But while a high number of services are available in a very basic online form - chiefly providing information - "we have seen few examples of services maturing over the past 12 months," the study concludes. "The overall depth of service is below the average of countries assessed in this study."
Relatively few genuinely transactional services are available - where citizens can claim benefits or make payments online.
The lack of real functionality, or of services grouped according to customers' needs, is contributing to low take-up, Accenture believes.
Only around one in ten citizens have used government services online compared to half the Canadian population which, for the third year running, tops Accenture's league table as the country that has most transformed its services by using e-government.
It heads the US, Singapore, Finland, Australia and Hong Kong, all early leaders in e-government, who remain grouped with the UK as heading towards mature delivery. The UK, however, is ranked eighth this year, against sixth last year.
Canada, for example, allows businesses to manage their postal accounts on-line, provides a wealth of updated charts, weather forecasts and navigational aids from its marine service, and allows pensioners and farmers to handle benefits and grants through a single application for many different programmes.
A key change - which Accenture says governments more generally should make - has been shifting the government target from getting everything online to providing real benefits from the most frequently used services.
Steve Dempsey, government partner with Accenture in the UK, said the UK is doing a good job of getting broadband and other infrastructure in place that will provide the technological backbone for value added service.
It is also starting to look for partnerships with the private sector - such as estate agents, banks, accountants and student services - which can ride on the back of the government services, thus boosting take-up.
The Jobcentre kiosks, which offer every vacancy in the land that the employment service knows about, have been genuinely innovatory.
And there is, he says, some evidence from around the world that once take-up barriers are breached, take-up can rise dramatically as people start to use e-government as a common part of their lives and tell others about it.
But more marketing of available services is needed as is more integration to make the service of value to customers and citizens. Services, he said, do not necessarily need to offer financial incentives to users, but they do have to be demonstrably more convenient or offer other tangible advantages.
Government websites also need to operate in similar ways so that individuals do not need to re-learn how to use them when they change departments.
Quelle: Financial Times
