Electronic Commerce: A Guide for Public Officials.

• Author: Gill, Navdeep

Newcombe, Todd

Sacramento, California: Government Technology Press, 1997. (351 pp)

Reviewed by Naydeep Gill, Acting Finance Director/City Treasurer, City of Durham, North Carolina.

The advent of electronic commerce has changed the way that a government conducts its daily business. In the rush to embrace these new technologies, a jurisdiction can make many mistakes that result in frustration for users and negate the benefits that these technologies promise. Electronic Commerce: A Guide for Public Officials is a useful handbook that shows how state and local governments can effectively use electronic commerce to streamline operations and improve the bottom line.

The book's mission is to educate government officials who are interested in implementing electronic commerce for better customer service, improving cash flow, and streamlining processes in their jurisdictions. The book gives information on proven examples of electronic commerce at work in government. Examples of jurisdictions using electronic commerce applications include the states of California, Massachusetts and South Carolina, the counties of Montgomery, Maryland, and Maricopa, Arizona, and the cities of Oakland, California, and Boston, Massachusetts. These examples outline practical advice on how these jurisdictions implemented electronic commerce. These uses range from using the Internet to register vehicles, pay parking tickets over the phone, and stimulate economic development through integrating a geographical information system application with the Internet. Electronic Commerce: A Guide for Public Officials also provides great samples of legislation and guides that have been enacted to facilitate electronic commerce. The book does a good job of defining the different technical terms in language that is easily understood.

The book provides the information about electronic commerce in a logical format. The first chapter establishes the foundation for understanding what electronic commerce is. The second chapter explores the different types of technologies available for electronic commerce applications. This chapter explores electronic commerce beyond the financial aspects of payments. It addresses the nonfinancial aspects of commerce and how it can help improve customer service. For a beginner, this chapter is a "must read" because it introduces the ever-changing electronic commerce technology in a concise and...