by Computerworld Philippines Staff
Information technology has greatly benefitted multitudes of corporations worldwide by providing the means to simplify complex business processes and automate redundant work practices. But this transforming function of IT is largely seen as not only beneficial to the private sector, for it has likewise helped various countries around the world in turning their governments around.
The development of IT in the public sphere, however, is not met with a number of pitfalls—the greatest of which being the proverbial bureaucratic red tape. Due largely to this deterrent quality inherent in various government, most technologies implemented in the public sector remain obscenely outdated or, in worse cases, obsolete.
For this issue’s CIO Roundtable, the Computerworld Philippines editorial team sat down with four government IT executives and probed through the various ways IT has helped their agencies, the many challenges they’ve met in implementing IT in government, and the outlook they have regarding the technology needs of their respective organizations.
At the onset, IT has helped streamline long and complicated government tasks, most of which require a lot of paperwork and processing time. “Right now in DENR, the clients need the approval of ECC (Environmental Compliance Certificate). Sometimes, it takes them three months to process. But in processing online, it will only take them one day after submitting all the requirements,” shared Roberto de Leon, OIC-chief, Management Information Systems Division, Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In the case of the Manila City Hall, IT efficiently translated to better public service, aside from accelerating certain agency functions. “For the city hall, computerization resulted in better public service,” said Allan Quelantang, deputy information system analyst, Manila City Hall. “We created a tax payer’s lounge so that they will just wait there while their transactions are being processed. Technology also resulted in the improvement on revenue collection.”
Despite these gains, implementing IT in government still has a lot of room for improvement. “I think [the procurement process] should be reviewed and improved, because it is during procurement that we experience difficulties,” de Leon said. “Most of the time we put in specifications and the bidding is so long that the devices tend to be obsolete after signing the contract.”
Angelo Timoteo M. Diaz de Rivera, director general, National Computer Center, and commissioner for CICT (Commission on Information and Communications Technology), meanwhile lamented the lack of coordination among various offices in terms of network infrastructure. “But the bigger issue here is that there are much bigger infrastructure-related projects which are needed by other agencies that are still not addressed, not even in CICT itself,” he said.
Grim as the current situation of IT in government may be, public sector IT executives remain hopeful about the role of technology in the public arena as they look on to the future. “I’m thinking of a portal for the NPC, which will act as an entrance and transactional website which citizens in far-flung areas can access and report which areas of their region do not have electricity yet,” shared Alona Isidro, corporate Staff Officer, Office of the President, National Power Corporation.
This issue’s roundtable was moderated by Leo Querubin, president of Avante Philippines. Clarence Phua, regional sales manager for ASEAN, Sophos, was present during the event to offer valuable security insights to the discussion.
Excerpts of the discussion follow:
Computerworld: What do you think is the most important impact of ICT on the structure and processes of government?
Roberto De Leon: The role of information and communication technology in the government has improved over the years affecting both private and public sectors. Maybe the current challenge in the government in all its level is to provide the e-government, the capability in addressing the problems and the needs of its constituents. With regards to DENR, we have some sectors, the forestry, events, and the parks and wild life. Now in the environment management use, maybe it’s the way we serve the public for the information they needed on those sectors.
Comm. Timoteo Diaz de Rivera: The biggest impact on ICT in government for me has been the contribution to improving business processes. Normally paper would work in a serial fashion but when you redesign business processes using technology we can now do things in parallel from one desk to many desks and the final approval cutting the time measure. So that’s the most important aspects. Any IT project should have included some sort of a business process analysis, otherwise we are just wishing it will move in faster but the impact will not be as big.
Alona Isidro: For NPC, the most important impact of ICT in terms of process is that it trims the process. ICT really ensures that data are captured and maintained together. And in terms of structure, ICT ensures that mobile users can access the same data. Similar to what they have in their desktop.
Allan Quelantang: The biggest impact of ICT in the structure of government is the lessening and removing of graft and corruption. ICT programs lessen or prevent human intervention during transaction, that’s why it usually eliminates graft and corruption.
Computerworld: Did ICT cut down the processing time? Like what LTO was saying before when it would take a day, but now it’s only about an hour?
De Leon: Right now in DENR, the clients need the approval of ECC or Environmental Companies Certificate. Sometimes it takes them three months to process. But now in processing online, it will only take them one day before submitting all the requirements. They have a check list on those.
Diaz de Rivera: I can say maybe three instances, the significant benefits in terms of time reduction. When I was still selling system, we sold document imaging system to the SSS for their pension processing benefits disability and what used to take three months from the time you submit your pension application, to the time you get your first pension, took about three to four months with this document imaging system. That was reduced to two days. So it is very significant in terms of the benefits. The other one that most of us are enjoying now is related to the issuance of copies of birth certificates by NSO.
Before, you are lucky if you would get from the municipality. But when you go to NSO, you have to line-up for about half a day just to submit your form. And then you have to come back next week, line up again hoping that you’ll be able to pick it up. But with the application of technology, they are now able to release it in a while. You come in the morning, file, and then 30 minutes to an hour later; they will call your name to pick it up. So what used to take one month to count votes can now be done, probably, hopefully in a matter of 48 hours.
Isidro: For our agency, I can say the submission of our monthly operational report for our power plant in the islands, because NPC now is on the transition stage from the major green operations to off green operation. So we devise the web-based system, wherein they can put in their data in a daily basis. Before, they can process the submission after two months. Now in a week time, they can process the data from the 112 diesel power plants from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. And that’s the major impact of the online web-based information system set-up by our agency.
Quelantang: The biggest impact for us was on the tax payer’s side. The process was faster, because it usually takes one week to a month when it was still manual. But now it takes only an hour or two. On the end user side, it’s much easier to retrieve the data because they’re now on a database and there is no more confusion on the giving of permits.
Computerworld: How would describe your agencies or city hall’s current ICT infrastructure? Maybe you can describe the areas that have been computerized and which technologies have been implemented to automate these business processes.
De Leon: Currently we are upgrading our network infrastructure in our central office to accommodate business transactions of permits. We also implemented in our office a document tracking system. Once submitted in our front desk, they will encode it and can track on where that document ended. There are a lot of improvements underway.
Diaz de Rivera: ICT infrastructure in government over the past couple of years has been my main line. Actually there’s not been enough investment in ICT in government and there are many reasons for this. One of them is the lack of empowered and capable CIOs in any government agency, that’s why we have the DICT bill that we are trying to push very hard in the senate now.
We hope to solve a lot of these problems related to this lack of infrastructure. Just to let you know, the UN study on e-Government readiness raised the Philippines in terms of ICT infrastructure as only half of the world’s average in terms of ICT infrastructure. Vietnam is already one step ahead of us, one rank ahead of us in that area and so that is very lamentable. I’m actually very sad about the NBN project. It was a good project just improperly implemented. We are still trying to find a way to get that done. We need a broadband network for government and for private sector.
Isidro: I agree with Sir Tim. In terms of infrastructure we really need a good one here in the Philippines. In NPC, since we are mandated to view the missionary electrification to our island bridge at present, we have the local area network being upgraded in the head office and the wide area network. Our plants are undergoing this project to have a real time access for information and we want to centralize all the information to our head office here in Diliman. So we are into the visa technology to address the online separation of reports.
Quealantang: The current ICT infrastructure of Manila City Hall is now at the low-end but steps are being done to upgrade the switches and hubs. We are now slowly upgrading the servers.
Computerworld: In these steps to automation, what problems or issues did you encounter and how are you able to resolve it?
De Leon: Mostly, the problems are the manpower because when you say automation, some employees would assume that they will lose jobs. That’s why the best approach to that is to explain on what their roles would be during automation.
Diaz de Rivera: I would agree. It’s the software issues that serve as critical page management. Project management one of these days has to go to technology. The technology is there and we have experts on software issues. Those are the things where we tend to trip up many times.
Isidro: The problems we encounter in implementing automation right now concerns the Oracle implementation project integrating systems for financials and logistics. It’s about how we can automate and streamline the process considering we have the RA 8184 in our procurement process. And so we have to address that. We have the COA rules to address when we sit down with the Oracle consultant. Then we have this TA 8184, we have this COA rules and regulation. We have to address everything. So the project implementation is really that critical for us to comply with that RAs and executive orders of the government.
Quelantang: The problems encountered in Manila City Hall, number one is funding for automation. There were limitations to the rule about the devices that we can purchase and people don’t find it easy to use the computer. But this problem was easily addressed by giving actual training and giving them orientation to the new technologies.
Computerworld: Ms. Isidro mentioned the RA 9184 a while ago. It seems that a lot of government agencies that we’ve actually spoken to appreciate that. But then a lot of people are saying, especially in the private sector, that maybe it needs to be modified already. It needs to be improved in order to be able to adapt also to global changes in terms of the actual technologies that are involved. What are your thoughts about that?
De Leon: I think it should be reviewed and improved. Because it is during procurement processes that we experience difficulties. Most of the time we put in specifications and the bidding takes so long and the devices get obsolete.
Diaz de Rivera: It is a very complex topic. Perhaps my comment with regards to improvement at NCC is we’ve been clamoring for ICT procurement in government but we weren’t very successful in getting the government procurement policy board to listen to us. Although they recently issued a new IRR, they incorporate some of our inputs so there is a new IRR released just last month which have some improvements.
Isidro: In terms of price, IRR 8184 will address some concerns of the automation process of the agency. And my thoughts on this on price and implementation of Oracle, which is HM and financials, there are some points we have to comply and we have some points to customize in our end, so we have to address that compliance.
Quelantang: Our problems are quite similar to Mr. De Leon. We will provide specifications, then the bidding takes time, and afterwards the devices get obsolete and so you now need to give in new ones and eventually a new process come into play.
Diaz de Rivera: One particular area that we are having trouble with is the renewal of software licensees. When we renew software license because of 9184, we have to go to bidding. The difficulty there is that the systems have been developed on a particular platform.
Now you have to bid it out to everybody else which we have to migrate out of our database into another platform. It just creates a lot of complication, when in fact if you are very happy it’s not yet end of life. Maybe you should re-negotiate next year’s software license. So those were the issues that come up everyday among government offices.
Computerworld: What benefits has your agency or city hall derived from your computerized systems? Could it be financial or other things?
De Leon: In DENR, we can easily access the data and our document tracking is really helpful. There are a lot of sectors involved and we can easily monitor or locate where their papers are.
Isidro: NPC’s benefits from the computerization system include the reduction of cost, particularly the eliminating duplication efforts
Quelantang: For the city hall, computerization resulted in better public service. There was the creation of the tax payer’s lounge so that tax payers will just wait there while their transactions are being processed. Then there was also improvement on revenue collection.
Computerworld: Mr. Quelantang, you mentioned a while ago that you improved your connection. Could you give us some feedback and compare it in the past?
Quelantang: Before when it was still manual, a lot of tax payers who don’t pay taxes managed to get away with it. But now with our database, they can monitor on who does pay and who does not. An eluding taxpayer can be charged. And of course, we can also monitor those who need refunds and so a lot of the tax payers are happy as well.
Computerworld: What’s next in line to your ICT projects? What are you planning?
Diaz de Rivera: What we are doing right now is we are refreshing the GISP or the master plan for ICT government. We finally got money to hire consultants to do this for us. We didn’t want to do these ourselves. There are a lot of activities for local government and for sectoral ICT systems and there’s a lot of activity also for a fourth growth which is the common type of applications like payroll. So these four areas including ICT productivity are very significant development.
De Leon: Right now we are in the IT infrastructure strengthening of our network and we do this to prepare the interconnection of our regional offices and bureaus. Afterwards we are putting up a DENR wide data center which will accommodate all the data that will pass into our network and a web portal project with a common portal to be used by the department offices. Lastly, the DENR wide system application development and database build-up will consolidate and standardize all the department’s information systems.
Isidro: For NPC, we have five ICT priority projects included in our three-year IS planning as approved by NCC. These are the off-the-shelf integrated applications systems for financials—which is from Oracle—currently a nine-month project which started last September 1. The second is the LAN upgrade which will be used to carry all the application systems. Next is the data center rehabilitation. The fourth project is the Oracle RDBMS plan, which will be used to centralize our database. And the fifth project is the VSAT technology, which is the wide area connectivity for our 69 major sites in the strategic power utility group.
Quelantang: The projects currently in our pipeline include the upgrade of our network system, the installation of an online business application and the provision of wireless network connection at the city hall.
Computerworld: For Commissioner Diaz de Rivera, is it part of the functions you have as director general to establish common rules for network infrastructure across all agencies, to allow integration among all government departments, or is it something that’s still a pipe dream for all of us?
Diaz de Rivera: It’s a challenge for us primarily because of the budgeting process because they have to fund whatever it is they want to do. It’s a very sad thing for us to say, “Can your funds? Or co-mingle your funds.” There’s really a challenge with that so we said maybe for projects like that, we want collaboration between agencies. Why don’t we just put up separate projects which will benefit multiple agencies and we have a common fund for it? And that is actually the e-government fund, which is moderately doing well for some projects in that we have a common fund to make sure that agencies are working together.
The bigger issue here is that there are much bigger infrastructure-related projects which are needed by other agencies that are still not addressed, not even in CICT itself. I have to collaborate with our information infrastructure commissioner because my role in e-government is mostly on applications, whereas infrastructure is the job of the head.
Computerworld: Besides the IT projects that have already been implemented, what other technologies could help further your agency’s operation and services?
De Leon: Right now, we’re looking at our monitoring of tree cutting activity, which is currently monitored manually. It involves a lot of paper work, so more often than not even the documents needed can’t easily be found and tracked. If we strengthen our network infrastructure, we can have RFIDs installed to simplify the monitoring process, and to easily verify if they cut the right trees off. It’s beneficial because we get to see the results directly, and we don’t go off chasing pure paper works.
Isidro: Besides our ICT projects in the pipeline, I’m thinking of a portal for the NPC, which will act as an entrance and transactional website which citizens in far-flung areas can access and report which areas of their region do not have electricity yet. We can also display through the portal the different requirements needed by barangays and municipalities in order to have electricity. So from there, we would be able to pinpoint which places need electrification, in order for us to address the needs even in the barangay level.
Quelantang: What’s not included in our project pipeline is the Thin Client technology. Right now, every workstation in our office has one desktop computer. If we will use a thin client, we only need one server to supply functions to 30 thin clients. We will save more electricity and would rely only on the network for our operations.
Diaz de Rivera: I have two personal advocacies for technology, and one of them is GIS (Geographic Information System). I really think GIS can be an integrator for technology in government, because almost every application has location on records. It’s a technology that can be used to integrate various systems in government with the location as the index. Hopefully that’s something we can push to enable collaborative government all throughout.
The other technology that I’m very keen in pushing—due primarily to my past history working with paper forms—is electronic forms. Right now we have downloadable forms but there are electronically fillable forms out there. It looks like a form, it can be printed out as a form, but it’s actually a data entry screen as far as the computer is concerned. Users can print it out and send it somewhere, so they don’t have to go to their LGUs or agencies anymore.
The third is IT security. As we invest more and more into infrastructure, there’s always the need to look at information security. All technologies surrounding IT security also needs to be considered.
Computerworld: RFID seems to be one of the hot technology topics today, given the proposal of the LTO (Land Transportation Office) to install RFIDs in vehicles. Maybe we can setup an RFID technology center that will be used as a pilot for applications and the revenue for them will be used for full-blown applications.
De Leon: There have been a lot of investments on equipment on our part, so we welcome the RFID technology. We had an incident before when we lost a total of 10 laptops, and we couldn’t trace where it went. If we had a technology like that, we would be able to know which equipment is taken out of our compound, including those that we issue to our regional offices.
Diaz de Rivera: I was able to talk to Sec. Yap of the Department of Agriculture and I showed them an application which the government of Thailand uses to track bags of Jasmine rice, one of their major imports. They are able to track each bag of Jasmine rice as it goes global, and I told Sec. Yap, “You know, if we are able to track our NFA rice, we can make sure that it doesn’t go to the gray market. It will really go to the poor people who cannot afford to buy rice.” I think they are seriously looking to that option to deploy RFID to track bags of NFA rice.
Computerworld: What is the biggest challenge in implementing information technology in your agency, and how do you think these issues should be resolved?
Diaz de Rivera: One thing we’re doing in terms of IT education is looking at the tertiary level for possible manpower. We’ve partnered with major IT providers to look at a new curriculum for potential managers for IT. Practically all the major businesses have a requirement for somebody who will manage their IT services, so this curriculum is something we are working closely with CHED and a few private and government universities.
The other thing that we are looking at is to work on a “version” of the national broadband network, with the schools acting primarily as the beneficiaries. We can actually bring broadband initially to the schools, especially to tertiary universities. I think there will be a multiplier effect. I think it’s the least politically charged of all segments, since people in government agencies have strong fears of not being prioritized. But with schools, it is more appreciated by the citizens. Therefore, we are looking at that as our current focus, moving to building national broadband but focusing on state universities and colleges.
The biggest challenge for us, therefore, is human capital development. It’s a challenge in government since many IT professionals trained there get better job offers, so it’s a constant struggle to keep them in their places. We are also facing a huge challenge in terms of our BPO sector posting a demand of close to a million jobs by the end of next years. And I think we have about half a million jobs today, so we are looking for another half million individuals to take on the job opportunities coming our way.
In the past, we have a lot of ICT-trained people. But when they get out of school, they couldn’t find jobs because the curriculum they were following and the needs of the industry do not jive. Hopefully, there will be more collaboration with the academe to bridge that gap, so when you finish your college course, you are actually at par and can be hired immediately. That’s the goal we are trying to reach, and that makes our biggest challenge.
Computerworld: When you mentioned human capital does this include the lack of capable CIOs in government?
Diaz de Rivera: Definitely. We are saying that there should be a CIO who has all the appropriate tools. The definition of a CIO refers to someone who has all the core competencies identified with the position. And in so speaking, it’s interesting to note that only three out of 10 of these competencies are technology-related; the rest are business skills. So we are really pushing the training for CIOs, especially those who will serve the government.
Computerworld: Going back to the question, Mr. de Leon, what’s your biggest challenge in handling IT in government?
De Leon: We don’t have a dedicated IT staff. The only positions left in there are data encoders. It’s hard to quickly suggest to government what vacancies we need to fill, since we have to propose it to Congress in order to open up that level. Our ICT in DENR is division level, but we get a pretty big budget. What we’re doing right now is we’re building different knowledgeable individuals for IT, including our different bureaus. We are collaborating within our agency to finally establish our dream ICT team that will help us improve our department’s technology.
Isidro: For me, the biggest challenge in ICT implementation is weaving business and ICT strategies together. How do we resolve it? First, we have to understand the fundamentals of the environment, then we must have a clear vision and supervision for how to weave it in our business strategies. And then we shape the expectations from the ICT project in order to communicate all deliverables from various projects.
Quelantang: For us in the city hall of Manila, our main challenge is always proper funding of IT projects. Usually, higher management doesn’t immediately approve our IT projects. If ever they do, we get limited budget so we are forced to adjust to what we have. Another problem is that our higher management isn’t always aware of new innovation in the industry today.
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