I am the CIO for Massachusetts

Governor, imagine the Government of Massachusetts acting as an intermediary: facilitating collaboration, connecting people and providers and coordinating ground-breaking public service delivery models. Government as a Platform (GaaP) is the foundation that allows the government like us and non-governmental organizations to delivery next-generation public services to everyone who is working and living in Massachusetts.

In an environment increasingly filled with buzzwords, it is essential to maintain clarity of thinking about the purpose of “digital” for Massachusetts. Digital transformation does not mean better online services per se – although these are of course vital, they have a product-centric focus and do not disrupt the business model of the silo in which they reside. Instead, digital transformation means the gradual transition to an underlying business model that exploits the ubiquitous web-based infrastructure to enable commonly shared capabilities. With that said, the government as a platform (GaaP) for Massachusetts should rest on the following principles:

• Digital business change will be achieved to the extent that everyone can gradually maximize shared capability (platforms), and minimize departmental services.
• The gradual maximization and consumption of shared capability must, therefore, be the primary concern and stream of work for all transformation activities across the public sector. Although very important, improving service quality is a secondary concern – and only when no shared capability is available.
• In addition to persuading people to share capability, the other significant challenge is to optimize the relationship between shared capability and bespoke services within any one existing silo so that things work together. In order to deliver against their operational remit, our government will need to draw on a mix of centrally stewarded shared capability and local product or bespoke services¹.

The result of the successful implementation of GaaP in Massachusetts would be more efficient, impactful and secure public services². Specifically, common services, technology architecture and governance create efficiencies that streamline user experiences for one-door service; consumers and producers collaborate in a virtual marketplace, creating value for each other, which means better outcome for citizens and society; and agencies scale impact without investment as organizations tap others’ skills, ideas and distribution networks.

When we consider what services to start with, I think we should take into consideration of both the functionality of the services and the politics around the services.

As for the functionality of the services, I would recommend that we focus on the sharability of the services, namely whether the service is a common function that multiple governmental departments are providing but lacking a coherent entrance, leading to the result that our local citizens have to duplicate the same information at multiple governmental sites. The sharability of the service would enable us to build one single platform for multiple departments and when citizens go through this entrance, they will be directed to department-specific service sites to complete the rest of the process. With that said, services like personal information registration & update can be a good starting point for our GaaP. As for the politics around the services, I would recommend that we carefully examine the current governance structure of the potential services we plan to update and make sure the power transition would be smooth and would not jeopardize the use of the services.

Next, we need to consider the operating model and governance of our GaaP. There are four models that are currently used by different governments: whole of government platform, peer platform, ecosystem platform, and crowdsourcing platform³. The whole of government platform is focused on the role of government as the centralized service provider. It is often enabled through a central point of access to cross-government information and services and provides the personal login for citizens and companies. Peer platform is a service-centric and vertically integrated platform established by two or more government entities for a specific public service, policy field or user group. The narrow focus of the peer platform facilitates more extensive data sharing and bolder initiatives focused on a particular public service area. Ecosystem platform is an open and outcome-focused platform in which government collaborates or offers services jointly with non-governmental actors such as companies, education providers or NGOs. The government entity acts as the orchestrator or hub for ecosystem collaboration and the governance structure defines participant roles. Finally, the crowdsourcing platform is a collaborative and innovative-focused approach where governments openly collaborate with citizens, companies, other government organizations or NGOs. Like the ecosystem platform, in the crowdsourcing platform, the government is an orchestrator for ecosystem collaboration, but with largely undefined participant roles.

Last but not least, because we aim to build a platform that is modular, agile, and with intent, we need to establish the proper governance model to manage the platform and services. Given the novelty of this initiative and the tremendous amount of inter-departmental communication, I would suggest a task group whose head is directly reporting to a committee led by you. The committee should consist of the heads of the department across the government whose services will be influenced by this platform.

Endnote:

1. What is government as a platform and how do we achieve it？(https://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/What-is-government-as-a-platform-and-how-do-we-achieve-it)

2. Government as a Platform (https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/public-service/government-as-a-platform)

3. Government as a Platform Sounds Great. But What Does it Look Like in Practice? (https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-highlights-public-service-great-government-platform)

[Note: this post is the assignment submitted for the course, DPI-662 Digital Government (Fall 2018), at Harvard Kennedy School.]