Some state, national, and local governments around the world have long played active roles in the use of Information Technologies (IT) to stimulate economic development. Electronic government utilizes information technology to provide the citizenry access to a wide range of public services. Governments in many countries around the world indeed perceive IT as a way to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Today, governments at all levels respond to millions of citizen demands electronically. Many public organizations are implementing Electronic Government (e-Government) projects. There is a need to put forward a conceptual model focusing on steps towards implementing more successful e-Government projects. This chapter argues that several key success factors are appropriate for e-Government project implementation. About twelve e-Government websites are examined upon those key success factors. This chapter puts forward a conceptual model for a better implementation of electronic government.
TopIntroduction
In recent years, nearly all countries have integrated Information Technology (IT) into their national economic development strategies. Governments see IT as a way to improve the quality of life of their citizens. The scale of activity on the part of public sectors in leveraging IT has increased in volume (Smith, 2008). E-government is enabling government companies to provide better services to their customers. The ability to improve citizens’ access to services online has made e-government a desirable application for government organizations (Gorla, 2008; Donna & Yen, 2006). Governments around the world are implementing e-government. In every part of the world—from industrialized countries to developing ones, governments are putting information online to provide better services for citizens (Working Group, 2002; Chircu & Lee, 2005; Palmer, 2006). Transactions such as renewing driver’s licenses, applying for jobs, and filing tax forms can now be conducted online, quickly and efficiently (West, 2008b). To be able do these services, e-government uses Information Technology (IT). The increase in e-government operation throughout the world, although significant, is due mostly to small number of countries, including Taiwan, Singapore, United State, Hong Kong, and Canada. Table 1 shows some differences in e-government by region of the world (please see appendix A for various e-government website URLs).
Table 1. e-Government increase by region of the world
Source: West (2008a, p. 3)
Developing countries are behind in this race to provide e-government services to their citizens. This can be due to many reasons such as lack of a good communication infrastructure, low computer literacy, and limited access to the Internet and so on (Akther, Onishi, & Kidokoro, 2007; Kottemann, & Boyer-Wright, 2010). These issues have to be addressed before developing e-government applications. Officials should be aware of the obstacles before starting an e-government project because; they are long and costly project (Working Group, 2002). In the following sections of this chapter, the author makes an effort to disclose the concept of e-government in a way that leads to more successful e-government project development.