This section of the guidelines covers the types of mobile services which social security institutions might offer, and their technological and organizational implications. These may vary according to the current level of deployment of mobile technologies in the country and institution concerned. The five guidelines which follow will assist those responsible for developing mobile services to focus on the technical decisions and choices to be made. They take account of success stories in both social security and other types of institutions, and of all existing technologies.

The specific guidelines in this section are:

• Institutional framework for the application of mobile technologies
• Variety of mobile services to be provided
• Mobile device-based user identification
• The mobile device as a gateway for payments and contributions
• Using advanced hardware components included in mobile devices

These guidelines are primarily intended to assist staff in the ICT unit of the social security institution. They focus on the specific features of each type of service according to the complexity and development stage of the institution’s mobile services, and on evaluating system implementation, maintenance issues and costs, and opportunities to support new services within existing ones. The management of the institution must also consider the implications of these guidelines in view of their possible impact on the supply of services and maintenance costs. In addition, these guidelines may mean that the technical development and operational teams will have to adapt their skills, and they will help identify new skills requirements.

Three main elements are required to implement social security mobile services:

• User device. The potential users of these services are not only beneficiaries, but also social security managers and employers. The device characteristics and capabilities will be very important as they may limit the types of services to be accessed;
• Server infrastructure. As the core of the services deployed, the institution’s servers must combine new mobile services with previously existing services and ensure data coherence and interaction with external servers and user devices;
• External service providers. The servers of external providers are needed to implement complex mobile services which are based on a combination of the capabilities of other providers.

These guidelines are applicable to institutions regardless of their level of use of technology, since they can be used to analyse what has been accomplished so far and guide the development of more advanced services.

While following these guidelines, each institution will need to prepare its own plan for the development of mobile services adapted to its specific needs, based on the judgements of experts in the technology and on the specificities of the institution.