During that time the number of staff has remained relatively constant: 6,000-strong compared to 5,900 in 1995. The rapid rise in productivity and service delivery capability is mainly due to the contribution of technology, said Raymond Wong, assistant director, Information Systems, Immigration Department, Government of the HKSAR.
According to Wong, the first information systems strategy began in 1995 and did much to establish an effective IT support structure which has enabled the department to cope with the increased traffic. The department has in the last two years embarked on its second major strategy to help further automate existing processes.
Five-stage plan
This second strategy comprises of five key stages, some of which have already been implemented. The first stage is the Smart ID card project which is being rolled out across the territory. The second: new control point systems and general IT infrastructure upgrades. The third phase involves e-channels at all checkpoints. These include the recently installed automated passenger channel (APC) that utilizes built-in biometrics in the Smart ID card. Automated vehicle processing is also being deployed at mainland checkpoints.
The next phase according to Wong is an ambitious redevelopment of the department's core mission-critical system-the applications and investigations e-system (APPLIES). This is expected to begin implementation at the end of this year and will replace the existing processing system.
The fifth and final stage of the new IT strategy is the implementation of a new data warehouse to help integrate all department data and information infrastructure.
All these initiatives will be overseen by the department's 300 IT staff, who currently have more than 30 individual projects to manage. Wong noted that 180 are IT professionals-the remainder are immigration-trained service officers responsible for drawing up the business needs for the systems. "This is very important, IT people often jump straight into the technical side of projects but it's most important to focus on the real business needs first," said Wong. "What problems are you solving with your system?"
AI vision
The department's most intensive project right now is the development of its APPLIES system. The current system handles all applications and immigration-related cases from marriage, birth and death certificates, to visa applications and extension of stays.
Current applications are still referred to immigration officers for their final decision on each case. It is hoped that the new system will be able to automate much of that process and also be integrated much more tightly with the data warehouse being developed concurrently.
The new system will also develop what Wong terms as an "e-brain"-a form of artificial intelligence-that will help officers deal with the more straightforward cases. By setting the minimum requirements and criteria for each process, it is hoped that the system can in time learn to process basic applications without human intervention.
For exceptional cases and special circumstances, human involvement will still be required for final decisions. But Wong even has a vision for the system to learn from such exceptional cases which can be added to the central database so that recurring cases of similar nature can be referenced and dealt with in an appropriate manner.
Wong acknowledges that this is hypothetical right now, but he believes that automation of the Immigration Department's processes can extend to the actual final decision-making. The immediate objective is to enable current manual processes to be fully automated so that mistakes and inconsistencies are minimized, noted Wong.
Management tips
Projects of this magnitude present certain pressures on IT which are rare in the private sector. "We're spending public money," said Wong, "and it's not easy to come by." Typical projects like the Smart ID card, the e-channels and the current work on the new APPLIES system require Wong to justify the planned IT investments to the financial committee at Legco. But before that stage, Wong must also convince his colleagues at Immigration that each project is viable and meets a specific business need.
Once the go-ahead for such projects has been secured, then Immigration's IT department is responsible for the success of that project. "The pressure is immense and all related departments must be supportive of these projects for them to succeed," said Wong.
"I often remind myself and colleagues that we are not here to buy fancy toys and tools," he said. "We have to be pragmatic and [request] exactly what we need and no more-systems should always match the actual requirements."
Clearly expressing the requirements of the project is also key to effective project management, he said. The Immigration Department's track record in major project rollouts has been excellent with no significant deviations from recent proposed project timeline, according to Wong.
Given that many projects today are contracted out to service providers, management of contractors is critical. "Project contracts should be clear but also maintain some flexibility for minor changes-but they should not deviate from the core objectives," said Wong.
Attention to project management has been heightened in the last year with the high profile failures of two government contracts. In June 2005, the Hong Kong treasury cancelled its project with IBM after Big Blue failed to meet a deadline for the first phase of a HK$350 million (US$45 million) contract to design and install a financial management system across the government's departments.
It also emerged that IBM was pulled off another government deal earlier that year: a HK$60 million IT services contract with the transport department, also because of delays.
According to Wong, each government department is left to manage their own projects and follow their own guidelines but there have been recent moves to establish some standard best practices to ensure that projects in future do not run into the problems experienced recently.
"We have been asked by the government CIO to provide training materials for other departments," said Wong. He noted that most common project management issues arise from mismanagement of the contract. "Forming the right expectations on both sides is critical and ensures that both sides have something to gain," he concluded.