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Back Office Tools
The reform of back office operations may require agencies (or their components) to share data with each other. A European Commission study on reorganization of government back-offices found that technical platforms built upon open standards can facilitate integration and interoperability.
One of the most promising technologies to which governments and business enterprises are turning in order to share data across applications and operating systems is the Extensible Markup Language (XML). See Chapter 13.
As the U.S. government has noted, XML "embodies the potential to alleviate many of the interoperability problems associated with the sharing of documents and data." Note the use of the word "potential." XML is only a language and thus only a starting point. Entities seeking to use XML must develop an agreed set of terms - a standard or guideline -- for marking documents. Realizing XML's potential therefore requires cooperation among the entities that wish to share data and interoperate. Any community interested in XML must first identify the stakeholders and then get them to sit down and agree on standards.
There are several entities engaged in the development of XML standards. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-Business standards. OASIS has a committee devoted to e-Government.
Another approach to problems of interoperability is the use of "middleware." "Middleware" is connectivity software that can "glue together" or mediate between disparate and otherwise incompatible applications, programs or data systems. In e-Government, middleware can serve as a layer between the front-end Internet-based interfaces and multiple back-end legacy applications and systems. Middleware can provide a set of generic services (messaging, directories, security, authentication, transaction, etc.). Middleware has evolved at a rapid pace. The UK was one of the first countries to develop a government-wide middleware infrastructure, the Government Gateway. It is a "hub" providing security, authentication, messaging and transactional capabilities for a multiplicity of applications. The ontoGov project sponsored by the European Commission focuses on improving governmental back-office processes, by developing and validating a platform that will facilitate the consistent composition, reconfiguration and evolution of e-Government services. Various proprietary products, such as Microsoft's e-Government Starter Kit (EGSK) make it possible to connect a government front office to back-office applications running on a variety of different operations systems.
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One of the most promising technologies to which governments and business enterprises are turning in order to share data across applications and operating systems is the Extensible Markup Language (XML). See Chapter 13.
As the U.S. government has noted, XML "embodies the potential to alleviate many of the interoperability problems associated with the sharing of documents and data." Note the use of the word "potential." XML is only a language and thus only a starting point. Entities seeking to use XML must develop an agreed set of terms - a standard or guideline -- for marking documents. Realizing XML's potential therefore requires cooperation among the entities that wish to share data and interoperate. Any community interested in XML must first identify the stakeholders and then get them to sit down and agree on standards.
There are several entities engaged in the development of XML standards. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-Business standards. OASIS has a committee devoted to e-Government.
Another approach to problems of interoperability is the use of "middleware." "Middleware" is connectivity software that can "glue together" or mediate between disparate and otherwise incompatible applications, programs or data systems. In e-Government, middleware can serve as a layer between the front-end Internet-based interfaces and multiple back-end legacy applications and systems. Middleware can provide a set of generic services (messaging, directories, security, authentication, transaction, etc.). Middleware has evolved at a rapid pace. The UK was one of the first countries to develop a government-wide middleware infrastructure, the Government Gateway. It is a "hub" providing security, authentication, messaging and transactional capabilities for a multiplicity of applications. The ontoGov project sponsored by the European Commission focuses on improving governmental back-office processes, by developing and validating a platform that will facilitate the consistent composition, reconfiguration and evolution of e-Government services. Various proprietary products, such as Microsoft's e-Government Starter Kit (EGSK) make it possible to connect a government front office to back-office applications running on a variety of different operations systems.
<<Previous: m-Government Applications and Resources
Back to Beginning of Chapter