Within the IQ Content survey, about 75 percent of the responding public sector agencies said they are experiencing difficulties implementing their e-government strategies. About 40 percent of respondents said that a lack of strategic vision was their biggest problem, while about 20 percent said they lacked the necessary human resources.
"The technology is there -- the government has spent a lot of money putting the technology in place to make e-government services work," said Morgan McKeagney, managing director of IQ Content. "This is a human issue."
McKeagney said that many government departments do not have the processes and structures in place to keep Web sites up-to-date, and mangers within those departments seemed to have little understanding of how much time is required for workers to maintain Web sites.
"The government is good at putting simple things like press releases up, but most departments have difficulty with anything more," said McKeagney. "They [government agencies] are producing a lot of material in terms of reports and briefings, but there seems no processes to make this material available on-line," he said. "They lack a strategic vision in terms of content. They need to ask themselves what they want to do, what it will take to do it."
According to McKeagney, many of the government departments would be able to overcome their on-line content problems with enhanced processes, but more staff will eventually be required despite the hiring freeze currently in place. Indeed, IQ Content's report said that 75 percent of public sector Web sites are managed by just one person, and in most cases this person spends less than half their time on Web-related activities.
In addition, despite the massive amount of material created by the various government agencies, the creation of content that is easily consumable by the public remains a problem. According to the report, content creation, content management and accessibility are all problematic, with 95 percent of respondents citing difficulties creating and managing Web site content as a problem, and 85 percent admitting accessibility is an issue for end-users.
Despite these criticisms, the report looked favourably on e-government in Ireland in general, citing the many successful technological implementations, such as the Revenue Online service, OASIS, BASIS, Reach and the eCourts and eTenders systems. The IQ Content survey said that 75 percent of respondents have a clear idea of what e-government is about and its implications for their organisation. Moreover, 65 percent of organisations consider their e-government implementations to be either on or ahead of schedule.
For the full report, see the IQ content Web site.
Quelle: electricnews.net
