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240 Part 1 Introduction

E-government

E-government E-government is distinct from Internet governance. We introduced e-government in Chapter
The application of 1, where we noted that it is a major strategic priority for many countries in Europe and the
e-commerce
technologies to remainder of the world. To achieve the potential cost savings, some governments have set tar-
government and public gets for both buy- and sell-side e-government. In the UK, the government’s main target was:
services.
That by 2005, 100% of dealings with Government should be capable of being delivered
electronically, where there is a demand.

Debate 4.2 Although this target is to be applauded, one can view this as the UK gov-
ernment’s dot-com investment. Although many services have been
Getting value from e-government
created, adoption rates tend to be low and the government is having to
‘Efforts by national governments to invest in marketing usage of these services.
deliver e-government services for
citizens represent a massive waste of In Australia, the National Office for the Information Economy, NOIE
public money, given the limited (www.noie.gov.au), has created a strategic framework which has the fol-
demand for these services.’ lowing 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 communi-
cation 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 confi-
dence 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 govern-
ment 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 vari-
ables that drive innovation and growth in the information economy and underpin its
future development.

6 International dimensions – NOIE, in cooperation with other government bodies, repre-
sents Australia in world forums where decisions are made that may affect national inter-
ests in the information economy.

Mini Case Study 4.1 SourceUK

SourceUK (www.sourceuk.org.uk) is an example of a successful e-government initiative that has been
responsible for the delivery and the management of the busiest electronic communication and e-procure-
ment channels to UK government and wider public-sector departments in line with the Modernising
Government Agenda legislation. Approximately 250,000 senior managers, budget holders and decision
makers have direct access to the channels for their on-the-minute must-have news and information needs
and for the sourcing of their goods and services.
SourceUK is proven to be one of the most accredited, respected, well known and busiest portals of its
sort available to this marketplace. The portal is currently receiving on average 500,000 visits each month.
Source: SourceUK e-mail alert, 2008