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The Office of the e-Envoy aims
to ensure that the intermediary policy does succeed, by offering
practical assistance to intermediaries and the departments
they work with.
Those working in e-service delivery
within Departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies
should be aware of the following topics when considering the
Intermediaries policy
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e-Government today
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Intermediaries
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Benefits for Government
> Costs
> e-Venturing
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To find out more about how your
department or agency can benefit from the intermediaries policy
contact the Intermediaries team.
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Contact us
e-Government today
The e-government strategy focuses
on the target for all services to be available electronically
by 2005. Two years into this programme and with many services
now available online, progress is clearly being made.
Despite the great deal of effort
involved in achieving this, it is apparent that availability
on-line is only the start of what needs to be done. Current
levels of take-up of e-government services remain low and
the benefits for government in terms of the costs are yet
to be realised. It is these two strategic challenges that
we now need to focus our efforts on.
Increasing take-up
The actual take-up of electronic
services is the ultimate external measure of successful delivery.
Experience from the private sector demonstrates that increased
take up will only be achieved if electronic public services
are provided in an easily accessible, user-friendly way (e.g.
joined up), and closely satisfy a real customer need. Although
obvious in principle, it is not easy to achieve irrespective
of whether the provider is in the private or public sector.
Historically fragmented government
structures, processes and guiding principles, which are still
in place today, do not lend themselves easily to customer
centric service delivery and there is no reason to suppose
that the public services required by particular groups of
customers will map neatly onto the services provided by government.
Users of public services, for
example, often find great difficulty in finding their way
around complex departmental systems and ultimately finding
the service or combination of services they want, which may
span both public and private sector organisations.
Even in instances where government
could satisfy the requirements, it is not pragmatic to expect
one organisation alone to be able to reach and provide public
services for all citizens and businesses effectively and efficiently.
In recognition of the importance of 'take up', the e-government
target has now been updated to "ensure departments meet
the Prime Minister's targets for electronic service delivery
by government: 100% capability by 2005, with key services
achieving high levels of use".
Ultimately, the aim is to improve
the quality of e-government services, providing better value
to their users. Additionally it is hoped that the electronic
provision of these improved public services entices citizens
and businesses to switch from conventional delivery methods
to electronic services.
Realising Benefits
Whilst e-government is a powerful
approach in delivering customer centric services it can be
equally powerful in providing the catalyst for internal government
transformation and efficiency. The drive towards more efficiency
and customer focus is not new to government. But, due to the
complexity of barriers to change in much of central government
in particular, there is still ample room for improvement.
E-government offers a good chance
to break through the existing barriers to change. It is not
just a set of tools for doing the same things better. Through
changing the economics of service delivery it offers government
the opportunity to do different things, which more effectively
meet the needs of citizens and businesses at reduced cost.
E-government, through coherent
IT infrastructure both in the back office and the front end,
makes it considerably easier to open-up government to involving
external parties in public service delivery. It allows not
only the creative redesign of existing processes but also
the organisation to stay agile so that new processes and business
relationship can be formed on an ongoing basis.
Naturally, customer centricity
and cost efficiency needs to be achieved for all public service
delivery channels (direct and indirect), but the benefits
of introducing intermediaries as additional, complementary
delivery channels are substantial.
Intermediaries offer an opportunity
to improve both the consumer's experience of government and
thus increase 'take up', as well as to improve the efficiency
and cost of government itself. Additionally, improving a citizen's
experience of government promotes better informed better served
citizens. Similarly, improving a business's experience of
government serves to reduce the burden of government, improves
compliance, encourages the use of available support and, consequently
involving intermediaries, contributes to a more vital private
sector and a stronger economy.
Intermediaries
Intermediaries are described here
as organisations from the private or voluntary sectors offering
services targeted at and tailored to chosen groups of customers,
this may be consumers or businesses.
They offer access to public sector
services on behalf of their customers, potentially including
new services which are based on a government component. Intermediaries,
as outlined here, thus clearly differ from those contracted
to deliver services on behalf of government.
The figure below illustrates the
difference between intermediaries contracted to deliver services
on behalf of government (government commissioned intermediaries)
and intermediaries as defined in this paper (customer
commissioned intermediaries).
The difference between government commissioned
intermediaries and customer commissioned intermediaries
The concept of intermediaries
is not new. An example from everyday life is the role of supermarkets
intermediating for banks. It has become a well-known and welcome
fact that supermarkets (commissioned by their customers) offer
cash-back facilities for their customers. By doing this, they
become in effect the front-end delivery channel for their
customer's bank.
Intermediaries may become involved
in the delivery of public services in a variety of ways. The
various types of intermediaries are illustrated below.
Types
Intermediaries can simply, without
modifications, add a government service to their product range.
This is described in the case of current organisations serving
motorists.
Simple Transaction - Motorist
Organisation
A motorist services company
might want to add Vehicle Excise Duty (car tax) to their
portfolio. Their offer becomes more of a "one-stop-shop"
and is likely to increase customer loyalty, or attract
new customers to the service.
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In a more complex case, an intermediary
can provide legal representation e.g. a financial advisor
who represents a citizen at the Inland Revenue and adds expert
knowledge to their customer base.
Expert Advisor Case - Financial
Advisor
Existing intermediaries,
such as accountants, already use their expertise to
discount rules and procedures that do not apply to a
particular client's financial affairs. They have become
experts in government and the related law, proactively
seeking out better outcomes based on awareness of the
current and changing environment (e.g., new laws and
regulations).
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Intermediaries can also use a
government information asset, such as Ordnance Survey data
and turn it into a new, value added service for their customers.
Companies like streetmap.co.uk have followed this path. (See
box C).
Information Asset
Streetmap.co.uk licenses
data from Ordnance Survey and, by integrating it with
a range of other value added services such as Business
Web Pages (e.g. nearest store locator), turns it into
an attractive proposition to their customers.
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These examples are not exhaustive
but are meant to illustrate how intermediaries can play a
part in the delivery of public services.
Benefits
for government
Take up
Intermediaries are well placed
to drive up citizens and businesses take up of public services
by making additional connections between consumers and public
services.
Intermediaries typically offer
their services in a customer centric way, as they are keen
to ensure customer loyalty and future growth in the customer
base, in the competitive market they are acting in. As a result,
they have close relationships with their customers and detailed
knowledge of the needs of particular groups of consumers.
An intermediary choosing to include
public services, as part of the offer to its customers would
be able to use its existing knowledge to offer a focused service,
thus leading to a public service which offers consumer choice
(alternative ways of service distribution) and convenience,
and optimally meets the needs of its customers.
In using intermediaries, government
is presented with the opportunity to provide public services
in ways which allow consumers to benefit from:
- a range of bundled and/or integrated services which closely
targets customer needs
- innovative service delivery and continuous effort to
add value to the relationship
- effective and efficient front-end service delivery -
low cost for the consumer and potentially government
- improved choice & convenience
All of the above benefits are
likely to lead to increased customer satisfaction with the
way public services are delivered, and ultimately increase
take up of electronic public services.
An example of truly joined-up
service delivery is SomersetonLine, a pilot of eight local
public authorities in the Somerset region, who are offering
a 'change of address' service supplied by UpMyStreet. The
service offers added convenience to citizens, by allowing
them to notify a variety of organisations of the change of
their address in one step. It also includes a search function
for specific services.
Costs
Intermediaries in public service
delivery also offer the opportunity to improve the efficiency
and cost of delivering public services. By offering additional,
complementary ways of delivering the front end of public services,
intermediaries offer government the potential to reduce the
cost involved in providing universal/wide access to public
services as government resources, over time, can be focused
on fewer direct channels.
For example, The Department for
Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has made the Cattle
Tracing System (CTS) available on-line via a website. As a
result, cost per cattle movement has fallen from £0.32
to £0.06. Nearly 40% of movements are now provided online
to DEFRA through intermediaries, using the website resulting
in substantial savings and providing convenience for farmers.
Further, in contrast to government
with its complex structures, legacy systems and overheads,
intermediaries typically have streamlined operations and efficient
processes in place, constantly driven by competitive market
pressures. As a result, they will be able to offer the front
end of public services delivery at a lower cost base than
government. This in turn means that shifting service provision
towards intermediaries, over time, offers government the potential
to make savings whilst improving public services.
Establishing the mixed market
also contributes to continuity of supply (resilience) and
the avoidance of supply crises and their financial implications.
In May/June 2002, for example, access to online self-assessment
using the Inland Revenue online entry point was temporarily
suspended. However a financial services software company,
Digita, continued to offer their access service.
In summary, involving intermediaries
in the delivery of public services will allow government to
expand the overall number of delivery channels over time (demand
driven) and enable us to offer public services in attractive,
innovative and customer centric ways. It is expected that
the promotion of a competitive market for intermediaries will
lead to a consistent drive towards improved customer centricity
and service delivery efficiency.
e-Venturing
Unit
The Cabinet office's Strategy
Unit recommended that the e-Envoy should take on this facilitating
role, in particular enabling public sector bodies to become
"open for business" and support private and voluntary
organisations who seek to deliver electronic government services
but experience difficulties.
The Office of the e-Envoy has
therefore created an e-Venturing Unit. The Unit's role will
be as a catalyst of joined-up private and public sector initiatives
and as an accelerator of an intermediary's individual innovative
ideas. More specifically, the role of the Unit is to:
Enabling
The Unit will act as a place where
promising ideas for customer centric/joined-up public services
can be taken for rapid evaluation and assistance to make them
happen. It will be the particular role of the Unit to act
"outside the box" and foster innovation. Departments
will be able to call upon this resource
It will apply a structured process
to filter and assess the validity of intermediary proposals.
In line with the criteria for the core services, selection
criteria for intermediary proposals include:
- Potential to increase take-up (projected level of use)
- Potential to offer services in a 'joined up manner'
- Ease of introduction (set up costs/requirements)
The aim of the process is to ensure
that any potential intermediary services will contribute to
departmental performance targets for e-government
Ideas can be submitted online
(either via the e-venturing website or e-mail) by completion
of a standard, structured questionnaire.
The enabling function will include
the following:
- It will act as a proactive Broker for well-formed and
significant propositions and provide individual targeted
support, offering advice and guidance to ensure speedy and
successful outcomes
- It will function as Guide and Validator for ideas in their
earlier stages of development and help those with most promise
to develop into valid propositions
For each of the above, it will
help structure ideas and identify future business models,
as well as provide support to produce business plans that
meet the criteria of the transforming government agenda.
Champion intermediary proposals
In addition, the unit will be
taking on the role of "champion" for intermediary
proposals within government and facilitate relationships between
intermediaries and departments.
It will work closely with department
representatives to raise the profile of the intermediary agenda,
and aid them to identify potential areas for intermediary
involvement and support them to overcome potential issues/barriers
to successful intermediary involvement.
Further, it will facilitate private
and voluntary sector organisations, guiding them through the
experience of dealing with public sector bodies.
It is expected that over time
and with increasing intermediary activity, this championing
role will be embedded into departments themselves, with the
OeE taking a more hands-off approach.
If you are a departmental civil servant concerned with e-delivery
and would like to explore the intermediaries policy contact
us.
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Contact us
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