E-Governance Strategies

A government should have a two pronged strategy to implement e governance. It should adopt Internet technology and transform government agencies into citizencentric organizations. The next important step is to design an indigenous and userfriendly portal that offers integrated services.

Role of the Internet in Transforming Government Enterprises

Government agencies are well known for bureaucratic delays. Citizens prefer to avoid visiting government offices as far as possible. If a person wants to set up a firm and approaches a government office for project approval, he is made to run between departments for several days. By providing services online, governments can provide a wide range of services from a single website. eliminate bureaucratic delays. corruption, reduce the time and costs of transactions, and offer convenience and satisfaction to the public. The Internet can help governments maximize satisfaction for their citizens. Governments will be able to respond quickly to the citizens' requests without the need for the requesting individual to meet a government official in person. This will reduce the scope for corruption thus enhancing the efficiency of the government. The government will be able to manage multiple channels, understand citizen behavior and make informed decisions on how to serve citizens to their satisfaction across the channels. The Internet can help the government to transform itself into a citizen centric organization from self centric/process centric organiz ation.

An oroanization moves towards the complete implementation of e business in five distinct but overlapping phases. They are: emerging web presence, enhanced web presence, interactive web presence, transactional web presence and fully integrated web presence. In the first phase, emerging web presence the web pages are non¬ interactive. Citizens may need to send their queries through an e mail address mentioned on the website. The queries are answered and a FAQ (frequently asked questions) web page is based on them. The FAQ web page can be viewed by citizens who have similar questions. In the second phase interactive web presence, there are facilities to search for the desired information, download it and send an online request if more information is required. In the third phase interactive web presence, citizens can download online forms, fill them and submit them. In the fourth phase transactional web presence, various services are offered online to the citizens. They can get approval for projects, renew their licenses and pay taxes all online. In this phase, some departments are still not not able to provide their services online. In the fifth phase fully integrated web presence, all the services of all the departments are offered online, and are well integrated to provide maximum convenience to citizens. The amount of interaction offered to users depends on the stage in which a particular government oroanization is operating

Issues in transformation

Governments are often in a dilemma over whether all or only a few of their services should be brought online. According to some specialists, governments should web enable as many services as possible as a meaningful percentage of citizens are expected to use the services. Others say that governments should web enable only those services, which a substantial percentage of citizens want to use online.

Because of concerns over privacy and security, many people still prefer traditional face to face interaction to web interface. According to a survey conducted by MORI, a UK based market research firm, only 32%, of respondents favored online payment of car taxes and only 29% favored electronic voting'. This suggests that citizens are not yet prepared for complete e governance.

Hence, Overnments should focus on web enabling those services which citizens are willing to use online. This kind of customer driven approach will prevent governments from investing valuable resources in projects that are not of value to over customers.

Since some customers adopt self service while others prefer traditional channels. the ed to manage multi channel service delivery. The extent, government should be prepared to which a government organization can attract citizens to its website and encourage its use, depends on the architecture of the e government and its user friendliness. The organization needs to capture client data from different channels, share it throughout the organization and make its services better. The overnment also needs to understand the economies of multiple channel management and right size its investment in technology and human resources, in order to offer services across the organization.

The per transaction cost on the web channel is $3.33 which is certainly less when compared to other channels where the transaction costs often exceed $10. According to a study conducted by researchers at Columbia University in 2001, in the state of Alaska (US), the cost of renewing one's registration in the department of Motor Vehicles through the Internet was $3.62 while the cost of the transaction using the traditional channel was $7.74. However, the government needs to maintain all the channels postal renewal, office renewal and web renewal for the convenience of its citizens.

Some services are more amenable to the traditional channel than the web channel. Approval for some projects requires physical examination. submission of a pile of files and/or a face to face interview with the applicant. Therefore, it is also essential to maintain traditional channels.

Value chain

A government should attempt to encourage more citizens to use online services in order to cut its own costs of operation. By eliminating redundant processes in the value chain, the government can reduce its total cost of operations. Reducing the number of steps in the value chain enhances customer satisfaction and improves process efficiency.

A government organization can enhance the value chain by meeting the following needs of citizens learning needs, transactional needs and bundled needs. A citizen should have access to the desired information with ease in a few steps. For instance. the parliament portal of France enables citizens to access the desired information in three steps first, access the Overnment website, then access the required channel, and finally access the desired information.

For example, a citizen may want to know about yet to be enacted relating to communications industry. He goes to government website and then to the relevant channel (communications). Then he clicks on the subchannel titled 'legislation' and locates the required information. Compared to information needs, transactional needs are more complex. Transactional needs include filing tax forms, renewing licenses and permits, obtaining pollution certificates. paying electricity and water bills and so on. Citizens may be uncertain about procedures and may need clarifications, that need responses from government officials handling these matters. The department of urban services in the Australian Capi tal Territory established a unit that responds to queries from the public within 24 hours. The government agency should ensure the security of the documents that citizens transfer electronically. Bundled needs are the needs that citizens want to address in a single or in a minimum number of interactions with the government agency. The government of Singapore offers services like car insurance, radio license and road tax on its website as bundled services, so that the user can complete all the transactions together.

Thus, the government and its agencies should try to fulfill the end to end needs of customers in order to create value in online services. This requires a fundamental change in the work culture of government organizations. The officials at the higher levels, Such as directors of organizations, city mayors, governors as well as ministers, need to take an active role in formulating strategies for implementing e governance in order to make it a reality and offer benefits to the common citizen.

Portals

Government portals have benefited both citizens and the government. They are an effective medium for Communication between individuals and the government. Any change in policies and procedures can be accessed by a citizen right on his desktop, while the government can deliver various services from a single portal. For example, if a person has bought a car, he needs different set vices from the government. He has to register his car, et a driving license, buy parking tickets, pay road tax and obtain (and renew) a pollution free certificate regularly. Further, if a person violates any traffic rule during driving, he has to pay the appropriate fine. If a car owner finds that his vehicle is stolen, he files a complaint with the police and wants to know the progress of the police inquiry in this regard. In a typical government set up, each of these services is provided by an independent department and the vehicle owner has to approach each department, provide the necessary details (often a repetition of the same information in each department), make the payment and wait till the required certificate is issued or the required information is given. If a government portal provides all the set vices relating to vehicle owners, citizens will find it very convenient. They will not have to waste time in going from one department to another for each task.

Government portals may be considered as a Virtual agency that brings together different service providers to offer a one stop service to citizens, improve customer service levels and satisfaction. However. governments need to ensure that they Set Lip virtual agencies by grouping service providers according to the needs of citizens rather than the convenience of government/service providers. Further. the portal should not be simply a replication of a successful portal from another Country. It should be designed and customized to accommodate the specific government structure and the citizens' needs.

Websites, especially portals, are expected to offer Maximum convenience to users. Private portals offer a variety of services from a single point of contact, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. When governments establish portals, users expect a similar experience. If government portals offer limited functionalities and service of a poor quality, users are bound to be disappointed. Though the government is not a profitmaking agency, and repeat buyers and referrals may not be of significance inefficient bureaucratic structures and procedures should not be replicated in the online transaction model. If the government does not take care to provide user friendly access to customers, and doesn't deliver the desired services to its citizens. all tile investment will amount to wastage of scarce resources. It may even turn public opinion against the government for promising e governance misusing public funds. This could have far reaching political consequences. Once, the overninent initiates traditional system are governance. it has to ensure that all the anomalies in the eliminated.

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