Creating a market worth approx 27m for central government in 2006.
While the pace of e-Government rollouts in Ireland has been impressive over the last number of years, there are a number of key issues for Government IT decision-makers to consider over the next 12-18 months. Top of the agenda will be issues such as project portfolio management; addressing the gap on the haves and have-nots; future-proofing of planned rollouts; and applying performance management matrices. As e-Government gathers further momentum in Ireland issues such as these will be increasingly significant to functional and technical leaders in various government and public service areas.
While there is strong evidence indicating the growing importance of e-Government services for citizens, businesses and government employees, iReach have found that there are a number of challenges facing e-Government decision-makers which need to be addressed in order to glean maximum benefit from on-line public services. Following extensive research into management processes surrounding e-Government project implementations, iReach have identified some key areas e-Government leaders will need to focus on to maximise efficiency and effectiveness of solutions.
- Project portfolio management - As the breadth of e-Government projects increases, in tandem with growing complexity in e-Government services, a co-ordinated approach to management will become increasingly critical. Effective project management for future project rollouts, as well as refreshes of existing systems will present a key challenge for e-Government leaders. A balance will need to be struck in terms of time and budgetary commitments, while changing requirements will also need to be reflected in project refreshes.
- Addressing e-Government gaps - critical gaps which will need to be addressed will be internally in terms of skills and externally for the marginalised e-Government citizen. Government leaders must clearly identify the skills needed to implement and support e-Government projects and react by deploying personnel with the necessary skills prior to project rollout. The role of managed services will become central to central government e-Government initiatives - creating a market worth approx ?27m in 2006 - as decision-makers look to overcome issues such as technical skills gaps, glean cost benefits and relocate staff into higher value-adding roles such as citizen and business support services.
- A strategic vision - developing a long-term vision and a planning and review process to ensure e-Government project future-proofing will be critical as e-Government projects become more wide-ranging across a greater number of government departments and public service bodies. The key objective will be to ensure that projects have in-built flexibility and extensibility to meet changing market and user requirements. iReach believe that decision-makers will need to engage in collaborative planning processes, between technology and functional teams, which prioritise projects appropriately along with the departmental initiatives.
- Measuring performance - attaching key performance measurements to e-Government projects will become increasingly important for departments and public bodies as more and more processes are transferred to an electronic medium. This will extend to financial as well as process quality measurements. For example, Government services such as Motor Tax and PAYE offices have transferred large sections of the business processes away from face-to-face services, which therefore require greater reliability and service quality from on-line and phone-based services.
Quelle: IrishDev, 27.04.2006
