A Bench Marking Study of Experiences With Electronic Government

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A benchmarking study ofexperiences with electronic

governmentMajed Al-Mashari

Information Systems Department, College of Computer Information Sciences,King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to analyse several reported case studies of electronic government (EG)application to uncover the driving forces behind EG application, the approaches and methods adoptedand the levels of success of their associated initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach Six countries were chosen as potential cases for this study.

The selection was made so that the cases can be comparable to each other, whilst in the same timeprovide richness to the study in terms of their coverage of the different EG dimensions.

Findings This study shows comparison of various EG methodologies employed by a selectedgroup of six countries and concludes with criteria for improvement in EG services implementationbased on a thorough study of EG strategies and past major project implementations.

Practical implications The level of success posted by selected cases is different amongstimplementers, which leads to the need for benchmarking a variety of EG experiences in differentcontexts and cultures.

Originality/value The paper provides a review of EG relevant literature, and a detailed discussionof the cases and their review analysis. This kind of benchmarking study helps uncover the factors ofsuccess, the priorities of implementation in EG initiatives, and the effective approaches to be followed.

Keywords Government, Internet, Success, Change management, Communication technologies

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionThese days, the use of the internet and the information and communicationtechnologies (ICT) as a whole has become an essential part of many governmentorganizations (Steyaert, 2000). This movement by government organizations towardsmore IT-based improvement enablers is called electronic government (EG). EG issignificant in that it facilitates the delivery of government services in electronic form,and this can in turn lead to a considerable reduction of service cost, an increase in thesatisfaction of government customers (i.e. citizens, other government agencies, orbusiness organizations). EG also increases accessibility, accuracy and privacy ofinformation being exchanged among stakeholders of EG processes (Abie et al., 2004).

Just like electronic commerce which has been defined as:

The use of electronic transmission mediums (telecommunications) to engage in the exchange,including buying and selling, of products and services requiring transportation, eitherphysically or digitally, from location to location (Greenstein and Feinman, 2000, p. 2).

EG is about the same process except that it is a relationship that links governmentorganizations with each other, and to citizens and business organizations where theaim is to deliver services electronically.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-5771.htm

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An increasing number of countries have implemented EG with expectation to lowercosts, provide satisfactory services to their citizens and improve communicationamongst their government organizations (Kalakota and Whinston, 1996). However,several surveys and reports show that a variety of strategic approaches and projects

frameworks have been used in EG implementation. Accordingly, the level of success isalso different amongst implementers. This leads to the need to benchmark a variety ofEG experiences in different contexts and cultures. This kind of benchmarking studieshelps uncover the factors of success, the priorities of implementation in EG initiatives,and the effective approaches to be followed.

This paper studies a selected number of countries adopting EG. It highlights thedriving forces behind EG applications, the regulatory issues, the organizational bodiesintroduced to back up implementation efforts, and the major projects. The paper startswith a review of EG relevant literature, a description of the research methodologyadopted, and then goes on into the discussion of the cases and their review analysis.

Literature review and research approachEG is seen as a tool to transforms and rationalizes public sector work through the useof ICT, which may include wide area networks, the Internet, mobile computing, andmobile telephony (Schware and Deane, 2003, p. 10). EG is seen as a tool that enablegovernment to provide citizens with easier and electronic access to information andmodernized services through personal computers, kiosks, telephones and otherresources (Banerjee and Chau, 2004). This means that citizens, for example, no longerneed to claim services over-the-counter. EG deployment can be phased into six stages(Wong, 2000). These are: information dissemination via websites; two-way transactionvia an internet connectivity; multipurpose portals; portal personalization; clustering ofcommon services; and full integration and enterprise transformation.

Hackney and McBride (1995) argue that the failure of many ICT-based projects in

the public sector is mostly due to the fact that the change expected has not occurredand the new systems have amounted to the waste of scarce organizational resources.This is in line with Al-Kibsi et al.s (2001) argument that:

. . . 15 per cent of e-governments benefits stem from technology solutions; the rest come fromstreamlining the delivery of services. The two together can produce dramatic cost savings pertransaction.

This raise the issue of the importance of studies that benchmark the differentapproaches followed by countries that have undertaken EG projects, and the objectiveof this research paper is to address this need. For this purpose, six countries werechosen as potential cases for this study. The selection was made so that the cases canbe comparable to each other, whilst in the same time provide richness to the study in

terms of their coverage of the different EG dimensions. The study focuses on thestartup-up initiatives of EG, systems and implementation approaches, projectsorganization and management, major EG projects, EG developments, and assessmentand evaluation of the EG efforts.

Cases background and descriptionThis paper describes a number of leading practices in e-government of six countries,namely Canada, the USA, the UK, Dubai Government, the Republic of Singapore,

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and Malaysia. Table I presents a brief comparison of major EG characteristics at thesecountries. These characteristics are considered as measures and contributing factors tothe success of EG efforts.

The Canadian Government made good progress in EG by providing information

and services to its people through the internet. These services have placed it among theleading countries in providing its people with services, which pivot around the internet(Accenture, 2002). The Canadian Government started providing the services in stages.The first priority was to provide and reorganize the main gateway through theinternet. In February of 2001, the Canadian Government launched its modified anddeveloped site (www.canada.gc.ca). The information and government services site

Key 1 2 3 4 5

Population 30,800,000 275,000,000 59,800,000 4,017,700 23,300,000Rural population(percentage of totalpopulation) 1999 22.98 23.02 10.56 0.00 43.34Area (km2 ) 9,976,140 9,629,091 244,820 693 329,750GDP per capita (PPP) ($) 27,783 33,886 23,197 23,000 8,924Global competitivenessindex ranking, 2001-2002 3 2 12 4 30UNDP humandevelopment indexranking, 2001 (adjusted toGITR sample) 2 6 13 24 43Main telephone lines

per 100 inhabitants 67.65 69.97 58.23 48.44 19.92Telephone faults per 100main telephone lines Unknown 13.40 4.10 4.32 46.00Internet hosts per 10,000inhabitants 768.78 2,928.32 280.75 437.56 29.33Personal computersper 100 inhabitants 39.02 58.52 33.78 48.31 10.31Piracy rate (percent) 38.00 24.00 26.00 50.00 66.00Percent of PCs connectedto internet 19.70 50.04 8.31 9.06 2.84Internet users per host(percent) 5.37 2.04 11.91 10.52 54.21Internet users per 100inhabitants (percent) 41.30 59.75 33.43 46.05 15.90

Cell phone subscribersper 100 inhabitants(percent) 28.45 39.79 66.95 68.38 21.31Average monthly cost for20 hours of internetaccess ($) 14.64 19.58 18.22 18.75 16.00

Notes: 1: Canada; 2: USA; 3: UK; 4: Singapore; 5: MalaysiaSource: Global Information Technology (2001-2002)

Table I.Comparison of major EGcharacteristics

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consisted of three portals; the first portal to serve the people, the second for businesspeople and corporations, and the third to serve the international clients.In the case of the USA in 1992, the General Service Administrations Office (GSAO),which is specialized in the General Policies of the American Government, outlined an

agenda and an integrated vision for the project of electronic portal for the AmericanGovernment, which is defined later by the name WebGov (Portals in the US CountryReport, 2001). This project had the full support from the highest level in which thePresident of the USA stated his support and desire to launch the American EGgateway within 90 days of that date. The GSAO, the President Management Council,and the Chief Information Officers Council became main supporters for this project.The project was also supported by 22 American federal agencies, which sponsored theproject by supplying members to establish the first administration council(cross-agency) to coordinate between agencies.

In 1999, the UK Cabinet Office issued a document on their decision to enhance andmodernize the government and the manner in providing the government services to thepeople (British Government, 2002). The document specified its target of making100 percent of the government services available online through the internet by 2008(Prime Minister Tony Blairs Speech). However, in March of 2000, the Prime Ministerset a target of making all government services available through internet access by2005, and established a mechanism to monitor all government administrationsprogress towards achieving this target. In April 2000, the general strategy of thee-government was published and the Office of the e-Envoy was created to ensure andmonitor the application of the UK Governments vision of providing 100 percentelectronic services through the internet by 2005 (Blair, 2002; UK e-Envoy Strategy,2002).

In Dubai, the Crown Prince of Dubai announced the launch of the E-GovernmentInitiative to revolutionize the public service in Dubai. In his statement he said, Dubai

must be the business center in the modern Knowledge Economy. The theme of hisvision was to simplify the interaction between people and companies who interactwith the government, and to participate in building Dubai as a business center.In describing how to achieve this vision and make it real, the Crown Prince of Dubaisaid, We must reinvent the government in order for Dubai to become a leader in theKnowledge Age. This can be achieved by raising the level of services, which areprovided to the private sector and the public, and the compatibility of all services andgovernment procedures with the knowledge age. To this effect a high council wasestablished. To implement the vision of the e-government, the government of Dubaiand the committee, which supervises the project have to study the experience of theother countries, which have implemented the e-government and find out their success,failure, obstacles and incentives. A private consulting firm was hired to assist in the

project.The journey of the Singaporean Government with the e-government started in 1997

with the emergence of the concept of providing information and services to the citizensthrough the internet. The objective of this vision was to provide the information andthe services, which suit the citizens needs, and not according to what the governmentagencies would like to make available of the information services. The interest of thisproject was at the highest political level (Singaporean Development of Communicationand Information Authority). In Singapores Prime Ministers speech in the opening of

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Asia Telecommunications in 2000, he announced the launch of the Singaporee-government project. In his speech, he mentioned the plan of making Singapore a maineconomic power in the area of information economy by the year 2010. The objective ofthis idea was to enable the citizens to use this gateway from the elementary school and

all of their life, and manage all kind of related civil activities with the government fromeducation, consultations related to the vocational area, finding a job, making weddingreservations, moving to another house, etc. (www.peg.org.uk/agenda.xalter).

The Malaysian Government decided to strengthen its economic growth withanother progress in the area of ICT in order to secure its superiority and competitiveadvantage in the era of new knowledge economy. The government also wanted tosecure services provided to the citizens, business people and companies in the best andfastest way to secure the flow of information which helps in speeding up decisionmaking and business handling. One of the most important projects related to this erawas the implementation of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). The Prime Ministerof Malaysia directed the establishment of a variety of administrations and councils toparticipate in this project. In 1997, the Malaysia Administrative Modernization andManagement Planning Unit (MAMPU) was established to modernize the Malaysianadministration within the Prime Ministers office (MAMPU).

Cases discussion and analysisStartup-up initiativesCanadians are considered to be among the top users of the internet. Canada comessecond after the USA in number of users of the internet. Two-thirds of the Canadiansare connected to the internet. The Canadian citizen spends an average of nine hours perweek on the internet, and this is more than any other country in the world (GlobalInformation Technology, 2001-2002). In 2000s statistics, Canada issued areport indicating that 97 percent of the companies and corporations which have

100 employees or more and 63 percent of the companies which have 100 employees orless using the internet. On a different case, the main factors of the AmericanGovernments success in launching its electronic gateway were the availability of theneeded foundations for this project, such as the Network Readiness Index (GlobalInformation Technology, 2001-2002). According to a Harvard University report, theUSA is number one in this area and in fourth place in providing the foundation ofcommunication and information. On the other hand, the main factors of British successin the e-government were the availability of the needed infrastructure incommunications and information. According to a Harvard University report, thereare 58.23 telephone lines and 33.78 computers for every 100 people, and the number ofpeople who are connected to the internet is 280.75 for every 10,000. The report alsostates that the network readiness index put Britain in the tenth place internationally

according to the infrastructure in communication and information, and in the fourthplace internationally according to the availability of the hardware, software, andtechnical support (Global Information Technology, 2001-2002).

In the case of Dubai Government, the Crown Prince specified a plan to implementthe e-government project within 18 months starting from the year 2000. The plan wasdivided into stages. The first stage was to make all needed information related togovernment services available to the public through the internet. Next, was theupdating and upgrading stage of these services. About 89 percent of this stage was

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implemented by providing the information of many government agencies through theinternet. The next stage was building a unified gateway to provide all the informationand services to the public and private sector. About 19 percent of this stage wasaccomplished which made it reach the interactive stage. The final stage was

standardizing procedures, electronic transactions, and the electronic integrationacross the government agencies. Almost 9 percent of this stage was accomplished(Global Information Technology, 2001-2002). In the case of Singapore, one of the mainfactors of the Singaporean success in the e-government was the availability of theneeded infrastructure for this project, such as communication and informationtechnology infrastructures. According to the Harvard University report, Singapore isranked eighth internationally in the Networking Readiness Index and eighthinternationally in networking components. Another factor of success was the ICT,where Singapore is ranked 15th internationally and third in setting up networkingpolicy. The report ranks Singapore fourth internationally in setting up the policies ofcommunication and information infrastructures. In Malaysia, it was considered that toimplement the vision of e-government, a number of foundations must be available toassure the success of the implementation, such as the availability of the informationand communication infrastructure, networking connection among corporations andvarious government administrations, and the availability of locations for the people touse these networks in order to access these services and benefit from them (GlobalInformation Technology, 2001-2002).

EG systems and implementation approachesThe Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada established a number of rules andlegislations to help set up and apply the Canadian EG project. Some of theselegislations and rules are on the federal level and others are on the different provincialgovernments level (Canadian Government, 2002). In the USA, some legislations were

issued on the federal level and others on the state level. For example, in June 2000, thePresident of the USA announced the launch of the site of the American EG gateway,which was called FirstGov. To ensure this support on the Presidency level, thePresident announced in 2002, he was setting aside one million dollars from the budgetto be paid over a three year period (PPI, 2002; State of Nebraska Report; State of TexasReport; E-government Project in the State of California, 2004). On the other hand, theBritish Government established a number of rules and legislations. For example, inMay 2000 the British Government established whats known as the electroniccommunications Act which ensures the acceptance of electronic signature and digitaldocuments in court procedures (British Government, 2002). In Dubai, and as a result ofstudying the experiences of the countries that have implemented e-government, thegovernment of Dubai came to a conclusion that there are some obstacles to its success.

Therefore, they have to study these obstacles and find solutions for them. Themain challenges to the EG project were putting a hierarchy to the EG. For this,the Dubai Government officially acknowledged the legality of the EG as apermanent organization and not only as a temporary project. Another obstacle wasthe coordination between the various government agencies. The cooperation andcoordination between the government agencies were measuring factory for excellence.The government issued a legislation making the e-document as valid as the paperdocument. In Singapore, a number of committees, rules, and legislations were

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established to automate the use and acknowledgement of the used technology in thefinancial electronic transaction. In 1999, another legislation was issued to establishthe IDA, which specified the role and duties of this administration in developing andimproving the efficiency of the information and telecommunication sector. This sector

was to be compatible with the international competitive specifications and to ensurethe availability of information and communication to all citizens (SingaporeanDevelopment of Communication and Information Authority, 2002). Finally, theMalaysian Government established a number of essential rules and legislations toimplement and secure the success of the EG experiment. In 1997, the governmentissued the Digital Signature Act, whose objective was to consider digital signature inthe electronic transactions as legitimate as the regular signature or paper (MAMPU,2002).

EG projects organization and managementThe Canadian Government established a number of administrations to set up rules and

foundations, and specify the targets, future vision, and the plans and suitable stages toimplement the project. To find out the individual needs, some of these administrationswere established on the Federal level for the entire Canadian Government and otherswere established for individual provinces, ministries, and corporations (CanadianGovernment, 2002; Canadian Secretary Council, 2002). On the other hand, the federalgovernment of the USA, federal agencies, and state agencies each established a numberof agencies to follow up and implement the EG project. For example, the GeneralServices Administrations Office, the Program Management Office, and the ChiefInformation Officers Council were appointed to be responsible for and support thisproject. The project was also supported by 22 American federal agencies, whichsponsored the project by supplying members to establish the first administrationcouncil (cross-agency) to coordinate between agencies (State of Texas Report on

e-government, E-government Project in the State of California, 2004; www.excelgov.org/techcon/egovact.pdf, Texas online barriers to e-government). On the other hand,the British Government established a number of councils, which are part of the EGand are needed for the success of this project. One of the most important councilswas the e-Envoy Office to supervise the application of the British e-governmentsvision (www.e-envoy.gov.uk/puplications/succesfulit_menu.htm; www.dfes.gov.uk/ukonlinecentres; www.peg.org.uk/agenda.xalter; Portal Country Report Singapore).In the case of Dubai, the Dubai Governments Council of Ministers established a HighCouncil for Dubais EG project which was called the Supreme Executive Council for theEG project. Some of its duties include setting up a clear, complete strategy toimplement the vision of the EG; coordinating between various government agencies;preparing, planning, and managing information systems for government resources;

building a unified government network; and building an EG gateway. In Singapore, theInfocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is one of the councils that isresponsible for developing and updating the rules of ICT in Singapore. Thisadministration has other subcommittees such as the Online Development Group whichis responsible for establishing the plans towards e-business and e-lifestyle(Singaporean Development of Communication and Information Authority, 2002;Multimedia Super Corridor Report). In the case of Malaysia, however, a number ofcommittees were established, such as the Electronic Government Steering Committee,

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which was under the direct supervision of the Prime Ministers office. This wasconsidered the main committee to supervise the Malaysian Governments projects,which are related to develop and modernize Malaysia. Under this committee there are anumber of subcommittees such as MAMPU, that supervise the EG project and other

related projects, which also have a number of committees that are related to the center.For example, there is the National Institute for Public Service (INTAN), which issupervised by the Prime Ministers office (Singaporean Development ofCommunication and Information Authority; Multimedia Super Corridor Report).

EG projectsIn Canada, a number of projects and sites were established. Some of these projectsare connected with the federal government. Others belong to the provincialcorporations, which make up the Canadian Government. A number of these projectsproved their success and effect in achieving and applying the vision of the CanadianGovernment by providing the information and services through the internet

(Canadian Secretary Council, 2002). On the other hand, to execute and implement thevision of the American Government towards providing services through a singleelectronic gate, a number of projects related to this idea were implemented on thefederal level, states governments level, and a variety of government agencies(Texas Online barriers to e-government). For example, with the cooperation of avariety of ministries (labor, finance, general service department), a training programfor the government employees was established through the internet. In Britain, avarious number of projects were established such as the e-delivery project which isresponsible for the implementation and operation between various governmentoffices, the authentication project for developing policies and security frameworks toensure privacy and security of data, the digital documents and digital signatureproject, and Smart Cards Project (Report on the attempts of implementing the

British e-government, 2002; www.e-envoy.gov.uk/oee/). To ensure its sincerity inimplementing its vision towards the EG project and becoming an importantbusiness center in the knowledge economy, the Dubai Government implementedvarious numbers of projects of which there are two main projects (Common Servicesand Electronic Services). Some of the other projects completing the neededinfrastructure for the success of the EG project include communication andinformation structures. With the advent of Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City,and Knowledge Village, the Dubai Government managed to bridge the gap betweenhuman knowledge and ICT. These projects played a major role in ensuring thesuccess and utilization of the project. On the other hand, the Singapore Governmentand its related administrations established a number of related projects to the EGsector, such as the National IT Literacy Program. This project was under the

Ministry of Labor, and its objective was to spread literacy in the area of informationtechnology. The Prime Minister launched this project in June 2201. The ambition ofthe projects supervisors is to train 350,000 people within three years in the area ofcomputers and internet access. In the year 2002, the IDA launched a projectof connecting houses to the internet. The objective of this project with thecooperation of the business people and companies is to provide infrastructures toprovide services and information to the homeowners (Singaporean Development ofCommunication and Information Authority, 2002; Multimedia Super Corridor

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Report). The Malaysian Government established a number of projects related to thecenter, and the private sector participated in a number of essential infrastructureprojects for the EG project. One of these projects was the MSC. The objective of thisproject is to connect most parts of Malaysia with a huge, fast information and

telecommunication network to allow high-speed information flow. Also, theMalaysian Government established the Information Technology Strategic Plan to setup the policies of the information technology in the public sector, which had to becompatible with the planning and government policy in this era (Multimedia SuperCorridor Report; MAMPU, 2002).

EG developmentsIt is clear that the Canadian Government achieved a lot in its EG efforts. Theplanning and preparation for the EG was good and the preliminary investment wasavailable in all early stages, which were important and a cause for this success.According to the established plan from the Canadian Government, the concentration

in the coming years is going to be on continuous work in making it available, andattaining the information and electronic service more easily and organized, accordingto the citizens need; providing all the services on the internet; making the foundationsafer and securing all transactions on the internet, and making it more private; moregovernment response to the needs of citizens and individuals; and getting feedbackfrom the users to find out their opinions of what has been accomplished (CanadianGovernment, 2002).

The American Government and the governments of different states are trying toinitiate a number of visions and objective work plans to develop these services. Also,they are working on encouraging the clients to interact with the EG gate. For example,the state of California has already shown its intention to guarantee the access of allusers of the internet to be able to access its electronic site by bridging what is known as

digital divide. For those who do not have computers or internet access, they haveprovided general booths and stations in the public libraries and universities (www.excelgov.org/techcon/egovact.pdf; Arizonas approach to creating a web portal, 2001;British Government, 2002).

In April 2002, the British Government, represented by the British Local AuthoritiesMinister, started its National Strategy Consultation to work with local governments tohelp in applying the idea of EG. Also, the British Government is concentrating onfinding other means of communication with its electronic gateways such asdigital TV, WAP mobile phones, and general booths and stations for internet access(www.e-envoy.gov.uk).

As mentioned earlier, a number of stages were specified to implement the vision ofthe Dubai Government in relation to the EG project. Some of these stages were

accomplished, such as existence, updating, development, and interaction. The laststage to be accomplished will be complete financial transactions and completeelectronic integration between government agencies through the Dubai Governmentselectronic gateway. Emphasis on electronic awareness to all levels must also be takeninto consideration, and the encouragement of the public and private sector to conducttheir government transactions through its electronic gateway in order to deliversignificant and immediate benefits in terms of service quality, cycle-time reduction,and costs. In addition, future intentions/trends to ensure the success of the project will

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make the EG gateway one of the essential electronic training centers in the EG process.The future trend of the Dubai Government is to provide the value added services to thepublic, such as electronic services through mobiles and transmitting and receivingtransactions.

The Singaporean Government established a number of plans to ease thecommunication between the people and the internet, to train the people in the areas ofcomputer and internet, and to attract professionals in the area of communication andinformation technology. Also, the objective of the IDA plan was to train more than 75percent of the employees, especially in the areas of communication and information,where they represent 9 percent of the Singapore workforce. The government reserved$25 million to educate the people about the EG within three years (Portal CountryReport Singapore).

The objective of the Malaysian Government is to make Malaysia a huge, powerfulindustrial and economic force in the knowledge age by making its society electronicallyintegrated. In order to make this objective feasible and real, the governmentestablished its vision with what is called Vision 2020. In order to make this vision

successful and real, the Malaysian Government started implementing the MSC project,which connects most of Kuala Lumpur city with a giant and fast electronic network totransmit the information and electronic services. The future objective of this plan is toconnect all the parts of Malaysia with this network. Also, the Malaysian Government isworking on community centers to provide the connection of the rural and low-incomeareas to the internet, and provide Public Access Centers that are free for the categoriesthat do not have an internet connection. The objective of this is to bridge the connectionamong various categories, which represent the Malaysian society in the knowledgeage. The Malaysian Government would also like to provide an educated generationwith preliminary skills in computer and internet access, which will help them to use thecomputer and internet and benefit from the government electronic services.Furthermore, the government would like to benefit from these people in teaching theones who do not have these skills (MAMPU, 2002).

EvaluationTable II provides a summary of EG initiatives results at the countries presented in thispaper. In spite of the fact that the specified date to complete the Canadian EG project isstill far off (it is supposed to be completed by 2004), all the indications and results showthat the experiment of the Canadian Government is one of the most successfulexperiences in EG (Canadian Government, 2002). All the reports from all the connectedsites and those specialized in research and consultation prove the credibility of theseresults. According to the report that was issued by Accenture in 2002, the Canadianexperiment comes in first place in the years 2001 and 2002 consecutively. More than

50 percent of the Canadians used the EG site in the first three months. This frequentusage of the site by the Canadians also indicates the success of the experiment(Accenture, 2002).

On the other hand and in the case of the USA, all the reports on the internationalorganizations and the corporations, which are specialized in the research anddevelopment, especially the ones, which are related to the EG, indicate the success ofthe American Government experience in applying the idea of EG. The USA is rankedthird internationally in this field (United Nations, 2002). According to the report that

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was issued by Accenture, Britain is considered to be in the sixth place among theleading countries in the area of applying EG. Another indication of the success of theBritish experiment is the availability of a huge number of services on the internet frompublishing to interaction and others from interaction to complete financial transactionson the internet (Accenture, 2002). To evaluate the success of Dubais EG we can refer tothe United Nations report regarding e-governments, which ranked the United ArabEmirates 21st worldwide and first among Arab countries. This success was due topolitical support from the highest level where HH The Crown Prince and Governor ofDubai was the initiator in implementing the EG. This success that Dubais EGachieved made the federal government of the UAE extend this experiment to the entirecountry. According to the report that was issued by Accenture, the Singapore

experiment was very successful and ranked second internationally in this area(Accenture, 2002). The report indicates the progress, which was achieved by Singaporein this area was due to a number of services added in the last year. Also, a number ofservices were enhanced from the publishing level only to the interaction level, andothers to the financial electronic transaction level. Another indication of success wasthe report of the IDA, which indicated the increase in the number of computer andinternet users in the last years. According to a report issued in August 2001 on thesurvey of the usage of communication and information in the home sector, there was an

Key 1 2 3 4 5

Overall maturity 2002 (percent) 59.9 53.4 59.9 58.7 22.3

Overall maturitychange 2001-2002(percent) 9.8 14.9 14.9 11.7 7.42001 Rank 1 3 6 2 192002 Rank 1 3 6 2 20Service maturitybreadth from2001-2002 (percent) 90.1 98.3 93.8 97.1 77.3Service maturitydepth 2002(percent) 65.7 57.9 47.4 69.1 33.8Customer relationmanagement (CRM)

2002 (percent) 61.5 45.2 42.5 39.7 19.5Vision introduced 1999 1993 1998 2000 1997Vision title Government

onlineInformationsuperhighwayupdated withexpanded electronicgovernment 2001

Informationagegovernment

E-governmentaction plan

Electronicgovernment

Internet penetrationrate (percent) 58 66 40 66 8

Notes: 1: Canada; 2: USA; 3: UK; 4: Singapore; 5: MalaysiaSource: Accenture (2002)

Table II.Summary of EGinitiatives results

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increase in the number of people who would like to buy computers and connect to theinternet. The final indicator of the success of the Singapore experiment was winningfirst prize for its EG site in the Stockholm Technology Exhibit in October 2002 (GlobalInformation Technology, 2001-2002; Singaporean Development of Communication and

Information Authority, 2002). To evaluate the success of the implementation of theMalaysian Governments experience in implementing the vision of EG, we can refer tothe Accenture report, which classifies Malaysia as one of the leading countries in thisera and ranked it 20th internationally. The same report indicates that Malaysia fellback one step from its 2001 ranking (United Nations, 2002; MAMPU). The reasonsbehind this were the concentration of the Malaysian Government on extra governmentservices through the internet and its concentration on developing and implementingthe foundation projects that are related to the implementation of the EG vision, knownby Vision 2020, which has an objective to create an advanced electronic industrialeconomy by 2020 (Accenture, 2002).

ConclusionThis paper has presented and discussed six cases of leading EG practice. The analysishas focused on the driving forces and characteristics of EG initiatives, the regulationsand legislations that have been enforced to support EG efforts, the government bodiesthat have been established to facilitate and implement EG strategies, the major projectsthat have been set-up for EG implementation, the future visions and projects and thelevel of success in EG efforts.

To summarize and benefit from these studies of EG, there are some lessons learnedand recommendations which can help in implementing the EG and succeeding in thisarea. Firstly, it is important that an in-depth/thorough study be done at a country levelin order to come up with specific and clear objectives in preparation of a clear vision

for EG.EG cannot be possible and successful without a commitment and full support fromthe highest levels of authorities. This will enable an integration of all governmentlegislations, which in turn play a major role in implementing the services, andflexible networks between government agencies as well as with businesses andcitizens.

EG efforts cannot also be successful without designing a justified framework withcontracted IT companies. Furthermore, the cooperation between the government andthe private sector can save in experience and cost. It is also important to have the EGefforts centered on human efforts and designing services rather than on just IT factors.This emphasizes the importance of educating users and spreading the knowledge of ITand the use of electronic access channels such as the internet. This leads to more

availability of media and the stations of connection to the internet, as well as people touse computers.

EG is not achievable without improving the administrations procedures andconcepts of government employees. This involves the establishment and introductionof new legislations for electronic transactions to be as legitimate as documenttransactions. This needs cooperation among special lawyers, technologicalcorporations, and the judiciary system. Finally, EG needs a huge investment andfinancial support, but it can produce income and reduce government expenses.

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References

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Further reading

Al-Bastaki, M. (2002), E-government, Proceedings of the E-government National Plan FirstWorkshop on EG, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November.

Al-Otaibi, B. (2003), E-government between the Need and Implementation, Institute of PublicAdministration, Riyadh.

Infrastructure Strategic Plan (2002), available at: www.infrastructurecanada.gc.ca/icp/index_e.shtml

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