The survey, jointly carried out by Oracle and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE), revealed that 56% of those questioned do not believe that services will be fully e-enabled within their own organisation by 2005. In addition, 52% said their local authority was behind or running very late in reaching the government's target of putting public services online.
The survey respondents included 50 chief executives and senior decision makers in local authorities. Most said the sheer complexity of the task was the biggest barrier to getting services online, with 56% citing this as their first or second concern, while financing was the next most frequently mentioned obstacle at 52%.
Other concerns raised included cultural resistance, with 48% citing it as the primary or second most important problem, as well as data management. Fifty-four percent of authority leaders said they were not confident or very unconfident that the data they hold is up to date.
As well as identifying barriers to getting online, local authorities also identified potential threats to the success of e-government once services are established.
These included a lack of broader awareness of the benefits of e-government, low adoption levels among citizens, and the digital divide, in other words, lack of access to online facilities among the poorer sections of the community.
"Our joint research highlights the need for central government to help local authorities achieve their joined-up government objectives," said David Clark, director general of SOLACE.
Quelle: NetImperative, 13.11.2003
