Abstract
This chapter reveals the roles of business process modeling (BPM) and business process reengineering (BPR) in eGovernment, thus describing the concepts of eGovernment and BPM; BPM methodologies; business process modeling notation (BPMN); the importance of BPR in government-to-citizen (G2C) e-commerce; the relationship between BPM and eGovernment-based citizen satisfaction; the application of BPR in eGovernment; and the implementation of eGovernment through BPM. eGovernment is a modern trend that is driven by the advances in BPM and BPR as well as the aspirations of citizens who place increasing demands on governments' service. By modeling business processes in eGovernment, public sector organizations can achieve improvements in transparency and reduction in costs and resource requirements, resulting in improved business performance and compliance. The chapter argues that applying BPM and BPR in eGovernment has the potential to enhance public sector performance and achieve organizational goals in public sector organizations.
TopBackground
Since the late 1990s, a number of countries have launched the eGovernment projects, with a particular emphasis on using information technology (IT) to provide electronic information and services to citizens and businesses, thus combining the purposes of increasing efficiency and becoming more customer-responsive (Chen & Gant, 2001). From the beginning of the 1990s, public administration has been confronted by a process of new demands. The public society has been transformed by the influence of new technologies. With the development of the World Wide Web (WWW) and its establishment as the most important platform through which data and services are accessible for humans and programs, a new business challenge is raised concerning not only the management of workflows within an organization, but also the management of business processes that span the boundaries of organizations (van der Aalst, 1999).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Citizen: A person who is entitled to enjoy all the legal rights and privileges granted by a state to people comprising its constituency.
Business Process Reengineering: The thorough rethinking of all business processes, job definitions, management systems, organizational structure, work flow, and underlying assumptions and beliefs.
Business Process Management: A management technique that scrutinizes the processes that a company goes through to perform certain tasks.
Business Process Modeling: The documentation of a business system using a combination of text and graphical notation.
Information Technology: A broad term that includes the development, installing and use of anything to do with computing and telecommunications.
eGovernment: The use of information and communications technology (ICT) to improve the activities of public sector organizations.
Government: The act or process of governing, especially the control and administration of public policy in a political unit.
Public Sector: The part of the economy that is controlled or funded by the government.