A Strategic Framework for a G2G E-Government Excellence Center

The business of government can be streamlined by offering interactive services for the public and placing procurement mechanisms and relationships with contractors online. However, traditional government has not maximized its ability to benefit from these initiatives. We propose that the creation of an e-government Excellence Center can help with this transition of traditional to digitalized government. Such an egovernment Excellence Center would be beneficial to different stakeholders: traditional governments, by making them aware of the alternatives or potential options available to them; experienced government structures, by increasing their visibility and by offering consulting services to a host of potential clients; and even to IT solution providers, by making their products and services more visible. This chapter appears in the book, Electronic Government Strategies and Implementations, edited by Wayne Huang, Keng Siau, and Kwok Kee Wei. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING A Strategic Framework for a G2G E-Government Excellence Center 69 Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Introduction For centuries, government has endeavored to serve its various constituents. Bureaucracy and lengthy delays in communication have been some of the unfortunate consequences of many of the services provided by the government to the public and to other organizations, be they private or governmental at different levels (Becker, George, Goolsby & Grissom, 1998). Now this situation is changing, partly due to the use of advanced applications of information technology. Much of this can be seen with the newest e-government solutions available for federal, state and municipal governments and their agencies (Pardo, 2000). The significance of collaboration and coordination among government agencies and the use of new innovative technologies as enablers or means of achieving effective and efficient governments are important issues constantly being addressed by academics, governments, and the public. After the first wave of electronic government initiatives, many researchers in the field of public administration and government have started emphasizing the need to take advantage of new technological advances in promoting efficient and effective collaboration among government organizations (Ho, 2002). The plethora of alternatives in electronic government creates an immediate problem for decision makers who need to decide how to invest tax dollars in the solutions that offer the highest return in satisfaction and usefulness to the original customers, or to those who have paid for it with their taxes. Which solutions are more efficient? What are the most appropriate solutions to a particular situation? The only thing that seems to be clear – other than the traditional statement, “we need a Web presence” – is a general state of confusion about what resources are available and what may be a good starting point. To make things even more complicated, there is a proliferation of information sources about different e-government alternatives, providers, services, and even lists of e-government sites worldwide (e.g., eGov Links, 2003; FirstGov.com, 2003) that to a limited extent were created to answer subsets of these questions. Table 1: Five stage frameworks for e-government development Stages of E-government Moon (2002) United Nations (2002) Stage 1 Simple information dissemination Emerging Stage 2 Two-way communication Enhanced Stage 3 Service and financial transactions Interactive Stage 4 Integration Transactional Stage 5 Political participation Seamless 14 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the publisher's webpage: www.igi-global.com/chapter/strategic-framework-g2ggovernment-excellence/9673