Integration - The key to E-Government

Introduction - E-Government Demands

Most government organisations are currently wrestling with an E-Government plan. E-Government initiatives demand data is shared and integrated between departments and applications - so a crucial question arises of "How do we incorporate existing computer application systems and legacy data into the new solutions?"

This article will examine this question by taking a look at some of the common elements you need to consider within your E-Government design plans, and explains how EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) solutions can come to your rescue.

Back-office IT Infrastructure

For historical reasons, most councils today have to contend with a number of independent enterprise applications, deployed on incompatible platforms, and communicating via incompatible protocols. These applications contain critical business data, so this 'back-office' integration is a fundamental challenge for E-Government projects.

The option to replace existing 'best-of-breed' or legacy systems is an approach that fails to take into account the already massive accrued investment in the existing infrastructure. A better objective would be to look at how to maximise existing investment and experience, and investigate ways of utilising existing platforms and applications to combine them into an integrated solution.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technology is ideally suited to this situation. Now recognised as essential 'e-plumbing', EAI enables organisations to share data and processes between systems without the need for sweeping changes to platforms, applications, database structures or architectures. EAI processes can deliver new applications that integrate with existing enterprise systems and data, producing solutions that solve a diverse range of business requirements.

Joined-up Solutions

Council departments often need to access data from other departments and even from other authorities. It's often impractical (and sometimes insecure) to expect employees to learn how to use a multitude of different applications to access this data. A good example would be the call centre situation, where the 'customer' calls in asking for information that resides over several different systems. An EAI solution could implement a simple to use web or GUI front-end that allows customer services personnel to cater for these requirements and seamlessly integrate with back-office resources. Such solutions can provide a good return on investment by reducing training requirements and delivering improved working efficiencies. These systems can also facilitate secure access to the back-office resources.

Public Internet Access

When you extend this back-end integration to the general public via the Internet, you can see even greater benefits. Information requested via a user's browser could be retrieved quickly and efficiently, without them having to know which department stores that particular information. Local authorities would be able to process requests more efficiently, and with obvious savings in costs when compared with dealing with the public by phone or letter.

Web-enabling Legacy Applications

Legacy hosts have been providing a secure stable computing environment for many years. However, a common complaint is that their user interfaces can be cumbersome and difficult to use. EAI solutions can re-engineer legacy applications for staff, by delivering a new easy to use, efficient web or GUI interface that improves productivity and reduces training requirements.

Conclusion

Understanding EAI's potential and applying its technology will undoubtedly form a key part in any successful E-Government strategy. Metascybe Systems' many years of experience in connectivity and system integration has led us to believe that EAI technology will allow E-Government projects to succeed by integrating back-office systems, offering a centralised single point of access, and developing simple to use front-end interfaces. We believe EAI will become fundamental as the basis of preferred solutions in all future projects because it can maximise investment, and fuse technology with essential business processes.

This is copy for article for Jan 2002 edition of Government IT magazine (lead position in E-Government section)