Inland Revenue: e-business Strategy : Guidance 02 The Context Government Aims The Revenue's e-strategy takes as its starting point key elements of the Government's reform agenda. From the business perspective, the latest e-envoy report (ecommerce@its.best.uk September 2000 Annual Report) confirms that government departments will be exemplars in making the UK the natural place to do e-business. Our focus is to devise ways in which, by exploiting to the full technological opportunities, we can derive ways of working with business to minimise their compliance burdens and to reduce their costs in consequence. We will be seeking to achieve simpler processes administered with a lighter touch. For individual citizens we will encourage as many of our customers as possible to receive information and do business with us electronically, either directly or with the assistance of intermediaries thereby playing an important part in helping to close the "digital divide". We will do so by "making sure that public service users, not providers, are the focus, by matching services more closely to peoples lives" (Modernising Government White Paper March 1999). This will involve both our working with others to seek ways of delivering seamless services across departmental boundaries and increasingly focusing our staff to work on customer support rather than processing. It will also require us to engage more with other organisations such as the Post Office, CAB and others in the public and private sectors to provide alternative ways to do business with us. Departmental Strategy In January 2000, the Revenue Board adopted a goal of changing people's perception of the Department so that we are seen as enabling as well as regulating. Strategies for achieving that goal were outlined in the Department's internal Business Direction. Taken together, they require a profound re-orientation of the Department's culture, services, people, organisation and capabilities towards enabling customers to succeed, rather than just blaming them for failure. The e-strategy is one of the key component strategies in achieving this transformation. Work is well advanced on a medium-term (3-year) strategy developed to show how the totality of work planned over the next three to four years links into the long-term direction and to ensure that more detailed or shorter-term plans collectively support the Department's priorities. The Vision What then will the Inland Revenue look like to our customers by 2005? What, in other words, do we mean when we say that the Revenue will have become an e-business? Customer Perspective Customers will be able to choose from a variety of ways of doing business with us.
They will be able to deal with us wholly electronically via digital TV, mobile phones, PCs and whatever technological innovations occur to enable "self-service" on interactive and secure websites. The full range of services will be on offer electronically to include, for example, information provision such as what records need to be kept on becoming self-employed; secure e-mail; electronic filing of returns and electronic payment and refund facilities. There will be a variety of electronic entry routes. Some will choose to enter via the Revenue's website or a government-wide portal such as envisaged in the UK Online project. Others will enter via links on commercial portals. The software products they then use will increasingly have been provided by third-party vendors (this is already happening - the self-assessment internet filing service has direct links to 9 commercial products). Customers will increasingly, where they have chosen to do so, have dealt with us via intermediaries such as accountants, the Post Office, CAB and other commercial and voluntary organisations. We will have provided help to those organisations to ensure that most of such contact will be electronic. Customers will be encouraged to use electronic channels as their chosen method of doing business with us. The main incentive for them to do so will be a faster, more accurate service, but where appropriate, some wholly manual or paper alternative services will have been withdrawn. New services, or changes to existing services will have been designed with a view to making electronic channels the preferred delivery vehicle. And as we recognise that one size doesn't fit all, and design our services accordingly, we will also identify customer groups (such as large companies) with whom we will seek to deal wholly electronically. As we will also be exemplars of the electronic approach, for other customers electronic interaction with us will be a first step on the road to full electronic capability or to crossing the digital divide. Customers will also find a variety of ways in which they find "joined-up" services spanning a number of government services which today are predominantly only available through making separate contact with different government departments. This will apply to electronic services where web technology will have been exploited to enable the customer to move seamlessly between different departmental systems, even though in this timeframe back-end legacy systems are likely to still be operating independently. But the technology will have masked the complexity from the customer. This will have in turn demanded our introducing simpler processes. Customers will also find that telephone support will have spanned departmental boundaries, and, although Revenue-specific enquiry centres will still exist there will also be facilities - in public, voluntary and private sector organisations - for face-to-face contact. We will seek to maximise the technology support in those organisations. Staff Perspective
To achieve all this will have required big changes in our business processes with the major shift for many of our staff from processing to direct support. The move into e-business will open up some opportunities for our staff. New working patterns will be available - for many these will enhance their ability to manage their own work-life balance better at different stages of their careers. New skills will be needed and we will be giving our people the opportunity to acquire them. And we want these skills to be portable and marketable so that our people can take the opportunity to experience interchange with other organisations in the public and private sectors and to have greater personal opportunities over the span of their working lives. For some, the virtual office will become a reality - working from home or from an office near home rather than having to travel to wherever work has traditionally been located. The move into e-business will also be challenging for staff who will need to face up to change and be flexible and willing to acquire new skills and work in new ways. We will seek to provide the support and development they need to do this. Training will increasingly be delivered electronically so that our people can learn at their own pace and at their own time. Online learning will be a major feature - work in groups or in the classroom will support this rather than vice versa as now. Learning packages will be accessible to people in their homes on laptops and on their own PCs, or through digital video or TV. The learning systems themselves will be more interactive, with screens supported by real-time access to subject experts, and online help available from video conferencing, as well as offering personal evaluation of progress and integral real-time diagnosis of the learner's strengths and weaknesses. Learners will be linked to people with knowledge. Mobilising the knowledge held tacitly in the Revenue will be a key theme and we will use advancing technology to help us do this. At the same time, the desktop PC linked to the internet will enlarge our people's working environment - linking them to other government departments, to customers, and to new sources of knowledge about tax, business and best practice in many areas Because our customers will want to contact us at evenings and weekends there will be some opportunities for people to choose to move to new patterns of working. The traditional concept of full-time and part-time working will become much less important as people will have more scope to choose the hours and days they want to work to fit in with their family commitments or leisure interests, or to meet the demands of customers for help and advice outside of conventional working hours. Achievements to Date The Department has been providing services electronically to its customers for many years and is expanding these services all the time. Roughly two-thirds of employers' end of year returns, for example, come to us electronically now. This is one of a growing range of electronic data interchange (EDI) services we run which remains the most cost-effective method where large volumes of data are needing to be transferred. Stamp Duty, as another example, is now effectively an electronic tax.
This year we introduced the facility for self-assessment taxpayers to send in their tax returns over the internet with no need to produce or retain a paper copy - putting us among the leaders in the world in offering a secure, interactive internet service in government. Only 10 other countries currently offer anything like a comparable service. Our internet website now has 1 million hits a week and is the most visited government website after the Central Office of Information Press Release site. Last year it won the Government Website Awards 2000 Profile Award for achievement in a high-profile government website in the spirit of Information Age government. Our use of integrated automatic purchasing systems that facilitate end-to-end electronic purchasing and payment with suppliers now amounts to over 90% of transactions. The Department has one agency, the Valuation Office Agency, which has also already implemented a range of e-business applications. In particular, it has published the 1995 and 2000 rating lists on the internet and created a facility to make appeals against valuations on both lists electronically. It also provides the means for electronic interchange of information with the other parts of the public sector delivering rating and council tax, the Valuation Tribunals and the local billing authorities. Email links are available for agents to communicate with valuers. We are participating in a range of cross-departmental work to ensure that, as far as is possible, we are developing services in a joined-up way. We have taken a leading role on the Government Gateway project and are involved in a number of studies and pilots such as the Electronic Communications with Business study which led to our working with the Small Business Service of the DTI to help people starting in business for the first time. The end result is that today we are already capable of offering 30% of our services electronically and are therefore well on the way to meeting the Government's targets of offering 50% by 2002 on the way to 100% by 2005. The Approach Customer Need Our approach will be driven first and foremost by the best understanding we can get of our customers' needs. Different sectors require different approaches - the needs of a huge multinational, for example, are significantly different from an individual taxpayer or tax credit recipient. We will ensure through continued consultation with customers that we develop solutions best fitted to their needs. Our Electronic Business Unit has, for example, instituted a feedback strategy, which will create a baseline to enable them to measure and improve levels of customer service. Our first priority will be to save costs for customers. This will lead us to develop new investment criteria, which give credit for the full value of the outcome to government, citizens and business.
The internet is inherently insecure. In any services that it implements, and where the nature of the information demands it, the Department will protect the privacy and/or accuracy of information flowing across the internet between citizens and itself. The aim is that at any one time the measures in force will be best commercial practice. Information held by the Department is protected according to the prevailing government security policies and standards. We will, where possible, communicate with customers using the channel they prefer at a time and place that is convenient to them. But, increasingly, the preferred route for our customers and us will be electronic. Three-Box Model To achieve the most successful outcome we believe that our strategy needs to deliver 3 key strands. We need to: Hit the 50% and 100% availability targets in 2002 and 2005. Make our services more joined up across departmental boundaries. Help make the UK the best place to do e-business. These three strands require different approaches and have led us to think in terms of a 3-box model approach. To hit the availability targets across the range of our work means a wide-ranging extension of our existing services to add, in the main, an electronic channel. The self-assessment service is an example. In the short term there will be a limit to our ability to cover this wide range in a dramatically different way, from a business process perspective than we do today. So in the first box is activity across a wide range, but of less radical impact. The second box moves us to accomplishing joined-up services. We are seeing here a more radical transformation
of how we operate but we will not have covered all of our activity. But in seeking to help to make the UK the place to do e-business we will need to make more radical change. The third box represents this most profound redefinition of business process, working initially from a narrower base, which allows more direct interaction with particular customer groups. So we plan, for example, to work closely with some dot.com companies to see whether there are fundamentally different ways we might work with them. Similarly, we will work with accountancy bodies and large companies to see whether we can administer the corporation tax regime differently in an e-environment. The simplicity achievable in the e-environment, combined with a lighter touch in administering taxes, will be the basis for delivering the Government's objective of making the UK the best place in the world for e-commerce and encouraging dot.com companies to make the UK their preferred place of business. We will have different parts of the programme covering different "boxes". Achieving the Goals Build and Learn We have adopted an approach which we describe as a "build and learn" strategy. This means that we are prepared to trial new approaches and be ready to adapt in the light of customer reaction. This approach has clearly served the private sector well in this sphere. But so far the most successful examples of "build and learn", as practised in the private sector, move at a faster pace and are more tolerant of failure than is the case in government. Our approach will match that. Encouraging Take-up We will continue to seek ways of encouraging take-up of electronic services. Part of the way in which we will do this is by ensuring that as we devise new systems or change existing ones, they will, within practical constraints, be designed to be e- services first and foremost. We will also directly incentivise in some cases, as we did with this year's 10 discount for self-assessment taxpayers using our internet system. And we will look to more creative ways of incentivising e-services. But the main incentive will be that e-services will offer higher levels of speed, quality and sheer convenience. Our approach of encouraging third-party software suppliers, making more use of intermediaries and looking to more joined-up services should all also help to drive up take-up. But ultimately the best way to encourage greater take-up will be to provide electronic solutions that are robust, effective, simple to use and speedy. We will strive to achieve that. Standards We have adopted in full the e-government Interoperability Framework (e-gif) which sets a common standards framework across government but which is itself formed on emerging international standards. Third-Party Software
A particularly important element of e-gif is the adoption of XML as the primary standard for data integration and presentation. We were pioneers here and worked closely with the financial services software industry and their association, BASDA, to develop an XML schema as the basis for developing software for the self-assessment system. As a result, the software industry was able to market products at the same time as ourselves to offer taxpayers alternative packages for submitting their returns. We currently have links to 9 different vendor products on our website. We will be taking this approach further in future. We will be increasingly encouraging the private sector to develop products. Where they are likely to provide products, we will not do so. We will in essence be providing a channel for their commercial products. Intermediaries We will increasingly conduct business through third parties in future, for instance, offering access to our services through intermediaries such as other government departments, citizens advice bureaux, libraries and post offices, who will be able to offer internet access mechanisms through which customers can access IR e-services. A key part of our strategy will be to encourage third parties to offer customers a rich service, while ensuring that difficult questions about the authorisation of intermediaries, particularly in relation to "joined-up services", are addressed. This embraces both the question of how intermediaries "prove" the authority they have from their clients and how we ensure that the individuals who make the submission from the intermediaries have the authority to do so. Encouragement of third-party service provision will help us provide services that are customer-focused; which all citizens can access, whether or not they have access to the internet, digital TV or other electronic communications media. We will also offer our services in such a way that intermediaries, such as accountants and payroll bureaux etc, can also act on, or access the services on, the customer's behalf. Delivering our services through intermediaries will be a key way in which we address the problems of the digital divide. Joined-up services We want to work actively with other government departments to find ways of offering "joined-up" services and will be seeking partners to join with us in making joined-up government a reality. We are already participating in centrally led initiatives such as the UK Online project. The Department has already played a key role in the Government Gateway project and will continue to do so. We had an influential role in its inception, will be an early user of it (along with Customs and Excise and MAFF) and have provided its project manager. We see the project as the most effective way of providing a single entry into secure government systems and a key part of the necessary enabling infrastructure. We are a member of the Implications of e-government group along with Customs and Excise, DSS and DfEE. The group is adopting new approaches to customer segmentation which will transcend traditional departmental boundaries. A representative from Customs and Excise is a member of our Electronic Services Programme Board.
Our approach on encouraging third-party software development and greater use of intermediaries will, in our judgement, encourage other organisations outside of government to offer value-added joined-up services. Again, the evidence of thirdparty products for self-assessment confirms this as likely. The Programme Implementation Achieving the Department's strategy requires a major implementation programme covering changes to all aspects of the Department's business: not just systems and processes, but organisation and skills also. This implementation will require careful planning and management as we migrate towards the vision. However, we also need to retain the flexibility to deal with the pace of change in this area. It is possible to make detailed plans for the next 12-18 months (though even these are likely to change), but beyond that, only a high-level view of priorities and intentions is possible. Our strategy for achieving the migration towards the e-services vision has several key components: A dedicated e-services group, with a senior full-time Director of e-services accountable for delivering the e-service strategy. The Director will also take overall responsibility for the Department's e-programme. The programme will both manage projects directly where appropriate, but also ensure that the Department's other development programmes are aligned with the strategy. A rolling programme of work, reviewed on a quarterly basis, with detailed plans committed for the near term, and indicative plans over the next few years. This programme will include a wide range of different types of projects, ranging from large-scale implementation to proofs of concept and explorations of radical new ways of working. The work will be carried out partly through specific initiatives under the umbrella of the e-services group but also, and increasingly, by embedding the principles of this strategy into the design of other programmes of work such as the development of new Tax Credits and the call centre programme.
Development of an agreed set of intermediate goals and outcomes for the programme, and an e-business programme blueprint which describes more fully how the Department will operate as the strategy unfolds, and what we intend the customer's experience to be. A prioritisation process for proposed new initiatives that will allow us to maintain progress towards the vision and respond effectively to changing demands and circumstances. We will work closely with the software industry using the model developed in our relationship with EDS, and more recently, Andersens. Progress Made Good progress has already been made. A new senior post has been created and filled as Director of e-services and a programme plan drawn up. This is underpinned by more detailed project plans. But the nature of the plan shifts the further out we look. We have firm plans for the next 12 to 18 months with the plan becoming more speculative thereafter. The Rolling Programme of Projects: Goals and Outcomes We see the work as falling into 5 key work streams - external services; internal services; joined-up services; building up e-capability; and business transformation. An internal objective is to be able to close down the e-programme as a separate entity by the end of this period. While there will be work still to do, the goal is to have this fully embedded in the Department's mainstream structures and processes. Annexe 1 E-Services Programme - Goals & Outcomes: Date Goal 2002 To have established basic secure e-services and associated infrastructure, management process and capability - and developed plans for radical change based on e-services.
2004 To have significantly increased take-up of core services, provided the capability for customers to access integrated services tuned to their needs, and to have delivered significant benefits from e-based business re-engineering. End-2005 To have achieved significant business transformation, with most transactions with customers conducted electronically, and with customers interacting both directly or via other portals, and other intermediaries. Objectives End-2005 100% of transactions deliverable electronically. To have achieved 50% take-up overall on electronic returns and payment. To provide a full range of secure automated self-service channels.
Full electronic communication internally, with very limited use of paper. E-services integrated with other IR channels, capable of being integrated with the services of intermediaries and other agencies, according to the needs of different customer segments. IR staff confident in using all aspects of technology on desk, and skilled in assisting customers in making effective use of e-services. Separate e-services group no longer exists, with all such development undertaken as "business as usual".
To have fully implemented business transformation plans and to be operating in line with the new model for all customer segments/services. E-Services Programme - 2002 Goals & Outcomes Date Goal: 2002 To have established basic secure e-services and associated infrastructure, management process and capability and developed plans for radical change based on e-services. Outcomes: External Services Main returns available over the internet - SA, PAYE, CT. Wide range of electronic payment mechanisms available.
Email communication for those who want it. Most advice and guidance published on website, with links to related services. The Government's 50% target achieved. A range of radical potential services identified, and several limited-scale service trials implemented. Usage monitoring mechanisms established to track take-up and customer preferences. To have demonstrated flexibility of approach to service provision, encouraging and responding rapidly to customer response ("Build and Learn").
Internal Services To have provided Internet browsing capability to staff. To have made widespread use of electronic sharing of internal information, e.g. using public folders and intranet. Intranet used for most internal publications. Intranet used for a wide range of internal business processes (T&S etc.).
Divisional intranets in place for tailored business process support. To have in place services to support electronic purchasing and payment with suppliers. Joined-up Services To have formed a good understanding of customer segmentation and different needs.
To have identified how Revenue services can be advantageously bundled with the services of other agencies and intermediaries (e.g. DSS, CAB, Post Office). To have identified candidate multi-agency applications and have agreed designs and plans with relevant agencies and intermediaries. To have played an active role in the development of UK Online. To be making full use of the Government Gateway, including single-point registration for IR and Government services. To have developed effective operational procedures for handling email, paper and phone. To have rolled out contact centres as planned.
To have developed good communications with third-party software developers to encourage the further provision of suitable free software for customers. Build e-capability To have established a fully resourced management capability within the Department specifically focused on provision of e-services. To have in place appropriate skills in marketing and identifying customer needs. To have in place a secure infrastructure which can perform to required level of service with extensive use of internal and external email and web browsing. To have developed plans for infrastructure development required to meet the ambitions of the strategy.
To have aligned e-services goals with other major departmental programmes (e.g. NTC). All staff with basic capability required to use available electronic services. Business To have developed a detailed vision of how the Transformation Department will operate in 2005. To have identified a range of potential areas for demonstration of the key characteristics of the vision and to have engaged in discussions with other agencies and intermediaries accordingly. To have initiated a number of limited-scale service trials using an "incubator"-type approach.
To have plans in place to achieve large scale business transformation. To have clearly identified changes in skills requirements for Revenue staff. To have realised some back-end processing benefits from front-end e-services provision. E-Services Programme - 2004 Goals & Outcomes Date Goal: 2004 To have significantly increased take-up of core services, provided the capability for customers to access integrated services tuned to their needs, and to have delivered significant benefits from e-based business re-engineering. Outcomes: External Services
To have developed take-up plans based on a good understanding of customer drivers, in particular how burdens can be reduced through self-service. To launch new Tax Credits as an e-service. Provide customers access to their own records, directly and via intermediaries. Email with customers rather than paper correspondence to be the preferred way of working. To have completely replaced paper-based services in some areas. To have encouraged more self-help, directly or via intermediaries, through access to knowledge-based systems on the internet.
Internal Services To have realised significant benefits from widespread use of intranet and folders applications. Number of internal paper forms in use reduced (by 75%?). Advice provided directly to staff via intranet knowledge-based systems. Alignment and consistent content ensured between internal and external information services. To have explored opportunities for remote/homeworking and implemented where appropriate. Joined-up Services To be providing joined-up services for some customer segments based around events.
Change of address? Access to services via a wide range of portals and through intermediaries. To be offering Tax Credits services as part of a bundle of multi-agency services based on customer needs. To be able to form a co-ordinated view of all communications with a customer whether via email, paper, telephone or via the web. To have achieved significant improvements in the consistency of content available through different channels. Build e-capability. Infrastructure in place capable of supporting new developments, including multimedia and mobile access.
Development of e-services undertaken as an integrated part of normal service development. The majority of staff completely at ease with use of electronic services and desktop computing. Business To have demonstrably achieved identifiable benefits; Transformation (reduced costs, improved service) for customers To have successfully demonstrated, through service trials, a radically different operation for some customer segments/services. To have realised further back-end processing benefits from e-services provision.