eEnvoy develops online strategy

Transaction engines will put government online faster

Steve Ranger, Computing 07 Aug 2002

Steve RangerThe Office of the eEnvoy has revealed details of the technology infrastructure it is introducing to help provide all government services online by 2005.

Speaking exclusively to Computing, the OeE's e-Delivery Team (EDT), outlined its strategy to allow citizens to book public services using familiar technology such as mobile phone text messages and email, and to speed up communication between business and government.

The EDT is responsible for the implementation and operation of projects initiated by eEnvoy Andrew Pinder. One of its aims is to create an infrastructure which can be re-used by government departments to cut duplication.

Central to the plan is a series of 'engines' which departments can use to provide services online without building their own systems.

A set of common components, built around a central transaction engine, will allow departments to choose which they need, and ignore the ones they don't.

Once the components are in place individual departments can connect their back end systems.

For example, booking hospital and doctors appointments will depend on NHS IT developments to put in place systems that will interact with central notification and appointments engines.

By 2004 the EDT wants to create an address database, which will notify different departments when citizens change address, and a customisation and personalisation engine for government portals.

It also hopes to introduce a rules engine which will help people calculate the benefits they are entitled to by providing some personal information. This would allow 'what if' questions such as: 'How do my benefits change if I have to care for a relative?'

Next year the EDT wants to introduce a centralised form store, so that electronic forms can be partly filled out at one web site and completed at another.

For example, a taxpayer filing a self-assessment could have some of the form pre-filled at a bank web site, then move to their employer's web site to complete other sections. It would also allow Revenue staff to view part-completed forms to provide help.

EDT chief executive Alan Mather told Computing that the team has also developed server technology to allow companies to connect into the Government Gateway portal to speed up dealings with Whitehall.

The government owns the intellectual property rights to the software code for the Department Interface Server (DIS), which connects into the Gateway. But it has shared the details with vendors such as Sun Microsystems, IBM and HP, so companies have a choice about how they communicate with government.

Mather says local authorities will start to buy DIS technology this year, with the private sector adopting it next year, and he says there are advantages for companies with as few as 50 staff.

The DIS talks XML to the Gateway but translates data into whatever format a company uses for its own systems.

'The advantage is seamless two-way electronic communications for companies that would otherwise use EDI. This is technology that small companies could adopt,' he said.

But challenges remain - one area where there are still concerns is authentication.

The EDT is disappointed with the slow development of the digital certificate market. 'We are working with industry to say we have to converge on a set of standards. If they were easier to use more people would use them. As long as they are hard to use then the applications won't appear,' said Mather.

'We've created a market for digital certificates in government and we want to see it work. There needs to be a focus in the industry around this. If they are to work then standards must be the key.'

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