Government CloudsLessons from International Experience and Implications for

World Bank Projects

John WilleInvestment Climate Department

September 2010

THE WORLD BANKWorld Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency2

Opportunities Offered by Government Clouds

Shared services across government

Common G2B and G2C service delivery platforms (e.g., shared business licensing applications)

Shared ancillary applications (citizen/business authentication, online payments)

Increased sustainability of G2B and G2C service delivery

Reduced need for technology staff at the agency level (more superusers)

Secure, redundant and professional application hosting at reduced cost

Can move to “pay-as-you-go” model for technology services

Cost-effective approach for small states and local governments

Improved ability to implement eGovernment principles and standards

Less incentive for “go it alone” approaches to implementing G2B and G2C applications

Ability to align data standards and achieve interoperability

THE WORLD BANKWorld Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

Kenya – implementing shared services framework across national and local governments, hosted in a national data center

Includes license administration, payments, authentication

Mauritius – implemented shared platform for business registration and licensing

Singapore – has consolidated both hosting and back-office processing for many G2B and G2C services

More infrastructure-as-a-service than SaaS at present

Examples from WBG clients

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THE WORLD BANKWorld Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

Conceptual Design for Transactional Licensing

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Business clients

e-Licensing Portal Site

Directory of all licenses

Ministry of Tourism

Hotel license application

form

RegulatorWeb sites

Environmental Protection

AgencyEnvironmental

Permit Online Form

Regulator Back OfficeWorkflow

Processors

Approvers

License Issuance

Processors

Inspectors

Approvers

Permit Issuance

New applications

New applications

Periodic reports

License Permit

Legacy Systems

Legacy Systems

Renewals

E-Payment Gateway

Existing e-Registry

Proposed transactional system

THE WORLD BANKWorld Bank Group Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

Where are the SaaS applications? Not a lot of product development yet in the G2B space… Is this a chicken and egg problem? Can donors aggregate demand to stimulate market forces?

Data standards and portability – how can governments migrate seamlessly to new application vendors? Can the development community and trade associations work together to promote data standards for G2B apps?

Data standards also important for regional integration efforts in trade, financial services, etc. (e.g., OHADA, EAC)

Data sovereignty remains an issue – even at the ministry level. Cultural shifts required in government in order to successfully implement shared applications.

Effective use of the cloud calls for a new, integrated WBG approach to implementing sectoral applications, particularly in providing connectivity

In many IDA and conflict-affected countries, we implement connectivity (e.g., VSATs) at the project level rather than on a government-wide basis

New approaches to WBG financing of ICT needed if clients are renting applications from the cloud instead of buying hardware and software

Mobile cloud solutions require an integrated infrastructure for authentication, payments, etc. to minimize redundant data input by users.

Challenges of Cloud and SaaS

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