Kamalia Azma Kamaruddin, Ariza Nordin and Nor Laila Md Noor
we will use the IT demand and supply lens to evaluate some of the IT and IS models to understand its suitability in tracing e‐Government investment evolution.
2.2 E‐Government evolution dimensions
Evolution is a process that involves gradual change and development. Since the year 2000, there have been many e‐Government evolution models proposed by individual researchers or practitioners of institutions, in order to determine and forecast e‐Government maturity state. Various kind of models ranging from four to six stages have been developed to characterize the state of e‐Government maturity, which start from static information‐based websites at the lowest level to personalization of government services in the highest level( Layne and Lee 2001; Baum and Di Maio 2000; Hiller and Belanger 2001; United Nations 2003; Deloitte and Touche 2001). However, these models are viewing e‐Government evolution from adoption perspective and in a demand‐side setting. They are not suitable to classify e‐Government investment in the organization, which is in a supply‐side dimension. To the best of our knowledge, evolution model that reflects growth of e‐ Government based on IT investment has not been advanced in the literature. Thus, in order to formulate a model that is suitable to categorize all e‐Government initiatives, we have looked into some well‐known models in the field of IT management and e‐commerce as they are more focused on IT investment in organizations. Three of interests are those proposed by Lutchen( 2004), Weill and Broadbent( 1998) and Koh and Balthazard( 1998). These models are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Review of IT and e‐commerce models Model General description Categorization of Initiatives IT view
Lutchen( 2004)
Weill and Broadbent( 1998)
Koh and Balthazard( 1998)
IT Investment Model to classify IT investment in an organization.
Information Technology Portfolio Management( ITPM) model that provides a means to monitor and manage all IT investments in an organization.
Three‐Ring Model to organize array of features of e‐ commerce.
A pyramid of four layers IT investment: i) Infrastructure ii) Transactional iii) Informational iv) Strategic Four dimensions of IT portfolio: i) Infrastructure ii) Transactional iii) Informational iv) Strategic Three primary uses of Internet: i) Informational ii) Transactional iii) Operational
Supply
Supply
Demand
Lutchen( 2004) described infrastructure as technology investment to construct foundation IT capability and transactional as investment to process basic repetitive transactions of the company. The next layer, which is informational, is defined as investment to manage and control the organization at the business unit level. Lastly, the strategic level is depicted as technology investment to gain competitive advantage. This model is viewing applications from the supply perspective of information technology, which translates the business ' s needs and opportunities into categorizations of layers focused on delivering the services.
In Information Technology Portfolio Management( ITPM) model( Weill and Broadbent 1998), IT investments are presented as an IT portfolio with four dimensions. IT infrastructure is the foundation of the portfolio since it is the basis that provides IT services to the layers above it. The second layer is transactional IT which processes and automates the repetitive and basic transactions of enterprises( Dolci and Macada 2011). On the topmost level is the informational IT, which is sharing the layer with strategic IT dimension. Informational IT provides information for management and control of the company while strategic IT refers to investments that are made to position the company in the market. These two dimensions are supported by IT infrastructure and transactional process below it( Dolci and Macada 2011). Similarly to Lutchen’ s, this model also view information technology using the supply lens.
The Three‐Ring Model proposed by Koh and Balthazard( 1998) captures all Internet applications in three primary categories of usage:( 1) Informational uses,( 2) Transactional uses, and( 3) Operational uses. In informational use, Internet is used to distribute information to educate, entertain, influence or reach the consumer while transactional refers to the use of Internet to support a coordinated sequence of user and
258