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Back Office Reform
Successful e-Government programs give considerable attention to back office support. "Back office" refers both to the behind-the-scenes technology needed to maintain electronic services and to the workflow processes used to deliver a service or otherwise achieve a particular objective. (In the e-Government context, the "front office" would be the user interface, such as a web site.) At the initial stages of e-Government, there may be a tendency for government agencies to quickly create web sites and other applications that face outwards towards the citizen without addressing the questions of how data will be processed by the bureaucracy behind the scenes. Too often, multiple agencies and departments or units within ministries create their own web sites and adopt their own software, without regard to interoperability. Resources are wasted reinventing service delivery systems. This approach misses some of the most important benefits of e-Government, including the economies of scale that can be realized through integration of data processing requirements across governmental units. Indeed, in addressing back office reform, it may be most efficient to integrate both online and offline data flows.
As with so many other aspects of e-Government, back office reform is not only, or even primarily, about technology. It also focuses on the reorganization of work processes. As noted previously, the most effective e-Government projects use the introduction of ICTs as an opportunity to simplify and otherwise reform workflows and processes. In this regard, as in others, it is best to view e-Government efforts not in isolation but as an integral element of overall government reform efforts. Thus, any plan to address back office functionality for e-Government should take into account reforms that are needed in processing data collected in face-to-face and paper-based interactions as well. On the simplest level, data collected in processing a particular online transaction should be compatible with data collected for the same transaction face-to-face.
A 2004 report sponsored by the European Commission identified a range of strategies that can be used to reform back office operations, ranging from the digitization of otherwise well-functioning back office arrangements to deep reorganizations, centralization of back office functions, and the creation of back office clearinghouses.
Back office reorganization starts with an analysis of workflows. A simple one-stage service, for example, may involve the request for and delivery of a land title from the local government. Attention to the back office would ensure that the data submitted online could be used without recoding to search or update the local registry of titles that is generated and used in face-to-face encounters. It is also useful in analyzing workflows to identify the various services being offered. For example, online application may be one service, while online payment may be seen as a separate service. Back office reform would strive, for example, to integrate application and payment services, ensuring that online payment service would operate across a variety of agencies, so each one would not have to develop its own.
In some contexts, economies of scale and other benefits can be realized by the creation of a separate back office clearinghouse or "shared service center." Its function is to provide a platform for the interoperability of diverse data, thereby enabling individual agencies to continue using their own legacy technology and data, and to continue to use their own processing systems, which likely have been developed independently and built up over many years. The clearinghouse or shared service center can be outsourced to private sector specialists.
Resources on Back Office Reform:
"Reorganisation of government back-offices for better electronic public services - European good practices (back-office reorganisation)" (January 2004 - Volume 1: Main report).
Herbert Kubicek, Jeremy Millard, and Hilmar Westholm. "Methodology for Analysing the Relationship Between the Reorganisation of the Back Office and Better Electronic Public Services."
The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has issued a "how-to manual" for planning the transition to e-Government, which includes a simple step-by-step guide to analyzing current workflows and planning their reorganization.
Jerry Mechling, "Transforming the Back Office: Why and How" (National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers and the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council, 2006).
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As with so many other aspects of e-Government, back office reform is not only, or even primarily, about technology. It also focuses on the reorganization of work processes. As noted previously, the most effective e-Government projects use the introduction of ICTs as an opportunity to simplify and otherwise reform workflows and processes. In this regard, as in others, it is best to view e-Government efforts not in isolation but as an integral element of overall government reform efforts. Thus, any plan to address back office functionality for e-Government should take into account reforms that are needed in processing data collected in face-to-face and paper-based interactions as well. On the simplest level, data collected in processing a particular online transaction should be compatible with data collected for the same transaction face-to-face.
A 2004 report sponsored by the European Commission identified a range of strategies that can be used to reform back office operations, ranging from the digitization of otherwise well-functioning back office arrangements to deep reorganizations, centralization of back office functions, and the creation of back office clearinghouses.
Back office reorganization starts with an analysis of workflows. A simple one-stage service, for example, may involve the request for and delivery of a land title from the local government. Attention to the back office would ensure that the data submitted online could be used without recoding to search or update the local registry of titles that is generated and used in face-to-face encounters. It is also useful in analyzing workflows to identify the various services being offered. For example, online application may be one service, while online payment may be seen as a separate service. Back office reform would strive, for example, to integrate application and payment services, ensuring that online payment service would operate across a variety of agencies, so each one would not have to develop its own.
In some contexts, economies of scale and other benefits can be realized by the creation of a separate back office clearinghouse or "shared service center." Its function is to provide a platform for the interoperability of diverse data, thereby enabling individual agencies to continue using their own legacy technology and data, and to continue to use their own processing systems, which likely have been developed independently and built up over many years. The clearinghouse or shared service center can be outsourced to private sector specialists.
Resources on Back Office Reform:
"Reorganisation of government back-offices for better electronic public services - European good practices (back-office reorganisation)" (January 2004 - Volume 1: Main report).
Herbert Kubicek, Jeremy Millard, and Hilmar Westholm. "Methodology for Analysing the Relationship Between the Reorganisation of the Back Office and Better Electronic Public Services."
The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has issued a "how-to manual" for planning the transition to e-Government, which includes a simple step-by-step guide to analyzing current workflows and planning their reorganization.
Jerry Mechling, "Transforming the Back Office: Why and How" (National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers and the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council, 2006).
<<Previous: Process Reform
Back to Beginning of Chapter