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The Next Decade:
Challenges and Perspectives for Information Systems in Public Administration
Heinrich Reinermann, School of Administration Sciences, Speyer, Germany
Abstract
In many states all over the world, public administrations are trying to meet to-day's challenges by turning to concepts and structures wich are summarized here under the term "New Public Management" ÍNPM).
The paper analyses the impact of NPM on administrative information systems, and vice versa, by looking into five features of NPM: object oriented segmentation, process orientation, coherence and leadership, client relations and human resources. Based on the results of these analysis, the author comes to the conclusions that effectiveness and efficicncy of public administrations can be improved most if the tradition to develop organizational concepts for administrations on the one hand and information systems on the other independent of each other is given up. The effort to reorganize public administrations and the effort to develop information systems need to be combined.
Povzetek
y mnogih državah po vsem svetu se poskuša javna uprava odzivati sodobnim izzivom, tako da prevzema koncepte in strukture, ki smo jih imenovali "Novi menedžment v javni upravi".
Članek analizira vpliv tega menedžmenta na informacijske sisteme v upravi in obratno, z analizo petih značilnosti novega menedžmenta: objektno orientirane segmentate, usmerjenosti k procesom, skladnosti in vodenja, odnosov s strankami in človeških virov. Na teme/ju te analize sklepa avtor, da je Učinkovitost in uspešnost javne uprave mogoče najbolj izboljšati, če opustimo tradicijo ločenega razvoja organiziranost/ uprave in informacijskih sistemov. Napore za reorganiz-iranje javne uprave in za razvijanje informacijskih sistemov je potrebno združiti.
1.	Introduction
We cannot exdude that this paper resembles a list of wishes for Santa Claus or the song of the British popgroup Queen in the eighties "We want it ail, we want it now", and surely the philosopher Nietzsche was right when he said: "To make plans brings a lot of nice feelings".
In any case, one of the functions of applied informatics like administrative informatics, is to be the "spearhead" of Computer science, in that it knows its field of application and therefore is able to draw conclusions with regard to the requirements of computer-supported information systems (IS).
What will public administration (PA) look like in the forthcoming decade? This question must be answered before such conclusions can be drawn vvilh respect to administrative IS.
It is the assumption of this paper that PA, in the forthcoming decade, will function more and more according to principles of New Public Management (NPM).
2.	Features of NPM
PA, being faced with great challenges like the new international division of labor, the apparent limitations to further growth of public tasks and budgets, or the changing value systems of citizens and employees, are answering with a new self-understanding and with new structures. The features of NPM can be divided into five groups: a) Each part of PA concentrates on its specific mission. To strengthen this view, public agencies are further divid-
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ed into easy-to-overlook segments, concentrating on core products. In order to allow flexible responses to changing demands of their environments, these segments are entrusted with as many competences as possible for their products and for their resources alike. Thus, tayloristic division of labor between planning and deciding on one hand and acting on the other, is replaced by object-oriented and holistic structures wherever possible.
b)	Conventional vertical hierarchies of command are almost turned upside down in favour of horizontal and direct communication. Wherever suitable, competence for decisions is delegated to those persons who contribute directly to the value stream of administrative processes. Thus, the autonomous segments form a cooperative network. Empowering the basis this way, more éntrepre-neurship of the employees, the liberation of their motivation and the release of their innovative ideas is expected.
c)	In spite of segmentation and delegation, NPM strives for coherence and goal-orientation by decisive leadership based on visions and guidelines, contract management and result-oriented communication.
d)	A special focus of NPM is on the relations between the segments described before and their external and internal clients. The view of external and internal markets is maintained.
e)	With regard to the civil service, NPM strives for ambitious jobs, and for adequate responses to changed values and work habits.
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Perhaps it is no exaggeration to claim that just like PA, also administrative informatics is facing a change of paradigm. As applied informatics is supporting the trend to NPM, it will probably be changed under the influence of NPM.
3. Object-oriented Segmentation
a)	Uncoupling Information Systems
The new object-oriented structure of PA must be parallelled by an according structure of IS in terms of software, data and hardware. Otherwise, concentration on core products, flexibility and entrepreneurial engagement of the employees would be prevented. Former tayloristic barriers in EDP must be overcome. Taylorism is among the important reasons for the computer-productivity paradox. Business Process Redesign, intended to replace traditions of merely automating the status quo, only has a chance if the new autonomy of PA segments extends to their IS as well. The delegation of competences for resources, basically must also cover decisionmaking for ail aspects of IS.
Only then can we expect "lean applications", meaning software that fits the specific needs of a segment, avoiding ballast and unnecessary ornaments. We should realise that diversity and variety of IS in PA will grow because of segmentation and participation, and informatics as well as administrative politics should accept this now.
In other words: iS in PA should be uncoupled from dragging milestones of big systems; technological and organisational changes should gave a chance for immediate realisation by the segments concerned, but should only affect others if indispensable. Distributed application systems are wanted, consisting of self-contained parts which communicate via message exchange where necessary. Networked decentralisation of IS is the vision corresponding with NPM, What NPM recommends to PA, also applies for its IS, namely: Regulations should be restricted to essentials; dinosaur systems are ineffective and inefficient.
b)	Reinventing Information Systems
A complete redesign of given application systems might be far more necessary than sustaining and repairing the old ones. Just as NPM recommends to "reinvent government", we could ask ourselves how wc would design the IS of PA today if we had the chance to start from scratch. In doing so, two basic forms of computer-use can be distinguished:
■	Computers as machines for processing data {understood in a broad sense, covering written, audible and graphical data}
■	and computers as means to provide channels for electronic communication.
Looking only at data processing here {the communication aspect shall be dealt with in the next paragraph), the architecture of IS should follow the product-orientation recommended by NPM. Agencies applying the principles of NPM, carefully define products and services which the various segments are providing to external or internal clients. Examples of such client relations are:
■	to collect a yearly tax from a car-owner
■	to notify a voter before an election
■	to report to management or to controlling. A corresponding IS architecture would
■	provide a datastructure which reflects those relations to external and internal clients (e.g. person A owning car B has to pay a yearly tax at the rate of C; person D receives a monthly social subsidy at the rate of E, etc.)
■	provide software methods which process those data (e.g. send a tax bill, notify other relevant agencies, get relevant data from other agencies, calculate certain figures for controlling, etc.)
■	and do so on the occasion of certain events (e.g. calendar dates, a citizen appearing in the office, receiving a message from other processes, etc.).
The term "objects" (or the combination of these data and their pertinent methods hints to the correspondence of such an IS architecture and the object-oriented segmentation of PA called for by NPM.
Such an IS environment would overcome the division of labor between different software pieces, well-known today, and would provide integrated administrative processes from their origins to their ends.
It is a different question how this logical IS-architecture should be represented physically. The answer depends on criteria, such as dependency on others, costs, etc. One alternative certainly are client/server systems in networks allowing the electronic exchange of messages between objects even from distant places.
c)	Closing Gaps in Existing Application Systems
Empowering the segments of iJA with respect to their IS will lead to closing gaps existing in today's application systems. Of the two basic types of computer-use mentioned afore (data processing machine and communication enabler), the first one still is dominating by far, and here again mass applications based on well-structured data banks and more or less remaining in the background (like financial accounting, personnel administration, or citizen registration) still are characterising EDP in PA.
Recently, document-oriented office systems including image processing are catching up, however. This means that now the foreground, the core activities of PA like application processing, canbe and must be supported electronically. Especially important here is to integrate old and new applications.
Still another area waiting to be integrated, are less-structured communication processes, now supportable by various forms of groupware.
It is important to take notice of the new fact that for PA being penetrated by IS to a growing degree, quality of administration and quality of IT systems are becoming more and more interdependent.
d)	De-Bureaucratisation of EDP Structures
To make this vision of object-oriented segments come true, in many cases requires overcoming given EDP structures. Often, those are coined by layloristic specialisation and centralisation in the form of cooperative computer centres. Meant to share costs and expertise, such structures were adequate when computers were expensive and computer experts rare.
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However, what started as a suitable innovation, over time often turned into bureaucratic barriers. I;or, decision structures relying on many user-agencies to agree, resemble large convoys with the slowest vessel determining progress; and, inasmuch as the cooperatives are financed by fix apportioned contributions, they are not really forced to respond to market needs.
Often enough, this resulted in application systems as inflexible as concrete walls, and in computer centres which art- too slow, too expensive, and too irresponsive regarding individual user-expectations.
In order to correspond with NPM those structures should be changed in two respects: We need market-dependent public or private service providing companies which are forced by competition to supply their customers with tailored IS. Those companies must serve many customers, however, in order to share the necessary investments; this way both, individual fit and economy can be reached. To make this happen, reference models must be developed for the various public activities. On the basis of those, modular software applications must be produced which can be customized to local needs.
4. Processes in New Public Administrations
a) Free Communication and Knowledge Sharing
The role of IT more and more becomes to enable coordination and cooperation, beyond merely being a tool for the rationalisation of work, To this extent, the attention shifts from the contents of databases to communication processes.
This shift of concentration corresponds with NPM. White in the classic paradigm of PA communication was formally restricted to official channels, NPM advocates free communication regardless of hierarchies. One reason is that the quality of a public agency highly depends on the knowledge of its employees. While anyone is free to buy resources on the market, the special way these are combined and utilised is a function of knowledge and this is very typical and unique for each individual institution. Therefore, in NI'M a lot of attention is directed to communication processes as a way of information sharing and enhancing "organisational intelligence".
Uoth,formaland informal communication areat heart ofNPM:
■	informal communication, often neglected hitherto, is an important source of context information. Everyone should be able to know what anyone knows, in order to enhance coordination
■	formal communication should be mission and goal oriented and holistic instead of being divided in accordance with tayloristic division of labor, with errors being detected and repaired only at the very end and again by tayloristic subdivisions.
In terms of IS this means that traditional EDP following hierarchical structures, needs to be supplemented by networks enabling free formal and informal communication. Multimedia systems are important here, allowing desk-top video conferencing and other electronic meetings, intelligent e-mail, problem-oriented communication via list serv-
ers, and direct access to all relevant data. The data bases must be complemented, mainly by mission - and goal - oriented data.
By the way, it has been said that the introduction of the telephone has shaken up even the hierarchy of the Vatican. Having electronic multimedia networks today, it certainly cannot be ruled out that hierarchies partly even will be destroyed because useless layers will be eliminated.
b)	Electronic Data Exchange (EDI)
For the benefit of the correctness of data circulating in PA, updating and replication of data must occur promptly, faultlessly, and as much as possible without human interference. This would also promote the concept of custodians in charge of the correctness of certain data (e.g. citizen data, vehicle data, etc.).
Analogous to bus systems inside computers, data which have been changed could travel instantaneously and automatically to ali target data bases qualified to receiving them. Thus, the data of a car registered, would go without delay to the Federal vehicle agency, police, insurance company, licence plate shop, revenue office, etc. Or another example: Regulations, released or amended by the department of finance, would instantly be available in any local revenue office, e.g. for the respective consultation of tax payers.
The apparent prerequisite is an electronic network extending beyond public agencies to their clients, and integrating mainframes, workstations, and PCs. To mesh IS of public agcncies and those of their clients seems to have a high potential of raising public efficiency and effectiveness.
c)	Software for Workflow and Workgroup Computing
In a PA consisting of autonomous segments, explicit measures to guaranty coherence are necessary. Among them are workflow and workgroup software.
Workflow computing intends lo integrate as many administrative processes as possible which are necessary to produce a certain service or product, irrespective of functional boundaries. An example would be a procurement process, integrating purchasing - goods receiving - accounting-and payment. Workflow software should include tools for performance evaluation, simulation of alternatives, reporting, and training. Although the intention of workflow computing is to centralise all relevant processes logically, execution of course must be possible in a network of distributed local computers.
Workgroup Computing software must provide coherence by supporting communication in ill-structured work environments like project teams.
Both, workflow and workgroup computing, loo, must be able to integrate internal as well as external participants.
d)	Technical and Legal Problems of Warranty and Security
Quality of administration and quality of IS more and more are becoming interdependent, as we said before. This statement also refers to the risks of technology. "Technology risk is now business risk". One should not ignore the fact that the upcoming IS of PA will be as complex as they will be indispensable for core administrative processes. Therefore, resolving the problems of availability, warranty, and securi-
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ty must receive high priority. After ail, we are dealing with public institutions here which must expect to be held responsible by politicians, courts, auditors, and others.
5. Coherence and Leadership
NPM fosters the uncoupling of conglomerates in order to improve local fit, flexibility, and employee morale. On the Other hand, the overview and the influence of political and administrative management must be maintained.
This means that IS are required which are able to provide management reports and analyses in spite of the fact that in decentralised PA very likely the boundaries of heterogeneous IT systems must be overcome and in spite of the fact that quite a few data files even may be invisible or unknown.
However, IS for management not only must provide aggregated data; detailed information is important also in l'A, and here IS must not undermine meaningful communication habits. Details can be important for politicians and managers because often they are held responsible for them regardless of delegation. Details can be important also because by aggregation, negative developments may be set-off against positive developments. And quite often details can be important because means and ends are interrelated.
In this respect, in addition to well known MIS concepts like EIS, DSS, or controlling, in the future other concepts are important like the information warehouse, providing access in heterogeneous environments, or computer-supported auditing, exception reporting, intelligent agents able to find hidden files, etc. tn a way, IS for management are needed which resemble the stethoscope of a medical doctor.
6. Clients
The tayloristic division of labor, common in PA, turns out to have severe disadvantages form the citizen's point of view. One of them is that PA seldom deals with human beings as a whole but rather with certain segments, corresponding to certain jurisdiction performed by respective departments or agencies.
Not every citizen manages this complex system, as intended; some fall through the administrative net (compare the so-called two-thirds society) while others take advantage of the complexity of PA for fraud (e.g. collect financial subsidies from several cities).
The situation being like that, among the high demands made on IS is to utilise the potential of electronic networking to the benefit of the citizens in that they are treated by
government and administration holistically as entire persons. Networks should be used to realise the "virtual admin* istration" an administration that is - like a virtual computer - logically, although not physically, available to citizens in all relevant aspects of their case. There are several aspects to this vision:
■	an administration actively and ex-officio calling a citizen's attention to services available, especially when borderlines of jurisdiction have to be crossed (e.g. a citizen with a low pension paid by social insurance, might qualify for social welfare which is administrated by the city, however)
■	agencies drawing upon data which exist already somewhere in the administrative system, instead of requesting them anew
■	citizen offices, clearing a broad range of general administrative business of a client on the spot, and providing for access to specialists administrative branches. The citizen office should at least be able to consult its clients with regard to those other agencies which must be contacted; preferably it should be able to initiate online and multimedia communication between a citizen and the civil servants concerned.
7. Civil Service
With respect to the civil service, IS must, among others, support the new flexibility of labor, manifesting itself in several forms of teleworklike
■	telecommuting ("to bring the work to the people instead of the people to the work")
m telecooperation (e.g. in the future "distributed capital Berlin-Bonn")
■	telepresence of experts
■	or mobile offices.
The problem to solve here, too, is uncoupling and coherence of work at the same time, through electronic networks.
8. Concluding Remarks
In this paper 1 was able to look only into some of the relalion-ships between NPM and administrative informatics. It seems to be important to realize that the basic ideas of NPM and the client/server-architecture of IS go hand in hand. This requires to combine the efforts to reorganize PA and the efforts to establish IS! Big opportunities for strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of PA would be missed if one tried to develop PA and its IS independently of one another.
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Hemrich Reinermann studied business administration, especially quantitative methods and operation'; research Holds Chair for Administrative Science end Administrative Informatics at the Post-Graduate School for Administrative Sciences Speyer. 1991 ■ 1993 Hector of tfie School. Main field of interest to-day. the interrelations between public administration and informatics.
The paper wss presented at tlie Third Annual conference of NISPAcee at Bled, Slovenia, March 99-95, 1995.
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