Public Private Partnerships through ecosystem platforms

Public Private Partnerships or PPPs are generally long-term contracts entered into by
a public sector entity with a private sector entity for the furnishing of public services or
goods as specified by the articles of association and memorandum of association of the PPP.
PPPs are generally financed by the private entities and in-return they are allowed to levy
charges and collect revenue from the public service/utility thus provided. PPPs are mostly
used for infrastructure projects and lead to the creation Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) that
are created solely for the purpose of fulfilling the conditions of the letter of award that is
awarded to the winner of the public bid for PPPs.

PPPs are renowned for their low risk factor, low interest rates as well as tax
concessions as it is the government that is contracting private parties to provide a public
service on its behalf and as such PPPs. PPPs allow for the creation and completion of large-
scale government projects with the help of private funding and the incentive of generating
return on interest through commercial activities or levy of charges on the infrastructure thus
created which is paid by the users of the public service/utility. Some major examples are that
of toll booths on highways and bridges, airports, seaports manufacturing units, power
generating etc.

Innovative platforms for delivery of Public Services

With the advent of internet technology and the widespread acceptance of digital
services, the corporate world has understood the importance of connecting to users through
platform-based ecosystems and providing them services in the comfort of their homes. Gone
are the days when people had to physically reach out to a brick-and-mortar establishment to
avail a service. Platforms like Amazon, Netflix, Prime Video etc have changed the perception
of the general public on user experience and how users view and avail these services.

Governments around the world have been using digital technology to transform their
internal structures, functionalities and operations. Extraordinarily little has been done to
ensure user experience or engagement on government portals and websites. But the tides are
changing, and governments have realized the importance of platforms and related ecosystems
to provide public services and utilities much like corporate entities. Although the intention
behind the utilization of platforms may differ for public and private sector, with private
players more focused on increasing user engagement and enhancing user experience and
public sector entities ensuring ease of usage and accessibility of public services, the
pathway for achieving for achieving these goals have been the same. Usage of smart service
delivery platforms and their integrated ecosystems are predesigned to ensure that everything
the user needs is available on the platform they are currently visiting.

Government as a platform (GaaP for short) is a new concept, one that looks deep into
what a citizen requires from their government. People are not willing to stand in long queues
and keep circling within the bureaucratic hierarchy to get their work done, for time has
become an unbelievably valuable asset, instead they want a single window that can get their
work done.

Open data platforms are already providing the general public with the datasets,
documents, services and tools provided by government ministries and departments. On the
other hand, platform-based business models enable value creation by emphasizing
interactions between service providers, producers and consumers. A platform with its own
ecosystem allows users to employ and use services that are interdependent but subservient to
each other.

Digital platforms enable innovation, value creation, user engagement and

involvement, and have acted as intermediaries between users as well as users and
producers/service providers. Data ecosystem platforms have transformed how both public
and private entities communicate with their user base. Public sector platforms are further
increasing government transparency as governments are publishing data and reports for
citizen feedback, critique and reporting.

Using data ecosystem platforms as such has allowed governments to increase their
reach, improve accessibility for users, increase transparency and fulfil their mandate of
providing public services to its citizens while improving user engagement and saving time.

How to build a platform ecosystem for public services

To build a functional and engaging platform ecosystem for providing public services
the public sector must learn from its private sector counterparts. The PPPs can be a huge
enabler by allowing governments to partner up private entities with the required expertise and
experience in building such platform ecosystems for providing public services. Much like
PPP infrastructure projects, the private entities will bring the innovation and expertise to the
project while the government provides them with incentives and lucrative financing to ensure
efficient and optimized performance in providing public services. A digital platform that
allows citizens to avail public services, maintained by a private entity which then charges the
users of those services to get a return on its investment is the future of both, digital platform
based public services and PPPs.

Operating an open platform gives stimulus to innovation and governments can insist
for open APIs which will allow for greater co-operation and third-party integrations. Another
way in which government can promote PPP based public services is that the platform thus
created is a fundamentally simple system which can be then evolved by the community and
citizens in co-ordination with the platform owner. An open platform will allow people to
work on modules like advanced search, automated analysis, data visualization and even
comparing data from different databases. These platforms then must be open to participation
beyond the basic “comment” feature. For GaaP to work, the citizens must be able to get most
of their work done with the help of supporting infrastructure and programs that are available
on these platforms and provides all its data for public use.

Governments must also not shy away from acknowledging the loopholes in the
system and constantly work on fixing security issues. Public data can be used to create
several different applications and these applications can be controlled by simply legitimizing
them instead of outright banning them. Data mining can also help in that regard as platforms
can collect user data and use it improve user participation and service delivery.

Digital platforms originated to take full advantage of the potential of the world wide
web and the internet and as such these platforms have become an integral part of the internet
experience for users around the world and more and more users are joining these platforms
every day. Similarly, a government service platform will allow more and more people to
engage with their governments, increase transparency, promote e-governance and engage
more and more people in policy making.

Major Examples around the world

The United Kingdom was the first country in the world to use GaaP to deliver public
services. The Government Digital Service was instituted in 2011 to make digital services
easy to use and effectively making all government services digital. The culmination of it all
was the Gov.uk which became the one stop portal for citizens to avail all government
services. It allows publishing of data, and transparency and participation as its driving
principles. It measures the performance of services through an in-built performance
dashboards and allows people to identify problems with services and improve upon it. It also
provides organised dataset for public usage and even offers a free and secure online payment
service through gov.uk pay.

There is also a web hosting service for government services in the form of Platform as
a Service (PaaS). The result is that government departments offer more than 200 government
services use this platform with many choosing the GaaP as their preferred mode for
providing services.

Estonia is another successful example of GaaP as it delivers 99% of its government

services and has saved an estimated 800 years of work time for the government, agencies and
its citizens combined. Government departments in Estonia can connect with each other
through the X-Road system which then makes it simple for any private entity applying for a
license or develop an application. These private entities then can join the X-Road and gain
access to all related support, authorization and registry services they need.

India has also seen huge advances in using GaaP and offering online services to its
citizens. From UIDAI, to e-KYC, to UPI, to NIC, the government has successfully integrated
its services to both GaaP and PaaS infrastructures. The GSTN has created a shared and
uniform tax paying platform for both taxpayers and the government to simplify taxation in
the country. The Government also provides an Open Government Data, an open government
platform to give the public access to datasets, services and tools published by the ministries
and departments. The Mygov.in platform allows the citizens to become an active partner in
policy making by providing feedback and engage in active conversation about governance
and public service deployments.

Enabling factors

One of the key enabling factors for platforms to have prolonged utility, is that they
have to be based on open source software and platforms. Apart from significantly reducing
operating costs, it allows for constant development. Users and developers are constantly
providing input and fixing out the issues with the platform and providing substantial upgrades
at the same time. An open-source platform allows for bug fixes, security patches and constant
development throughout its life cycle because all of it comes from the community.

Another key factor is that once these platforms have reached critical mass, both users
and service providers start giving preference to these platforms and as such, quality of life
upgrades, new modules, services, and third-party integrations keep coming along because all
of it is driven by the needs of the users. This creates a self-improving cycle which ensures
that these platforms remain useful long down the road.

As long as the core infrastructure of the platform is flexible enough to allow for more
and more services to be associated with it without actually interfering with the core
functionalities of the platform, it is much easier for developers to add functionalities which
enhance performance and efficiency of the platform. Allowing feedback is another way to
prolong utility of these platforms is to ensure that the issues and bugs are constantly being
figured out, security patches for newly discovered loopholes, updates and upgrade of the
existing functions, all of which comes from community feedback as it is the users who can
figure out what is working and what needs improvement.

Conclusion

GaaP and PaaS infrastructure is already here and has become an enabler for e-
governance and allow the system to work at its peak efficiency. Governments are already
using these platforms to provide services and increase transparency. Public-Private
Partnerships through such platform ecosystems is the next step for government and private
entities as it takes away the workload from the government and designates the private sector
as the service provider for a public utility. The private sector brings in the innovation to
improve efficiency and increase the viability and sustainability of the service while charging
a fee to ensure a return on investment while the government can ensure it can focus its
resources on areas that are lacking and need more support.

Bibliography

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