Page 157 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

138 5 Innovative EC Systems: From E-Government to E-Learning, Knowledge Management, E-Health, and C2C Commerce

decided to partner with City & Guilds Kineo to train the
managers using the financial software from Kineo Learning LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE CASE
Solutions (kineo.com/solutions). However, some managers
were skeptical about e-training (an application of e- learning), E-learning (and e-training) is an EC application that
so in order to alleviate concerns and secure collaboration and helps organizations electronically teach a large number
use, it was necessary to convince them of the program’s of students or employees, who are frequently in differ-
usefulness. ent locations, to ensure that they can grow and handle
their jobs effectively. E-training at Compass Group is
based in part on making sure that employees know
The Solution why training is important to their business, clients, and
customers. By creating an e-training program that
To train the regional managers, Compass Group decided to engaged the trainees, the company not only reduced
use an attractive approach that would enable rapid mass training costs and successfully trained the employees,
training at low cost. They decided on e-training. it also motivated many employees to embrace e-train-
The implementation team created the “Compass Detective ing. E-learning and e-training are major topics in this
Board Game.” The participating managers played the role of chapter. Other innovative systems described in this
“detectives” in the game. Each detective needed to analyze chapter are e-government, e-books, knowledge man-
performance and find solutions to problems (“crimes”). Each agement, e-health, and consumer-to-consumer EC.
player had an adaptation to her/his functional area, based on
real-life situations. The players received assistance in
problem- solving so they could gain experience. The players 5.1 DIGITAL GOVERNMENT: AN OVERVIEW
were able to come up with answers to questions such as how
to react to a price cut by a competitor or how to determine Electronic government, also known as e-government or digital
when a budget deviation is significant. (Read the case study at government, is a growing e-commerce application area that
kineo.com/case-studies/process-and-technical/compass- encompasses many topics. The area’s major objective is to bring
group-systems-training.) public sector institutions into the digital age. For an overview,
see Brown et al. (2014). This section presents the major ones.

The Results
Definition and Scope
In the first 6 months of its existence, the project had some
outstanding successes: E-government refers to the use of information technology in
general, and e-commerce in particular, to improve the delivery
• Improved perceived performance: Most participants of government services and activities in the public sector, such
agreed that their performance was likely to improve, as providing citizens with more convenient access to informa-
thanks to the training. tion and services, and providing effective delivery of govern-
• Train large numbers of people, quickly: The e-learning ment services to citizens and businesses as well as improving
enabled training many more managers rather than the performance of government employees. It also is an effi-
using conventional training (at the same cost and time cient and effective way for governments to interact with citi-
frame). zens, businesses, and other entities and to improve governmental
• Cost reduction: The Compass Group saved £495,000 in 6 business transactions (such as buying and selling goods and
months, compared with the costs for conventional training. services), and to operate effectively within the governments
themselves. E-government includes a large number of activi-
Sources: Based on City & Guilds Kineo (2011), Training ties, as can be seen in the New Zealand case (Online File W5.1)
Press Releases (2011), compass-group.com, and en.wikipe- and in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Government. For details, see
dia.org/wiki/Compass_Group (both accessed March 2016). Shark and Toporkoff (2008). For resources, see w3.org/egov.