The Building Blocks of a Digital Government Strategy.

• Author: Miranda, Rowan

Rising citizen expectations for electronic service delivery and the costs of delaying electronic commerce are pressuring state and local governments to change. The author discusses the building blocks of implementing an e-commerce and e-government strategy.

A recent news release by the White House states, "Access to computers and the Internet and the ability to effectively use this technology are becoming increasingly important for full participation in America's economic, political, and social life. In recent years, access to computers and the Internet has exploded. Unfortunately, there is strong evidence of a "digital divide"--a gap between those individuals and communities that have access to these Information Age tools and those who don't." [1] Falling Through the Net, the official study by the Department of Commerce, presents extensive data on Internet utilization trends of different population groups in the United States. It concludes with some policy steps that might be taken to bridge the digital divide.

A digital divide also is taking shape across state, provincial, and local governments in Canada and the United States. This divide is one that can shrink over time with action and thoughtful planning. It results in part from those governments prepared for digital government--by having implemented integrated financial and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems--and others who maintain an older generation of technology or rely on paper-based systems. Some governments, especially at the state and provincial levels, have established visions for digital government based on "seamless" integration of back-office applications with new Web portals that permit electronic commerce and citizen services. Yet other governments, for either the lack of resources, leadership, or staff expertise, are lagging behind. Even some of the leading role models for digital government are far from perfecting technology strategy. In many ways, governments struggling to "go digital" face the same challenges as organizations in the pr ivate sector. While private organizations risk being "Amazoned"--governments that are behind the curve will simply find it increasingly difficult to transact business in an electronic world and risk being left behind.

Definition

Digital government represents the use of modern information technology to exchange information and process transactions across networks. Digital government consists of the strategic and systematic use of technology to improve the efficiency of transaction and information processing by a government and its citizens and suppliers. As such, digital government encompasses both e-commerce and e-government initiatives. Although the Internet is the dominant core architecture for e-commerce, a number of other initiatives--lumped under the term e-government--make use of this medium.

Leading governments are rushing to catch the digital government wave by establishing Internet portals. Portals are gateways that permit citizens and suppliers to access information across government agencies in an efficient manner. The State of Utah, for example, has initiatives underway for a procurement portal, lobbyist registration, hunting and fishing licenses, driver licenses, income and sales tax filings, and unemployment and welfare applications. The State of North Carolina recently debuted NC@Your Service (www.ncgov.com)--a portal that citizens can customize to access services they are most interested in such as health and employee benefits, the weather, and school closings. The State of Pennsylvania has initiated on-line tax filing. For each early mover, there are many more governments struggling to decide what to do next.

Why the Divide?

The gap between governments in effective information technology utilization results from different Y2K responses, organizational inertia and leadership, and overall technology strategy used today.

In the past few years, governments made sizeable investments in modernizing IT to address the millennium bug. Many governments leveraged Y2K funding to make the transition to client/server technology and began to use the Intranet/Internet for internal and external communication. Other governments patched legacy systems and got past the millennium bug but now face problems moving forward. Y2K projects were a major drain on IT budgets and staff resources but these projects had several unintended side effects. Finance and IT staff learned to analyze, acquire, and manage complex technology projects. Both the technology infrastructure and the managerial and leadership talent that governments have developed can now be put to use to meet the next greatest challenge facing government--managing the transition to new and emerging technologies.

At GFOA's annual conferences, the large attendance at sessions focused on convincing stakeholders and elected officials to invest in technology makes a telling point--many public managers struggle to get technology initiatives funded. Some governments may...