Ease of doing business
PRIME Minister Sitiveni Rabuka stated that digital transformation was going to be a key driver in “boosting the growth of the economy and ease business processes”.
In his post-Cabinet statement last week, the PM announced that “the next phase of the Ease of Doing Business Reform project is to establish an online integration portal for approval processes for Starting a Business and Construction Permits.”
The fact that all approval agencies don’t always sit neatly under the one ministry, department, or agency, and to provide a truly integrated service beyond brochure-like information on a static platform, design is a major consideration.
Design and implementation have to be context based. An interactive service that takes into account the investors’ line of query that is able to redirect processing to the appropriate information or service source.
To achieve that, several sources of required information from across Whole of Government will need to be in synch and co-ordinated for integrated access by the portal.
Just think about the number of agencies that need to be involved in not just registering a business, but also all back and front-of-office processes in the setting up of a business and approvals to start construction.
Proven time and time again at some of the world’s largest business organisations and public sector entities, the place to start is with understanding and mapping out business processes before considering technology enablers such as hardware, servers, software, databases, networks, data centers, cloud versus onpremises, devices and so on.
I’m averse to doing so, but if the imperative is to look first at infrastructure capabilities to enable the single online integration portal we must caution ourselves; it’s downright dangerous from a budget risk perspective, major blow-out proportions, and the double whammy of its inability to meet business and functional requirements.
The Prime Minister’s post-Cabinet statement suggests strongly that there’s an immediate need to improve Ease-OfDoing-Business (EODB). Assuming lack of digitally inspired EODB is in fact a major reason for investor reluctance, it seems the public sector is lagging.
All things considered, so is Fiji’s private sector in many instances. So, if it’s imperative is for technology first, then lets discuss where to start and how to go about it.
Since the ‘80s when I first joined the Fiji Government Information Technology & Computing Services (ITCS) then known as Electronic Data Processing Centre (EDP) the public sector has been supporting our processes with information technology including provision of services to agencies such as then Air Pacific, Royal Fiji Military Forces, Inland Revenue — now FRCS, Finance and the FNPF.
The problem is we did it a little piece at a time, the result being a lot of siloed systems, with each silo only being able to address one specific business need. As business needs grew within each agency, ministry and department and across ministries, the demand to connect these systems grew rapidly.
It became increasingly difficult to keep up with demand and frustrated users started installing their own computing capabilities. We ended up with a network which over time became a tangled mess, described recently as a spaghetti of a mess.
Through EDP, ITCS since the ‘80s it seems to have continued to evolve in that way.
The “solution” itself has become the problem, creating complex “bottlenecks”. This is what we’re trying to fix now as we move toward digitisation and digital transformation to support the integrated online portal.
EODB efforts mean we now have to expose this mess to our overseas and local investors and our citizens. What we need to do is create a platform, often referred to in the industry as an operational “backbone”.
This is what digitisation is all about. It takes core operations and exposes them to customers because they tend to work, allowing the full end-end process to be successfully completed making life easier for investors.
There is transparency on the processes, on the in-flight status of the application to start a new business, to acquire a construction license and any other services needed.
The aim is to ensure all the back-office processing is done as well as the frontend stuff delivered via an integrated portal.
Now we can add apps, browsers, devices, and dashboards that citizens and businesses can interface through offering seamless and visible exposure via the front-of-office portals.
To conduct a review of the current “spaghetti of a mess” is much like changing the wheels of your vehicle travelling the Suva-Nadi highway at top speed.
Cabinet agreeing that the “Ministry of Communications explore the option of a comprehensive review of the Government ITCS Department” is a most welcome and important if not urgent need.
An ITC review must be done with a target operational backbone at least articulated.
Its platform design must take into account Whole of Government network and digital services to be rolled out in a phased (agile) manner proving its value along the way. Not taking this comprehensive and holistic design approach will guarantee the recreation of the spaghetti mess we started off with in the first place.
The first two initiatives can certainly be the end-end processes for starting a business, and construction approvals. And they must be thorough and comprehensive through all front and backend processes. An operational backbone supporting front-end digital platforms. Not simply providing front end portals or we could be back at square one, speaking about another major review in a few months’ time.
■ Naleen Nageshwar is a data and digital strategy consultant. A Fijian citizen currently based in Sydney, he runs his own consulting practice Data4Digital and is managing partner Australia, NZ, and Pacific for AlphaZetta Data Science and Analytics Consulting.
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