IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The last quarter has been exceptionally busy for UK local authorities in their race to meet the final e-Government deadline of April 1st 2006, this time for the “Good” Priority Outcomes.

The deadline was set by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) as part of the local e-Government Programme which was to transform council services. Also known as Implementing Electronic Government (IEG), the programme’s objectives were to make local Government services more efficient and effective through electronic service delivery.

We will not know the full outcome until the last of IEG statements have been analyzed by the ODPM in detail, but the signs are that the majority of councils have met the targets, and in doing so have opened up new and modern access channels to local services for the public. Some councils’ web sites have gone through a seismic shift for the better in their quality and content. Gone are dated and basic web sites with static information, instead we have transactional web sites with dynamic content that compare well with those of the commercial sector. Many of us no longer have to visit or phone council offices to benefit from their services. Instead we can view planning applications, pay council tax bills, or report graffiti all via the Web.

However the success of these services will depend on how they were implemented behind the scenes. Councils have limited resources and can only cope with service delivery via another channel, and the increases in demand that it is likely to generate, by streamlining and making all relevant business processes more efficient. Therefore councils who will be most successful at delivering e-Government services are likely to be those who took IEG as an opportunity for organizational change and improved business processes. They are most likely to have addressed the requirements in a corporate and joined-up way. So when demand for e-services increases they will be able to meet it whilst maintaining service delivery through other channels. In time on-line services will replace their service delivery via paper-based and the more costly traditional methods, resulting in efficiency savings.

For other councils there is still time to review and improve their business processes whilst take up of e-Government remains low. Once demand increases, then so will the probability of their on-line services failing to be timely and accurate, which could delay Return on Investments (ROI) and create a negative customer experience.

Autor: Sarah Burnett

Quelle: Computer Business Review, 28.03.2006