Global e-governance Strategy

We as a leader in government sector, analyzed e-gov framework of federal, provincial and local governments of developing and developed countries, how they use modern IT tools, connected technologies , emerging e-gov trends and digitally provides services to the citizens. We have analyzed only 15-20% worldwide governments has a clear cut strategy, vision and roadmap to decrease beaurocracy, improved citizens services, reduce costs, time and effort to provide those services for an accessible, accountable, responsible and transparent government functioning. We also have seen lot of issues, challenges, confusing roadmap and architecture of existing e-gov initiative of countries. We with technology partners SAP AG , IBM and Red Hat and with United Nations , World Bank , US Department of State and with other partners are working on a Global e-governance Strategy to address all those issues, challenges and worldwide needs of respective federal, state and local governments of developed and developing countries; provide government services directly to the citizens in most efficient manner and making efforts towards the social inclusion of masses in the technology. Although e-government technologies have potential to improve the lives of 80 % of worlds population that lives in developing countries. The developed countries of North America and Western Europe are so far leaders in e-government and reaping the vast majority of initial gains of e-government implementation.

In recent years the gap between developed and developing countries in technology and information infrastructure, practices and usage has been wider rather than narrower. Besides the lack of sufficient capital to build up expensive national information infrastructure on which e-gov is based, developing countries also lack the sufficient knowledge and skills to develop suitable and effective strategies for establishing and promoting e-government.

e-gov needs , demands and priorities of the developed and developing countries are entirely different; developing countries are in the catch up mode while developed countries are in the maintenance mode and in the use of connected technologies & emerging trends!

We have different Working Groups for the developing and developed countries and with those working groups, we are helping governments globally to be able to fine tune and develop their national level roadmap; step by step approach and procedure to use current business practices, innovative technologies, emerging trends in e-gov and to modernize National level IT infrastructure, increase efficiency, transparency and improve service delivery to citizens and the whole initiative support with Citizen Centric perspective.

e-gov Development Model

Most governments and their agencies start their e-gov programs by delivering content to citizens or government workers, focusing on as many as services online , but public demand and internal efficiency soon require more complex services. Of course this takes and transformation effect gradually; some services will be online earlier than others. In some cases, the public demand is the driving force, in other cases; cost saving aspects for the government is leading. The critical benefit of e-gov is more than the online and content presence to improved service delivery, government process reengineering, integrated and cross agency applications, shared service infrastructure to economic and social benefits .We advocate a development model and citizen centric architecture for government organizations and their maturity to delivery of e-gov services in step by step phased manner in Global e- Governance Strategy. The model has five phases to represent the traditional evolution of e-gov and the respective countries and their e-gov programs .

Emerging Phase :-

In the first phase, e-governance means being present on the web, providing the public (G2C & G2B) with relevant information. Here few services are available online by early adopter agencies and early infrastructural investment by them. In this phase governments need to create the infrastructure (software firms, methodologies, consulting skills) to acquaint governments and citizens with the concept of e-government. Services Maturity : - Simple web presence, Few services available online, Early infrastructure investment by some agencies ( Nepal , Bhutan , Bangladesh and African countries)

Enhanced Phase :-

In the second phase, the interaction between government and public is broader, most of the citizen centric services are online. Government develop national level e- government roadmap and plan for efficient, transparent and

responsive government functioning which improves democracy and services. Finance, accounting and office related application installed. Services Maturity :- Broad online presence, Accounting and Office automation capabilities, Central plan created and legislative framework developed. ( Greater China , India Central and South American countries )

Interactive Phase :-

Here government and public interaction is stimulated with various applications. People can ask questions via e-mail, use search engines and download forms and documents. Driving to make as many services as possible and available as quickly as possible. Some sophisticated transaction capabilities implemented and cross agency cooperation initiated. Internally (G2G) government organizations use LANs, intranets and email to communicate and exchange data. Services Maturity : - e-forms, basic workflows and portals, automated web publishing , basic line of business application ( Greece , South Africa , Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and South East Asian , Gulf & Middle East countries )

Transaction Phase :-

With Transaction Phase, the complexity of technology is increasing, but customer ( G2C & G2B ) value is also higher. Complete transactions can be done without going to office. Examples of online services are filling income tax, filling property tax, extending / renewal of licenses, visa, passport and online voting. Phase Four is made complex because of security and personalized issues. Example like digital (electronic) signatures will be necessary to enable legal transfer of services. On the business side, government is starting with e-procurement applications. Internal (G2G) processes have to be redesigned to provide good services. Government needs new laws and legislation to enable paperless transaction and clear ownership and authority with CIO and central agency. Services Maturity : - self service applications, cross agency services , internal portals, ERP systems, integrated workflows , advanced line of business application , document and record management ( Germany , Belgium , Netherlands , Spain , Japan , Singapore , Hong Kong , Russia , New Zealand , Italy and most of the Western Europe countries )

Transformation Phase :- The fifth phase is the when all information systems are
integrated and the public can get G2C and G2B services at one virtual counter; one single point of contact for all services is the ultimate goal. Constituent access multichannel services through Web, telephone, SMS and face to face to suit their needs. Operational efficiency and to increase the productivity of government operations is also the main focus in this phase with cost saving and customer satisfaction. Internally ( G2G ); initiate government process reengineering , process reforms, employee development to drastically change culture , processes and responsibilities within government , health and social care services and budgetary details are also implemented.

Services Maturity : multi channel strategy , IT flexes with organizations , multi agency delivery , integrated applications , integrated customer info , integrated ID schema , shared services , performance management , business intelligence.( Sweden , United Kingdom United States, Norway , Canada , Austria , Denmark ,France , Finland ) Most of the developing countries are in Emerging and Enhanced phase; while the developed countries are in Interactive, Transaction and Transformation phase. The differences are huge in agency, department, government level wise even within a country like tax department is in phase three while public works and agriculture department is in phase one in developed countries. In India, South India States are in phase three while North Indian States are still in phase two; In United States metro and mega cities and their governments are in phase five and four while small cities, counties and their local government are still in phase two and three. The goal of most e-government programs worldwide is to progress from offering basic presence services to using technology to trigger organizational transformation. Our Global e-Governance Strategy and Active Government venture make this transformation easy and accessible with efficient enterprise architecture approach provides mature service delivery capability and technology infrastructure for national , state , local government and their agencies worldwide.

Anubhav Sachar http://twitter.com/anubhavsachar