eGovernment [2006]

Background

What is e-Government? "Generally, e-government designates any transaction that involves the government and that is carried out, even partially, using electronic means", (Graafland-Essers, et al. 2003).

There has been a steady adoption of electronic systems within governments since the advent of computers. However, it has been the widespread acceptance of the Internet and associated technologies that have been the catalyst for governments (and businesses) throughout the world to improve all aspects of their business processes. The pace of change will only increase over the next few years. "E-government is not simply a process of moving existing government functions to an electronic platform. Rather, it calls for a rethinking of the way government functions are carried out today to improve some processes, to introduce new ones and to replace those that require it", (Graafland-Essers, et al. 2003). Better efficiency while delivering reduced costs is a powerful driving force.

Currently, there are three main transactional models associated with e-Government: these are inter-agency/departmental (G2G), with private businesses (G2B) and, most importantly, with the citizens (G2C). The main impetus of e-Government is improved efficiency, both internal and external as well as the means to broaden and simplify accessibility. Rather than a citizen having to conduct business in a government office, they can now access it by way of smaller sub-branches or kiosks in multiple, convenient locations or even via their home computer.

Marksman Technologies (2005), in their e-Governance G2B white paper describe e-Government quite appropriately, "e-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions."

Even though it has become imperative for most private sector enterprises to adopt electronic business strategies to remain competitive, governments have to consider a number of unique issues when undertaking electronic business initiatives. Because governments are funded with public money, they must ensure their strategies are seen to be efficient and best practice. Probity, accountability and value for money are essential in e-Government (and any other form of government, for that matter) and is always under close scrutiny, whereas private sector businesses do not (necessarily) need to justify how they spend their money.

Other considerations must also be met by government; not only must it be seen to be doing the right thing (environmentally, socially and ethically), but to ensure equitable access to everyone without compromising privacy and/or security. It is one thing to be able to deal with the government in a convenient way, but citizens insist on a secure and impartial environment. "Citizens prefer e-government services that do not require them to reveal a great deal of personal information", (Graafland-Essers, et al. 2003 – Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young Survey 2001/2002). The collection of unnecessary information must be avoided and the information that is collected must remain confidential and secure.

Language skills, literacy, numeracy and ICT knowledge are also important human factors that cannot be ignored when formulating a strategy. The e-Government vision must take into account the ability of the citizen to undertake and complete expected transactions.

Notwithstanding the immense benefits of adopting an e-Government strategy, there are inevitable pitfalls. Implementation of a new e-strategy by one government body may affect the interoperability with other agencies or even other internal departments. Marksman Technologies (2005) predict that, "Information Technology and Information Highways are going to dominate the next century. Government therefore has to take this fact into account and create SMART governance (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent) that will be responsive to the needs of their citizenry and businesses alike."

Neglecting to focus on long term goals and collaboration will result in, "'islands of excellence' and render a myopic vision of e-governance", (Marksman Technologies. 2005). This is an important challenge, considering the many and diverse government bodies at both regional and federal levels, do not currently have a governing authority to direct, offer advice on and enforce a unified approach. A diversity of roles and responsibilities, coupled with various levels of ICT knowledge, also leads to a huge disparity between agendas and visions.

Business Models

Even though there are a number of e-business models, not all of them are appropriate for electronic government. Most current e-Government is a combination of clicks-and-mortar, G2G, G2B and G2C. There may be small overlaps with others models, nevertheless the above are the most appropriate and common.

B2B (G2G or G2B) – is about the larger, less frequent transactions. In business, for example, a large concreting firm would provide the concrete, formwork, steel reinforcement and labour to a building contractor. In government, an example would be the likes of a contract with a speed camera operating company, a standing offer with a stationary supplier or the leasing of land for toll roads. An example of G2G would be State police services sharing information and resources with the Federal Police and/or Customs.

B2C (G2C) – requires a vast amount of mass advertising to facilitate countless smaller transactions (as opposed to B2B). Although governments usually offer services that are essential (or compulsory), such as driver’s licensing and rates, reducing the need to advertise, the G2C model still processes huge numbers of transactions. With this model, dealings must be accessible to all, either electronic or not.

Clicks-and-mortar – provides all the benefits of the boundary-less nature of Internet sales with the backing of a shop front or office. This physical presence inspires confidence and a feeling of stability for potential customers. Many investors in the internet boom of the late 90’s saw potential in purely Internet-based businesses such as "Amazon and eBay", (Chen, S. 2003). However, since there have been many failures, investors have turned back towards more established businesses that have a physical presence. Currently, government departments still offer an office for people to visit and do business. Although, citizens are encouraged to find information, make payments and send feedback via electronic means.

Supply chain – can be in the form of direct sales of a manufacturer’s own products, as an intermediary for products manufactured by others, a market place of similar products from many vendors or a combination of each. For example:

E-government deals directly with its customers—the citizens—providing its own services. For instance, councils charging rates, dog registrations, title searches, or at a federal level, e-tax returns, etc.

Revenue – "In general, two types of revenue model can be distinguished: (1) that in which income is generated directly from customer transactions, and (2) so-called ‘free sites’, which generate income through advertising or sponsorship." (Chen, S. 2003). Although it has been a difficult road for many businesses trying to adopt this model and has seen many failures (such as The Globe, Napster, etc.), we have also witnessed the immense success of the likes of Google.

For various probity (ethical) reasons, government departments have strict guidelines preventing endorsements and perceived favouritism, thus, advertising and sponsorship are rarely seen.

Strategies

As is also the case for all e-business, e-Government strategy involves the fusion of traditional and electronic business development.

Corporate strategy is well described by Johnson and Scholes (1999) as, "the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing environment to meet the needs of markets and fulfil stakeholder expectations." This is just as relevant for e-Government.

It is common to find multiple levels of strategic planning within e-Government. However, this depends on the size of the department. All government departments have an over-arching strategy for their entire department, but some may have smaller strategies at a business unit level, regional level or even for individual functions.

According to a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report (2003), there are various requirements for effective e-Government strategy. These include leadership, better e-Government skills for managers and better public-private partnerships. It shows that a different management model that is more flexible and focuses on interacting in the virtual (cybercentric), rather than purely physical (geocentric) environment is required.

Gordon, LA. (2000/2001) makes some distinctions between cybercentric and geocentric models. Management, in the cybercentric environment, will include IT and MIS in key decisions. In geocentric business, this is the opposite, where IT is generally segregated. Corporate command is flattened out in a cybercentric strategy and takes on a more horizontal structure of authority and accountability. This allows closer monitoring and evaluation of performance using appropriate technological tools. Geocentricism has a much more "hierarchical structure with vertical command".

According to Gordon, LA (2001), goals and objectives, in the geocentric model are usually "set and obeyed by management," whereas, in cybercentric models, we are seeing much more flexible goals and objectives that are capable of evolving with the needs of e-business. With this, come more structured knowledge management strategies that benefit information flow, increase customer understanding and a "greater sense of organisational identity".

A virtual presence extends the company beyond normal physical limitations. Coupled with a management that understands the need to be agile in this environment, we get better customer relations management by way of customer focussed decisions, privacy (security of information) and customer/citizen engagement. This generates sustained development of improved services, not just improved access.

An example of recent e-Government strategies would be the Hong Kong Government introducing a program for adopting inter and intra-departmental systems for online ordering of common stores. This is obviously a more efficient and cost effective approach when compared with the ad hoc ordering of supplies by each department from multiple vendors. In 2003, Hong Kong also introduced a new "smart" ID card that is to replace an existing card system. This new card has an electronic signature, among other information, that can be used for e-commerce transactions. However, it is mainly intended to control immigration issues and will eventually incorporate an electronic thumb print. (Chang, H. 2005). Although an electronic ID card system in other countries may be resisted by the citizens, for privacy reasons, Hong Kong has had an ID card system for over fifty years – although, not electronic.

This year we saw the publication of the "2006 e-Government Strategy, Responsive Government: A New Service Agenda". This followed on from the "Better Services, Better Government" paper released in 2002 and the whole of government "Australia’s Strategic Framework for the Information Economy 2004–2006" document. The "New Service Agenda" document looks at the importance of e-Government initiatives out to 2010. Taking into account that a lot of work has already been done as far as ICT infrastructure is concerned, this strategy focuses on four main areas: meeting users’ needs, establishing connected service delivery, achieving value for money and enhancing public sector capability. 

Part of the implementation of this "new service agenda", the document describes a number of strategies. These include, using innovative technology, such as smart cards and keeping up with technological changes; partnering with industry, by way of regular industry forums and consultation; managing the vision, which will ensure a global participation; and measuring the impact with service delivery metrics based on user satisfaction, level of connected government, value for money and improvements in public sector capability.

An Audit Commission (2002) report states, "Practical and realistic vision and political will with a change management emphasis", is the key.

According to Forsythe, G (2001), there are a few essential criteria for electronic business adoption strategies. These include:

All of the above are equally relevant to electronic government strategies.

Therefore, effective e-Government strategy is to broaden the scope of and tailor existing strategies and technologies to embrace solutions that facilitate a cybercentric business approach. It also needs to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, streamline service delivery, save taxpayers’ money and reduce the friction of cumbersome interactions, (Cohen, et al. 2002). Finally, it must improve bilateral and multilateral interconnectivity with other departments (and countries) while monitoring the affects to ensure accurate reporting and accountability.

Applications

There are a number of applications and standards models developed for e-Government (and e-business). Broadly, they consist of Supply Chain Management, E-procurement, E-marketing and Customer/Citizen Relationship Management.

Briefly, they are:

Supply Chain Management: involves the coordination of all supply activities from suppliers, right through to the customers, (Chaffey, D. 2004). There are many benefits of adopting an electronic supply chain: These include reduced errors, reduced administration costs, improved control and reduced lead time for orders. Other beneficial changes can be implemented, such as, rationalization of suppliers and reduced inventory (quicker lead times reduce the need for warehousing certain stock items).

E-procurement: is not simply the purchasing of goods. It involves all aspects of bringing goods into the business. This includes transportation and the warehousing of those goods, (Chaffey, D. 2004). Although most governments do not sell a product, per se, they do require stationary, stores and other externally manufactured products. For instance, the huge amount of printed material, the stamping of dog registration tags or the manufacture of car license plates. These products must be purchased, stored and delivered appropriately.

E-Marketing: involves the use of the internet and other electronic means to advertise your business. The government is not exempt from advertising and marketing. However, as Holmes, D (2002) quite bluntly states, "Governments don't print t-shirts. They don't bang drums, beat chests, shout from rooftops. Marketing isn't their thing. In fact, they're terrible at it. (Name one memorable government marketing campaign.) But it's a skill they need to learn, and quickly, if they ever hope to interact electronically with most of the population. Departments need to sell the benefits of e-government — for citizens, not for the government."

Incentives are also a marketing tool used by many companies; however, this seems to be overlooked by many governments. Some government departments are starting to realize this importance, though; for example, in Australia, the e-tax facility (which some 1.35 million Australians used in 2005 – (ATO)) is being marketed as being free and offering a much quicker refund; two weeks for e-tax as opposed to six weeks if lodged in paper form. Some local governments offer fee reduction incentives for electronic payments (via the internet) for such things as fishing licenses and dog registrations.

Customer (Citizen) Relationship Management: is, put simply, a method of building lasting relationships with one’s customers (in this case, citizens). This is essential for businesses to survive. Governments, on the other hand, have slightly different requirements for CRM. It is not merely to keep the customer coming back, but to build a strong relationship with the citizenry for mutual benefit. Improved communications with and between citizens/customers is one of the benefits. To electronically consolidate and standardise information, those front-line government employees can offer a more responsive and personalised service. Rather than having to investigate issues or pass responsibilities to specific staff, most issues or enquires can be dealt with by the first point of contact. Keeping meticulous records also facilitates performance measures and helps to identify issues for further improvement of service.

There are many e-Governmental standards developed throughout the world. For instance, Britain has its own LeGSB (Local e-Government Standards Body). It stipulates the standards for e-Services, e-Trading Standards and Regulatory services, Planning Services, Smartcards and Social Care. Australia has Australian Government Technical Interoperability Framework, which sets out a "common language, conceptual model and standards that Australian Government agencies can employ as a basis for interoperating to deliver the Australian Government’s policy and program priorities. This Framework does not impose obligations or in any way constrain agencies’ abilities to undertake their core business."

Performance Measures

Balanced Scorecard was developed in the early 1990’s by Dr Robert Kaplan and David Norton. They developed it as a "Management System" not merely as a measurement system. It "enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results", (Arveson, P. 1998). Management must view the organization from four perspectives: Financial, Internal Business Processes, Learning and Growth and the Customer. Each of these viewpoints relates back to the central Vision and Strategy of the organization. The viewpoints provide critical, factual data to the organization in order to make informed, long term decisions.

In the past, financial accounting measures were the main indicator of government performance (Wright, et al 1999). However, these indicators do not effectively reveal the benefits of investing in IT. Financial measures give historical information, but do not indicate how or why these results were achieved and what needs to be done to improve performance (Lawson-Body, et al. 2006).

Hence, the Balanced Scorecard approach includes both financial and non-financial indicators on the one sheet. Governments use ICT to deliver certain necessary services to its citizens at a lower cost. It is the way that they use this new delivery means that is central to the performance of e-Government service delivery (Lawson-Body, et al. 2005/6). Therefore a successful method of performance measure is imperative.

Benchmarking is usually related to technical performance measure. However, it can also be used to measure performance of many disparate endeavours, such as between business competitors. With benchmarking, we must find the best example of a given undertaking and compare our efforts against it. "Benchmarking is the process of determining who is the very best, who sets the standard, and what that standard is", (John Reh, F. 2006)

Within e-Government contexts, benchmarking reviews comparative performance between other national and international agencies. These benchmarking studies can be for various reasons. These include internal performance measure as well as external perception measures. The results of a benchmarked study can be used to attract more funding or simply to ensure value for money.

Results Based Performance Measure is, as Zigon Performance Group (2005) states, a "unique way of looking at and teaching others to create measures for the really hard-to-measure aspects of today's work. RBM doesn't ignore behaviour or activity, but sees it as the means to the important end - RESULTS." For that reason, we concentrate on the results, not the measures and procedures implemented to address a shortcoming. Three relevant examples given by Zigon are:

In recent years, many governments (especially among OECD countries) have adopted a results-based approach to planning, implementing, reporting and evaluating, (Alcock, R. et al 2001). Not only is this new approach affecting management practices, it is having a major impact on the understanding and concept of accountability and transparency, a vital aspect of government conduct.

This approach frees up decision making and allows more flexibility if the performance indicators (results) are met. A results-based approach shifts the emphasis towards results as opposed to individual roles. The complexities of government are less focussed on the performance of roles but more on the achievements in relation to planned outcomes.

Change Management

With a rapidly changing political and economical landscape, including, globalisation, free trade and an increased movement of people and goods around the world, we need to be able to manage these changes.

"Change management, in the context of eGovernment, is all about how members of the public service make the transition from the traditional approaches to management, pre-Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) era, to new means of administering in new and evolving environments. The latter principle is one of the many ways in which change management is different for the public sector". (Riley, TB. 2002).

Change management is central to the adoption of e-Government. And because of it, we need to ensure there is someone responsible for e-Government implementation. This currently defaults to the CIO, however, it is being suggested that a new position is created within a government body specifically to deal with this. (Riley, TB. 2002).

As is so obvious, Information Technology is constantly evolving, which means that dramatic and revolutionary changes occur often. Management of these rapid changes involves a balance between the best possible solutions matched with existing investment and budgetary constraints.

Change management is not limited to those implementing and maintaining the change, but also for the users of the system – internal and external. This area often seems to be neglected. A system for educating the user and marketing must be developed. This must also be simple to ensure effectiveness. The success of how e-Government is used depends on human awareness building and training. "…how we will handle our future lies in the degree to which peoples' skills are developed so they can effectively operate in our new, emerging and developing information environment",(Riley, TB. 2002).

Depending on the impact of the change, certain aspects can be assumed; low-level changes can assume that funding and authorisation is intrinsic. Higher-level changes will involve multiple departments and/or contractors, more complex funding requirements and a much more exhaustive investigation process.

Radical paradigm shifts in the workforce can be extremely disruptive; hence, it is important to plan for these disruptions. The downside of a lack of planning and preparation in this regard is severe resistance and backlash, both from within and with the customers. Outmoded management practices are a serious concern. Some managers are reluctant to allow their techniques to evolve and have become too comfortable with their methods, so they resist the pressures to change. This area needs serious consideration and planning when proposing changes at a level that permeates the enterprise.

This holistic approach to creating an effective and efficiently evolving e-Government helps to maintain the momentum of a well-organised workforce and happy citizenry. This is of benefit to the department as a whole by way of minimising wasted resources and increasing efficiency, measurability and reporting.

Risks

As good as e-Government may seem, there are a number of risks associated with it. According to the State of California’s Risk Assessment Model, they are; strategic, financial, project management, technology and change management/operational risks. This model is being adopted and tailored to other states of the US. 

Privacy is one of the most significant issues for an e-Government strategy, (Tacit, CS. 2002). This may arise from flows of information between internal and external departments, a lack of adequate systems security measures or simply internal dissent.

"Privacy and good access to government information, through web sites and other technological mechanisms, are important. Privacy rights, in particular, help to build trust and confidence in eGovernment programs. Also, privacy is seen as a basic, intrinsic human right being woven into the fabric of life in many countries. Privacy is also emerging as an important policy instrument in international trade to enable governments to protect their nations' sovereignty and have control about how the use of personal information of their citizens is used", (Riley, TB. 2002).

According to Cohen (2002), the main obstacles of e-Government are: the digital divide, security, the politics of information and the difficulty of absorbing and disseminating the vast quantities of information.

The digital divide is the lack of convenient access to the web by many citizens. Some still do not have computers or have limited bandwidth to make it viable for certain purposes. Free access in government buildings (such as libraries) is one solution. Those that are not internet connected will have to give up family and/or work time to access a slower and lower-quality service to interact with governments that are devoting fewer resources to in-person service delivery.

In an e-Government context, security is not strictly associated with fraud prevention (which is the case in e-business). Security flaws within e-Government, according to Cohen (2002), can have some catastrophic consequences in national security, civil rights, public safety as well as law enforcement.

The politics of "knowledge is power" is a significant factor in that political culture resists giving away free information. Although this problem may become less of an issue in the future, it will never go away.

E-government must be able to prioritise and organise the exponentially increasing amount of data it is collecting and generating. It must promulgate only what is important and collect only what is relevant. 

Obviously we must assess risks to prevent failure. Heeks, R. (2003) describes some important techniques relevant to e-Government:

Simple Factor Rating – a very simplistic and subjective approach based on an analysed list of success and failure factors for e-Government projects. It provides a rating for the presence and absence of these factors. These critical factors include: external pressure, internal political desire, overall vision and strategy, effective project management, effective change management, effective design, requisite competencies and adequate technological infrastructure.

Design-Reality Gap Assessment – assesses the difference (gap) between the reality of the project outcome and the design assumptions and/or requirements. The bigger the gap between intention and reality, the higher the risk of failure.

The Asia, Oceania E-Business Marketplace Alliance (2001) says that governments should:

The general lesson is not that governments should avoid risks; rather, governments must identify risk, determine which risks they are willing to take, and manage the relevant risk within appropriate governance structures.

Future Direction

Today we are reliant on technology in our day to day work. We have e-mail, the web and other applications that we use every day. Nevertheless, we are going to witness technology becoming more integrated in the future.

Governments (and businesses) will adopt electronic functionality as quickly as the technology evolves. The sharing of information between departments and even other nations will become widespread. This will eventually lead to a single repository of citizen data, accessed by all departments with a legitimate need. Initially, we will see this "single repository" model on a nation by nation basis, but eventually it will become global. There will be a reduction of incongruent systems with a few powerful technologies maturing into ubiquitous systems, maybe even becoming mandatory.

Mobile technology will be implemented so that more people can work in various locations, including their homes. The collection and dissemination of data will be instantaneous and allow rapid decision-making and improved services – tailored to individuals.

As much as ID cards have been resisted, due to privacy concerns ("The Australia Card" and the Tax File Number – which instigated the Privacy Act 1988 and the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988), governments of the future will introduce some form of ID card for access to e-Government services. Some serious marketing and incentives will be required, but a national or even international ID card is inevitable. Initially the card will be a simple unique ID for access to e-Government services. Eventually, though, the card will contain embedded information, such as nationality, birth date, any national medical scheme information, tax file numbers, driver’s license details (and status), any police records, some form of biometric information (fingerprints or eye scan) and even superannuation and other financial information. There will be a global standardisation for ID cards. Access to the information will be strictly controlled so that access will be only to what is necessary for any particular transaction. Eventually, this card will replace passports. Therefore, a demonstration of superior security will be essential to reassure the public.

Many existing internal and external procedures will migrate to an electronic, on line form. Currently, such tasks as time sheet submission, travel and stores requisitions, internal memoranda, pay slips, etc. are being used. In the future, more on-line facilities will be created to further reduce costs and increase distribution. A universal form of digitally signing and verifying documents will also be developed.

We are starting to see government departments implementing VoIP (Voice over IP) as a means to reduce costs and to leverage the extra features it offers (such as e-mailed voice messages and comprehensive logging). The current telephone system will be deprecated by VoIP and all communications will be via the internet, both wired and wirelessly. Television and video will also be delivered by this means. Maybe the current government is offloading Telstra for this very reason.

Kiosk style access to multiple government departments (portals) will be set up at strategic locations (such as shopping centres). However, most citizens will have access at home. They can feed back information and request services from their home—and using wireless technology—anywhere within the home. Such personalised services could be registrations and fee payments, reporting infrastructure problems (broken footpaths or traffic lights) or even a request to pick up household refuse outside normal schedules, (Cohen, et al 2002).

The democratic process will be streamlined by way of electronic voting; from anywhere, at any time creating a possibility of rolling elections. Citizens will have better access to information about a candidate’s past performance and policies. With cross referencing and filtering we will see a much more efficient and informed electoral process. Eventually, a profile of a voter’s most important issues may allow targeted electoral campaigning.

Most of the obstacles to implementation of e-Government initiatives, such as the privacy issues associated with ID cards, will be overcome and important lessons learned. As a result, more changes will be implemented exponentially and acceptance will become second nature. We see luddites of today accepting the benefits of e-mail and the internet; the same will happen with the seemingly intrusive and complex issues confronting e-Governments of the future throughout the world.

References

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