But if the potential for improving the efficiency of service delivery is realised, it will be possible to deliver better services with lower costs. Departments will be refining their approach, and identifying a financial return on investment, as well as a return measured by service quality. The government is in no doubt that it is right to provide services online and to encourage their use, but the most effective way of organising and delivering those services and the extent to which they will be preferred over more traditional routes cannot yet be predicted with confidence. In developing their strategies, departments will make clear the assumptions they have made, the basis for those assumptions, and the effect of varying them. In this area more than many others, moving slowly is not effective as a way of managing or of minimising risk.
Risk needs to be managed more actively and more explicitly.
Staffing and skills The combination of more efficient internal processes and new channels for delivering services to individuals and businesses means that the pattern of activity in many parts of government will change significantly. New skills will be required both in terms of working with IT and because more staff will be involved in customer service and fewer in routine processing work. Plans for managing these changes will be an important part of strategy development. The modernisation of government remains an enormous challenge. E-government has a vital role in the government's strategy to transform the quality of public services.