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Service Pack Definition - Victoria Online Project - Final Report (RS-10)

12 December 2001

Executive Summary

The Victorian Online Gateway Portal (VOG) is being developed by the Victorian Government to simplify access to information and services, offering positive customer experiences. This study, one of a series of studies in the Research phase, is focused on the definition of the Service Packs to be provided through the VOG Portal to best meet the needs of the Gateway users. The term "Service Packs" refers to the organisation of services into inter-related groups or bundles. The aim of the Service Packs is to organise online information and services into modules that can be mixed and matched by VOG users to best meet their needs.

This assignment required desktop research, review of existing web sites and portals in both government and non-government settings, and incorporation of best practice in service bundling. This enabled the design and recommendation of Service Pack options for the Victorian Online Gateway Portal.

The results of the Service Pack site research were shared and confirmed with the WOVG Service Pack Expert Group. This process led to the development of the following Service Pack parameters:

• Service Packs should reflect the highest volume services. Service Packs are meant to organise the information and services offering to best meet consumer needs. This requires a focus on the higher volume areas. A few well-developed Service Packs will have more value than many incomplete Packs.
• Service Packs should concentrate on areas where there are a critical mass of information and services that can be offered online. There is little point in aggregating services within Service Packs to require users to leave the site to complete their transactions. Service Packs should build upon the existing Victorian Government Channels. The Channels (Better Health, Clinicians Health, Legalonline, Business, Land, Multi-Service Express, and Victorian Education) provide comprehensive access to Victorian Government information and services, and while they reinforce the current government boundaries, they can be used to advance the "joined-up" government agenda that can be operationalised through the Gateway. Service Packs should provide an approach that broadens the interest and increases access by individuals to online government services, while also providing links to other services, to promote relationships and communities interacting with Victorian Government. The Service Packs will be key to the Government goal to build cohesive communities and reduce inequalities (State of Victoria 2001).Service Packs should encourage user participation, facilitating user control of their interaction with the Online Gateway. The Service Packs provide a strong opportunity to demonstrate a "Government that listens and leads" (State of Victoria 2001 p. 6).
• Service Packs should be organised around how people search for and use the information and services.
• According to Gartner (2000), a portal is rarely ever completed - continued evolution of the Service Packs will ensure the VOG remains relevant to the needs of Victorian citizens.

We found that there were six common methods of defining Service Packs:

• CUSTOMER GROUP: Service providers identify the market they are trying to reach and group their services accordingly
• DEPARTMENT: Allows for a direct link to a departmental web site.
• LIFE EVENT: For some services using a life event approach makes most sense.
• PRODUCT: Sometimes customers just want a form, booklet, publication, article, or a specific product like a transcript, certificate, license, etc. and do not require detailed knowledge of the related or extraneous services offered.
• TASK: Similar to product, services are related to tasks, such as paying a bill, reporting a fraud, etc.
• TOPIC: Services are bundled according to their relationship to a topic. The majority of the web sites reviewed used more than one method, but none of the sites used all of the Service Pack methods. The methods used most often comprise Customer Group, Product/Task and Topic. While initially Life Events were a predominant Service Pack configuration, there are now tending to be used less in defining Service Packs. It is hypothesised that different individuals define life events in different ways and may not want to be constrained by an arbitrary definition of a Life Event.

Based on the consumer research, current practice in government web sites and portals and identified best practice it is recommended that VOG use Customer Groups and a defined list of Tasks and Topics to structure the Service Packs. Appropriate Life Events may be used within the Customer Groups. Department categorisation will not be used; although high volume key words, Government departments can be searched through the Government Directory. The focus for the future for the Service Packs will be on reducing the needs for users to find and connect with the government department offering the service. Effective Services Packs will enable users to search by Topic, identifying all of the relevant material across department and even government and private sector boundaries.

Eventually VOG should be structured to provide key Topics, theme or triggers which users access to construct their individual, personalised relevant Service Packs. This will be an evolutionary process - in the initial stages there will be a need to develop key Service Packs. Based on the highest volume request, where there are sufficient services online and where there are a variety of departments and levels of government that will make a contribution to the Service Pack content, it is recommended that VOG concentrate on the following Service Packs.

• Arts, Culture, Recreation & Sports: Fishing, Fishing License, Boating, Boat Licenses, etc
• Arts, Culture, Recreation & Sports: Events, Facts & Figures, Visitor Information, Holidays, etc
• Education
• Family & Community: Vehicle and Driver, Vehicle Maintenance, Registration, Driver License, Driving Offences, etc
• Health: Birth, Registration, Services, etc
• Health/Family & Community: Death, Planning, Estates, Funerals, Accidents, etc
• Housing: Buying a Home, First Homes, Investment Properties, etc
• Tourism & Travel: Booking Accommodation

Although the VOG governance and organisational model is beyond the scope of this assignment, there will be a need for the establishment of an ongoing VOG organisation model. As described above the Service Packs should facilitate:

• Consumer interaction - leveraging the two-way information link through remote and asynchronous mechanisms and enabling consumers to experience products and services virtually (Venkatraman 1998)
• Dynamic customisation of products and services requiring a focus on obtaining and effectively using market intelligence

Consumer interaction and market intelligence are useless unless the organisation design is geared to deliver products and services on a dynamic adaptive basis (Venkatraman 1998). The challenge for the Victorian Government will be to move from the current "inside-out" perspective (here are the Government services we provide - see where you as a user fit)to an "outside-in" perspective (facilitating the user's control of the relationship and how they structure their service needs). Ongoing feedback will play an important role in the continuing evolution to better meet the needs of Victorians.

1.1 Recommendations and Rationale

• Service Packs should reflect the highest volume services. Service Packs are meant to organise the information and services offering to best meet consumer needs. This requires a focus on the higher volume areas. A few well-developed Service Packs will have more value than many incomplete Packs.
• Service Packs should concentrate on areas where there are a critical mass of information and services that can be offered online. There is little point in aggregating services within Service Packs to require users to leave the site to complete their transactions. Service Packs should build upon the existing Victorian Government Channels. The Channels (Better Health, Clinicians Health, Legalonline, Business, Land, Multi-Service Express, and Victorian Education) provide comprehensive access to Victorian Government information and services. The existing Channel composition reinforces current government boundaries; the Channels should be redefined as Service Packs to advance the "joined-up" government agenda and to minimise the non-productive "clicks" of the users.
• The Service Packs should be developed and implemented in a phased approach - depth of Service Pack content is more important than breadth of Service Packs.
• Evolution of the Service Packs should focus on the creation and maintenance of communities of interest. The community development aspect of the Service Pack structure will be key to the Government goal to build cohesive communities and reduce inequalities (State of Victoria 2001).Guidelines and standards should be developed to guide the ongoing maintenance of the Service Pack framework once it has been fully established. Citizen feedback and industry best practices will be used to guide the ongoing maintenance. Other appropriate inputs will likely emerge over time.
• The VOG governance structure will need to ensure a focus on ensuring the ongoing relevance of the Service Packs to the needs of the portal users. This will need to be reinforced in the implementation and ongoing governance structure for VOG
• VOG will require explicit policies on the role and relationships with private sector commercial sites within the Service Packs.

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Report

It is the intention of the Victorian Online Gateway project team to make available individual report findings and recommendations for appropriate use by other government organisations. Materials may be downloaded and printed with applicable copyright and other notices included. Any other use including copying, modifying, displaying or transmitting of the content of these reports requires the prior written permission of the Executive Director of Multimedia Victoria.

The Service Pack Project Report is available in pdf format (1.1mb) (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

The Service Pack Definition Final presentation 12 December 2001 is available in powerpoint97 format (5.2mb)

Last updated: 28 February 2006

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