Marius Pellerud og Arild Jansen University of Oslo http:www'afin'uio'no

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Marius Pellerud og Arild Jansen University of
Oslohttp//www.afin.uio.no/
Cross-agency cooperation based on ICT in public
sector
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Altinn A common Internet portal for public
reporting

• December 2003 Launching of AltIinn
• Joint development project between
• Norwegian Tax Administration, Statistics Norway
  (SSB), and The Brønnøysund Register Centre
  (BRREG)
• Offers interface for reporting both from
  enterprises and citizens
• To day more than 100 different public forms are
  available and more than 15 million forms have
  been submitted through Altinn.
• 18 different public institutions are using
  Altinn.
• Also transaction-oriented public services to
  enterprises/citizens
• 24/7 solution alternative to own plug-in for
  reporting i payroll or accounting systen
• Based on .netplatform, XML, Soap standard
  interface

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Short on the Norwegian Governmental structure

• Characterised by sectoral, fragmented policies
• Distinct division of tasks and responsibility
  between distinct ministers and directorates
• Sectorial interests are often dominating
• A constitutional separation between the state and
  local (municipal) levels
• No superior IT-minister that can overrule other
  ministers or local (municipal) administrations
• However, the Norwegian public sector is highly
  computerised, both at state and municipal level -
  as characterises rest of the our society

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Research issue

• How to explain the decision making processes in
  the development of the web portal Altinn
• Different theoretical perspectives
• An instrumental-hierarchical perspective
• Strict rational, goaloriented and top-down
  decision making, e.g.
• To improve efficiency, improve data quality or
  better public services
• As negotiation between different stakeholders and
  interests
• Decisions as compromises between various
  coalitions
• Many actors on various levels involved in
  decision processes
• Also a technological and legal perspective
• What constraints are inherited in technological
  solutions
• The role of legacy systems

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Research Model

• .

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Data collection

• This study is based on
• Public documents, project repots etc.
• Interviews with IT managers in the three agencies
  
• Survey among the participants in the
  Altinn-prosjektet
• The study was undertaken dec. 2005 may 2006,
  which is more that two years after the project
  was finished.
• Only 31 of 60 participants responded in the survey

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The stated objectives by the Norwegian parliament
(Stortinget)

• The Altinn project was originally motivated by
  three main objectives
• i) to reduce the burden for private enterprises,
  ii) to make the data processing more efficient
  and iii) to provide better services (FIN 2003).

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Results
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Table 2 Cross table for variables Organization
versus hierarchical management structure
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What do the interviewee say?

• In the Tax administration we have one central
  decision maker, which is Bjarne Hope. .. That
  is how it should be, that the top-manager makes
  the decisions, based on proposals from everybody
  else. (Tax Administration2005)
• A corresponding view do we also find in this
  quotation It may be that it was a close
  cooperation, but it was closely linked to the
  involvement of the Bjarne Hope. It is clear that
  he was much more involved than others (SSB 2005
  )
• The notion of viewing the Tax administration as
  the locomotive for developing new interactive
  services to the citizens The interviewees from
  SSB admitted that had that role, and added The
  price for having a locomotive is that it comes
  first. And that is what we all accept without any
  serious problems
• The Tax Administration is by far the dominating
  partner, in many ways.
• The Tax President (Bjarne Hope) himself played
  a very important role through his personal
  dedication to this project.

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Table 3 Cross table for variables Professional
Background versus perception of identity with the
project
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Table 4 Cross table for variables Organization
versus Influence External Organizations
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Technological constraints

• Different types and ages of technological systems
• BRREG has been based on ICT from the beginning
• Many old large systems Tax administration
• Statistical tools in SSB
• But these old systems did not cause serious
  problems
• Paper based forms as legacy systems
• These old forms influenced design of new systems
• Legal constraints to what changes that could be
  done
• The role of the vendors and consultants
• What they can (and want to) deliver may be a
  problem, but not so much in this case

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Main conclusions

• There is some, but no unambiguous support for
  either of the two main hypothesises.
• In the Tax administration we found an emphasis on
  formal hierarchy and rational decisions, seeing
  the organisation as an instrument for top
  management.
• However, not shared by the informants from the
  two other agencies, nor from the project
  participants.
• The interviewees demonstrated rather limited
  consciousness about the objectives for Altinn.
  They underlined its strategic role and as an
  example of a cooperative effort in the
  government.
• The survey, however, emphasized the anticipated
  positive external effects for enterprises and
  citizens in general which gives higher legitimacy
  i its surroundings
• The participants perceived the process as
  rational hierarchical, but they did have
  limited knowledge in the totality.

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Negotiations between different interests

• It is thus not surprising that the
  decision-making processes related to the
  development of Altinn seem to have been
  ambiguous.
• Rather the opposite, as we believe that a
  hierarchical, silo-based model of management is
  not adequate with respect to managing the new,
  digital government.
• The role of Tax administration as the dominating
  partner was accepted by the others
• The final solution to move the new Altinn to
  BRREG have been as an acceptable compromise for
  all parties.