London, UK – The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology consortium, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), announced a collaboration to accelerate public service innovation and transformation for better citizen outcomes and optimal utilization of ICT infrastructure. 

By working together, The Open Group and ITU will aim to promote, guide, and build capabilities for digital government strategies and citizen-centric Enterprise Architecture (EA) across the globe. 

“Never before have digital public services had such a profound impact on the lives of citizens around the world,” said ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao. “With this partnership with The Open Group, ITU is redoubling its efforts to help governments everywhere accelerate the deployment and scaling up of impactful citizen-centric digital solutions in support of economic recovery and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

With the necessary guidance and materials, resource-constrained countries will be better placed to convert digital strategies into implementable large-scale systems. As such, the strategic alliance between ITU and The Open Group will fill the gap between digital investments and best practice architectural approaches for the achievement of the SDGs. 

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of ITU said: “The use of digital solutions and technologies to upscale digital public services is fundamental for supporting the response to, and recovery from, the COVID-19 pandemic. When it comes to designing, implementing, and rolling out digital public services at scale, adopting architectural approaches is key. EA allows governments to meet the needs of sectors with varying requirements, while at the same time facilitate the organizational change process and the modernization of government services as a whole. Alongside The Open Group, we can create the tools and guidance needed for countries to put an EA approach into action.” 

The work undertaken as part of the collaboration will be executed by The Open Group Government EA Work Group. The Work Group will develop processes that enable seamless information flow across various government ecosystems, making existing EA resources – including guides, frameworks, use cases, and methodologies – easier to use and available to all. Through providing access to these resources, both The Open Group and ITU will help governments to build the capabilities needed to implement architectural approaches at scale, based on their country-specific needs.

Steve Nunn, President and CEO of The Open Group, commented: “The Open Group is proud to collaborate with ITU to transform digital public services and, ultimately, enhance the experience for millions of citizens across the globe. It is evident that the countries able to yield the best outcomes from digital investments are those that have created and adopted a fit-for-purpose digital government EA. This is why, together with ITU, we will strive to democratize the use of methodologies and tools required to establish future-proofed digital architectures and infrastructures, particularly for countries with limited resources.”