eCabinet is an Irish Government initiative instigated by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and developed his Department in co-operation with all Government departments. It modernises and transforms the way the Irish Government (Cabinet) consultation and decision making process operates. It also serves as an exemplar project to demonstrate the benefits of ICTs in Government and to provide leadership in eGovernment by example at the highest level. It replaces the legacy paper based process with a modern secure ICT based process. The project analysed how Cabinet business is traditionally conducted, consulted with key stakeholders and devised a model whereby the best elements of the existing system were retained while facilitating new efficiencies and enhanced features made possible by technology. The resulting eCabinet system makes it easier for civil servants to author, process, consult on and submit documentation for Government and deliver a better service. What It applies new technologies in support of the Cabinet process. Some of the key features include: - XML authoring of Cabinet documents in a conventional word processing environment - Electronic management of Cabinet document workflow, from initial creation, through intermediate consultative stages, to presentation of real-time agenda status information and presentation at the Cabinet table - Integrated business process guidance and help for users (novice and experienced) - Flexibility Why - to replace manual systems with more timely and efficient electronic processes - to allow process improvements Who and for Whom By and for all Cabinet Ministers and all officials of all Ministries

Main results, benefits and impacts

What are the key benefits of eCabinet? - eCabinet facilitates the secure electronic creation, processing, distribution & management of (cabinet) documentation. - It speeds up the administrative process - enabling a quicker pace of conducting Government business. - eCabinet is designed with ease of use in mind - including for first time users. - The technological benefits have now been introduced in support of Cabinet meetings. - eCabinet provides a better service for Government Ministers, e.g. it improves the availability and presentation of information - by giving earlier (real time) access to information - by facilitating ?at a glance? single screen (customisable) overviews of the key elements.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

Amongst the challenges which we faced and successfully overcame were:- - Convince Government - who had been used to a paper based system - that there was an overwhelming case to be made for a shift to modern technologies including for themselves. - Successfully implement a common system across all departments and Ministries - to join up government - where no such system previously existed. It has to operate efficiently and consistently across the whole of Government - irrespective of the various technological platforms in use in the different departments and at the same time achieve value for money. - Deliver a system that provided the features and functionality that the users whether civil servants or Government Ministers wanted so that the system would sell itself. - Devise a system which would be intuitive to use so as to minimise the need for training and support this transformation programme with a series of specifically tailored 'familiarization' sessions for users coupled with a comprehensive range of support measures for those users. - The new system has to be designed to support and retain previously proven processes which has served well while at the same time facilitating and enabling new efficiencies without unnecessarily/excessively constraining users or requiring them to change the way they operated to suit the new system. - The system had to facilitate flexibilities and facilitate the human factor. - The system had to be available for use by any civil servant at any time without the need for individual training. - Interface devices had to be provided for use by Ministers at Government meetings in a way that would not impact on the dynamic of the meeting environment. This was achieved by designing an interface solution which for low lying adjustable touch screen technology interface. Problems encountered The most significant problem we encountered was one of compatibility of infrastructure. As this was the first deployment of a common platform across all Government departments which would operate in real time we encountered communications connectivity/configuration compatibility issues on greater scale than envisaged between the range of different departments. These, involving a wide range of players across the full range of Government departments took longer than we had planned to resolve ? not least because it was sometimes difficult to identify where precisely the connectivity & configuration problems lay and thus whose responsibility they were thus who needed to address them. A focus on this potential issue at the initial project planning stage would have been beneficial.