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services, which include the foundational aspects of enterprise information management. The service delivery model needs to address the process and functional relationships across different ministries, as well as the funding strategy. The following management issues and questions will need to be investigated in designing an effective implementation model for common shared services:
• Understand and document the needs of the user for specific products and services that can best be developed, delivered, and supported centrally as a shared service.
• Determine and clarify how each Ministry can maintain its fiduciary role when another organization / IT Department delivers the shared service.
• Leverage a centralized management structure to address investment priorities for shared services.
• Define and clarify funding mechanisms, service levels for shared services, and adherence / compliance actions.
6. Case study: Practical challenges in applying the proposed framework to e‐government integration efforts
The implementation of the enterprise information management framework to support information integration is a complex and difficult challenge, especially when considering the fact that many existent interdependencies between ministries and IT components must be coordinated to achieve success. Based on literature and practical experience, most of these challenges are actually related to the overall issues of management of information technology in the public sector( Landsbergen and George Wolken, 1998; Guijarro, 2009, 2011). The lessons below are derived from our current involvement in several ICT projects supporting the Romanian government. Most of these lessons can be found in other middle countries’ experiences. First, there is a need for a comprehensive e‐Government Strategy that places the citizens, business and other stakeholders at the center of its focus. Having an e‐government strategy means more than just writing and agreeing on a common set of objectives. It involves building a coherent enterprise architecture framework to align the mission, objectives, processes and capabilities within and across the Government organizations for delivering efficient services to citizens and business through IT systems. Without such a coherent framework systematically implemented by ministries and agencies, the strategy will just stay on the shelf and / or the implementation of technology will continue to evolve in silos.
Second, there is a need for high level leadership and commitment to make e‐government a real priority on the government agenda. This is critical for developing and owning a coherent enterprise architecture framework and principles for the“ whole of the Government” and individual ministry or agency levels. With no overall coordination of different e‐government initiatives, agencies have no economic and / or immediate political incentives to share data and business functionality with other organizations. This has a direct impact on the ability of the whole government level to develop and implement shared platforms and standards as execution of e‐government projects is usually spread across various government organizations( Porumbescu et al, 2012). Third, there is need of business and ICT competencies in enterprise architecture in almost all Government organizations. Compared to private sector, this is a major challenge as the public sector has difficulty in attracting and retaining skilled and talented professionals, mainly due to low wages. Government officials, as well as general ICT staff have limited knowledge of enterprise architecture frameworks, ICT portfolio management, shared services, and interoperability frameworks. Fourth, there is a need for a medium to longer term view in reforming the business architecture of the Government and implementing e‐government solutions. Mostly triggered by ad‐hoc legal or political needs, many e‐government projects automate existing business processes in the absence of streamlined business architecture, leading to a sclerotic, often rigid and inefficient service delivery. Very often driven by vendor interests, such projects that deal with sharing and integration of information place emphasis on the implementation of the technical aspects of interoperability and are not concerned with the efficiency of service delivery. In addition, the various political and financial constraints often disrupt the long‐run planning and implementation of e‐government projects, especially those that involve more than one ministry or agency. We should also be aware of external pressures where e‐ government projects may become a priority on the public policy agenda mostly due to the politicians’ interest to address the demands made by European Union officials at a certain point in time( Porumbescu et al, 2012). Lastly, there is a need to improve the trust of the officials and beneficiaries of e‐government services by organizing appropriate security functions that meet the business and technical interoperability requirements. One of the main concerns we heard from many government officials, even within the same ministry, relates to the fact that they believe that sharing the same infrastructure with other departments’ or ministries means
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