Manipur State Portal Public Service for the Future: Enabling e-governance for efficient and affordable services
2
Client profile With a population of approximately 2.72 million, Manipur is one of eight states in India s northeast region. The state is focused on accelerated economic growth, development of human resources and improved governance, using information technology (IT) tools as a powerful enabler. The Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of Manipur, is implementing the State Portal, State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) and e-forms project with the Manipur State Information Technology Society (MSITS) as the nodal agency. This is in accordance with the National e-governance Plan of the Government of India, which aims to provide government services to citizens that are easily accessible through Common Service Centres (CSCs) and other Internet access points delivering them affordably, efficiently, transparently and reliably. The SSDG scheme aims to enable interaction between departments and external entities using standard interfaces or connectors and provide a mechanism for online submission of forms and delivery of services. The portal is a one-stop shop for governmentto-citizen (G2C) services, allowing citizens to place requests for a public distribution system card or register with the employment exchange and helping to achieve SMART (simple, manageable, approachable, responsive and transparent) governance. Business challenge The citizens of Manipur are faced with two challenges when accessing government services. First, they have to rely on the assistance of government officials to locate the correct office or channel for their service or information request. The state s rugged landscape and the heavy rains it receives make it difficult for citizens to travel to government offices. Second, a large number of Manipuri youth move out of the state to study or work. A state government portal that enables online form submission and status tracking will allow citizens to get information on and easily access government services from a convenient location, thus reducing the number of visits to government offices. Businesses too will benefit from a single-point source of information on state tenders and government policies. The government s main challenge has been the lack of standardization for the provision of services across departments and districts. Incomplete applications add to the administrative burden on government officials, while challenges associated with collating data from different forms make it difficult to consolidate reports and make informed decisions. Several government offices also lack the necessary computing infrastructure. By improving the quality of data and eliminating the scope of fraudulent transactions, the portal would help lower the administrative burden on the state government and help to reduce cost. Additionally, the portal would publish all necessary government information on a single platform to create a repository with search and archiving facility. It will promote e-interaction between citizens and government and enhance citizen perception of the government. 3
How Accenture helped To deliver the portal, the DIT needed a partner with expertise in the delivery of e-governance services, program management and information systems. Accenture was chosen for its global and local experience in India, deep industry knowledge, delivery track record and commitment to working in the northeast. Accenture s scope of work for the Manipur e-governance project included: Developing application forms for services in consultation with government departments. Developing the state portal. Training government officials about e-forms and the SSDG. Installing the infrastructure required to deploy SSDG service delivery framework between different departments. Setting up computing infrastructure at participating department offices across the state. Deploying content management tools to organize information on the portal. Supporting the entire infrastructure for three years. Accenture started implementing the project on July 19, 2011. Under the terms of the contract worth more than US$ 3 million (INR 170 million), the project will continue for three and a half years, including a ten month systems implementation and testing period. The first phase went live just six months after the project commenced, with 20 services from four government departments on offer. In the second and final phase, a further 22 services will be offered by five government departments (Figure 1). The application will provide flexibility to include additional services in stages. The project is being delivered by Accenture s Offshore Delivery Center in Gurgaon, offering DIT, Government of Manipur the flexibility to use resources from our offshore development centers to compliment the onsite team located in Imphal, Manipur s capital city. Accenture has offered end-to-end IT solution, including program management, development and support of applications, and infrastructure deployment and helpdesk support. All software components of the solution are based on open source technology. The application integrates with the Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG) of the Government of India for information exchange through text messages as well as with the National Payment Gateway for e-payments. It has been subjected to performance testing (load testing and soak testing), and performance parameters are tuned for optimized performance. Prior to submission for third-party audit by the Standards Testing and Quality Certification (STQC), a statutory government body, the Accenture team tested the application for security conforming to Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) standards. The Accenture team developed the e-forms after considering the state s unique needs and studying the national e-governance portal and other state portals. The result is a new way of working for employees with many services on offer for citizens. A common grievance form has been designed to provide a common format for all departments. A user guide and example completed forms are available on the portal to help first-time users. Forms are common for all districts and are bilingual (English and Manipuri). The Accenture team also contributed to the setting up of content management tools, which help arrange, store and display content to portal users in a structured manner. For Manipur s citizens, the portal s biggest benefit will be the ease of accessing government services. At every stage, from the logging of a service request to the processing, users will receive status updates by SMS and e-mail. On completion of the service request, the user will have to make a final visit to collect the desired certificate/document or furnish original documents or make a payment. 4
A citizen can get started with a simple self-registration process online which will enable him or her to request for a service or check the status of a request. A unique tracking identification code is generated for each request and sent to users via text message to a mobile phone. Users will also receive updates by text or email. For government department employees, access to information is role based, allowing only designated users to access the applications. Service requests are traceable with audit trails. Approximately 200 government department employees will use the system, and senior officials of those departments will be able to view consolidated reports online. Challenges with the delivery This being one of the first projects in the northeast region for Accenture in India, the team carried out adequate planning to ensure efficient delivery through an onsite-offshore model. The team had to take into account several factors: weather, road conditions, local festivals, culture, dependency on partners and subcontractor, and a few flash strikes. The team also made advance assessment to ensure that the computing infrastructure and connectivity was set up across the state within a month. To take into account the local taste and sensitivities, it ensured that a graphic designer worked with the MSITS on the portal design. Figure 1: E-governance in Manipur: The e-forms process flow Application/System SCS The user approaches the CSC operator putting in the service request on behalf of citizen E-Form Application Citizen/CSC Operator fills up the application pro-forma and uploads the supporting document after scanning them The system checks if all the mandatory feilds of the application proforma is uploaded or not. Central Application The application proforma reaches the department users INBOX Department user verifies the application details and the scanned document Department Citizen The user accesses the e-form application on the state portal through the web The system generates an acknowledgement of successful application pro-forma is uploaded or not. On verification the user either forwards or approves or rejects the application Citizen will get notification on the status The citizen goes with the acknowledgemnt sheet to the concerned department and collects the certificates 5
High performance delivered Accenture delivered the Manipur State Portal within six months, making Manipur one of the first three states across India to offer citizen services on new State Portal framework. Accenture team successfully adhered to stringent government standards and guidelines on portal implementation, paving the way for easier future upgrades and integration with external entities. The project also adhered to International standards such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) certification for the portal, The portal has achieved many firsts in India: It includes ability to add UID (unique Aadhar number) in all service requests, making it mandatory if required, sample forms in dual languages (English/ Manipuri) to enable first-time users avoid errors, and common grievance form that are autorouted to relevant departments. The portal allows 500 concurrent users and can handle up to 1,000 business transactions a day. The portal is designed such that dynamic Web pages open in less than six seconds. Thus, portal can easily scale up for peak time demands during government campaigns or services with submission deadlines. The application developed has high reusability for similar projects in the future. Any new government service can be introduced for the entire state in a very short time. By using open source technology, Accenture has not only brought about savings in licensing costs, but has also enabled easier integration of processes across different computing platforms.. The government of Manipur and Accenture will continue to work toward adding more government services, helping the state remain at the leading edge of e-governance. The launch of the State Portal, State Service Delivery Gateway and e-forms project on January 26, 2012, is a significant landmark in the implementation of e-governance in Manipur. We appreciate the contribution from the Accenture team in making it happen. Department of Information Technology, Government of Manipur 6
7
About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com Copyright 2012 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.