department of social and family affairs annual report 2006 - Welfare.ie

appendices
APPENDIX 6: PUBLIC
PROCUREMENT AND CAPITAL
APPRAISAL
a) Reach
The Reach project arose out of proposals by the
Department for a cross-departmental unit to
pursue a number of aspects of integrated delivery
of Government services. The proposals originally
approved in 1999 included:
• establishment of the PPSN as a common
identifier,
• preparation of proposals for public service cards,
• establishment of a common means database,
• customer identity validation,
• integration of PPSN allocation and birth
registration.
In 2000 the Government decided that the Public
Service Broker would be the framework within
which integrated electronic services should be
delivered.
Reach has developed since then through a
number of separate projects. The underlying
approach has also been modified in line with
changing technology and related developments.
The individual projects included:
• development and deployment of the Public
Service Broker,
• development of an inter-agency messaging
service (IAMS),
• a death event publication system for use by
public service agencies,
• public service identity service provided through
the Department,
• support for Revenue PAYE online service.
Currently Reach is supporting the introduction of
the PAYE online service which is expected to be
fully operational later this year.
While none of the individual projects involved
costs over €30million, expenditure on Reachrelated
projects in total, which includes
operational and support costs for the live
environment, has been in the region of €50
million.
The successful completion of the current phase
will mean that the infrastructure is in place
to support online delivery of a range of public
services. Discussions have been initiated with
various departments and agencies to identify
the possibilities for early access to other services
via the Broker. The intention will be to develop
a programme of future work in this area and
an assessment of the costs involved so that the
necessary decisions can be taken as to the future
development of the project.
b) Service Delivery Modernisation Programme
In July 2000, Government approval was
obtained to proceed with the Service Delivery
Modernisation (SDM) Programme, which aims
to deliver a high quality, proactive service to
customers. The main drivers for modernisation
were identified as:
• Out-dated technologies and work processes
• Inadequate response to clients needs
• Growing caseloads
• Government demands for improved service and
cost reductions
SDM is a multi-year programme of change using
modern technologies and business models to
achieve a radical transformation of service to
customers. A new generation of ICT systems
to replace legacy computer systems is being
developed which will facilitate a more customer
centric service and support DSFA e-Government
strategy. Organisational structures and work
processes are being redesigned in order to take
advantage of the flexibilities on offer from the
new ICT systems.
These developments will allow DSFA to be more
agile in responding to changes in Government
policies and customer needs. The aim is to have
comprehensive service delivery, based around
efficient customer centric transaction processing
and integration of services, for the benefit of the
customer while also providing a much-improved
working environment for staff.
The SDM programme is being implemented in
a number of self-contained projects, spanning
over several years. Each project has two strands
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