Governing the Municipality through the 3E Government way.


M.Rajathurai
Consultant- Geospatial
Bentley Systems India Ltd,
India
Email: M.Rajathurai@bentley.com

Manoj jain
Industry Manager - Geospatial
Bentley Systems India Pvt Ltd
Email: manoj.jain@bentley.com


This paper emphasizes on a solution that helps the Municipal Governments in managing their work more effectively. The Municipal body is running with numerous engineering departments which work individually and the data being generated by each of them also complex and also on different technologies. This eventually created issues in the management of the whole data and workflow holistically. There are serious issues concerning the usage of the latest technologies, sharing of information to avoid redundancy and to maintain common standards, security issues etc. Taking these kind of pain areas in into concern, this paper talks about Bentley’s state of the art concept of 3E-Government,a workflow-oriented initiative that helps Municipal governments use technology to more efficiently accomplish their work. It concentrates on what governments do, not whose tools they use, and provides a cohesive technology solution that results in improved government operations, better information flow, and more effective response to constituent needs.

This solution sees government’s needs as not just one of engineering, mapping, AEC, or e-government software. It is based on the technology requirements and the associated governmental concerns expressed by each department in the organization. Hence this is more than simply e-government and so it is 3E-Government. One might think of it as raising e-government to the power of 3. The 3E s are:

• Engineering applications combined with spatial information
• Enabling technologies that allow government departments to seamlessly share information and improve their operations
• Empowering of the citizens and governments alike, via Web-based information sharing and two-way communication tools

Introduction
All the Municipal bodies are running with numerous engineering departments which work individually and the data being generated by each of them also complex and also on different technologies. This eventually created issues in the management of the whole data and workflow holistically. There are serious issues concerning the usage of the latest technologies, sharing of information to avoid redundancy and to maintain common standards, security issues etc. Taking these kind of pain areas in into concern, this paper talks about Bentley’s state of the art concept of 3E-Government, a workflow-oriented initiative that helps Municipal governments use technology to more efficiently accomplish their work. 3E-Government is a workflow-oriented initiative that helps governments use technology to more efficiently accomplish their work. It concentrates on what governments do, not whose tools they use, and provides a cohesive technology solution that results in improved government operations, better information flow, and more effective response to constituent needs.

Government Technology Requirements
What do governments need from technology? First and foremost, they require department-specific, highly precise engineering solutions to design and maintain their existing and growing infrastructure. Often, engineering solutions are discipline-specific applications or combinations of applications that allow each engineering department to perform its specialized tasks.


High precision mapping capabilities allow users to analyze database information such as property values easily and quickly


Second, because there is so much difference in the content and types of information that government departments create, information and data sharing activities are typically the most important aspects of government operations.

The third technology requirement for government is the ability to provide public access to information, typically via the Web. This ability is required by law in many parts of the world and has become a mandate from the citizens served by government.

Government Concerns

Let’s examine some individual areas of concern for government operations.

Specialized Departmental Solutions

A primary concern of governments is data creation and editing in a design environment. Each department needs to have its own specialized applications. For example, water, public safety, public works, land management, planning, and tax assessment all are very different operations and require very different types of engineering solutions. Typically, departments opt for the application and vendor that best suits their individual departmental needs, resulting in different data formats and different, sometimes incompatible, software.



Translating data back and forth from department to department wastes time and money, and often distorts the meaning of the specialized departmental data in the translation.

An Accurate Land base
Creating, maintaining, and sharing an accurate landbase is an ongoing concern for governments. Even discipline-specific applications like water network analysis or emergency dispatch management rely on the accuracy and availability of a common landbase.

When the most accurate and up-to-date landbase is not readily available, individual departments, of necessity, may create their own departmental landbase, or they may maintain a special version of the common landbase. The variations and inaccuracies resulting from these practices waste time and money, and can lead to flawed managerial decisions that affect important public works projects, asset management programs and even facility location.

Information Sharing
Information sharing is a key ingredient in realizing what some have called “integrated government”. Each department needs to be able to share all types of data, such as maps, database information, images, analyses results, engineering drawings, and documents. Because different departments use different tools to do their jobs, it can be difficult to transfer data from one project to another. The different formats produced by different vendors’ products can make sharing information painful and prevent seamless data sharing. Multiple databases, data incompatibility, and the operational pains associated with data translation can lead to inefficient operations and limit interdepartmental cooperation.

E-government
E-government has come to stand for Web-based information sharing. Today’s governments need timely and simple communications with their constituency. That’s where the Web comes in. In fact, many states and countries now require that governments make various types of information accessible by the general public via the Web.

There are two aspects of e-government. First, much of government data is sensitive in nature and cannot be readily shared with the general public. Second, the tools used to create and manage public Web sites need to be easy to use from the government’s perspective, and even easier to use from the public’s perspective.

Improving Efficiencies
It goes without saying that governments of all sizes and types need to maximize their use of public moneys. The impacts are most evident in public works, infrastructure, and facilities management. The more efficient a government is, the more services it can offer its citizens.

How this solution from Bentley Looks at Government

Bentley’s view of government needs is not just one of engineering, mapping, AEC, or e-government software. We look at the technology requirements and the associated governmental concerns expressed by each department in the organization.

The Bentley view is more than simply e-government. We call it 3E-Government. You might think of it as raising e-government to the power of 3.

The 3Es are:
  • Engineering applications combined with spatial information
  • Enabling technologies that allow government departments to seamlessly share information and improve their operations
  • Empowering of the citizens and governments alike, via Web-based information sharing and two-way communication tools
Engineering
Bentley’s well-known strengths in highly precise engineering tools for civil engineering, public works, utilities, and other operations are combined with our powerful mapping and geospatial capabilities to accurately model the real world.


Engineering solutions are often discipline-specific applications or combinationsm of applications that allow each department to perform specialized tasks


For civil engineering departments, our solutions offer accurate design and workflow management tools that are created specifically for engineering applications. Our powerful InRoads® and GEOPAK® products for transportation system design, site preparation and planning, and water and wastewater handling systems are all part of the civil solutions from Bentley.

For public works, Bentley solutions help government, engineering consulting firms, and supervisory officials design and manage complex infrastructure more efficiently and more easily than ever before. Applications range from facilities management software to the popular Haestad Methods® products for complex hydrologic analysis of sophisticated water systems.

For cadastral applications, Bentley’s creation, editing, and management tools allow information managers to successfully document, update, and analyze complex cadastral information. Since all our solutions are built on the highly accurate MicroStation® design platform, cadastral mapping, along with cartographic and other geospatial applications, benefit from the engineering precision that can only be achieved with MicroStation. Because virtually all spatially oriented engineering applications depend on an accurate and – more importantly – sharable landbase, they become inherently more efficient and more capable. Planning departments can make better choices. Public safety, homeland security and emergency management departments can make quicker and better decisions in times of emergency or public disasters. Revenue departments are able to track tax assessment activities and assets with greater accuracy and efficiency



In fact, the operational efficiency of many government organizations is critically dependent on the availability and sharability of an accurate landbase. Data and information flows throughout the organization and to the public by way of the sharable landbase. For example, water departments can use environmental information when planning hydro system upgrades. Emergency management can access critical street and other infrastructure information to aid in emergency evacuations. The public can access evacuation routes, street repair plans, disaster updates, and traffic delay maps – all using that same accurate landbase. This is not to imply that the landbase has to be housed in one location. In fact, the diversity of departmental applications makes a federated system a more appropriate option. Governments can create a virtual landbase that is maintained departmentally and shared enterprise-wide using information-sharing technology.

Enabling
The second “E” is enabling information-sharing technology. Bentley’s 3E-Government solutions offer powerful data-management and information-management tools that enable all government departments to work together easily and more intelligently.



This is more than sharing maps. It is sharing information – spatial and non-spatial – through a smart, secure, information management system based on Bentley’s collaboration server, ProjectWise®. Because technical applications are often very specialized and operationally specific, the tendency is for each department to create and maintain its own data. Without easy data-sharing capabilities, each department becomes an island of information that is unable and, at times, unwilling to share critical departmental information.

Built on ProjectWise, the spatially enabled managed environment provides the right tools for governments to create truly collaborative information-sharing. Combining the power of document- and workflow-management software with a spatially enabled, project-oriented interface, it offers the best-of-breed information management solution.

Maps, designs, and analysis results are cataloged and accessed from a simple-touse spatial interface. Other documents – work orders, cost analyses, images, and drawings – are given spatial intelligence and can be located visually through the spatial interface or by project number, by file name, or a host of other methods. The environment enables sharing of native ESRI data and is the key to integrating MicroStation-based applications with enterprise-level Oracle 10g databases through Bentley’s unique connector technology.

Empowering
The final “E” is the empowering of citizens through Web-based data publishing.


Public web portals provide local maps, travel information and other critical government communications to the citizenry


This includes public Web portals that inform the citizens, let them provide input on public policy, or allow them to request licenses, permits, and variances, as well as other public/government communications that have been traditionally performed at the city hall, county court house, or license bureau. 3E-Government’s view of empowerment includes public Web access to maps, spatial information, public works projects, and other government information.

It also includes internal, intranet applications, through which the Web is used as a managerial decision-support tool. Government departments can use Bentley’s Geo Web PublisherTM for internal project review and, access to enterprise systems, and as an information-sharing platform.

Finally, many governments are starting to use e-commerce sites to offer a subset of internal government information – demographic profiles, traffic patterns, growth statistics, and the like to land developers, financial institutions, and others interested in making financial investments in the community. As Web technology continues to grow, more and more governments are using the Web for data access and data verification, and even as a means to update spatial information.

Summary
So that’s Bentley’s view of government operations – much more than e-government, it’s 3E-Government. A fresh approach to government operations, it capitalizes on solutions needed by governments to solve departmental engineering and mapping problems, to share information among departments and across diverse types of data, and to easily publish information to the public and internal users via the Web.