This weekly news update provides the Government Resource Planning (GRP) community with a brief overview of recent FreeBalance developments and relevant industry news.
FreeBalance Releases Public Financial Management (PFM) Good Practice Documents
FreeBalance recently released a set of five (5) PFM Good Practice Documents. FreeBalance Good Practice documents collect lessons learned with FreeBalance government customers in 20 countries and research used for product and services development. FreeBalance has a mission, as a For Profit Social Enterprise (FOPSE), to share lessons learned with the global PFM community. “There are very few ‘best practices’ in government financial management,” said Manuel Pietra, FreeBalance President and CEO. “Yet there are good practices that are ideal for governments based on their context.”
New Alliance Positions FreeBalance and everis for GRP Growth in Latin America & the Caribbean
FreeBalance and everis announced a global product and services alliance focused initially on Government Resource Planning in Latin America & the Caribbean. The alliance will scale over time to address the growing demand for GRP solutions worldwide. The product and services partnership scope includes public financial management, civil service management, open government transparency and public procurement software and solutions. The alliance provides an opportunity for FreeBalance and everis to collaborate on initiatives that will empower citizens and transform government services through proven technology.
Top 7 Lessons Learned at FreeBalance International Steering Committee 2013
The FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) conference was held last week in Ottawa. FISC, differs in many ways from traditional user conferences. Typical enterprise software companies leverage conferences to sell more software – to tell customers what features they are going to get. FISC, on the other hand, enables customers to change our product roadmap. They also tell us how to change our customer support processes. This was our 7th annual conference. So, we decided to share the top 7 things we learned this year.
Federal spending watchdog says checks system ‘broken’
After five years of providing senators and members of Parliament with independent analysis on the state of the nation’s finances, the federal spending watchdog says the system of checks and balances is “broken.” In an interview airing Saturday on CBC Radio’s The House, Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget officer (PBO), told host Evan Solomon the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer will never truly be independent until it reports directly to Parliament.
FISC 2013 is our Seventh Annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee conference. The FISC approach differs from the traditional technology user group conference in many ways – good ways, we think
For one thing, FISC is about enabling customers to influence FreeBalance, not the other way around.
In the spirit of transparency, we were live tweeting from FISC last week and we’ve ‘storified’ it below. FISC is a key element of our customer service strategy:
FISC 2013 is our Seventh Annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee conference. The FISC approach differs from the traditional technology user group conference in many ways – good ways, we think
For one thing, FISC is about enabling customers to influence FreeBalance, not the other way around.
In the spirit of transparency, we were live tweeting from FISC last week and we’ve ‘storified’ it below. This shows conversations from government customers on PFM good practices and the results of our latest survey:
FISC 2013 is our Seventh Annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee conference. The FISC approach differs from the traditional technology user group conference in many ways – good ways, we think
For one thing, FISC is about enabling customers to influence FreeBalance, not the other way around.
In the spirit of transparency, we were live tweeting from FISC last week and we’ve ‘storified’ it below.
The FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) conference was held last week in Ottawa. FISC, as I’ve written before , differs in many ways from traditional user conferences. Typical enterprise software companies leverage conferences to sell more software – to tell customers what features they are going to get. FISC, on the other hand, enables customers to change our product roadmap. They also tell us how to change our customer support processes.
One FISC attendee mentioned that he had learned more about good practices in public financial management at FISC than through Public Financial Management (PFM) conferences or donor technical assistance. This generated an interesting discussion. Yes, there was a bit of “beating up the donors.” Primarily about the subjective nature of technical assistance. How advice is often contradictory depending on the consultant. And the extent to which person experiences in the consultant’s home country affects advice.
The difference at FISC is the sharing of what works in countries in similar circumstances. What has often called “South-South” cooperation” . The emergence of BRIC countries has put some doubt into the “Washington Consensus” approach to development.
FISC is also different from traditional user conferences because each customer presents on lessons learned in PFM reform. That’s right: no fluff about how they used our software to overcome some challenge. This year presenters described good practices in budget formulation, problems in identifying and removing ghost workers, improving cash and liquidity management, and capacity building. Turns out that there are common solutions to common problems.
2. Transparency has become a Competitive Sport
Transparency is no longer a sport of kings – for developed countries. Emerging economies are following the lead of Brazil and the Open Government Partnership. Fiscal transparency is facilitated in less developed countries by leveraging GRP systems. Unlike more developed countries with multiple financial systems, many governments in emerging economies – even so-called “fragile states” – have single GRP systems. We have seen some interesting innovation:
3. Interest in Government Performance Management on the Increase
The roadmap process used by FreeBalance is somewhat unique in the industry. We provide a list of current and potential Government Resource Planning (GRP) modules based on the PFM Component Map. We show what modules are currently available and those modules that we are committed to completing. We also show proposed modules. Customers add ideas for new modules then vote on the 2 year roadmap. This can adjust our roadmap significantly.
The takeaway over the past 4 years is the increasing interest in government performance management tools. This might seem somewhat strange that performance management has a significant interest in emerging economy governments. My sense is that the resilience of some countries to the financial crisis, critical linkage of revenue to economic factors and increasing oversight of civil society organizations has generated this interest in performance tools.
4. Achieve Control by Giving up Control
Our competitive environment with so many ERP vendors seems daunting to many observers. As is our insistence to position FreeBalance squarely in the government space – GRP. Anti-ERP (especially given so many ERP failures in government.) How can a smaller yet global company compete effectively?
The secret is to let customers drive product and service improvements. To operate within the PFM community rather than broadcast PR as the main mechanism of engagement. This is how we learn and leap ahead of our competitors – give up control to customers.
5. Sharing is the New Power
Information is power. Holding on to that information is no longer as powerful as sharing what you’ve learned. Sharing results in learning more. Our customers find this outcome as part of FISC. We find that providing our research into PFM and technology is valuable. That’s why we share what we’ve learned with governments who are not our customers.
Sharing becomes an annuity. It provides a feedback loop between the theoretical and the practical. It helps us prioritize what is important for government customers.
6. Software Architecture Design Matters
Many observers believe that there is nothing particularly different when comparing software architectures among enterprise vendors. The large ERP vendors, for example, have a broad functional coverage across many business domains. It’s often thought to be six of one and half a dozen of the other when comparing technology.
This is a myth.
We find that our software architecture, the FreeBalance Accountability Platform, has enabled us to respond much faster to changing customer requirements. To meet the priorities set at FISC. Why? The architecture does not contain any legacy client/server code, is a modern design supporting component reuse and was designed for government to provide extensibility.
7. Having a Conference in Ottawa in January might not be a Good Idea
This was the first FISC where the attendee picture was shot indoors. It also seemed to confirm virtually every stereotype of Canadian winters as the temperature dipped below -30C.
Lesson learned: FISC 2014 should be closer to the equator!
Ces nouvelles hebdomadaires apportent à la communauté de la planification des ressources gouvernementales (PRG) un aperçu général des récents développements de FreeBalance et des nouvelles pertinentes de l’industrie.
Les clients FreeBalance se rencontrent à Ottawa pour la 7e Réunion annuelle du Comité de pilotage
La réunion du Comité international de pilotage (FISC) de FreeBalance a lieu du 21 au 24 Janvier 2013, à Ottawa, au Canada. L’événement est conçu pour partager les pratiques de bonne gouvernance entre les pays et il est essentiel à l’approche orientée client de FreeBalance concernant la responsabilité sociale. Le thème de la septième réunion annuelle du FISC est : « Une histoire de 7 ». Le thème vise à reconnaître l’histoire et la valeur du comité de pilotage au cours des sept dernières années et à mettre en évidence l’impact de la version 7 de l’Accountability Suite de FreeBalance sur les initiatives mondiales de réforme de la GFP.
La GFP dans un monde en mutation – le schéma de Harvard
Plusieurs cadres de FreeBalance ont eu l’occasion de participer au programme relatif à la Gestion des finances publiques dans un monde en mutation la semaine dernière à la John F. Kennedy School of Government de l’Université de Harvard. Le programme a été suivi par plus de 60 professionnels de la gestion des finances publiques de 33 pays à travers le monde. Le programme a réussi à réunir de hauts responsables gouvernementaux impliqués dans la réforme de la GFP avec des experts du domaine provenant des institutions financières internationales et du secteur privé.
7 faits saillants au sujet des dernières conférences du Comité de pilotage international de FreeBalance
Le FISC 2013 est notre septième conférence annuelle du Comité de pilotage internationale de FreeBalance. L’approche du FISC diffère de la conférence technologique traditionnelle de groupe d’utilisateur de bien des manières – de bonnes manières, nous pensons. D’une part, le FISC vise à permettre aux clients d’influencer FreeBalance, et non l’inverse. Ensuite, le FISC concerne le rassemblement de professionnels de la gestion des finances publiques (GFP) de différents pays à travers le monde pour aider à partager les bonnes pratiques. Nous avons souvent des conférenciers. Et nous partageons notre expérience en recherche bien au-delà des limites étroites d’une simple société de logiciels.
Comment augmenter le rythme de transparence budgétaire? L’examen de l’enquête sur le budget ouvert de 2012
L’International Budget Partnership (IBP) et l’Institut de la Banque mondiale (WBI) ont le plaisir de vous inviter à rejoindre les praticiens dans les domaines du développement et de la gestion budgétaire afin de participer à une discussion sur la façon d’accroître la transparence budgétaire et la participation à travers le monde. La discussion comprendra une présentation des résultats de la dernière ronde de l’IBP au sujet de l’enquête sur le budget ouvert, puis se concentrera sur l’identification de suggestions novatrices et pratiques pour l’amélioration rapide de la performance des pays relative à l’enquête.
Les Philippines lance le système de paiement électronique dans le système d’approvisionnement en ligne
Le système d’approvisionnement en ligne du gouvernement philippin (PhilGEPS), en partenariat avec la Banque foncière des Philippines, a introduit un nouveau système de paiement électronique qui vise à accroître la transparence dans la façon dont les organismes gouvernementaux font des transactions et des affaires avec leurs fournisseurs. Le PhilGEPS est le portail central de toutes les activités de passation des marchés publics qui fournit aux organismes gouvernementaux ainsi qu’aux fournisseurs un environnement plus ouvert, transparent et concurrentiel.
This weekly news update provides the Government Resource Planning (GRP) community with a brief overview of recent FreeBalance developments and relevant industry news.
FreeBalance Customers Gather in Ottawa for 7th Annual Steering Committee Meeting
The FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) event is taking place from January 21-24, 2013 in Ottawa, Canada. The event is designed to share good governance practices among countries and is critical to the FreeBalance customer-centric approach to social responsibility. The theme of the seventh annual FISC event is “A Story of 7’s”. The theme is intended to recognize the history and value of the steering committee over the last seven years and highlight the impact that FreeBalance Accountability Suite Version 7 software is having on global PFM reform initiatives.
Several FreeBalance executives had the opportunity to participate in the Public Financial Management in a Changing World program last week at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. The program was attended by more than 60 Public Financial Management professionals from 33 countries around the world. The program successfully brought together senior government officials involved in PFM reform with domain experts from international financial institutions and the private sector.
7 Highlights from the past FreeBalance International Steering Committee Conferences
FISC 2013 is our Seventh Annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee conference. The FISC approach differs from the traditional technology user group conference in many ways – good ways, we think. For one thing, FISC is about enabling customers to influence FreeBalance, not the other way around. And, FISC is about gathering Public Financial Management (PFM) professionals from different countries around the world to help share good practices. We often have keynote speakers. And, we share our research and experience well beyond the narrow boundaries of being a software company
How Can the Pace of Budget Transparency Be Increased? Examining the Open Budget Survey 2012
The International Budget Partnership (IBP) and the World Bank Institute (WBI) are pleased to invite you to join practitioners in the fields of development and fiscal management in a discussion on how to increase budget transparency and participation around the world. The discussion will include a presentation of the results of the IBP’s latest round of the Open Budget Survey and then focus on identifying innovative and practical suggestions for rapidly improving country performance on the Survey.
The Philippines Introduces E-Payment System In E-Procurement
The Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), in partnership with the Land Bank of the Philippines, introduced a new e-payment system which seeks to enhance transparency in how the government agencies transact and do business with its suppliers. The PhilGEPS is the central portal of all public procurement activities that provides both government agencies and suppliers a more open, transparent and competitive environment.
2013 FreeBalance International Steering Committee in Ottawa, Canada provides an interactive customer forum for the exchange of Government Resource Planning (GRP) good practices and country experiences
Ottawa, Canada (January 21, 2013) – FreeBalance, a leading vendor of Government Resource Planning (GRP) software, announced that the annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) event will take place on January 21-24, 2013 in Ottawa, Canada. The event is designed to share good governance practices among countries and is critical to the FreeBalance customer-centric approach to social responsibility. The theme of the seventh annual FISC event is “A Story of 7’s”. The theme is intended to recognize the history and value of the steering committee over the last seven years and highlight the impact that FreeBalance Accountability Suite Version 7 software is having on global PFM reform initiatives.
FISC attendees are Public Financial Management (PFM) professionals from country governments using FreeBalance software. The FISC chair is Dr. Cleopatra Gittens, the Accountant General of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda. FISC drives the FreeBalance Accountability Suite Government Resource Planning (GRP) product direction. “The importance of FISC and the practical value to our customers and to our company cannot be understated,” said Manuel Pietra, President & CEO. “FISC is a unique way for FreeBalance customers to be engaged in the product development process. This ensures that our solutions are aligned with the public sector modernization and reform programs in our customer countries.” Previous FISC events were held in Istanbul, Turkey (2012); Madeira, Portugal (2011); Mt. Tremblant, Canada (2010); Prague, Czech Republic (2009); Cascais, Portugal (2008); and London, United Kingdom (2007).
FreeBalance will be blogging and live tweeting during FISC 2013 to share good GRP practices with the international community. FreeBalance domain experts will be discussing recent trends and good practices. Presentations and workshops cover timely subjects, including:
Leveraging GRP Technology and Gaining Internal Support
Benchmarking GRP Reform and Evaluating Success
Enhancing Global Customer Support
Understanding and Deploying FreeBalance Technology
Increasing the use of Version 7 Modules
Planning for GRP Project Milestones
Building Capacity in Public Financial & Human Resource
Finding Ways to Move 7 Steps Ahead: How to Leapfrog
FISC is a Steering Committee that sets FreeBalance product direction. The unique “designed for government” FreeBalance Accountability Suite Version 7 software was developed based on workshops with customers. Unlike software vendor user groups, FISC adjusts and re-aligns the FreeBalance product roadmap. Customers have full access to FreeBalance executives during the event to discuss product, service and support improvements. These activities, combined with other aspects of the ISO-9001:2008 certified “customer-centric” processes, ensures that FreeBalance products meet changing international needs in a financially sustainable fashion.
About FreeBalance
FreeBalance helps governments around the world leverage robust Government Resource Planning (GRP) technology to accelerate country growth. FreeBalance is a recognized leader in fast, adaptable and successful GRP implementations. FreeBalance software manages a global civil service workforce of 1,500,000, and a quarter trillion ($US) annual budgets worldwide. FreeBalance provides software solutions for public financial and human resource management, and supports reform and modernization to improve governance, transparency and accountability. Good governance is required to improve development results. For more information, visit www.freebalance.com.
About FISC
The annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) conference runs from January 21 – 24, 2013 in Ottawa, Canada. FISC provides an interactive forum to exchange Public Financial Management (PFM) good practices among international customers and PFM thought leaders. FISC drives the FreeBalance Accountability Suite Government Resource Planning (GRP) product direction. Previous FISC events were held in Istanbul, Turkey (2012); Madeira, Portugal (2011); Mt. Tremblant, Canada (2010); Prague, Czech Republic (2009); Cascais, Portugal (2008); and London, United Kingdom (2007).
FISC 2013 is our Seventh Annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee conference. The FISC approach differs from the traditional technology user group conference in many ways – good ways, we think
For one thing, FISC is about enabling customers to influence FreeBalance, not the other way around.
And, FISC is about gathering Public Financial Management (PFM) professionals from different countries around the world to help share good practices. We often have keynote speakers. And, we share our research and experience well beyond the narrow boundaries of being a software company. That’s our mission. I looked through past public FISC presentations (and those adapted from FISC and made public) and found my 7 favourites :
1. Sequencing Public Financial Management Reform
David Nummy from Grant Thornton providing practical experience about PFM reform in developing countries. PFM reform sequencing is a critical concern in developing countries and was of great interest to our government customers. This resulted in a brainstorming session and spirited discussions. It was agreed that capacity building was the most critical factor for reform success for the first stages. But, the importance of capacity building never dropped below “very important” for every stage of PFM maturity.
We’ve taken lessons in PFM sequencing over the years further to provide tools to help governments decide on the most effective reform courses of action. This presentation, slightly adapted from FISC 2012, was built on many of the ideas from the brainstorming from FISC 2008.
We use FISC to help us understand the future of Public Financial Management. We also share our research with government customers. We adapted this from the presentation we gave at the first FISC in 2007. Some of the predictions did come to pass.
Leveraging technology for governance is a concern for a software company like FreeBalance. Our government customers have been leveraging technology from FreeBalance and other vendors to enable reform and transparency. This often enables these governments to “leapfrog” more developed countries. This presentation was adapted from content given by our customers at different FISC events. Ever government that attends FISC provides an overview of PFM lessons learned: challenges, solutions, achievements with an emphasis on initiatives from the past year.
Social media, open data, Government 2.0 and crowdsourcing represents significant opportunities and risks for government. We reflected on this last year at FISC in the wake of the Arab Spring, the Ushahidi platform and the Tea Party movement. And, we presented this at the ICGFM conference later that year.
Steve Symanksy, formerly at the IMF, provided insight based on his experience in fragile states. He explained that the view that PFM reform should start with proper planning is incorrect: fragile states should start with budget execution and control first.
FreeBalance has been successful implementing sustainable Government Resource Planning (GRP) systems in post-conflict countries. (This seems to be confirmed in a recent World Bank report.” We’ve also been successful in more developed countries in achieving low costs for customers and ease to adapt software to changing needs. We reflected on the post-conflict experience using some of the content from customer presentations.
Esta actualización semanal de noticias proporciona a la comunidad de Planeación de Recursos de Gobierno (GRP*) una visión general de los últimos acontecimientos de FreeBalance, además de noticias relevantes de la industria.
PFM en un mundo cambiante – La Perspectiva de Harvard
Varios ejecutivos de FreeBalance tuvieron la oportunidad de participar la semana pasada en el programa de Administración de Finanzas Públicas en un Mundo Cambiante en la Escuela de Gobierno John F. Kennedy de la Universidad de Harvard. Al programa asistieron más de 60 profesionales de Administración de Finanzas Públicas de 33 países. El programa reunió con éxito a funcionarios gubernamentales que participan en reforma al PFM con expertos de dominio de instituciones financieras internacionales y del sector privado.
7 Asuntos sobre el 7mo Comité Directivo Internacional de FreeBalance
Nos estamos preparando para la conferencia de Comité Directivo Internacional de FreeBalance (FISC, por sus siglas en inglés) de este mes en Ottawa, muy cerca de nuestra oficina principal. ¿Al fin de cuentas, quien no quisiera estar en Ottawa en enero? La temperatura mínima promedio en enero es de −15.3 °C (4.5 °F) en la cual se llevará acabo nuestra séptima conferencia anual. Esto no lleva a las 7 principales cosas que las muy agiles compañíax de software pueden aprender de nuestro aproximación para ser más centradas en el cliente. Principalmente, este es un comité directivo, no una conferencia de usuarios, lo que puede parecer un matiz sutil ya que hemos adaptado la tecnología estándar de conferencia de usuarios para ser más efectivos.
¿Salvar el mundo a través de los medios sociales? Cómo el desarrollo se vuelve digital
Los medios sociales y las tecnologías móviles ofrecen una amplia gama de beneficios para las personas que trabajen en el área de desarrollo: una forma potencialmente barata y eficiente de vincular a los ciudadanos con sus gobiernos, la oportunidad de supervisar el progreso de los proyectos en tiempo real y la capacidad de conectarse con personas desde lugares remotos del mundo para compartir experiencias y enseñar las mejores prácticas. No es sorpresa que haya un flujo interminable de proyectos de desarrollo que buscan explotar estas tecnologías. En muchos casos, todavía es temprano para determinar qué diferencia marcarán estas iniciativas, pero cinco de ellas llamaron nuestra atención.
Las consultas arrojan poco consenso sobre IPSAS en la Unión Europea
Una consulta sobre si todos los países de la Unión Europea deberían usar los Estándares Internacionales de Contabilidad en el Sector Público (IPSAS, por sus siglas en inglés) ha revelado una notable división de opiniones. Solo un poco más de un tercio (38%) de los encuestados considera a los IPSAS adecuados para implementarse en toda la UE ya sea en su totalidad o con ‘obstáculos menores’ a superar, 31% dijo que eran parcialmente adecuados y 28% señaló que no son adecuados. La consulta, realizada por la agencia estadística Eurostat en febrero, preguntaba si los estándares eran necesarios para mejorar la vigilancia fiscal. Entre los participantes se incluían oficinas estadísticas nacionales, departamentos gubernamentales, oficinas de auditorías y cuerpos de contabilidad como CIPFA.
Simplificando los Documentos de Presupuestos – ¿Es Hora de un Estándar Internacional?
Mejorar la calidad de la documentación de presupuestos es tema central de muchas reformas destinadas a mejorar la comprensión del contenido de los estimados presupuestarios así como fomentar la transparencia y la responsabilidad. Algunas leyes presupuestarias establecen un conjunto mínimo de documentos que deben acompañar los estimados presupuestarios. Estos pueden incluir, por ejemplo, informes sobre: (i) la previsión macroeconómica a mediano plazo; (ii) políticas fiscales y tendencias del gasto público; (iii) previsiones a mediano plazo de ingresos gubernamentales, gastos, deuda y el balance fiscal; (iv) techos de recursos a mediano plazo; (v) garantías gubernamentales, pasivos contingentes y otros riesgos fiscales; (vi) gastos en programas de inversión y proyectos por sector y (vii) proyecciones sobre flujos de ayudas de donantes. En países con una tradición de Westminster, el discurso sobre presupuestos incluye buena parte de esta información; sin embargo, se pueden presentar documentos adicionales al parlamento.
FISC 2013 is our Seventh Annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee conference. The FISC approach differs from the traditional technology user group conference in many ways – good ways,