"E-government does better, in general, when it has a specific purpose and real focus," said Larry Freed, chief executive officer of ForeSee Results. "Health and recruitment are two high-potential, high-impact areas of e-government."
In a report released last week, the Office of Management and Budget also praised the federal government's e-gov efforts. The OMB report said there was much work to be done to achieve technology goals in the federal government, but the majority of agencies have made "solid progress."
The Michigan report measured 44 federal Web sites and found that "health and recruiting sites earn customer satisfaction scores that rival some of the better-performing e-business and e-commerce sites in the private sector." The National Institutes of Health's Medline Plus scored an 86 on the index's 100-point scale. By comparison, online retail giant Amazon.com achieved an 88, "one of the highest scores ever earned by any company measured by the ACSI," according to a press release.
"Amid all the garbage health information on the Internet, it is important to have a trusted reliable source," Freed said of Medline Plus.
The CIA's recruiting Web site earned an 80 and the State Department jobs page scored a 79. The Office of Personnel Management's USAJOBS Web site, which receives more than 6 million visitors each month, earned a score of 73.
The report applauded agencies' efforts "to make e-government more citizen-centric."
"The growing focus on agencies subjecting themselves to objective user scrutiny and committing to developing services in a very user-driven way is an encouraging sign of how serious they are about getting e-government right," Freed said.
Related Stories:
- OMB praises agencies' e-gov progress (03/10/04)
- Agencies given mixed grades on technology management (03/03/04)
- White House expands e-government initiative (02/04/04)
- Administration seeks to use surplus GSA funds for e-gov initiatives (02/03/04)