E-government

E-government is distinct from Internet governance. We introduced e-government in Chapter 1, where we noted that it is a major strategic priority for many countries in Europe and the remainder of the world. To achieve the potential cost savings, some governments have set tar­gets for both buy- and sell-side e-government. In the UK, the government’s main target was:

That by 2005, 100% of dealings with Government should be capable of being delivered electronically, where there is a demand.

Although this target is to be applauded, one can view this as the UK gov­ernment’s dot-com investment. Although many services have been created, adoption rates tend to be low and the government is having to invest in marketing usage of these services.

In Australia, the National Office for the Information Economy, NOIE (www.noie.gov.au), has created a strategic framework which has the fol­lowing themes. This summarizes the types of actions that many governments are taking to encourage e-business within their countries.

1. Access, participation and skills – Encouraging all sectors of the community to actively participate in the information economy.
2. Adoption of e-business – The government is working to provide more efficient communi­cation between businesses to help improve the productivity of the Australian economy. A priority focus for 2002/03 is to promote the uptake of electronic procurement and broader electronic business processes, especially by small and medium enterprises.
3. Confidence, trust and security – The government is working to build public trust and confi­dence in going online, and addressing barriers to consumer confidence in e-commerce and other areas of online content and activity.
4. e-Government strategies and implementation – The use of new technologies for govern­ment information provision, service delivery and administration has the potential to transform government. This transformation will improve the lives of Australians. NOIE provides a framework and coordinates all government approaches to support Commonwealth agency efforts in this area.
5. Environment for information economy firms – Provide research on the environmental vari­ables that drive innovation and growth in the information economy and underpin its future development.
6. International dimensions – NOIE, in cooperation with other government bodies, repre­sents Australia in world forums where decisions are made that may affect national inter­ests in the information economy.

Source: Dave Chaffey (2010), E-Business and E-Commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, Prentice Hall (4th Edition).