e-Government

Modern governments are being driven to steadily transform from the traditional ministry-centric model to a citizen-centric model for delivering services. Such a model changes the perspective of government constituents, so that they view their government as an integrated and responsive entity rather than unresponsive, discrete agencies and departments. 

Traditional government consists of various agencies and service providers, each of which has many departments oering services to citizens. In this department-centric approach, citizens needs to interact with each department separately causing inconvenience and ineciency. Moreover, any services that require approvals or intervention of more than one department, can take a long time to deliver. Long line-ups are the norm, not the exception.

A digital transformation process aimed at e-government establishes fully-integrated government services that cut through various layers of delivery to project a single government view to the citizen. Enabling citizens and businesses to access services at their convenience from One-Stop-Shop portals or at comprehensive Service Access Points

A citizen-centric e-government needs to include the following characteristics

• Enhanced collaboration among disparate government departments

• Fast decision making and consensus

• Less duplication and overhead through shared services and secure, scalable infrastructure

• Reduced service delivery cost

• Enhanced customer satisfaction

• Increased trust of citizens

• Assured accountability of government transactions

Business intelligence gathered via integrated service provision enables governments to track the effectiveness of initiatives and programmes, and enhance decision-making, leading to:

•  Faster clearances of registrations, permits and licenses

• Opportunities for businesses to provide inputs

• Increased transparency and a level playing field for service oerings

• Reduced overhead

• Improved customer service.Verification of customer identity and privacy protection

Other tangible benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Efficient licensing, taxation, utility/service billing 

• Announcements and consultation 

• Vehicle registration, licensing

• Tender notices and online procurement

• Online application forms and workflow

• Environmental benefits – less paper

• Speed, efficiency, convenience

It is important for governments to understand that preparations for the future requires taking bold steps to ensure that the changes are genuinely transformational, and are not simply an exercise in making old approaches more efficient or cheaper. To maximise the quality of public services, public sector technology functions today must leverage and interact with the fast-moving external technology landscape — from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to Wearables and Big Data Analytics.

A practical approach recognizes that the key challenges with moving wholesale to e-government are 80% people and culture, and 20% technology. This methodology fosters safe and demonstrable environments where policymakers can experience upfront what the technology is capable of generating, achieved through provision of sophisticated safeguards, change management and change adoption, Quality Management, and processing of the data stores. Governments can redesign policy and processes based on these insights.