Challenges to e‐Government Applications: A Delphi Study
Shawren Singh University of South Africa, Florida, South Africa singhs @ unisa. ac. za
Abstract: A three‐round electronic Delphi survey addressing 20 issues, completed by 41 e‐Government panel members was conducted to establish the relative importance of issues or factors affecting the use of this technology. The outcome measures were the relative importance and the level of agreement of the panel members on the e‐Government enablers( presented as statements) to the success of e‐Government applications. All the issues presented in this study were regarded as being relatively important by the participants. In addition open‐ended comments were collected from the participants. Having establishing importance, the issues were thematically classified. The classification in order of rank importance is: system obstacles to success; relationships between key actors; drivers for change; gaps in understanding; and managing stakeholders. The high level of agreement among the expert panel members indicates particular themes and priorities that need to be addressed in understanding the challenges faced in the implementation of e‐Government applications.
Keywords: e‐Government, Delphi survey, consensus
1. Introduction
This research paper reports on a project, the objective of which was to establish the importance of the challenges that affect e‐Government applications. This is important because there appears to be a relatively low rate of successful use of computer applications in the support of government services to the public. The objective of e‐Government is to improve service delivery to the citizen and in so doing improve the efficiency of the government’ s activities concerned. The application of Information and Communications Technology( ICT) facilitated by the Internet and web technology is the primary tool to enable the objectives of e‐ Government. Attention has been given to e‐Government since the 1990s when it was realised that the Internet and web technology was being used to transform business processes and practices.
ICT has become essential, not only to how business and government are conducted but also to how life is led in the developed and to some extent in the developing world. The worldwide ICT investment is estimated at $ 3.8 trillion for 2013( Rivera & Goasduff, 2013), with e‐Government being one of the rapidly growing sectors of ICT. Yet there is a high incidence of ICT implementation not resulting in success with some sources claiming that more than 70 % of ICT systems do not deliver within the timeframe required or within the budgetary constraints( Al‐Ahmad et al., 2009; Robertson, 2008). There is also the problem that some ICT investments do not lead to the functionality and thus improvement of processes which was sought by the sponsor. Some ICT applications lead to serendipitous results but in general there is far more wastage of resources in projects than unexpected benefits.
2. Contextual background
Through the ubiquitous use of ICT it appears that the appropriate application of e‐Government technologies have become a key component to the realisation of government objectives( Ramon, 2012). It has also been recognised that e‐Government applications can play a role not only in waste reduction but also in improving the interface between citizens and making the task of citizens contact with government less daunting. Through another lens e‐Government applications can be seen as a mechanism to reduce the inevitable waste resulting from the traditional silos mindset common in government( De Brí & Bannister, 2010; Uusikylä, 2013). Some researchers argue that this technology may even forge processes of governing that is to a greater extent actively democratic. In this section we discuss some challenges to e‐Government applications.
2.1 System obstacles to success
There have been several successful e‐Government initiatives. For example, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland have been ranked as the top three countries in the United Nations e‐Government development index( United Nations, 2012). Sarantis, Askounis, and Smithson( 2009) argue that some of the project management approaches that are proposed for e‐Government project implementation are more suited to the management of the overall development of information systems, rather than being directly targeted to a specific e‐Government need. The resulting effect of this is a poor
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