Inland Revenue - Strategic Portal Infrastructure Project

Synopsis

In mid-2006, the e-Enablement unit of Inland Revenue (IR) was assigned a challenging task – that of implementing online services for KiwiSaver by a legislative deadline of July 2007. IR already had a number of online services delivered via its public website, however the infrastructure and software frameworks used to deliver these services were considered to be nearing the end of their life, and not seen as being able to support IR’s strategic business goals and future business requirements. As a result, a fresh approach was needed to implement online services for KiwiSaver and other future initiatives.

The Problem

Inland Revenue was faced with a challenging deadline for implementing online services for KiwiSaver. At the same time, it was looking at refreshing its online infrastructure and software frameworks to better support its strategic business goals and future business requirements. IR commissioned Solnet Solutions to investigate whether Portal technology could be used to support its strategic business goals, as well as the immediate requirements for KiwiSaver.

The Solution

Solnet consultants held workshops and interviews with key stakeholders from across IR to derive more detail with respect to strategic business goals, current barriers to success, target user communities, and potential relevance of Portal capabilities. Portal capabilities were seen as key to improving user satisfaction with online services, leading to increased uptake of the web channel and increased compliance with IR’s regulations. A business case for establishing a Strategic Portal Infrastructure Project to provide a platform for KiwiSaver Online Services and other future initiatives was successfully presented to senior managers, and the Project was formally initiated.

This led to the establishment of a Strategic Portal Infrastructure Project that used Solnet’s Portal methodology as a basis for successfully implementing a highly available platform based upon IBM’s WebSphere Portal software (this platform was then used to deploy KiwiSaver Online Services).

IR adopted Solnet’s Portal methodology as the basis for planning the Strategic Portal Infrastructure Project. Solnet consultants defined a Portal architecture consisting of clusters of IBM WebSphere Portal servers, deployed over two geographically separated data centres in order to meet the 99.98% availability target for KiwiSaver. Infrastructure specialists from Solnet and IR worked together to implement the infrastructure, while a joint development team implemented the KiwiSaver services in parallel in order to meet the challenging delivery date. A number of governance streams were established in order to streamline decision making, and to ensure buy-in from external stakeholders. The majority of IR’s existing online services applications (as well as a number of additional services) were consolidated onto the Portal in a subsequent phase of the project. The Portal continues to provide a key strategic platform for IR’s ongoing web initiatives.

The success of the project was formally recognised at the 2008 IBM Business Partner Awards, where Solnet won both the Workplace Collaboration Award and the overall Supreme Award for the Strategic Portal Infrastructure Project.