Implementation and Management Approach

The ultimate objective of IR Services On-Line to improve taxpayer services required the vision to re-engineer business processes, re-write legislation and collaborate with key stakeholders to simplify the approach for all taxpayers to fulfill their obligations by leveraging the potential of e-Government applications. 

This project was spearheaded by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue himself and the management team included the Information Systems Project Manager (from MITA), Director Operations and Director Legal and Technical who involved various section heads, technical persons, business analysts and software engineers to ensure that tasks are delivered timely.  A number of tasks included internal meetings with operational staff to ensure commitment and reduce resistance to change.

Processes that required review were interlinked and interdependent and impact on the critical business process through which income tax returns are processed, tax is calculated and claims or refunds issued to taxpayers. 

Process engineering starts very early every year with representation from administration, delivery arms, legal and information systems. The tax return process has to promptly implement policy adjustments announced in the annual budget speech.

The coordination levels required to succeed in this project were achieved through a collaborative team approach at the highest levels.   Subcommittees report back at the stock-take meetings, Commissioner of Inland Revenue and Project manager were constantly available for direction with ad-hoc issues discussed with all  concerned during  stock  take meetings,

Externally the Inland Revenue collaborated with the Malta Institute of Accountants to achieve the understanding of service levels expected by taxpayers both from a self service aspect and through their tax practitioners.  This reduced resistance from external users and shared the understanding where each one stands to benefit.  The same approach was used with the Notarial Council and with Employers.  Presentations and hands on sessions were provided by the Inland Revenue to key users to achieve success in the implementation.

The Inland Revenue used the diffusion of innovation method rather than a “big bang” approach.  E-Services were released regularly in an incremental fashion.  Users provided feedback to the project team on the services and suggestions were often implemented during the next release.  Tax Practitioners were the innovators who spread the word that e-services for Corporate Taxpayers were reliable, secure and provided effective service.  Subsequently large employers did the same for e-service related to employers.  With each release the take up within target sectors increased.

Through this approach the Inland Revenue could manage the implementation of back office application changes (e.g. fiscal policy changes, euro changeover) with releases of online services. 

The incremental approach also helped to manage both technical and business process risks especially in the early stages of the implementation. 

Risks were managed through business process reviews with the stakeholders to resolve issues related to process simplification by reducing filing requirements.  The e-filing process was reviewed to provide comforts to Tax Practitioners, Taxpayers and Employers that risks related to registration and authorization of users and taxpayers, signatures and the desktop technology used (spreadsheets) were minimized. 

Legal experts mitigated risks through enactment of subsidiary legislation (Electronic Communications Income Tax Regulations) to complement the Electronic Commerce legislation. 

ICT Management addressed concerns for security through the use of Public Key Infrastructure, Secure Socket Layer and digital signatures on spreadsheets.  The technology design ensured scalability and resilience and had the foresight to plan and subsequently implement for web 2.0 features.  Projects developed by MITA (including this one) follow a PRINCE2 project management methodology.  Internal reviews and project management were done within this structure.

Multi channels reduced the risk of increasing costs for businesses.  Following discussions with stakeholders, a cost neutral baseline for submission through website was established.  Subsequently development of web services’ was released to give taxpayers the option of enhancing their third party applications (e.g. payroll) to interact with the e-services.  Additionally spreadsheets were also developed to interact with these web services, providing another delivery channel, familiar with the user base.

The project provided opportunities for team members to develop cross functional knowledge.  The IT project team worked closely with internal and external business users.  The business team collaborated with the project team and shared knowledge on the application of IT as a business tool.   Technical and business challenges emerged that tested the team’s resilience to achieve objectives. 

As work unfolded Inland Revenue appointed an Assistant Director responsible for e-Business within the Operations’ Directorate, whilst within the IT project team, software developers progressed into career paths of Software Engineers and Specialists or Business Analysts.  This strengthened the Project Team structure for future developments.

Technology solution

The Inland Revenue (IRD) system is made up of software components which may be logically grouped into presentation, business, and data services.  This approach facilitates the exposure of IRD business services to other consumers, and improves interoperability between IRD services and third party data providers.  Use of tools and applications familiar with the user base is very important.  Refer to attached information for a schematic diagram of the design.

Presentation components: These provide a way for the user to interact with the application, view and capture information. User interfaces are implemented using forms, web pages, and Office business applications.

Business workflows: After the required data is collected by a user process, it can be used to perform a business process. For example, after the user inputs the tax return information, the amount of tax due can be calculated and payment of amount due may begin. Many business processes involve multiple steps that must be performed in the correct order and triggered as required. Business workflows define and coordinate long running, multi-step business processes.

Business entities: Data is required to be passed between layers. For example data on a particular taxpayer and its type and attributes is passed between the business components. Entities represent real-world business personas, such as an employer or company. The business entities are usually represented as data structures, Object Oriented classes or XML messages.

Service interfaces: Business logic is exposed through service interfaces that support message-based communication, and standard protocols.  For example, the payment authorization service must expose a service interface that describes the functionality offered by the service and the required parameters for calling it. This is achieved through the use of web services.

Service components: When a business component within the IRD system, needs to use functionality provided by an external service, code needs to be provided to manage the communication with that particular service.   Service components may also be used to call different services from within the IRD system, for example, trigger batch processes. They also provide additional services, such as basic mapping and transformation of data formats. This layer will eventually be replaced with an enterprise service bus.

Data access components: These are made up of classes and stored procedures and provide access to the databases.  A centralised data access layer is easier to secure and maintain.

Components for security and operational management: These components perform exception management, authorize users to perform certain tasks, keep activity logs, and manage sessions and threads.  Digital certificate handling, cryptographic operations and SSL tunnels are initiated through this layer.