Multi-channel provisioning of public services - Department of ...

The fact that the receiving agency is in charge of storing and updating the I-Plan makes system level
coordination and monitoring problematic. The lack of networked control makes the professionalization
of the coordinator role more difficult from a system perspective. With the use of CCPV, real-time
benchmark reporting of events within or between policy networks would be possible.
The role of the coordinator is important and is widely discussed. The fact that the coordinator role is
not a professional one, receiving electronic process support would prove useful for the coordinator in
establishing and maintaining a given I-Plan. Provided task support could include locating appropriate
service providers in the area, keeping plans updated and shared between stakeholders, and checking
resource availability on the fly.
Having online access to the I-Plan with possible views within professional systems would enable the
service providers to provide holistic multi-channel support to the service receivers. Professional
systems could additionally share information with the I-Plan to provide updates that normally would
not be shared, but that potentially could change the I-Plan of the service receiver. This could include
daily logs for home care services or other interactions from service delivery that would alert other
professional groups with a different understanding of the status quo. The CCPV would further allow
coordination of activities, and aid the discovery of other coordinating groups or I-Plans with similar
configurations through access to reporting and a global knowledge base.
From a service receiver point of view, the greatest benefit is received through having a highly
functional coordination group, a motivated coordinator and informed service providers. CCPV would
however in addition prove useful through providing increased mobility, and through extending and
overlapping the virtual organization in a service hand-over situation when moving from one
geographic policy domain to another.
Having access to CCPV as a next of kin or caretaker provides updated information and the possibility
to give feedback on the effect of current measures more frequently. Access to updated contact
information for the coordination group and asynchronous messaging would further improve the
interaction between the I-Plan and the non-professional service provider.
5.3 Discussion and summary
As we can see from the described conceptual architecture, the citizen-centric process view is a single
point of access for the citizen where it can interact with the government on currently provided
services. It provides a platform for service collaboration, knowledge management and process support
in the provisioning of evolving services. It supports flexible organization of providers and the different
government information systems, and with that supports continuous transformation of government
services.
The possibility to support a virtual organization of providers and receivers is probably the most
beneficial feature of CCPV to I-Plan as it is described today. Few formal processes are defined and
process support is mostly focused on the meta-process of establishing a plan, and conducting
coordination group meetings. As process work is mostly emergent and ad-hoc, producing data for
reporting would possibly be considered as a burden, which calls for process mining (van der Aalst,
2010) or similar approaches for global knowledge generation and management.
Once the information infrastructure is established, it is however possible to add business process
management functionality for supporting various process configurations and types. Process
descriptions for customized services provided by different service providers would need to be stored
within the CCPV or within the connected information systems, and need to share information between
the different systems would be needed. One of the benefits crucial from the I-Plan supported by the
CCPV is the fact that the virtual organization can have knowledge that can improve service delivery
not available in existing systems.
Looking back to the original research goal of establishing My Processes capabilities for citizens, the I-
Plan as seen through CCPV is a good demonstration of the possibilities that are found within the
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