"E-Government is the use of information technology to support government operations, engage citizens and provide government services."
This practical definition was created by the New York State Office for Technology's Local Government Advisory Committee. The term “e-Government” is extensive and is applicable to any government entity, not only nationally but globally; the “e” being a prefix standing for “electronic”.
E-Government incorporates four key elements that, when combined, create a unified process: e-services; e-commerce; e-democracy; and e-management. This article is a high-level break down of each separate process, to include the definition and the usage, and how each come together to create a unified e-Government.
e-Services
E-services is defined as the electronic delivery of government information, programs, and services, often (but not exclusively) over the Internet; the provision of services via the Internet. The term “service” alone implies the meeting of some public need, and/or the system or operation by which people are provided with something they need. The electronic version of service includes functions such as web conferencing, video conferencing, secure instant messaging software, etc. A good example of an e-service program might be Microsoft Office Live Meeting. Microsoft states the purpose of Live Meeting is to “give you the power to work together with colleagues, customers, and suppliers, no matter where you are.” Common usage of Live Meeting includes the scheduling of meetings, having online presentations and demonstrations during the meetings, and creating digital notebooks for these meetings. Microsoft boasts the promise of meeting instantly with ease, and makes that possible with extensive menus on the Live Meeting pages to guide the user to the answer of any question they have regarding an online meeting. Microsoft Live Meeting is a perfect example of the benefit of the e-services program to a user via the internet.
e-Commerce
E-services also include e-commerce, in many occasions, in its programs. E-commerce is the second element to make up the e-Government process. It is defined as the electronic exchange of money for goods and services. Examples of such services are citizens paying taxes and utility bills, renewing vehicle registrations, paying for recreation programs, and the Government buying supplies and auctioning surplus equipment online. In Virginia, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) uses e-commerce to provide their customers with the convenience of online transactions. These services include, but are not limited to, change of address, renewing or replacing a driver's license or identification card, changing status of donating an organ, and updating vehicle registration. The vehicle registration services on the DMV web page are divided into other sub-services; these include registration and plate renewal, registration card replacement, reporting the selling or trading of a vehicle currently registered in Virginia, etc. These are great examples as to how e-services is used by DMV to allow Virginia residents to avoid the hassle of having to go into a location in person and wait in line to accomplish such tasks.
e-Democracy
E-Democracy, the third component of e-Government, is defined as the use of electronic communications to increase citizen participation in the public decision-making process. It is also described as being used to enhance the democratic processes within a democratic republic or representative democracy. An example of this process would be electronic voting. Voting via the internet, over secure servers, is meant to increase not only the amount of participation, but to involve more citizens in the entire democratic process, from nomination through election. Another example of how e-democracy is used to give citizens a voice via the internet is online petitioning. These petitions are created for citizens to be able to digitally sign a document that has been written either in support for or against an act or policy. When an online petition is signed, information such as first and last name, home address, email address, and home phone is collected. This information is kept to catalog how many people have signed the petition. Online petitioning is one way for citizens to voice their opinions and is a significant part of the e-democracy process.
e-Management
The final key in the e-Government process is e-management. E-management is the use of information technology to improve the management of government; it is used for everything from streamlining business processes to improving the flow and integration of information. A very intergral part of the e-management process is e-records management. This is defined as maintenance, use, and disposition of records to receive proper documentation of an organization's policies and transactions. Federal agencies are implementing an e-records policy and a program that takes documents and emails and gives the user the opportunity to save them as records. The user has the choice to either keep the emails and documents as files, or to make them records, which will then be given a destruction date. These records will allow the agencies to track status, or progress, and will document lessons learned. Effective leadership and governance will also be important to the successes of e-management in the e-Government solution. In order for these to be achieved, communication within and between the different government agencies is crucial. There needs to be “across the board” policies implemented by the managers, directed downward to those who support them. An example of such a policy being the DOD 5015.2-STD version of Electronic Information Management Standards.
There is, however, one main downside that is occurring within each process under e-Government: security. Even with the practice of using secure servers, security over the internet will always be at risk. Technology will continue to improve, and so will the functions to make practices over the internet more secure. This will only be possible if internet security processes are as secure as technology will allow and the users follow the policies set to make their own actions safe.
In order for implementation of the e-Government process to occur, certain criteria must be met. These criteria will be based on questions that each company needs to answer. These questions will determine if the process is mission appropriate. Here are some basic questions that need to be answered before any further steps are taken:
Is public access needed to information?
Is the information suitable for online delivery?
Will the implementation improve delivery of both existing and future services?
Is there a need to upgrade measurable processes? (Measurable processes being timesaving for current personnel, waiting time for customers, as well as user satisfaction.)
Will the e-Government process provide better, cheaper, and faster services?
Will time be saved for the customer?
Does it support fundamental functions?
After identifying users' needs and your objectives, will the e-Government process be an improvement to current process?
Do top officials support the to-be process?
After these questions are answered and prove that, yes, e-Government would be mission appropriate, the following steps would be taken to implement the process: initialization, strategy, analysis, concept, realization, test, and implementation. While all of these steps should be followed, there is some flexibility as to the time needed and whether the steps need to be repeated. For example, after testing is completed, there may be some necessary changes, and therefore the company would need to return to the realization step before proceeding to implementation. Successful implementations require time, organization and expertise in the areas I have outlined above. The steps to be taken for implementation should be aligned with the goals of the agency, well-documented and systematic. Without proper adherence to best practices and methodologies, there is opportunity for critical errors within each step of the process. I'll discuss each of these steps in detail in my next article, Steps to Ensure Successful e-Government Implementations.
