Government of Norway: Nationwide Electronic Reporting System

Accenture teamed with Microsoft to develop the Altinn solution to help Norway's Public Service simplify public reporting requirement. Together, Accenture and Microsoft offered a competitive technical infrastructure based on the Windows .NET platform and the use of the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator.

Norway has one of the highest Internet penetrations in the world, but Public Service agencies have been unable to leverage this environment to create greater efficiencies. An overarching eNorway 2005 plan is changing that situation. One venture within the plan, A Simpler Norway, aims to simplify and enable easier communication with the business sector.

Each year, more than 400,000 businesses and four million citizens must complete various public reporting forms to satisfy public requirements for information. The Public Service estimates that businesses use more than 7,000 full-time equivalents to comply with statutory reporting for central Public Service agencies alone. In 2002, three major Public Service agencies decided to develop a common electronic reporting solution to simplify public reporting requirements.

In a highly competitive bid process conducted by the Tax Authority, the Brønnøysund Register Centre and Statistics Norway, Accenture won the contract to develop a common electronic data reporting system, referred to as Altinn.

Starting in October 2002, Accenture teamed with Microsoft to develop the Altinn solution from concept to deployment. Together, Accenture and Microsoft offered a competitive technical infrastructure based on the Windows .NET platform and the use of the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator, an offering that provides an environment and architecture to build eGovernment solutions.

Altinn consists primarily of two parts: a form development solution to develop and maintain forms and work processes and a reporting solution to facilitate information flow from businesses and citizens to Public Service agencies. End-users can either fill in their forms directly on an Internet portal or use their own IT-systems or software packages, for example salary and accounting systems (ERP) or a yearly settlement package, to transfer data directly to Altinn. End-users are asked to sign and approve the forms before they are filed and submitted to the Public Service agencies.

Altinn was built on the Microsoft .NET platform using BizTalk as the integration platform and ACA.NET from the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator as the architecture. Microsoft technologies used included SQL Server, Windows 2000 Server, Visual Studio .NET, and from the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator, Adobe Form Server. Accenture and Microsoft's joint venture company Avanade assisted in the implementation of the Avanade ACA.NET architecture, a flexible, extensible architecture that can be customized to meet the unique needs of varying levels of Public Service. ACA.NET and the other tools that make up the Accenture eGovernment Accelerator helped to provide the infrastructure to quickly deploy the automated forms.

Web services were seen as the best solution for integrating the Altinn system with businesses using packaged software. All organizations involved agreed that Web services would provide a practical solution relatively quickly and easily, and with flexibility for the future. Web services were also seen as the key to making this initiative a success in the marketplace by making it easy for software vendors to quickly integrate with and update new forms that are planned for the solution.

Initially, interfaces needed to be created for more than 80 forms and six different governmental back-end systems. Most of the back-end systems have proprietary legacy interfaces, but plan to use XML interfaces in the future. BizTalk makes it easy to replace the various interfaces.

The Web services solution provides a quick interface that operates effectively over any kind of bandwidth connections. Although Altinn is built on the Windows .NET platform, users do not need to change their hardware or software. They can simply access the system through an Internet connection.

The solution includes a standard interface based on open standards, including XML and SOAP, which will make Altinn scalable and flexible for future expansion. Because a standard interface was used, Web services simplified the connection design and enabled the development team to build the interface in a relatively short time and proceed faster with other project phases.

Selected forms from the Tax Authority, the Brønnøysund Register Centre and Statistics Norway were made available on a limited pilot basis in early December 2003 with an initial positive reaction from the business community. The pilot will continue through January 2004, followed by a phased rollout of providing all 80 forms electronically nationwide by the end of March 2004.

Using Web services technologies provided several benefits:

• Connection ease—All that most users need is an Internet connection.
  
  

• Speed of integration—The development effort was reduced since programmers did not need to worry about low-level interface implementation.
  
  
• Reduced cost—The connection flexibility eliminates the need for expensive fixed links or complex network setups.
  
  
• Low barriers of entry for businesses.
  
  
• A connectivity platform for future development of the technical architecture.

For businesses, Altinn will lead to simplified form access, submission and reuse, as well as easier access to business system data and easier completion of forms. The same user interface is used for all forms, with common fields populated automatically. Users can click for help when they need it, automatically skip over irrelevant questions, and review error messages prior to submission.

On the Public Service side, not only are immediate cost savings anticipated by transacting electronically, but return on investment is expected to be high due to improved accuracy and quality of information, more efficient service, less key punching, fewer mistakes and less error handling.

Altinn is one of the most high-profile initiatives of eNorway 2005 and represents a milestone in the work for achieving the goal of having all state agencies able to receive electronic forms in 2004. Plans are to add more forms to the system in 2004 and 2005.