Government is a complex business that, by nature, involves constant and repeated communication with its customers: the population in general and various communities within the population. Government constantly adapts and refines the range of functions and services it provides – and the amount of interaction with customers that is required – to match the ever more complex society in which we live.

Government is frequently organized through a variety of separate departments, which often have no regular or formal connection with each other in the way their services are delivered. Each department implements its own processes and delivery channels. Citizens, who are effectively the consumers of Government, must often deal with several departments that have no apparent commonality in the way that they work – or even in the way that they appear to the citizen.

With the technology of the Internet, mobile communications, and powerful yet affordable computers becoming commonplace, there is an opportunity to redesign the way many of Public services are delivered. The overall aim is to move Government towards a series of easily available, interconnected, reliable and efficient services. The Microsoft Connected Government Framework (CGF) is a model on which such solutions can be built.