3.2 Infostructure
Kamalia Azma Kamaruddin, Ariza Nordin and Nor Laila Md Noor
Moving upwards from Infrastructure is the second layer called‘ Infostructure’ or information infrastructure. It is the base for all information incorporating and information related service that acts as enabling function for turning information into a managed assets. It also enables information sharing and allows interoperability( Mohd Zahri 2010). Earlier, Fielding( 1994) has defined it as an information resource database with a specifically design structure. However, over the years, infostructure has evolved to cover more than just database but a platform that provide integrated support mechanism in the form of regulatory, documentational, metadata and data for information related activities. As an example, Egypt has link several of its national databases to provide the creation of family database, the linkage of National ID to the education database to track school dropouts, the real‐estate registration and the unified commercial registry( Darwish 2008). Infostructure provide a clear and consistent navigation structure of information with consistent meaning and availability where and when it is needed.
3.3 Transactional
Thirdly is the‘ Transactional’ layer, where applications that‘ process basic repetitive transactions’( Lutchen 2004) in the organization, fall within this classification. The objectives of applications in this layer are to reduce cost and increase throughput of the transactions thus improve organizational wide return on investment( ROI). E‐Government applications that enable public to transact more easily with the government and enable supplier to sell goods to the government through the Internet such as online payment and online procurement( Koh and Prybutok 2003) are categorized here. Transactional layer also allow citizens and businesses to perform self‐services transaction such as licenses applications, tax filing and information updates.
3.4 Informational
On top of transactional is the‘ Informational’ layer. In this level, all applications for managing and controlling the organization at the departmental level( Lutchen 2004) are grouped together. The purpose of these applications is to give better information to the middle‐level decision makers, better integration of data, increased control of the department, thus give improved quality of services. The types of applications in this category are Management Information Systems, Decision Support Systems and Executive Information Systems. Most of e‐Government informational systems in Malaysia, are government‐to‐government( G2G) applications which intended to improve the operations of government agencies with better analytical, management and decision support tools( MAMPU 2009).
3.5 Strategic
The top most level is the‘ Strategic’ layer where applications categorized here gives advantages to position the organization as a pioneer in the field, added competitive necessity and provide innovative services( Weill and Broadbent 1998) to the citizens. For example, by implementing initiatives such as interactive participation in the decision making process, it puts the organization as having good e‐governance for its e‐Government implementation.‘ Best practices’ in public sector can be the result of services implemented in this layer.
According to Ambali( 2011), there are three levels of initiative forces that call for application of e‐Government to G2G dimension. First, is the growing emphasis on paperwork reduction as well as to make information management activities easier( Ambali 2011), this activity can be associated to the function of transactional layer of the above pyramid. Second, is the interest to oversight an improved efficiency, cost savings and improving consistency of outputs( Trattner 2000). These intentions can be correlated to the purpose of informational layer of e‐Government investment model mentioned above. Third, is an attempt to apply‘ best practices’ in public sector( Sprehe 2001), which is the result of the strategic layer in the above model. These motives justify that the upper layers of this model is suitable to be adopted in e‐Government context.
4. Case study – Malaysia’ s e‐Government
In keeping with worldwide trends, Malaysia has leap into the Information Age by announcing its e‐ Government initiative as one of the flagships for the Multimedia Super Corridor project. With a vision“ to transform administrative process and service delivery through the use of IT and multimedia”, e‐Government projects were rolled out to 28 Federal Ministries, 219 Federal Departments, 346 State Statutory Bodies and 142 Local Government Authorities phase by phase( Mohd Zahri 2009). After 16 years since the launching of
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