New Services through Integrated e-Government

Abstract

The New Public Management initiative in the 90’s had a tremendous impact on the principles of public administration. Cost transparency and customer orientation have become strategic goals. The public sector is still in motion: eGovernment is a new trend that also progresses the idea of customer orientation. International studies document that eGovernment has become a well known phrase in many countries worldwide. There are, however, significant differences in their respective development. Many administrations use the internet technology just to provide information¹. The opportunity to generate additional revenues through integrative IT-solutions is rarely used². The challenge of performing additional tasks within a declining budget forces governments to develop new ideas in order to increase revenues or to reduce costs. This could be a future business for administrations. In the past, most administrations tried to realize e-government by establishing their own website. Current initiatives concentrate on transactional aspects trying to connect specialized systems with the web. Strategic concepts focusing on architecture and service portfolios are becoming more and more important³. In addition to the political and administrative part of eGovernment, there is also a commercial aspect of services. In particular those commercial services associated with payment processes require and demand integrated transactions.

KPMG (2001), p. 14

an Accenture Study on EGovernment in Germany in 2002 documents that only 31% of public sector employees are convinced that EGovernment is a opportunity to receive additional revenues.

e.g. BundOnline 2005 in Germany, uk.online or help.gv in Austria.