One of the easiest ways to improve government performance to to improve the quality of tools you employees have to do their jobs. It is very common for government workers to loose productive work time switching between applications to get their jobs done. In the State of Hesse, Germany employees used 400 line-of-business applications in doing their jobs, resulting in error-prone and time-consuming workflows. To integrate applications and streamline processes, the state is deploying the Office Business Gateway (OBG) solution, developed by Microsoft Registered Partner Combionic. Employees can run processes in a third of the time by using any Microsoft Office application to manage data spanning all systems. Their OBG strategy integrates Microsoft technology with the legacy line-of-business products already owned by the government, creating one overall system with a single communication infrastructure. The solution exchanges information between programs in a timely and accurate way by using Open XML Formats. The OBG solution enables role-based access to required information from within almost any Microsoft Office application.
It allows government workers to use the office applications they are familiar with and have them pre-populate forms and letters using data from legacy systems. An employee who reads an email message in the Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 messaging and collaboration client can view the OBG task pane for relevant information—for example, invoice numbers—in the form of an XML annotation. There’s no need to open another program or re-enter data, and the employee can use the information to create documents, submit approvals, or access correspondence. The state uses Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 as a service broker that transfers information to and from line-of-business applications.
Combionic collaborates with Microsoft to help improve government worker productivity and is a recent winner of Microsoft´s Government Innovation Award.
Benefits The OBG solution acts as a bridge between employees and processes.
Reduced Costs, Increased Productivity Because they can access relevant data directly from a Microsoft Office interface, employees can make better decisions and complete processes faster.
Enhanced Data Quality and Compliance The OBG solution facilitates higher-quality information by avoiding multiple entries, thus decreasing the potential for error, and data is verified automatically. State of Hesse employees can work collaboratively and transparently, and get easy access to records, sites, applications, and documents across government agencies.
Improved Citizen Services Productivity improvements in government processes result in better customer service as workers are freed to focus on core services. Citizens also benefit because the government budget is optimized and funding can be redistributed to social programs. The OBG solution also contributes to environmental stewardship by reducing waste. Plus, the state can easily train employees on standardized and familiar tools.