Group 1 Organizational models for IT support of the Treasury /MOF: Challenges and Solutions Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Montenegro, Turkey Tbilisi, October 6,

FMIS System in operation in each country Albania – Oracle based with some local modifications (334 active users) Azerbaijan (SAP) (2400 organisations) with some local modifications including portal. We have an enterprise license for 500 users with 24hr support Belarus – (purpose built) distributed across three levels of government. (15,000 users) Covers entire budget process, but developed over a number of years with different technical elements – maybe looking to upgrade Montenegro – SAP – have a GUI interface through state network covering all budget entities (200 users). There is also a Ministry responsible for ICT Turkey – purpose built - SGB.net is web based and uses outsourced software development and inhouse expertise (11000 users) across three levels of government - over 1000 subnational governments 2

Organizational models for IT support of the Treasury /MOF represented in the group  State owned enterprise under the MoF / Treasury – Belarus (241 staff – 103 decentralised at Oblast level), Georgia. 70% dependent on budget support  IT Department within the MoF – General Directorate of Support Services - (10 staff) Albania – do get some support from a local external source technically and functionally  IT within of Treasury – Azerbaijan (12 staff) – we do call on external consultants for highly technical requirements eg Oracle database – Montenegro (5 staff) - also have outsourced annual maintenance and upgrade. For specific additional reforms go to tender  IT function across different MoF Directorates– Turkey (300 staff). Decentralised within MoF. SGB.net (10 staff) inhouse as software developed externally 3

Conclusions on the pros and cons of each model for ICT Albania - Centralised ICT is a stronger option rather than decentralised as it is easier to manage Azerbaijan – sees a risk with the outsourcing of the ICT service In-house ensures more responsive service In-house still allows the option to purchase support as required In-house we hire middle level people and offer them training, this is the incentive. We keep them for five years and they leave. This helps with refreshing the staffing (Azerbaijan) Would be useful for the MoF to have a strategic focus on ICT that did not fragment decisions about ICT 4

Conclusions on the pros and cons of each model for ICT (2) Belarus – Everything depends on the local conditions – in Belarus we have software developers. The risk for us is if we lose the support of the MoF tomorrow the unit will cease. So we need to maintain our client focus The most important elements - how well the experts in the MoF understand the ICT requirements and that the relationships between the ICT and client be very strong! We would prefer to move to a fully centralised model In ICT the stage of reforms in broader ICT applications has a big impact on the model that will apply – for example web- based interfaces allows a centralised approach. This was not possible in the past 5

Conclusions on the pros and cons of each model for ICT (3) Georgia – the size of the country will determine the best approach – consolidation makes sense in many cases. If there are no qualified human resources outsourcing is probably the best way Montenegro likes the idea of a statutory body for ICT but it will not work in Montenegro. Need to have ICT for whole MoF rather than just the Treasury South Korea is probably one of the best implementations anywhere in the World Turkey – we will move to a centralised function in MoF. Turkey would like to move to the FAS model for MoF Overall conclusion - local environment, historical context and local capacity will determine the best solution for each country but centralisation is the more sensible approach going forward. 6

Technical challenges faced by IT support services and possible solutions Infrastructure development including servers (Albania) Lake of stable external source of technical support (Albania) The competing technical and system requirements which are scheduled for implementation in the short term (Albania) Ensuring a structured protocol to cover all ICT reforms – eg PRINCE2 (Azerbaijan) Some old software which we are gradually replacing (Foxpro, Access, Jarva) (Belarus) Business continuity is a challenge and we need to also implement proper change management protocols (Montenegro) Issues with complex technical matters eg. Virtualisation (Montenegro) Fragmentation of ICT function and software (Turkey) – lack of interoperability of different software Keeping up with the rapid changing trends in ICT (Georgia) including application development tools – silverlight discontinued If you develop in-house these change issues are much greater than using COTS as the software provider will do the upgrade т 7

Non-technical challenges faced by IT support services and possible solutions Improvement of IT procedures (Albania) Small size of in-house staffing (Albania) Knowledge management ensuring competence of all staff (Azerbaijan) Lack of local country capacity due to size (Montenegro) Senior managers who are not technical proficient and blame the software Difficulty retaining skilled employees giving salary and other constraints – need to be inventive in motivating staff Political challenges across organisational units which make project management of ICT for different clients a challenge (Azerbaijan) т 8