RE: [election-services] EML BUSINESS CASE

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [election-services] EML BUSINESS CASE
From: charbel.aoun@accenture.com
Date: Thu, November 30, 2006 6:45 am
To: <johnaborras@yahoo.co.uk>, <election-services@lists.oasis-open.org>

John

Here are my thoughts….

I started by asking the question who is our audience: Is this document intended to decision makers at senior management level, election officers, or it will be read by IT people? This will help us fine tune the message… I would say to decision makers and election people since the IT side can always go to the large and detailed documentations on the TC site…. Based on that assumption see my notes below:

I suggest to identify in a section who this document is intended to and what is the value of EML (customer and need)…we have to start by showing why EML came into existence and what is the need and/or problems it is meant to help resolve. It may be of value to go back to the early days when EML was founded and include why it was created and what was the need at the time. I think it is still valid today and cemented by so many additional reasons and objectives that we picked over the years.
Advantages of EML and value of adopting EML. You have the section benefits but it is generic…we should convey within this section a clear answer to potential “so what”, “why” and “how” questions. The document currently is saying EML is good but it has to convince, show how and evidence it…. Currently we sound like saying EML is good because we say so.
Once we made the case for the gain, it is worth telling them about the pain… We need to manage expectations and let them know adopting EML is a commitment that requires some work behind it…resources are required. If new government X adopted EML they need to know if no localized EML exists for them, they would have to fill this gap or work on that before they realize the benefits…
Add case studies: real stories endorsed by government and the two I can think of is the UK and Netherlands…. We read some great value of EML being adopted we need to put them in nice case studies and this will be a word of confidence and add weight to our stories. I think those case studies should be appendix to this document because they are a testimony from a trusted entity to what we claim.
I agree with Paul about the limitation of “e-voting” and would replace it with “end-to-end e-election” or “e-enabled elections”. EML is not jut about the vote but has a role in the whole process of election from voter registration to e-counting, e-voting etc…
We need to agree the main cornerstones of EML, Paul picked on security and trustworthiness, I would add scalability, transparency, interoperability and standardization. We all picked on those keywords in different exchanges but if we can group them in one section stating this is the value you get from EML. We need to always make sure we answer the “so what”, “why” and “how” questions.
I am not a fan of SWOT in out case because it is more commercially oriented. I prefer to cover the value and advantages in a section. The risks are not universal as the case with threats /opportunities (if any). SWOT I think may be of value per country case and it is the job of the customer who will adopt EML to prepare it… just my thoughts.
Maybe the business case is not the right title… because when I read business case I expect to see some elements about cost, revenue, suppliers, competition, market size,… How about “The Case for EML”…
Finally, I am a big believer in future value of EML to be used for credentials communication and more importantly in count communication. A “trusted system” across all suppliers for instance managing the credentials and count….

If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.

Regards

Charbel

From: John Borras [mailto:johnaborras@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 28 November 2006 11:57
To: EML TC
Subject: [election-services] EML BUSINESS CASE

You may remember that I pushed out a draft of this document earlier this year and asked for comments. None were received. But having been to the Council of Europe meeting last week, during which EML was re-affirmed as the recommended standard to be used by Member States, there is a need to get this published as soon as possible. There are still many mis-conceptions about EML, particularly about localising it, and many countries haven't started the e-voting journey yet and need some help and education about where and how to start. I believe this document will serve these purposes very well. So could I have any comments on the latest draft, which is on the TC website in the Related Documents folder, in the next few days please. I will take silence as acceptance.

Regards
John
M. +44 (0)7976 157745

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