Situation
Our Client, a large governmental organization, was seeking support in defining a digital strategy for a portal solution. In a situation with several, very independent, offices and clients, their goal was to identify and evaluate various portal concepts which would be the most suitable. The strategy paper should provide the architectural guidance for a future transactional e-government solutions. The desired solution should improve the user experience and contribute to the development of new e-government services, while minimizing costs of IT operations.
Approach
We used a 3-step approach to deliver the project in a short timeframe:
Status Quo: Our team held several interviews to gather information on existing portals and e-government applications. These findings were summarized in an overview, which served as a first basis of discussion. Simultaneously, OWT assessed the requirements of the various offices, which led to two main conclusions: a. Several offices have similar needs for portal-typical functions b. The two offices with most transactional activities would need to be the drivers for future e-government services: the architectural design would be developed with a specific focus on their requirements.
Conceptualization of a portal model: We designed a portal model considering a typical user journey, thereby separating information access from actual transaction delivery. Our team then proposed several architectural options for each model layer.
Evaluation and Recommendation: After a thorough evaluation of the different options observing user experience, costs and potential for future development, OWT was able to recommend the fittest solution to our client.
Targeted interviews, workshops and the on-boarding of all stakeholders on a collective thought process, allowed us to complete this extensive project in only 8 weeks. The result is a comprehensive portal strategy paper illustrating and weighing the various architectural design options for the information access layer and the transaction delivery layer.
The proposed solution of a decentralized portal based on microservice allows:
- Scalable architecture most suitable in an existing application landscape.
- All options for reorganizing the information access layer in future developments.
- Progressive deployment throughout independent departments.
Thanks to a collaborative work-process, the selected solution is welcomed and supported by all project stakeholders.
