The survey, in which Accenture interviewed more than 140 senior executives in government agencies across Europe, North America and Asia, concluded that improving citizen satisfaction was a more significant factor in the current development of on-line government services than the pressure to reduce costs.
When asked to select factors driving the development of on-line government services for citizens, 93 percent of the government executives surveyed globally selected "improving citizen satisfaction," 83 percent selected "customer demands for new and better services" and 77 percent selected "the need to meet government performance targets," whereas only 51 percent selected "pressure to reduce costs."
Speaking to ElectricNews.Net, the firm's director of government consulting in Ireland, Sean Shine, said that as e-government services have evolved as have the ways in which their sophistication is measured. "One of the consistent themes of the study over the last few years is that in order just to stand still, governments need to do a lot."
"What we keep finding is that if government provides services that deliver improved service or convenience, then people will re-use it." Shine said that what push some countries further down in the rankings was a high focusing on the volume of services available, rather than focusing on those that people want to use. "Ironically, what you will often find is that the more successful countries will have a smaller percentage of government services on-line than the less successful ones."
According to the survey, Ireland has been able to hold its own in the global rankings by improving its overall "Service Maturity" score, which increased 10 percentage points over last year to 48.6 percent.
The increase reflects the refinement and expansion of existing services along with the introduction of new services on-line, including driving test applications, vehicle registration for car dealers and distributors, and Internet ticketing with Bus Eireann. Shine says that the Revenue Commissioner's on-line vehicle registration tax system for car dealers has already achieved a 40 percent penetration rate since launching in November 2002.
As part of the study, Accenture ranked each of the 22 countries in terms of the sophistication of their on-line services by placing each government in one of five "plateaus," or levels, of on-line maturity. The first plateau is the lowest, the fifth the highest.
Shine says that Canada, which has maintained its number one position in e-government for the second year running, has moved onto the fifth plateau, the only country so far to achieve this ranking. He says the country has achieved this by constantly changing and adapting the way it delivers the service to meet customer needs rather than merely fit in with existing government department structures.
Other countries which made the top ten included Singapore, the United States, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany, in that order. Ireland ranked 11th and France 12th. All of these countries are ranked on the fourth plateau of mature electronic service delivery.
Ireland could reach the fifth plateau soon if Reach, the government's public on-line services broker, manages to deliver on its forward-looking promises, said Shine. "Ireland has the best of ideas so the trick is to follow on those ideas through to execution."
Quelle: electricnews.net
