Cloud
Mobile
Analytics
Social
Department of Education and Skills
ICT Strategy 2015 – 2019
Delivering Transformative Digital Customer Services
Design for Digital
Invest to Transform
Customer Centric
Information Centric
1
Contents
PREFACE ..............................................................................................................................................................3
RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICES USING DIGITAL CHANNELS…...…...................................................5
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS...…......................................................................................................................... ...6
GUIDING PRINCIPLES……...…......................................................................................................................... ...7
DESIGN FOR DIGITAL.........................................................................................................................................8
CUSTOMER CENTRIC.........................................................................................................................................9
INFORMATION CENTRIC…................................................................................................................................10
INVEST TO TRANSFORM...................................................................................................................................11
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS.....................................................................................................................................12
INFORMATION ANALYTICS................................................................................................................................13
CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES................................................................................................................................... .14
MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES...................................................................................................................................15
SOCIAL MEDIA....................................................................................................................................................16
IMPLEMENTATION..............................................................................................................................................17
GOVERNANCE....................................................................................................................................................18
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................................................19
Harnessing technology to deliver transformative digital customer services
2
Preface
The mission of the Department’s IT Unit is to “exploit the
capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) for the benefit of the Department’s business units and
customers”. ICT is the critical key enabler to improve customer
services and transform the day-to-day business of the
Department.
This strategy articulates a vision of how the Department can
harness prevailing technology trends to effect real business
transformation by delivering a new genre of digital services to
our customers.
New modern digital customer services can support the
Department’s mission statement to enable learners to achieve
their full potential and contribute to Ireland's economic, social
and cultural development by directly engaging with our service
users
The strategy builds on the Public Service Reform Plan and the
Public Service ICT Strategy that positions Digital Government
Strategy around five central themes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Build to Share
Digital First
Data as an Enabler
Improve Governance
Increase Capability
It builds on outcomes achieved in the 2011-2013 DES ICT
Strategy that laid the infrastructural foundations to leverage
modern technologies.
It is centred on improved customer services by using new
technologies to build modern cloud based applications that will
leverage both mobile and social media trends to enable the
Department to become a more efficient and responsive
organisation.
It addresses the requirement for improved information
management to cater for emerging trends such as big data and
open government.
It encourages the increased use of Business Intelligence and
Analytics software to measure performance, improve customer
satisfaction and evaluate outcomes
It recommends optimising and rebalancing ICT costs by phasing out
legacy infrastructure and application architecture, and utilising the
consequential savings to re-invest in modern technologies.
It proposes that the Department expands its online services
catalogue and application portfolio to bring about more efficient
and responsive services.
The Department’s existing online services serve its administrative
functions and business processes well. However, we are now
entering a new era of online digital services that can enable us to
engage more directly with our main constituent groups; school
employees, school management, parents and pupils.
The implementation of this strategy will necessitate some
upskilling of ICT staff members
Although, this is a five-year strategy, it looks beyond this
timeframe and recommends viewing whole-of-life-costs when
choosing the appropriate technologies and services to support its
outcomes.
3
DES ICT Strategy 2015 - 2019
Context and Influencing Factors
Public Service
Reform Plan
2014-2016
DES
Statement of
Strategy
2015-2017
Integrated
Reform
Delivery Plan
Civil Service
Renewal Plan
Digital
Strategy for
Schools*
Oct 2014
OECD
Recommendation
of the Council on
Digital
Government
Strategies
Organisational
Review
Programme
DES ICT
Strategy
2015-2019
July 2014
National
Digital
Strategy for
Ireland
National
Broadband
Plan for
Ireland
Insight Centre
for Data
Analytics Open Data
Reports*
Public Service
ICT Strategy
Government
Cloud Strategy
eGovernment
Strategy 20122015
*To be published shortly
BIGGER PICTURE
RE-IMAGINING CUSTOMER SERVICES USING DIGITAL DELIVERY CHANNELS
Information
Strengthen use of Analytics:
Build information on Learners to support evidence based policy
development and aid early intervention
Link Primary and Post Primary Pupil Databases
Business intelligence (BI) for performance management (PM) will
apply data analysis to improve work processes and results
BIPM can measure the performance and outcomes of new
education initiatives
Data is only stored once
Improve data collection, processing, sharing and management
systems
Mobile
All new digital customer services accessible using smart mobile
devices
Deliver services that are available, “anytime, anywhere on any
device”
Cloud
Social
Build all future digital services securely in the Cloud enabling
faster service provision and project delivery cycles
Build integrated administrative services for teachers, parents and
pupils
Opportunity for collaborative cloud workspaces for schools to
share information and lessons
Opportunity for digital repository for multimedia educational
content
Use Private Cloud models where appropriate to ensure security
and privacy of personally identifiable citizen information
Explore social media channels for new ways to engage with
customers
Consider establishing social media presence - Facebook, LinkedIn,
YouTube, Google +
Consider use for launching major new education initiatives and
emergency communications.
Possible feedback channel for consultation processes.
Gauge customer sentiment.
The guiding principles above are applicable across the wider education sector. A coherent approach to ICT infrastructure and digital service provision
across the sector would bring economies of scale and complement a shared services approach to ICT provision. The main focus of this strategy is on the ICT
needs of the Department.
Key Recommendations
Innovate
Commence planning to transition our information and technical architecture to modern service delivery channels.
Pilot cloud based mobile applications. Build for the future now and gain economies of scale.
Integrated Systems
An holistic integrated approach must continue to underpin all future ICT developments to service delivery. An approach that views projects
as discrete endeavours leads to information and technology silos, wasteful duplication of work and fragmentation of information.
Strengthen Information Governance
Management of the underlying information is key to all future digital services. Responsibility for stewardship of our electronic information
becomes increasingly important if we are to embrace the era of big data and information analytics. Collecting more data about our service
users will strengthen evidence based policy making. Information needs to be viewed as reusable across all new digital services.
Improve Customer Experience
Greater emphasis will be given to a customer service based approach to future ICT developments. We will use design principles for service
users that optimise customer experience.
Optimise Costs - Consolidate or eliminate redundant business applications, systems, and services.
Assess our current IT applications portfolio, services catalogue and infrastructure regarding its readiness to cater for modem customercentric online service delivery. Then harvest any savings to reinvest in innovation.
“Build once, use many times”
As with future information management , new service delivery applications need to be viewed as reusable at the design initiation stage.
6
Strategy Guiding Principles
Design for
Digital
Customer
Centric
Services are digital by
default
Deliver modern digital
customer services
Information
Centric
Invest to
Transform
Information is managed
as an asset
Release costs from
legacy systems
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DESIGN FOR DIGITAL
SERVICES ARE DIGITAL BY DEFAULT
There has been a significant shift in how people consume ICT and
online services. Mobile devices and smart technology abound in
todays hyper-connected world.
• Since 2014, there are more mobile devices in service than PCs
and laptops.
• 85% of the world’s population now has wireless coverage.
“Design for Digital” means that all new information and
transactional systems will originate in a digital format - be ‘born
digital’. This approach should be considered during the initial
service design stage taking account of the need to ensure digital
inclusion.
We must respond to the Department’s customers’ needs making it
easy for them to find and share information and allow them to
accomplish important tasks online. We must establish a highstandard of informative content, simple transactions, and seamless
interactions that are easily accessible whilst always being mindful of
digital inclusion.
Implemented and resourced appropriately such an approach will
drive improved performance and effectiveness of customer
services. New and emerging trends in technology can be exploited
to deliver a new genre of services.
Digital services include the delivery of digital information and
transactional services across a variety of platforms, devices and
delivery mechanisms such as public websites, mobile applications,
and social media channels. Regardless of the delivery method,
these digital services must be built and deployed with customer
service first in mind and reflect the range of technologies in use by
today’s service users. The quality of digital services that we provide
can profoundly affect our customer experience.
We must focus on customer-centric and information-centric design
principles that will:
 focus on customer engagements that deliver the most use and
value
 continuously improve services and ensure these services are
delivered effectively and efficiently.
 measure performance and outcomes.
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CUSTOMER CENTRIC
DELIVER MODERN DIGITAL CUSTOMER SERVICES
Smart mobile devices, social media, collaboration tools and cloud
computing are changing how we communicate. As a result, our
customers’ expectations as to how we deliver services are
changing. The Department needs to develop responsive digital
services to meet current and future customer expectations.
This Digital Strategy advocates that information and services
need to be joined-up and easy to access through common
customer-centric digital channels. We must design intuitive
systems that will be capable of running on any mobile device.
By increasing our use of BI and analytics software we can improve
customer experience, measure performance, outputs and
customer satisfaction. Areas where service delivery need
improvement can be easily identified and targeted.
We welcome the introduction of a citizen authentication account
as proposed in the Public Service Reform Plan, combined with the
Public Services Card to facilitate easier access to Government
Services. Using this account the customer will have a single view
of all public services available to them. We will explore the
potential for the use of centralised authentication for our
customers. The concept of Customer self-service will be
embedded across all new digital services.
Possible Future Online self-service digital customer services might
include:
School Employees – should over the lifetime of this strategy be given
online access to payslip, pension benefit statements, pensions
modeller, P60s etc. As school employee pay/pensions accounts for
66% of Department's annual expenditure – a separate payroll and
pensions strategy should be considered, particularly if consideration is
to be given to the department delivering payroll and pension services
to school employees in the broader education sector.
Some schools have already implemented an online digital service
whereby:
Teachers - can enter pupil grades in an integrated system, post notes
for parents etc.
Parents can access information online regarding their child’s
assessment results, attendance / absences / lates, timetable
information, teacher notes etc.
Learners - can access their timetable, own grades online along with
details of attendance / absences / lates etc.
There is huge potential for online services for parents and learners such
as those already implemented in some schools. Consideration could
also be given to:
• Teachers posting homework assignments online and sending
messages to class groups, accessible by learners and their parents
• Students could also save work to their own personal e-portfolios.
• The enhancement of Post Primary Online Database to cater for
developments within the Junior Cycle Reform Programme.
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INFORMATION CENTRIC
INFORMATION IS MANAGED AS AN ASSET
The focus for information management in the Public Service Reform
Plan is on supporting open and transparent digital government
services. This Strategy supports open data initiatives. Information is
planning
a vital asset thatIntegrate
can offer ICT
significant
strategic opportunities. We
can harness its value to better support service design and delivery,
Accelerate
themaking.
uptake of common capabilities
policy development
and decision
With the advent of Cloud technologies, further work may be needed
to protect private and restricted data in order to bolster confidence
in new digital public services. Effective information governance and
stewardship requires clear management practices that will ensure
security and privacy controls are pervasive across channels, devices,
networks and applications. The new Government Network Cloud
with its tiered security model can alleviate many of these concerns.
There are opportunities to benefit from maturing Internet
technologies to transform the way we manage and use
information. The concept of information hubs might be considered,
promoting a ‘sectoral’ approach to the management of information
across agencies. This could be facilitated with
a shared
collaboration platform for educational agencies.
This will enable the rationalisation, consolidation and integration of
information assets to establish authoritative data sources and more
effective analysis of information to better inform policy
development.
Systemic behaviourchange
Taking an asset Build
management
approach
will mean non-personal
workforce
capability
information can be made ‘open by default’, with information
shared more effectively between educational agencies and made
publicly available in a way that facilitates its re-use. This opens up
opportunities for the commercial sector to design innovative
solutions based on open data.
The Department intends to develop a new Data Strategy to provide
strategic direction in maximising the value of data to support policy
development and evaluation, programmes of reform and business
cases for resources. Some of the topics the strategy will address will
include the collection, use, management and analysis of data,
cohesion of data developments across the education sector and
further opportunities for data sharing.
The introduction of a new Data Sharing and Governance Bill is also
of vital importance to address how Public Services operate in the
new digital world and under what circumstances citizen data can be
legitimately and securely shared.
10
INVEST TO TRANSFORM
BUILD FOR THE FUTURE - RELEASE COSTS FROM LEGACY SYSTEMS
Over the past number of years, austerity measures combined with
factors such as the decentralisation programme - that led to a
Re-organise capability
depletion of specialist skills and corporate memory - resulted in an
underinvestment in ICT. As a result , IT spend has been focused on
maintaining core Develop
services. leadership
This resulted in a situation whereby
resources were concentrated on “keeping the lights on” (KTLO)
activities. The ability
to design,
build and and
innovate
was severely
Enhance
governance
decision
making
curtailed.
By investing in modern technologies we can reduce the costs of
high-maintenance legacy systems and, by doing so, free up
resources for innovation and transformation. Decisions on where
cost reductions can be made will be based on an assessment of the
whole-of-life costs over long-term timeframes (ten years and over)
of maintaining current technical and application infrastructure as
opposed to deploying newer technologies.
Whether a new service needs to be the focus of internal departmental
ICT, or if it can be delivered using a standardised format on a shared
services platform will also be considered.
Systemic behaviourchange
communicate
and engage
This situation hasCollaborate,
led to a ‘technology
deficit’.
Future ICT
investment now needs to be focused on innovation and the
modernisation of our ICT estate. Increased focus on continued
standardisation, rationalisation and consolidation of our ICT lineof-business systems must be maintained.
As outlined in the Public Service ICT Strategy, “Any potential efficiency
gains referred to as the Reform Dividend could be used to part fund
investment in new digital services, innovation and supporting data
infrastructure.”
The Office of Government Procurement (OGP), when fully operational,
will result in shorter procurement timescales and change focus on ICT
spend from a capital expenditure model to an operational expenditure
model.
When transitioning to cloud based services - we must ensure that we
fully optimise costs.
11
Technology Trends
Information
Improve service provision
by obtaining new customer
insights through the use of
analytics, BI and Big Data
Cloud
Lower operational costs,
project delivery cycles and
enable new mobile services
by transitioning to the
Government Network
Cloud
Mobile
Deliver digital services
available anywhere,
anytime, on any device
Social
Explore social media
opportunities to engage
with customers
12
INFORMATION
IMPROVE SERVICE PROVISION BY OBTAINING NEW CUSTOMER INSIGHTS THROUGH THE USE OF ANALYTICS, BI AND BIG DATA
The era of Big Data is upon us. We must begin to consider how best to
lay the groundwork to handle such new sources of structured and
unstructured information We must source appropriate technologies
Integrate
ICT planning
to handle such
information.
Further use of BI and analytics software will draw information from
various sources across the education system delivering insight and
highlighting meaningful patterns and trends to further strengthen
policy development.
thetechnology
uptake ofthat
common
capabilities
Analytics is aAccelerate
transformative
will underlie
all future
digital services. It will deliver a better understanding of information;
based on current
trends,
technologies
such as predictive analytics can
Build
workforce
capability
enable the department to gain new insights into the education
system.
The Department has already harnessed the power of BI software
using it to model key information to assist School Inspections, analyse
literacy and numeracy data and payroll financial analysis. We are
committed to continued implementation of BI across all new data sets
and exploring analytical software for predictive analysis.
Technology solutions will ultimately fail if the underlying information
is not timely and accurate.
Systemic behaviourchange
Analytics will build rich visualisations to enable better understanding
and make sense of underlying raw information. Non personally
identifiable information, especially aggregate information can then be
served up to the public as online open data in graphical format.
Information and records management becomes increasingly
important as the flow of information increases. New methods of
enterprise content management will have to be appraised.
13
CLOUD
LOWER OPERATIONAL COSTS, PROJECT DELIVERY CYCLES AND ENABLE NEW MOBILE SERVICES BY TRANSITIONING TO THE GOVERNMENT NETWORK CLOUD
Cloud offers the opportunity to seamlessly access information
anywhere, at any time, on any device. Large-scale upfront
capital expenditure is not required as cloud services are offered
on an operational “pay-as-you-go” model. Proof-of-concept and
pilot developments can be rapidly provisioned for small financial
outlays.
Cloud combined with mobility, information analytics and social
collaboration will create a customer-driven ecosystem filled with
new and emerging opportunities as to how the Department can
engage with its customers.
The Department will consider piloting new online customer
services on the Government Network Cloud. We have begun by
piloting new small scale developments to establish how best cost
savings, service delivery efficiencies and expected business
benefits can be realised. It can then consider transitioning its
large-scale traditional on-premises mission-critical systems.
Future service delivery can focus on customer-friendly systems
using component based design methods such as web services
and service oriented architecture. Older costly monolithic
architectures will be phased out.
Benefits
Responsiveness. Potential for faster turnaround in online
service delivery
Rapid provisioning of infrastructure
Potential for significant cost savings
No requirement for upfront capital outlay.
Use Government Network Cloud – Hybrid Cloud model
Hybrid Cloud – mix of private and public cloud catering
securely for both personal citizen data and public domain
data
Automatic Software Integration
Challenges
Security of Personal Citizen Data stored in Public Cloud
Trust in a third-party cloud service provider
Cybersecurity – Data more prone to attack in Public Cloud
Technical Issues - Outages
14
MOBILE
DELIVER DIGITAL SERVICES AVAILABLE ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ON ANY DEVICE
Smart mobile devices, social media, collaboration tools and Cloud Computing are changing how we communicate. Combined with cloud technologies,
mobile solutions can make information anywhere, anytime, on any device.
We will review our existing applications portfolio and services catalogue to determine the suitability and technical readiness for new mobile solutions.
Mobile apps can be piloted delivered based on our main customer groups, teachers, parents and pupils.
Customers expect services to be made available across all mobile devices. Geo-centric (leveraging location awareness) design concepts may also be
considered.
Access to Everything, All the Time, From Any Device, From Anywhere
In one minute…
204 million
emails sent
47,000 app
downloads
135 new
botnet
infections
1.3 million
YouTube
views
15
SOCIAL
EXPLORE SOCIAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS
Social media has many definitions – it has core characteristics
however, such as online mass collaboration environments where
content is created, posted, enhanced, discovered, consumed and
Re-organise capability
shared, participant to participant, without a direct intermediary.
Another possible use might be when initiating a consultation
process, feedback can be invited via social media, then issue a
draft policy, then get more feedback, and finally issue the
completed document. By doing so, social media can engage our
customers more directly in the work of the Department.
Develop
Social media can
enableleadership
a better understanding of customer
sentiment and create a collaboration channel for open government
and innovation. Enhance governance and decision making
The Department has a Twitter presence since July 2012. As part
of the External Communications Plan currently being drafted,
we will explore other social media channels for new
opportunities to engage with our customers in new and
innovative ways.
Systemic behaviourchange
Social media can be used for launching major new initiatives and is
Collaborate,
communicate
and engage
especially effective
in delivering
a message quickly
such as in the
case of emergency communications.
16
IMPLEMENTATION
Action Plan
A detailed Implementation Action Plan will be devised - once it is decided the level of customer engagement and new digital services that the
Department wishes to deliver. A single senior responsible officer (SRO) will be appointed to oversee the implementation of this strategy and the Public
Service ICT strategy.
Technical Strategy
An accompanying technical strategy can be drawn up to define guiding principles as to how new services will be designed and deployed. Where
practicable, we will build services on the Government Network and procure goods and services through the OGP.
IT/Business Unit Partnership
Successful implementation of digital projects is dependent on strong partnerships involving business units and IT. PRINCE2 is the standard project
methodology used at all stages of IT projects by both IT personnel and business unit staff. An agreed Project Initiation Document will be established at
project commencement stage in order to clearly to articulate the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the project.
“Shared Experience”
We will draw on the experiences of other Public Service Organisations as they build new digital services and avail of lessons learned.
Shared Services.
We will avail of shared services, where feasible. We will build applications capable of moving to a shared services or scalable to take in other agencies
if required. Once a cost/benefit analysis study demonstrates that business benefits realisation are achievable the deployment of internal systems on a
shared services model can be considered. How such shared services might be deployed technically requires careful consideration in order to gain
economies of scale.
17
ICT GOVERNANCE
While the IT Unit’s annual work programme is approved by the Department’s Management Advisory Committee (MAC), the MAC ICT Oversight
Subcommittee (MIOS) established in 2010, consider all potential projects for inclusion in the unit’s work programme, following which
recommendations are made to MAC. The process for consideration of proposed projects for the IT Unit’s work programme has evolved, with sections
submitting business cases using a prescribed template, subsequently considered by MIOS in accordance with agreed criteria and weightings.
MIOS will continue to play an important role providing ICT Governance by prioritising projects, monitoring progress on projects underway and
ultimately ensuring that the IT Unit’s strategy and work programme continue to be aligned to the business objectives of the department.
This strategy and its accompanying Implementation Action Plan will be reviewed at annual intervals to monitor its progress and take account of new
and emerging technology trends.
18
CONCLUSION
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER - EVOLUTION NOT REVOLUTION
Technology is fundamentally transforming how we live our daily lives. Exponential advances in computing power, advances in highspeed networks, the growing upsurge in mobile and smart technologies puts the content of the entire Internet at our fingertips.
We need to harness the potential technology offers to create 21st century digital customer services— that are efficient, effective and
focused on improving service delivery.
We can enable citizens and our own increasingly mobile workforce to securely access high-quality digital information and services—
“anywhere, anytime, on any device.” By cultivating an information-centric model, we can securely architect systems for interoperability
and openness. Doing so will allow us to modernise our content publication model and deliver better digital services capable of running
on any device at a lower cost.
We must build the modern infrastructure needed to support digital government efforts and leverage the Office of the Government
Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) and Office of Government Procurement (OGP) Frameworks buying power to reduce costs. By availing
of the services on these frameworks, we could look at the potential for strategic out-sourcing, in order to release ICT staff to other
projects.
This strategy espouses an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach. This strategy combined with the Implementation Plan to be
developed, will outline a gradual shift to new customer-centric, information rich digital services.
Building on the Public Service Reform Plan, the Public Service ICT Strategy and the Civil Service Renewal Plan, it provides a platform to
fundamentally shift how we connect with, and provide services to, our customers.
To increase our effectiveness, we must enter an era of accelerated service delivery transformation and information-based decision
making.
We must start building for the future now.
19