United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

eKL initiatives (2007 – 2010) has been undertaken as an immediate effort by the Malaysian Government to integrate service delivery across public agencies in order to provide services in a standardised and systematic manner its clientele: citizens and the business community, using information and communications technology. It focuses on services within the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur provided by 27 ministries, 275 operational public agencies and 13 local governments in 3 states. It promote more efficient, fast, quality, safe and user friendly services using multiple delivery channels including wireless and mobile technology. “mySMS 15888” is one of the eKL initiatives.

The Government sees tremendous promise in wireless and mobile technology as an alternative delivery channel since mobile phones are already in the hands of most Malaysians. By the end of 2008, 88% of the Malaysian population (approximately 25.1 million) subscribes to mobile phone, giving immense opportunities to leverage on mobile channel. It affirms mobile phone networks as an increasingly popular channel for Malaysians to perform a plethora of activities beyond voice communication, encompassing all forms of digital communication, commerce, banking, payments and government services. Indeed, government services via text messaging have the potential to grow in importance. Especially to accelerate the migration to electronic services, to widen the reach and appeal of electronic services.,It also deliver innovative mobile service products that offer speed, simplicity and convenience at minimal cost for the public, as well as to provide an efficient and cost-effective method of delivering government services anywhere anytime.

Before “mySMS 15888” project, SMS services were independently initiated by individual Government agencies, however the uptakes were low. This was confirmed from a survey conducted by the Malaysian Administrative and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), that there were only 34 agencies implementing 177 SMS services using diverse service providers with different architectural approaches. These approaches have different implementation cost that is difficult for agency to choose the best approach. Cumulatively, the cost incurred by government was high when agencies implement SMS services independently.

Morever, there were too many SMS numbers for client to remember, i.e. 14 different numbers. E.g: 32728 for RAKANCOP (police community services), and ‘halal’ information, 33995 for national service information, 33778 for Ministry of Education’s services and 33199 for loan information.

In addition, for the transactional charges, clients are imposed inconsistent rates ranging between RM0.50 to RM2.00 per message. The challenge to standardize the charges required collaboration between several agencies, mainly Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication, telecommunication companies and SMS service providers. To conclude, the suggested charges will need to consider all parties’ social obligation to the citizen of Malaysia.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
“mySMS 15888” project is aimed at benefiting not only the government and its agencies but most of all its clientele. However, the beneficiaries also include the private sector. The project aimed at benefiting the government in delivering effective and efficient online services to its client. MAMPU has organized workshops to create awareness amongst agencies to register their services to the project and be a participating agency. Integrated Government SMS single gateway using a single number will reduce agencies’ burden to build their own SMS infrastructure. In addition, the agencies could save cost for managing and sustaining the system. Agencies can now ride on this single number infrastructure with a minimum cost of RM10,000 regardless of the number of services. To promote social obligation, client’s transactional cost has been lowered to RM0.35 and standardized to all services. Thus, this creates an opportunity for the agencies to provide another channel to their services in addition to the counter, online and telephone services. From the promotional programs conducted under this project, agencies also gain advantage that has contributed to more usage of the services. The “mySMS 15888” also targets to benefit citizens of all age and walks of life. Todate (as of December 2008) there are two communities (mySMS and OneJPJ) created with 3,604 and 2,143 registered user respectively ranging from age 18 to above 50 years. Occasionally government will use this channel to send latest alerts to these communities. In addition, users also will receive free alerts on their driving licenses’ and road taxes’ expiring dates. However, this does not hinder non-register users to use the services. By using the single gateway, 15888, clients may have access to government services with no time, internet, space and place limitation. Teenagers and their parents were the first targeted client for this project who benefit on services, such as enquiries on national examination result, university admission and examination result or national service placement and pick-up point. Since its implementation, there are 509,956 hits enquiring on national service placement and their pick-up points, 1,819 enquiries on university entry result and 5,519 enquiries on university examination results. It also give an option to deal with Government for businessman, private sector workers and academicians who are frequently on the move meeting clients, visiting sites or lecturing off campuses. The ease of use also helps client to save traveling costs dealing with the government at counter/ sites. It also enable client to act fast on payment avoiding additional cost incur for delayed payment. While the standardization and reduction of transactional charges to RM0.35 has also eased the charges on clients, especially in view of the current economic situation. There is no addition commission on any payment transactions, Government alerts and information are sent for free. This project also creates opportunity to local SMS service provider to prove their capability and competency in implementing this project. This also promote healthy collaboration work between the Government, local telecommunication providers and SMS service providers.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
mySMS project was proposed by MAMPU to the Government and it was subsequently approved and accepted by 2 Government most highest management level, namely the Government ICT and Internet Committee (GITIC) and the Panel on Improving Government Service Deliveries System (Panel 3P). mySMS was initiated on 17 August 2007. Its model was developed by MAMPU after receiving inputs from relevant agencies who were invited as focus groups and workshop sessions. The initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Government services by utilizing mobile and wireless technology such as Short Messaging System (SMS). The eKL project team under MAMPU, with strength of approximately 49 members were formed and responsible to materialize the initiatives. The team has embarked to study, design and implement the use of SMS as a channel for delivering Government services and thus the creation of a mobile government. The team branded the project as “mySMS 15888”: denote Malaysian Government SMS services with “15888” as one unified number to the services. Designing the implementation model, concept and strategies involved several stages of knowledge sharing sessions. It involves acquiring data, information and knowledge from members within the project team itself, discussion with several implementing agencies, conducting survey, focus groups discussion, workshops with civil servants and discussions with private sectors agencies. The accumulated information and knowledge has enabled the team to propose the best architectures/models and strategies for the implementation of “mySMS 15888” project. The focus groups’ discussion, consisting of members from government agencies, private sector and academicians, were organized to understand the issues, challenges and strategies to implement Government SMS services. MAMPU, as the central agency for the eKL initiatives has been empowered the responsibility to push for more services extending SMS services. Workshops has been organized as a push program to agencies by sharing MAMPU’s plan and agencies issues and challenges, and also project debriefing sessions to get agencies’ commitment to participate in this project. The Stakeholders who endorsed the project are of highest committee of the Government such as Panel 3P and the Cabinet of Malaysia chaired by Chief Secretary to the Government and Honourable Prime Minister of Malaysia respectively.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
A large number of agencies are involved to develop SMS services in this project. Therefore, several strategic approaches were taken to get buy-in and commitment from agencies. MAMPU as the lead agency in this project has established a project team as the project secretariat. Some of the team responsibilities are to plan, coordinate, manage and monitor the project. This team coordinated the technical, budget and contract issues raise from time to time. Second strategy was to have a single gateway to all agencies’ SMS services with an infrastructure that is able to accomodate all services by 2010. The development of all SMS service must be easy and fast for agencies’ to hop its services onto the ready infrastructure. Third strategy was to introduce a single SMS number, 15888, to all Government SMS services. This will ease citizen to acquire services from a single number rather than having to remember many SMS numbers for different services. The number choose must be easy to remember by citizens. Fourthly, was to introduce a standardised transactional charges for all SMS services. The charges must be low and acceptable for citizens to use the services. The fifth strategy, the concept of “Built, Operate and Own (BOO)”, is used for the implementation of this project. An experience service provider was chosen in the tendering process to develop the required infrastructure and services that will generate revenue for them to own the system when the concession period is over. This is to ensure fast development to mySMS infrastructure and services and with no cost to the government. Next strategy is to ensure the performance of the services developed by establishing Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) which were agreed between Government and the service provider. Lastly, is to promote mySMS services through the different media channels (electronic and paper based) to ensure the services are known and used by citizens.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The decision by the Government to implement eKL initiatives which consist of several projects was the starting point for the smooth implementation of mySMS project. With the mandate given to implement the eKL initiatives to MAMPU, MAMPU had cooperations from all parties. These included comments and recommendations through committees, collaborations and cooperation committed by agencies in the implementation process of mySMS. The formation of eKL pro-temp project team was formed in April 2007 which was responsible for the initial concept of mySMS including understanding the current SMS implementation scenario in the Government. Between April and May 2007, discussions were organized with implementing agency to identify the different model used. A survey was distributed to agencies for the purpose of analyzing the current scenario. The data collected showed that there were only 177 services offered by 34 agencies, 14 different SMS numbers servicing different government services and 4 different implementation architecture used. These lead to the development of mySMS concept paper. By June 2007, MAMPU has set up an eKL Division to implement eKL initiatives and acquired the human resources consisting of 49 personnel which is lead by a Director. Once the team was officially formed, the Governance structure was set up. The concept paper on mySMS was presented twice to eKL Steering Committee before it was accepted and then presented to the Panel on Improving Government Service Deliveries System (Panel 3P). Upon approval, the next step was to acquire the necessary budget for this project from the Ministry of Finance in order to initiate the project. The initial budget is used for mySMS development and its promotions. By January 2008, the tender for mySMS project was advertised to the public and by April 2008 the successful tenderer was identified. Upon the agreement between the Government and the appointed vendor, the project embarked on 15th May 2008. The developing process focus not only on the infrastructure and the services but also the standard transactional charges to the client. From August till December 2008, the cost for developing agencies’ services was covered by the allocated budget. But for participating agencies after December 2008 will have to secure their own budget of RM10,000. To date, MAMPU is continuously organizing workshops to agencies for new SMS services.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
There were several obstacles in implementing mySMS, however the main obstacles were from the perspective of people and process. Firstly, from people perspectives, they were from the Government agencies and vendor (mySMS service provider). Agencies commitment and acceptance is vital to implement the project. Workshops were continuously organize to create acceptance and commitment from agencies. Most of the agencies agreed to implement mySMS, but due to their heavy work load at their agencies, they have to delay the implementation. In this scenario, the project team will leverage on other agencies that are ready to adopt this project. The challenges for the project team are to attract a large number of agencies to participate in the project and manage it with a limited resources. From the perspective of mySMS service provider, it was a big challenge to manage project team with limited resources. Also, there were some deliverables that they could not deliver that halted the project implementation. Other challenges are agencies need to address the gap between consumers expectations and services offered. Openness and inter-connectivity are also critical in the Government mobile service initiatives. In addition, there are issues that need to be addressed to realize the opportunities and allow Malaysia to take full advantage of new mobile technologies. To achieve their full potential, it is important to identify the gaps in the service offerings and plan the way ahead for Malaysia to make the quantum leap in “mySMS 15888” adoption.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
To ensure the success of the project, the resources require include people, cost and effective governance to implement this project. From the perspective of people, MAMPU received support from the Malaysian Public Service Department in the form of approval and placement of 49 personnel in eKL Division. Five personnels were selected to form the Government mySMS team, to be the secretariat and manage mySMS implementation. The service provider placed 35 full time personnel to develop and implement the operation of mySMS. Whilst, at the agencies level, SMS working team were formed to manage and develop their SMS services. Budget amounted RM1.5 million was secured from the Ministry of Finance, from which 1/3 of the budget was for system integrations, whilst the remainder was for promotional purposes. It was also important to ensure the governance of the project is in place for the success of the project. At the highest level, there is mySMS Steering Committee that define the way forward of mySMS project and also monitor its implementation. The next level is the mySMS Implementation Committee with members comprising of representative from ministries and state governments. This committee is the platform for reporting on agencies’ mySMS project progress and issues during the implementation process. The issues to be resolved by discussions and solutions recommended by the committee members. This umbrella concepts is use to support mySMS implementation where ministries and state governments are the coordinator to their agencies.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Currently there are approximately 25.1 million subscribers in Malaysia and the number is expected to increase every year. The high penetration rate of mobile phone users affirms mobile phone network as an increasingly popular channel for delivering service including Government services. With this immense increase, it shows that there is a high demand and need for speedy services by citizen. This should be a factor to encourage agencies to continuously be creative in developing new services especially SMS services. MAMPU as the mediator has worked with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication and the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to develop a new policy to standardize SMS service transaction charges bound by the citizen. MAMPU has taken up this project to address issues and challenges identified to set up programs and work in collaboration with agencies. Together with related agencies, MAMPU has identified and pushed more SMS services for their client. While integrating all SMS services through a single number gateway to all government SMS services through this project, agencies’ implementation cost has only be at RM 10,000.00. Agencies do not have to procure any hardware and software because the infrastructure is ready for agencies to come on board. Agencies only need to provide the content/services while other process is manage by the Government SMS team. This approach has help to bring more agencies to provide new services into the project. And together with the standardization of the SMS transaction cost, it has help to attract more client to use mySMS 15888. All of the above has enabled the project to sustain. As proof, we now have an additional 260 services from 50 agencies in comparison to 177 existing services from 34 agencies. For the first four (4) months of its implementation, mySMS services have had 600,000 hits. The later shows the utilization of the services from client which proved the viability of the service. Hence, the initiative is being expanded throughout the public service at the national level. MAMPU target to deliver 350 SMS services for 2009 and 500 SMS service for 2010. MAMPU have started workshops with agencies to encourage them to participate the mySMS implementation.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
There are several key elements that have made the initiative a success. Firstly, the governance structure of the project consisting of the SMS Implementation Committee and the SMS Steering Committee which manage and monitor the project. The knowledge sharing sessions have been enormously useful for the project team to ensure the mySMS success. The sessions have been organized at different stages involving public and private sector participation The openness and team work of the participants from the public and private sector, the selected focus group in discussion and agencies who attended the workshops organized by MAMPU has helped to streamline the issues and challenges. Thus, build a strong strategies and policy necessary for its implementation. E-Government is a big plan to improve government operation. From our experience, for a speedy roll-out and success of the project, we need to start small and scale fast. Even though the project holistically covers the whole of the public sector, we have focused on prioritizing areas that have high impact to the public. And this is with the help and commitment of the agencies involved. Promotional planning has to be in place to get client to use the services. MAMPU had produced promotional packages for electronic and mass media to ensure the services offered are made known to both agencies and the client. The promotional activities have increased the number of customers using the services offered. Other than promoting to the public, these services are also promoted to the public sector employees as an agent to promote the services to their friends and family. This is continuous effort to ensure latest services are being informed to the users.


Institution Name:		Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Magement Planning Unit
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Wan Mohd. Rosdi Wan Dolah
Title:		Director of eKL Division
Telephone/ Fax:		603-88883150 OR 6012-2812125
Institution's / Project's Website:		603-88883286 OR 603-88883163
E-mail:		wrosdi@mampu.gov.my
Address:		Prime Minister's Department, Level 6, Block B2, Prime Minister's Department Complex, Federal Government Administrative Centre
Postal Code:		62502
City:		PUTRAJAYA
State/Province:		Federal Territory
Country:		Malaysia

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information