United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The kingdom of Bahrain had a preliminary website in 2006 offering online services. This website had its own limitations for scalability w.r.t integration of services from other ministries / agencies, and also did not offers wide channels of choice fior users like web portal, mobile etc. Further, the number of services provided on the website was very minimal and also the uptake of services was less. In addition to these, the key philosophies propounded by the Bahrain eGovernment strategy and programme was to “provide alternate and convenient channels of choice” for delivery of services to its citizens.

This necessitated the implementation of a robust platform for service delivery. This has been made possible by the development of Integrated Service Delivery Platforms for citizens. These platforms include – A national web portal (www.bahrain.bh), national mobile portal (www.bahrain.bh/mobile), National toll free contact centre (80008001), Common Service Centres (CSC) and electronic self operated KIOSKS. All these service delivery channels provide electronic services to the customers. All the ministries / government agencies in the Kingdom are using these platforms for delivering government services. The entire platform is based on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) resulting in integrated and reusable components across the government spectrum. Another significant difference is the use of any of these alternate channels for accessing the same services - for e.g a citizen can make electricity bill payment through the national portal, or mobile portal or Kiosk or even the CSCs. These features make the service delivery channels truly integrated with convenience to the citizens. Provision of such multiple channels has increased the acceptance and uptake of the programme among the citizens. This is evident from the recent satisfaction survey conducted by a third party agency (AC Nilesen) in the year 2009 which indicated a customer satisfaction index of 85%.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
This is an end to end initiative to provide an integrated platform for e-service delivery across the spectrum of the Bahrain Government’s services through numerous alternate channels leading to a ‘no wrong door policy’ and ultimately achieving higher customer satisfaction. The platform is currently live and operational in the Kingdom of Bahrain and services can be availed instantly. Numerous interaction channels and mediums are provided by the platform as follows • National Web portal -> supports all major browsers, with 110 services online currently. • Mobile Portal -> available over WAP, SMS, with 35 services currently • Kiosks -> 20 Kiosks with 20 services online • Common Service centers -> 4 centers currently available offering all services on the national web portal • National contact centre -> operational and support all other channels of delivery Further to ensure high standard of service, strict quality metrics are employed, which include setting individual KPIs for the various channels to measure uptake, satisfaction, availability, etc. Customer charters are prepared for all channels of delivery – Web Portal, Mobile Portal, Common Service centres etc. Moreover, to build the trust among users, the channels are complying and adopting with various international security standards – ISO 27001, Verisign SSL, McAfee protection etc. The key benefits of the integrated platform are the following: 1. Set up of national level infrastructure for integrated service delivery platform to be utilized by all government institutions 2. A de-facto standard for developing and integrating services on the platform 3. Enables scalable secure and highly available delivery channels 4. Reduces the duplicity of channels and offer one stop shop for all users 5. On the long term this will enable the Kingdom wide single sign on / authentication facility 6. Cost effective front end channels for user access The reasons of these channels in becoming most preferred service delivery interface among citizens have been because of the following – Citizen centric design, adopting international standards like W3C for User Interface design and accessibility, continuous improvement through online feedback forms, blogs and chats etc. Moreover, Bahrain believes in “go to market” i.e. go where the citizens are - we are having presence in the community websites like FaceBook, YouTube etc. The eGovernment Authroity (eGA) conducts half yearly customer surveys to assess the effectiveness of the programme and the customer satisfaction. The recent survey indicated that 85% of the customers are satisfied with the service delivery channels. (as per the survey 2009 by independent agency A C Neilsen). The other key statistics which indicates the high impact are • Over 102,000 page views on the web portal • Over USD 11 million worth transactions • Over 700,000 financial transactions • Over 10 million hits on the web portal

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The core to a world class service delivery to citizens is the provisioning of an integrated service delivery platform. This platform should serve as a base which is available 24X7 and accessible by all electronic channels of delivery. With this intention in place, the eGovernment Strategy had conceived an integrated delivery platform to be utilized by all channels and ministries. The integrated platform for service delivery was proposed by the Bahrain eGovernment Strategy and this was designed and implemented by the eGovernment Authority. The Service Delivery and Channels Enhancement directorate of the eGovernment Authority had undertaken detailed analysis of the requirements from the ministries and also the strategy. The requirements were converted to the technical design and then implemented in-house with the assistance of eGovernment staff. The implementation required various technical and business skill sets. Other institutions / directorates which played key roles are - Central Informatics Organization providing hosting and operational support, eGovernment Authority (Business Process Reengineering Directorate) providing the process improvement, quality control and information security assessment support, ministries along with eGovernment Authority (Service delivery directorate) provisioning the services through the platform and integrating the channels on the platform.

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.
The eGovernment strategy for the Kingdom had recommended a holistic programme to implement integrated service delivery for the people of the Kingdom. The objectives of the strategy were – • to become an eGovernment leader • to provide all government services • to provide best-in-class • integrated services to its customers • available to all customers • Channels of choice to its customers. The key strategic priorities which were derived out of this strategy were the following: • Channel enhancement • Service delivery • Key enabler The strategy was formulated with active participation from the public, business and ministries. The strategy was approved by the Supreme Committee for ICT (SCICT). The SCICT comprises of ministries from the key ministries headed by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom. The implementation of the strategy was entrusted with the eGovernment Authority (eGA) of the Kingdom. As a part of this initiative, eGA implemented the Integrated Service Delivery Platform.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
1) Launch of the national eGovernment strategy and national portal in May 2007 with 35 eServices 2) Provisioning of the payment services (using debit and credit cards) in September 2007 3) Launch of the National Contact Centre in May 2008 4) Development of a high end highly available and scalable infrastructure in May 2009 5) Launch of the mobile portal in May 2009 with 15 services 6) Launch of 35 services on the mobile in Nov 2009 7) Launch of the 4 Common Service Centre and Kiosk in May 2009 8) Roll out of 10 Kiosks and 10 services in Sep 2009 9) 110 services enabled on National Portal – Dec 2009

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The integrated Service Delivery Platform (ISDP) implementation had the following obstacles: 1. Lack of key resources: An implementation of more than 200 government services requires experienced project managers and varied technology and business skills at different levels in the ministries. Bahrain as a country lacks these resources. eGA recruited qualified people from other geographies on contract basis and also hired vendors; skill up-gradation of the existing government employees through the various capacity building training programmes; sponsored overseas training for the employees. These actions ensured that best-in-class skills sets are available in Bahrain for the project. 2. Ownership, relationships, and Cooperation from stakeholders: As the success is dependent on delivering eServices, which in turn are owned by stakeholders (ministries), their cooperation is the key. To ensure the continuous co-operation and support, the following actions were undertaken - Created a high level steering committee led by the Deputy Prime Minister for overseeing the progress - SCICT and TCICT; Creation of task teams for implementation- Task force in ministries; Conduct meetings at frequent intervals for status tracking and issue resolution. Effective communication amongst the stakeholders is the key success factor for any eGovernment initiative to succeed. Stakeholders should also ensure the participation of users and business communities during formulation of processes /regulations regarding the use of technology by public administration. 3. Lack of standards and policies: Ministries lacked standards and policies for the data exchange or inter-operability. This has resulted in compatibility issues between applications for delivering eServices. This was overcome by creation of standards and policies by eGA for developing and maintaining eServices. 4. Lack of awareness among the citizens: The success of the eGovernment programme lies in the uptake of newly developed electronic channels vis-à-vis traditional channels. This required a massive awareness and capacity building campaigns throughout the Kingdom. The Marketing Awareness directorate of eGA conducts awareness campaigns, and various marketing initiatives for the general public. It organizes road shows in order to reach to the citizens and provides necessary training & awareness to the citizens for using the services on the National Portal. Common Services Centres are also providing the access of the National Portal to the citizens who do not internet connection, do not have computers or do not know how to operate computers. 5. Lack of trust in e- commerce among the citizens: The acceptance of the eGovernment Portal as the service delivery channel is dependant on the citizens’ trust in e-commerce especially performing online payment related transactions. Concentrated efforts were made to create awareness among the general public and build their trust in e-commerce. The Portal has a VERISIGN SSL for secure e-Commerce and confidential communications. The site is also monitored by MacAfee on a daily basis and certified daily to pass the “McAfee Secure” Security Scan. This helps address concerns about possible hacker access to Portal confidential data, and the safety of visiting this site.

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
The integrated service delivery platform was developed by the eGovernment Authority (eGA) with the assistance of multiple stakeholders – Directorates in eGA, Central Informatics Organization (CIO), ministries, external vendors etc. The platform is ever evolving based on the changing and dynamic needs of the eGovernment programme. The teams supporting the platform include the following: • Team constituting the eGA and CIO for the development support and operations of the platform • Team from eGA and ministries for development and support of services and portal • Team from eGA ministries and Vendor for Mobile Portal • Team from eGA and vendors for Kiosk, CSC and National Contact Centre The platform is developed on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and is integrated with ministries using web services. The project is sufficiently funded for procuring, installing, and maintaining the infrastructure – hardware, software and support, licenses, etc. The AMC is already in place with leading vendors. The integrated service delivery platform is built on open standards with multiple technologies to ensure interoperability between various components. The platform is fully secured with the latest available security software. The availability of human resources for the development of the platform was a challenge. eGA recruited certain key resources for development. Based on certain analysis, some of the tasks were outsourced to selected vendors. eGA ensured the quality of deliverables and outputs. The hardware, software and services were procured through a competitive tendering process.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The eGovernment strategy and programme implementation is an ongoing transformation initiative adopted by the Kingdom of Bahrain. The strategy is being emulated by the Ministries within Bahrain and can be emulated by other countries as well. Similarly the integrated service delivery platform is a sustainable initiative from the eGA. This platform is ever evolving and is expanding based on the needs of the government. Today, it has five channels of delivery, whereas going forward it is envisaging new channels. The initiative is supported financially by the government itself. The human resources required for support is provided by eGA and CIO. The ministries are fully dependent on the platform for eService delivery. eGA has developed policies and procedures for ministries to develop and integrate the services and channels on the platform. Moreover, these policies and procedures are supported by the SCICT for adopting the regulatory measures for implementing within the ministries. The following are the efforts in the direction of the sustenance of the Integrated service delivery platform: a) Upgrade the infrastructure and facilities on a periodic basis to accommodate changing needs. b) Identify and integrate more channels of delivery c) Conduct business process re-engineering and improve the process by streamlining of government operations and initiate administrative reforms in the forthcoming strategy so as to streamline the process and provide simplified process to the citizens. d) Implement common polices and standards for ICT initiatives through the implementation of Kingdom-wide Enterprise Architecture to enable service integration and interoperability. e) Conduct half yearly citizen surveys to assess the satisfaction levels and scope for further improvements.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The initiative is a great success. This is understandable from the wide acceptance as well as uptake of the channels built on the platform. Some of the achievements (statistics) which measure the impact of the initiative are the following: Achievements: 1) More than 110 eServices including transaction and payments on the National web portal 2) More than 35 transactional services on the Mobile (WAP, SMS) 3) More than 20 transactional services including payment on the 20 Kiosks located at various locations of the Kingdom 4) National Call centre operational for support of all the channels 5) Transactions worth USD 11 million since launch 6) Customer satisfaction index of 85% (AC Nielsen survey May 2009). The integrated platform is the first of its kind in the kingdom. The platform is currently providing the services of government to citizens. In future the plan is to offer services from the private channels as well. Bahrain faces huge challenges as it moves into the 21st century. The objective of Bahrain Vision 2030 is to ensure that we are proactive in shaping a response to those challenges rather than being overwhelmed by them. Therefore the most continuing lesson is that building a culture of eGovernment in particular and, more generally, a culture of ICTs for development and for everyday life in the long run.


Institution Name:		eGovernment Authority, Kingdom of Bahrain
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Feras J Ahmed
Title:		Director of Service Delivery & Channel Enhancemen
Telephone/ Fax:		+973 17388335, +973 39684666
Institution's / Project's Website:		+973 17388338
E-mail:		fahmed@ega.gov.bh
Address:		10th Floor, Euro Tower, Bldg No 485, Road No 1010
Postal Code:		PO Box 75533
City:		Sanabis
State/Province:
Country:		Bahrain

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