e-Government is not just about the automation of manual records and existing processes, with all their inefficiencies. Rather, it is about transforming government processes and creating new relationships between the government and its citizens and businesses. Therefore, government leaders planning e-Government projects should first examine the function or operation to which they want to apply ICT. For example, if the subject of an e-Government project is procurement, officials and companies that do business with the government should first examine the entire process by which the government publishes solicitations and qualifies bidders and the requirements for filing bids, to see where the process can be reformed, before creating a website. An e-Government strategy will be most likely to succeed if it fits within a nation’s overall efforts to reform public administration. For example, Jamaica appropriately wove e-Government throughout its
comprehensive plan for the modernization of its public sector.
The idea is to build a virtuous feedback loop between process, policies and IT implementations. IT can help achieve reform objectives with great cost savings, especially today where vendors are selling off the shelf (“COTS”) software, with best practice processes "built-in," for government processes such as tax administration. An emerging trend in e-Government is to take a holistic approach to any given area of public administration (such as tax collection), including harmonization of reporting across government agencies and establishment of a comprehensive administrative process.
<<Previous: Stakeholder Consultation Next: Master Plans and Pilot Projects>>