Kamalia Azma Kamaruddin, Ariza Nordin and Nor Laila Md Noor
system activities that will result in transfer of values( Koh and Prybutok 2003). Finally, organization that uses Internet to conduct business operations falls in the category of operational uses. As the applications of Internet are viewed from users’ perspective, the Three‐Ring Model is using the IT demand lens in categorizing its constructs.
In doing comparison analysis, when we try to map Lutchen’ s model to the local context, it does not have sufficient layers to represent e‐Government initiatives completely thus it will need to be extended in order to suit our needs. For the other models, although Weill’ s shares some similarities with Lutchen’ s in terms of the representation of levels and perspective used, it differs in the arrangement of layers. Most e‐Government applications under scrutiny are segregated explicitly where different types of application are designed for different types of user, which also means each layer has different accessibility privileges. Thus, if we were to adapt Weill’ s model to trace e‐Government growth, it will not be suitable because this model has two dimensions sharing a common layer. We also found that Koh and Balthazard’ s model do not have the right view for us to extend to a supply‐side model. It is also not comprehensive to trace all e‐Government initiatives since it is lacking the foundation of IT capabilities construct. Due to that reasons, we have chosen Lutchen’ s model as the basis of our representation and adapted it to address the mentioned limitations and to suit the local context.
3. E‐Government evolution model in supply perspective
Figure 2 shows our E‐Government Evolution Model in Supply Perspective which has ben adapted from Lutchen’ s IT Investment Model. It consists of five evolutionary phases, which are Infrastructure, Infostructure, Transactional, Informational and Strategic. As with other multi‐layer pyramid models that transcends from bottom up, our model propose that a lower layer must be implemented first before advancing to the next upper layer. This is to ensure a strong foundation of generic capabilities before expanding to other specialized initiatives.
Figure 2: E‐Government evolution model in supply perspective( Adapted from Lutchen 2004)
3.1 Infrastructure
Our interpretation of investment evolution in e‐Government starts with‘ Infrastructure’ layer, which is the lowest level in the pyramid. Based from Information Technology Infrastructure Library, definition of infrastructure refers to all the hardware, software, networks and facilities that are required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control and support IT services. In other words, it is the foundation of IT capability used in common across an organization. In supply‐side dimension, infrastructure is focused on areas like technology, tools and staff to ensure the IT services are delivered( Damoulakis 2008). E‐Government implementation framework needs to be supported by strong infrastructure, which includes specific standards for networking, information security, e‐payment, e‐signature as well as public key infrastructure system( Darwish 2008). Infrastructure initiatives create standardization, integration and flexibility of the organization. It also reduced IT cost over time.
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