Ethos Issue 4, Apr 2008

Ten Tips: How to Create a Next Generation Public Service Super-Portal
Rosina Howe-Teo

Since its inception in 2000, the Land Transport Authority’s ONE.MOTORING (http://www.onemotoring.com.sg) portal has become an indispensable online destination for the motor trade industry, vehicle owners and the general public. With more than 8 million monthly page views, this comprehensive information, service and community portal polled user satisfaction ratings of 93% in 2008.¹ It was also awarded the 2006 National Infocomm Award (Merit) for the most innovative use of infocomm technology (ICT) in the public sector, among a number of international accolades.²

A pioneering effort in integrated e-services and public-private collaboration, the developers of ONE.MOTORING encountered many challenges common to the radical adoption of electronic service delivery by public sector agencies. The management team behind this revolutionary portal offers 10 hard-earned lessons from their experience in developing next-generation e-Government services.

1. CHANGE MINDSETS, CHANGE THE GAME
An early aspect of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) e-services master plan in the late 1990s was the recognition that it had to provide a customer experience beyond mere service delivery, by integrating both government and commercial services in order to increase the depth of e-services.

This was a significant departure from traditional government-led initiatives where commercial interests were held at arm’s length in order to maintain public accountability and impartiality.

Instead, ONE.MOTORING would draw on the public service’s reputation for trustworthiness, reliability and transparency, while tapping the creativity and operational nimbleness of the private sector. Today, the richness of collaboration between government, commercial and public entities is precisely what has transformed an otherwise government-centric portal into a vibrant lifestyle hub for the motoring community.

As a hybrid portal offering both public and private services, ONE.MOTORING did not comply with standard government guidelines of how a government website should look and operate. As part of the mindset shift, the portal was registered under LTA’s wholly-owned subsidiary as www.onemotoring.com.sg immediately freeing it up conceptually to offer radically new forms of joint public-private services ahead of the curve.

2. TRANSFORM AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY—WITHOUT BEARING ALL THE COST
Singapore’s motor industry is largely made up of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), where the adoption rate of information technology is relatively low. The ONE.MOTORING initiative, by providing a trusted gateway to a comprehensive range of services, was an opportunity for LTA to help close the digital divide among companies, achieve seamless integration, and reap efficiencies across the industry.

However, this approach does not mean that LTA bears the development costs of all services on ONE.MOTORING. Instead, LTA acts as an anchor tenant, bringing credibility and a strong base of transactions to the portal. Today, LTA attracts more than 8 million page-views monthly to the portal, of which 50% are government-related transactions and enquiries. Commercial services offered by industry partners through their own corporate systems make up the rest of the portal’s transactions.

ONE.MOTORING does not provide hosting services, hence its capital set-up is kept low. Instead, every e-service owner or provider is responsible for its own backend development as part of its business operations. As a TrustSg³ certified hub, the portal ensures that the highest possible security controls are put in place and regular vulnerability tests conducted by authorised third-parties ensures the website is secured and safe.

Being a gateway, the portal provides a “service green lane” that directs and links the various e-services to the respective backend systems for processing. In this way, it is able to ensure the fastest possible response time without the overhead of a massive, centralised technical infrastructure. Each corporate participant determines their own development priorities. Business competition drives the pace of available new e-services. The portal is therefore not encumbered by e-services that nobody wants, or by a dearth of new features.

At the same time, the business partner who operates and maintains the portal is incentivised to ‘recruit’ new commercial e-services, related to motoring needs, through a share of advertising revenue.

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