Page 261 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 5

individuals working for or with a company and is often difficult to gather and distill. You
will learn more about knowledge management and the software tools used to facilitate it
in Chapter 9.
Ericsson managers hope that their knowledge network will generate new ideas,
help solve problems, and improve business processes throughout the international
organization. Designers of the system have identified their biggest challenge: to direct
the information they collect in the extranet to projects and product development
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activities that will benefit from that information. You can learn more about knowledge
management in general at the KMWorld Web site. In Chapter 9, you will learn about
software that companies can use to build knowledge management systems.

E-Government
Governments perform many important functions for the individual citizens, businesses, and
other organizations that they serve. Many of these functions can be enhanced by the use of
online technologies. Governments also perform businesslike activities; for example, they
employ people, buy supplies from vendors, and distribute benefit payments of many kinds.
Citizens can download blank tax forms, passport applications, and other documents from
government Web sites. Governmental entities also collect a variety of taxes and fees from
their constituents and can use the Internet to make that process more efficient, if not more
pleasant (you will learn more about how governments use the Web in administering their
tax laws in Chapter 7). The use of Internet technologies by governments and government
agencies to perform these functions is often called e-government.
The U.S. government’s Financial Management Service (FMS) is responsible for
collecting trillions of dollars of tax, license, and other fee revenue. It also pays out trillions
of dollars in Social Security benefits, veterans’ benefits, tax refunds, and other
disbursements. The FMS uses its Pay.gov Web site to handle much of this financial
activity. The U.S. government’s Bureau of Public Debt operates the TreasuryDirect site,
which allows individuals to buy savings bonds and financial institutions to buy treasury
bills, bonds, and notes.
Other countries’ national governments use e-government to reduce administrative
costs and provide better service to stakeholders as well. In the United Kingdom, the
Department for Work and Pensions Web site provides information on unemployment,
pension, and social security benefits. Smaller countries also have portal Web sites, such as
Singapore Government Online, that provide information and enable citizens to interact
with their governments online.
U.S. state governments also have Web sites for conducting business and interacting
with their citizenry. The State of California’s e-government activities are available at its
one-stop portal site, CA.GOV, a recent version of which appears in Figure 5-3.
This site gives visitors access to every California government agency and state
operation. Site visitors can transact a wide array of business with the state—from
renewing a driver’s license to reserving a campsite. The site gives Californians one site
through which they can conduct virtually all of their business with their state. For
businesses, the site offers the full text of all California business laws and regulations. It
also provides information about how to sell to and buy from the state and its agencies.

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