Conceptual Models for Integrated Public Service Co-Creation and Provision

Abstract

Integrated Public Services (IPS) lie at the heart of eGovernment. The European Union has proposed an IPS conceptual model and guidelines for IPS provision. In addition, it has developed the Core Public Service Vocabulary (CPSV) to be used as a standard data model for public services. These models however need to be further enhanced to support personalised and inclusive IPS co-creation and provision. They also need to be supported by an IPS holistic framework to provide practical guidelines and recommendations to practitioners. In this workshop we will first present a number of user stories and scenarios. We will then discuss IPS and CPSV shortcomings. We will present possible IPS and CPSV enhancements as well as factors shaping the IPS holistic framework and, finally, we will discuss alternatives with participants.

Keywords

• EIF
• CPSV
• public service
• co-creation

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Acknowledgement: This work was funded by the European Commission, within the H2020 Programme, in the context of the project inGov under Grant Agreement Number 962563 (https://ingov-project.eu/).

1. Introduction

Electronic Public Services (PS) constitute an essential ingredient of eGovernment initiatives worldwide. To enhance standardisation and interoperability the European Union has introduced Core Public Service Vocabulary (CPSV), which is a PS data model [ 1 ]. In many cases however citizens are in need of multiple PS bundled together (aka Integrated Public Services - IPS) to match their needs and circumstances, such as in the case of life events. To facilitate IPS provision the European Interoperability Framework includes an IPS conceptual model and relevant recommendations [ 2 ].

These models however are often not adequate to capture today’s complexity. Traditionally, PS and IPS provision was performed exclusively by Public Authorities (PAs). Today however this is not longer the case since PAs often need to collaborate with other public sector agencies, private sector, NGOs, and citizens for IPS provision. In addition, we know that PS co-creation can increase PS quality and legitimacy and bring benefits to stakeholders.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested in conceptual models for PS and IPS co-creation and provision to discuss the current enhancements with participants as well as alternative solutions.

2. The Enhanced Models for IPS Co-Creation and Provision

From a technical point of view, every single eGovernment system that provides PS is based on an underlying PS data model. Interoperability between PS models is essential for Integrated Public Service (IPS) production and delivery. Recently, the EU ISA2 initiative with the assistance of the EU member states has established a relevant Working Group and has proposed the Core Public Service Vocabulary (CPSV) as a simple, standard PS model [ 1 ]. CPSV is part of ISA2 Core Vocabularies and aims to be used, amongst others, in the Single Digital Gateway directive implementation.

Despite its strengths however, CPSV model has also a number of drawbacks [ 3 ]. Within the inGov project [ 4 ], we have enhanced CPSV to facilitate personalisation and co-creation in the delivery of complex PS and integrated PS. Complex PS are those where citizens may have to submit different documents or have a different cost based on citizen’s profile or other legal condition. Based on enhanced CPSV, we have also revised the EIF's IPS conceptual model to support co-creation. We have revised this model to better serve the needs of IPS collaboration between all stakeholders, usercentricity, and co-creation. We have abandoned models where PAs are only considered as service providers and citizens as service consumers. In the revised IPS conceptual model both the producer and consumer roles can be undertaken by different stakeholders, such as PA, enterprises, civil society etc. Finally, we have start working towards an IPS Holistic Framework to provide guidance and recommendations to practitioners.

3. Workshop Outline

We will start this workshop by briefly presenting CPSV and EIF's IPS conceptual model. We will then outline some user stories and argue on CPSV and IPS Co-creation conceptual model's shortcomings. We will spend some time discussing with participants the current models and their limitations. After that, we will present the enhanced CPSV and IPS Co-creation conceptual model that overcome previous limitations. We will discuss these enhancements with participants as well as alternative solutions. Finally, we will present and discuss the factors shaping the IPS holistic framework. We hope that this workshop will be valuable to everyone interested in public service models, which constitute the basis of every eGovernment information and transaction system.

About the Authors Efthimios Tambouris Alexandros Gerontas Efthimios Tambouris is a professor of Infromation Systems and Electronic Government at the University of Macedonia, Greece.

Alexandros Gerontas is a PhD candidate at the University of Macedonia, Greece and an IT manager at the Region of Epirus, Greece.

A. Paula Rodriguez Müller A. Paula Rodriguez Müller is a PhD candidate at KU Leuven Public Governance Institute, Belgium. Cesar Casiano is a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven Public Governance Institute, Belgium Cesar Casiano Anita Cioffi Natalia Oprea Anita Cioffi is a Deloitte consultant with experience in interoperability and digital transformation project. Natalia Oprea is a Deloitte consultant and a research fellow at SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy.

Konstantinos Tarabanis Konstantinos Tarabanis is a professor at the University of Macedonia and academic research partner at CERTH/ITI, Greece.

References

[1] European Commission ( 2021 ) Core Public Service Vocabulary Application Profile (CPSV-AP) , available at https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions/core -public-service-vocabulary-application-profile-cpsv-ap_en

[2] European Commission ( 2017 ) “ New European Interoperability Framework . Promoting seamless services and data flows for European public administrations ,” available at: https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/sites/ isa/files/eif_brochure_final.pdf.

[3] Alexandros Gerontas , Vassilios Peristeras, Efthimios Tambouris, Eleni Kaliva, Ioannis Magnisalis, and Konstaninos Tarabanis ( 2021 ) “Public Service Models: a systematic literature review and synthesis” . IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, April-June 2021 , vol. 9 , pp. 637 - 648 .

[4] Efthimios Tambouris and Konstantinos Tarabanis ( 2021 ) “Inclusive Governance Models and ICT Tools for Integrated Public Service Co-Creation and Provision: The inGov project” , 22nd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o 2021) , pp. 538 - 539 .