unity and friendliness of public administration to the outside world; Determining standards, procedures and systems of archiving paper and electronic documents that will provide the optimal ratio between durability, security and speed of access to these documents. The above mentioned objectives have been set up very ambitiously, as world experience in introduction of information technologies show that a great deal of cooperation is needed in order to design solutions that will have wider social recognition and usability. The more agreed upon the solution, the higher its usability and ease of its implementation. It is the aim of this research - among others to find out to which extent can we build upon experience gathered in introduction of standards for international trade and how to - in doing so - rely to existing worldwide standards. Years of experience of ways how to exploit information technologies in simplifying international trade show that it is necessary to go through three stages when introducing electronic business (Kubler, 1999):

3 Analysis of needs for procedure formalisation aimed at supervision of pressing formalities; Simplification of formalities which cannot be dismissed; Introduction of modern methods at already simplified remainder of the procedures. Bearing that in mind, the most appropriate and logical approach towards facilitation of international trade would be in analysing all procedural and informational requirements for conducting trade and on basis of such analysis negotiation and reaching an agreement on international standards for the addressed needs. Undoubtedly, a task of such complexity would result in but few usable solutions for the international trading community in short term. It would be thus more viable to restrict oneself to a limited area of international trade. When discussing international trade facilitation, the simplification and standardization of documents play a vital role; therefore the development of world standards started in this exact area. World endeavours in trade facilitation are continuing in view of negotiation and design of standard business process models and interchange of standard (electronic and paper) documents. Since the majority of business processes in public administration rely on documents (both structured and unstructured) that are exchanged within regular office business (post, fax, , courier mail ) among institutions of public administration, my working hypothesis embedding the aim of this research and basic principles of the area in question, consists of: When introducing electronic business in public administration it is sensible to incorporate UN/CEFACT recommendations; Structured and unstructured documents, as well as holders of processes in public administration, can be sorted according to document types that are defined in the document type catalogue; The standardisation of documents and introduction of document type catalogue enables gradual introduction of electronic business in public administration, openness of information solutions and assurance of outward interoperability of public administration. In accordance with UN/CEFACT recommendation no. 4, it is feasible to constitute a national co-ordinating body for electronic business simplification, which among other things ensures the interconnection between public administration and the outside world. Designs of effective tools for introduction of electronic business and a safe transition to information society are thus enabled.

4 Aims and purpose of the research Among more important previous work on this subject I would like to mention and build upon the master's thesis of Tatjana Mizori-Zupan (Mizori-Zupan, 2000) and Marin Silič (Silič, 2000). Zupan gives a systematic overview of the e-government project from information and legal point of view, whereas Silič appropriately places it in a model of public administration informatisation. The common finding of both researchers is that world standards have to be considered when introducing electronic business, this is why in my master s thesis I tried to find out how to incorporate many years of work experience and UN/CEFACT deliverables into the process of introducing electronic business to public administration in the RS. It is the aim of this research to determine how world achievements in international trade electronic business can be considered in reaching the strategic goals of reforming Slovene public administration. The aim of the master s thesis is thus: To systematically present the UN/CEFACT recommendations and hitherto achievements of world standardisation in the field of electronic business; To show the possibilities offered by standardized documents and introduction of a document type catalogue, based on a model of statistical reporting to the government; To propose a framework for design of solutions for electronic business in RS public administration. The ultimate aim of the master s thesis is to systematically present the UN/CEFACT recommendations and the development of standardisation in the field of electronic business and confirmation of raised hypothesis. Argumentation of the research and foreseen contribution to scientific development The strategic goals of informatisation of public administration shall be attained through projects, activities and tasks of informatisation. The so-called common functions of public administration shall be given the highest priority. Given the high priority of all projects on relation RS public administration European Commission, the e-government Action Plan ranks among most prioritised projects. Within the programme for its implementation, a number of deliverables came to light within Lotus Notes work environment that ensure support to electronic means of conducting business of public administration organisation (The Parliament of the RS, the ministries, The Government of the RS, Office for Legislation).

5 The Government of the RS adopted on its 116th Session in July 1999 a number of decisions, whose implementation should ensure a gradual transition towards electronic business of the government. The decision was accepted among others - that the ministries and government offices have to assure appropriate information technology and means for implementation for the project of introducing informatics support to work processes of the Government of the RS and its legislative procedure. The transition towards production phase of the deliverables was to run in consistence with time plans of specific projects. Disregarding the fact that in the mentioned programmes of e-government it goes solely for communication between public administration bodies, a certain array of problems arise that are mainly the consequence of inherited technological and organisational standards. It is in my view possible that this could have been avoided had open solutions been prepared, based on interchange of standardised documents, and had such solutions been sought on relationships between public administration and the economy, as well as between public administration and individuals. By no means will these trends be avoidable in the relationship of RS public administration European Commission, where the use of European and world standards has become obligatory (e.g. statistics, customs ). With this research I tried to substantiate that introduction of a central document type catalogue and process holders of data interchange between citizens and administration, businesses and administration, as well as between administration itself, ensure a technology independent development of interoperable e-government solutions and gradual introduction of electronic business. Method of work The first step of the research consisted of analytical and theoretical overview of existing national and foreign literature from the fields in question: the development of electronic business standards and informatisation of public administration. UN/CEFACT recommendations are specially presented as they represent the foundation of the whole research. World, European and Slovene standards are meticulously looked upon, as well as the degree of standardisation calling upon UN/CEFACT recommendations on selected case studies of e-government projects. On these grounds, the field of research was described in greater detail and work hypothesis have been finalized. By methods of abstraction and analysis, the hypothesis has been verified on a model of statistical reporting of business to government, based on interchange of standard messages and document types. As a

6 result, a model for design of electronic business solutions is being recommended for use in public administration of RS. Recommended solution The European Interoperability Framework is based upon a presumption that each country has already established its national interoperability framework for e- government solutions. I propose that such approach be used also in the Republic of Slovenia. I propose that a catalogue of types of electronic messages is established in form of a catalogue of agreed upon XML schema. The catalogue is to be set according to ebxml standard, namely the ebrim registry model, in which XML schemas are the objects and metadata are presented according to the ISO standard. Conclusion Although not all problems have been solved, the technical aspect is not the key issue of system interoperability. Most existing solutions and networks thanks to wide use of basic international standards such as XML, IP and others already enable data interchange. Despite that or because of that the issue of content interoperability bears more importance than it ever has. Due to relative simplicity and remarkable speed of transmitting information, the lack of common understanding and interpretation of interchanged content is even more obvious. Content interoperability besides common understanding requires unified structure of interchanged content and structures that can be copied. This is the only way that systems can meaningfully interpret the received information and connect it with other information resources. The need for unification of procedures and documents was realized already in the 60-ies of the previous century by the most developed trading countries, whereas the development of electronic data interchange only gave further impetus to calls for standardisation. Within the framework of UN/EDIFACT standard, one of the most amazing achievements in trade simplification and efficiency of its procedures, many of experts form different fields spent years debating, which are the exact content types of a certain business transaction. Standard messages of the United Nations Standard Message types Organization (UNSMs) are basically models of these welldefined business transactions and are available to all web users through ebxml repositories, along with all underlying building blocks, as a tool for support to their business processes. The greatest achievements of the UN/EDIFACT standards are its modularity, transparency, openness, universality and language independence.

7 Slovenia has overtaken most acceding countries in development of solutions supporting the e-government services and is in some fields comparable to some old EU Member States. However, the fact remains that most of the solutions are of closed type and they were not built according to EC recommendations. Slovenia has become a part of EU and our e-government solutions will have to incorporate the pan-european dimension and European Interoperability Framework (EIF) requirements, and do so very quickly. The development of a national framework for interoperability of e-government solutions is essential; whereas the introduction of international standards on this occasion and paradigm shift in e-government delivery is an opportunity we should not miss. XML is undoubtedly a powerful tool as powerful that already in 2000 there were more than 500 different XML schema»standards«, depending on the purpose of such schema. The standards are not competitive and the ratios are determined by market that demands a global standard as the evident way of development. Alphner estimated already in 2000 (Alphner, 2000) that ebxml would take the leading role as the combination of business processes an business information. As it appears he was right. A partial change in the pattern of e-government development and introduction of international standards in short-term surely does not represent an easy solution, yet it is feasible and brings a number of advantages and savings in the long run. Clear political support, central guidance, clear mandate and above all secure financial and personal resources are crucial to implement this project. The SEP2004 and some of its chapters represent a solid basis for national framework for e-government interoperability in the Republic of Slovenia (Damjan, 2004). It would be necessary that on fields, already having a defined standard (technical and partially organizational) framework, some out-of-date data is refreshed, harmonized with real state of play and published according to IDA recommendations. On the other hand, the design of elements for semantic interoperability requests that the principles for their definition are designed and regularly published. One of the main goals of the E-CoRE project was to define the principles of design of such standards. The results of the project have indicated, that setting up of the e- NOMO and greater transparency in development of e-government solutions is necessary from the business' point of view, above all from the point of view of SMEs. The recommendations, arising from the project, are consistent with European and international guidelines in this area and they are consistent with UN/CEFACT recommendations, showing that all principles that were enforced in electronic business within the private sector, can be applicable for the public sector as well.

8 Literature [1] Alphner D., CEFACT and ebxml: The Future of International e-commerce?, ebizq.net, 2000, [2] Damjan M., Rajkovič V., Strategija SEP2004 kot osnova za nacionalni okvir za medsebojno obratovalnost rešitev e-uprave v Republiki Sloveniji, Organizacija, Letnik 37, št. 3, Založba Moderna organizacija, marec 2004, ISSN [3] Kunzler U., Standardisation of statistical data collection and exchange the current transition from EDIFACT to XML, Zbornik 12. statističnih dni, Radenci, 2002) [4] Kubler J., UN/ECE ebxml requirements team : Electronic commerce on the Web Background information: From paper to EDI to electronic forms using XML2?, Geneva, December 1999 [5] Mizori-Zupan T. : Informacijska podpora pripravi, upravljanju in elektronski izmenjavi gradiv v zakonodajnem postopku, Magistrsko delo, Univerza v Ljubljani, EF, maj 2000 [6] Raman D., XML/EDI, Cyber Assisted Business in practice, TIE Holding, 1999, ISBN [7] Silič Marin, Elementi strategije informatizacije za elektronsko poslovanje javne uprave RS, Magistrsko delo, Univerza v Mariboru, FOV Kranj, 2000 [8] Zrnec A., FRI, Ogrodje za elektronsko poslovanje ebxml, Other sources [9] Akcijski načrt e-uprave do leta 2004, ver. 1.1, CVI, Ljubljana, oktober 2002 [10] Akcijski načrt e-uprave do leta 2004, ver. 1.2, CVI, Ljubljana, april 2003 [11] Akcijski načrt e-uprave do leta 2004, ver. 1.3, CVI, Ljubljana, november 2003 [12] ECE/TRADE/254; Simplification.com, Electronic business and the simplification of administration, Geneva, May 2000 [13] ECE/TRADE/256; Creating an Afficient Environment for Trade and Transport, Guidelines to Recommendation No. 4 National Trade facilitation Bodies, Geneva, May 2000 [14] E-CoRE project documentation, MID in SURS, Ljubljana, 2004 [15] eeurope+ Action Plan, June 2001 [16] eeurope+, Draft Progress Report, version 2, February 2004 [17] eeurope 2005: An information society for all, COM (2002) 263, Brussels, maj 2002 [18] GovTalk, e-government Interoperability Framework, ver. 5.0, April [19] IDA, European Interoperability Framework for Pan-European e-governmen Services, working document, version 3.2, November 2003 [20] IDA, European Interoperability Framework for Pan-European e-governmen Services, working document, version 4.2, January 2004

9 [21] IDA, Generic tool for management of public administration-related metadata, Functional Requirements Specification, MIREG-ICOPER, European Commission, DG Enterprise, January 2002 [22] OASIS, OASIS/ebXML Registry Information Model v2.0, April [23] OASIS, OASIS/ebXML Registry Services Specification v2.0, April [24] OASIS, UDDI as the registry for ebxml Components, OASIS Open htm [25] TRADE/CEFACT/2001/7/Rev.1, Realisation of the UN/CEFACT Vision from an E-Busness Standards Strategy, Geneva, July 2001 [26] TRADE/CEFACT/2002/32/Rev.2, Revised proposal for a UNECE Trade Facilitation Recommendation on Providing Guidance to implementors of Electronic Business, Geneva, February 2003 [27] UN/CEFACT Recommendations: [28] UN/CEFACT Secretariat, Compendium of Trade Racilitation Recommendations, Geneva, 2001 [29] Vlada RS, Strategija Republika Slovenija v informacijski družbi, Ministrstvo za informacijsko družbo, februar 2003 [30] Vlada RS, Center Vlade Republike Slovenije za informatiko: Strategija e-poslovanja v javni upravi RS za obdobje od leta 2001 do leta 2004, Ljubljana, februar 2001 [31] Vlada RS, Strategija uvajanja elektronskega poslovanja v lokalne skupnosti (krajše: E-občine), Ministrstvo za informacijsko družbo, februar 2003