While “e-business” has faded in the private sector, e-government still flourishes in the public sector as governments try to extend access via electronic network channels.
Citizen adoption of these electronic channels is uneven, however, with highest usage among educated citizens. To free up resources to support the online channel while citizen adoption slowly increases, the report recommends that governments focus more on cost saving e-government initiatives, in addition to the security enhancements required for e-government in the post-Sept. 11 world.
Government is not so much lagging behind the private sector as it is positioned to learn from its mistakes and to take advantage of the proven technologies created by private companies, said Giga Vice President Andrew Bartels. In fact, in some technologies, like smart cards, biometrics and electronic records management, the government is ahead of business.
“The figures for citizen usage of government Web sites for certain kinds of transactions - like tax filings or auto registration renewals - compare very favourably with the highest rates of consumer usage of online commercial sites, such as online travel booking or online book and music shopping,” said Bartels, “This is not surprising, since people view tasks like renewing auto registrations or paying taxes as necessary evils and will take advantage of any easier and more convenient methods to get them done.” On the other hand, citizen adoption of other online government services like unemployment insurance or welfare benefits is much lower due to the more limited Internet access that beneficiaries typically have.
Accordingly, governments will still need to support and maintain existing telephone and office channels even as they invest in building up the online channel, which is still in the early stages in national, state and local governments in North America, said Bartels.
“Given tight budgets and competing demand for resources, governments therefore need to focus their e-government efforts on initiatives that can reduce the cost of operating government agencies, like adoption of Web-enabled human resource and financial management systems, private e-procurement e-markets and enterprise information portals for employees,” he said, adding that governments also need to use selected CRM technologies to manage cases, measure citizen satisfaction and interest, and handle citizen interactions seamlessly across channels. Information security is obviously also a top priority, he said, to ensure that citizen records and government systems are protected at the same time that online access is opened up.
“E-government initiatives are a top priority for governments, which are making efforts to keep up with their Internet-enabled constituents and to do more with fewer taxpayer resources,” explained Bartels. “As a result, the government sector will be one of the few areas with increasing budgets for portals, ERP systems, CRM applications and other enterprise applications during 2002 and 2003.”
