e-Government: It is not only a matter of technology

In the last ten/fifteen years a relevant number of Governments and Governmental Agencies spread all over the world both in industrialised and developing countries invested time and resources in e-Government. We are now in a position to draw some conclusions. Are such investments effectively useful and appreciated by citizens? Apart from technology what are the most relevant factors influencing success or failure in eGov? Governments, governmental agencies and citizens are ready and willing e-Government? Is eGov a real “Tsunami” for governmental Institutions and agencies? Are citizens concerned about privacy issues and “cyber” security? In the Internet era, a diffuse need of innovation and better performance affected governments and institutions in general. Citizens and even Institutions are looking for a general re-designing of the public administration both front and back office. In such a renovation process the ICT support turns “government” into “e-government”. More in general e-Government can contribute significantly to the process of transformation of the government towards a leaner, more cost-effective government. It can facilitate communication and improve the coordination of authorities at different tiers of government, within organizations and even at departmental level. Further, e-Government can enhance the speed and efficiency of operations by streamlining processes, sometimes lowering costs, improving research capabilities and improving documentation and record-keeping. Here comes the key aspect: “However, the real benefit of e-government lies not in the use of technology per se, but in its application to processes of transformation. e-Government is more than just putting in new computer systems. Rather, e-Government also involves complimentary changes to administrative practices and business processes. “ (National Research Council 2002). This clearly means that governments have to rethink their information flows and processes. Reasonably a similar revolution will involve the entire structure. The main aim of this contribution is to help to bridge the gap between technological solutions and successful implementation and fruitful utilisation of the main set of e-services care of Governments. Everyone experienced in this sector knows that “It is not only a matter of technology”. Different parameters are actively influencing e-Government success or failure: cultural aspects, organisational issues, bureaucracy and workflow, infrastructure and technology in general, user’s habits, literacy, capacity or merely interaction design. This includes: having a significant population of citizens willing and be able to adopt and use online services; and, developing the managerial and technical capability to implement e-Government applications to meet the needs of citizens. In order to offer a comprehensive scenario the contribution will explore the different aspects and meanings that the term e-Government represents around the world. The “national/local” aspect of the e-Government mainly due to the local context in which it is embedded makes the differences in design, implementation, use and even consensus. A major concern of government leaders in taking on e-government projects is the risk of failure. While estimates vary, approximately 60% of overall e-Government projects fail. In order to minimize potential failures, the recent trend in e-Government is to design services to focus squarely on the needs of citizens, web visitors often considered as a “customer.” Nevertheless it is difficult to understand the need of a citizen as a customer. E-Government failures and related potential motivations will be taken into account. Starting from the ITU draft report on “Electronic Government for Developing Countries” (Aug 2008) that provides and interesting insight on the e-government failures the focus will cover developed countries providing as well a wide range of case study in un-success stories. The contribution analyses the main reason of failure and outlines potential solutions and best practice. A selection of success stories and failures will help the reader in identifying the right approach to innovation in governmental e-Services.