Despite cost cutting and budget constraints across the economy, European e-government services will grow by 13 per cent to E2.8bn in 2003, according to a new report by anlalyst group IDC. "In a soft IT market, e-government services are growing fast. From broadband to tax returns, this is an opportunity for service providers to transform Europe's public services," said IDC analyst James Weir. "IT service providers cannot afford to miss out."
According to the study, the opportunity is not uniform across Europe, with different countries displaying different levels of sophistication and readiness for eGovernment. "The UK and Germany have fallen behind Finland, France, Spain and Italy in the sophistication of their e-government activities. They are also behind the Nordic countries in their readiness for e-government," said Weir.
Western European governments are struggling to trade off budget constraints with the need to improve service sophistication, asserts the study.
eGovernment is part of the eEurope strategy that public administrations must implement to:
- Deploy electronic delivery of services
- Create ebusiness platforms for public procurement
- Connect organisations to leverage intra-agency and inter-agency knowledge
Quelle: europemedia
