Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

Driving value through eGovernment
Improving the delivery
of statutory purpose
There are already many examples of eGovernment
being used to help agencies improve the efficiency
with which they deliver their statutory obligations.
For example, many, if not most, taxation authorities
are now adopting electronic filing for tax returns.
Because electronic filing enables information to
be checked and confirmed directly with the taxpayer,
it is improving levels of compliance while
also decreasing the cost of compliance-checking
for the agency. In Canada, for example, approximately
43 percent of personal income tax returns
are now handled electronically. This has enabled the
redeployment of more than 1,350 staff previously
engaged in processing and verifying paper returns.
The greatest additional value from eGovernment,
however, increasingly will come from helping government
agencies deliver their statutory obligations
in new and innovative ways. For example, Australia’s
job-search application not only helps job seekers
complete and file resumes online, but it also offers
automated job-matching facilities to help match
jobs with job seekers based on their skills and interests.
Canada offers a similar job-search capability
that also incorporates an online resume-builder
assistance tool. In these cases, Internet-based technologies
are helping government agencies change
and improve the way they perform their functions,
rather than just automate what they already do.
These new e-enabled business models have the
following characteristics:
• They are personalized to the individual citizen
and exploit the fact that they can deal with an
individual directly.
• They integrate services both horizontally (across
parts of an agency or multiple agencies) and
vertically (across local and central government
agencies). They may even enable radical reshaping
of the scope and functions of some parts of
government.
• They exploit electronic capabilities to offer highly
tailored services that can match particular
requirements.
• They have more inherent flexibility than current
models. For example, they provide 24 hours a day,
7 days per week availability.
Meeting stakeholder
expectations through
service improvement
Service delivery in the private sector increasingly
sets the expectations of both citizens and businesses
as to what the public sector should also be able to
achieve. The increasing prevalence of delivery
approaches that exploit the Internet, mobile telephony
and other electronic mechanisms provides
government with the means to meet these rising
expectations, but also continues to raise the level
of expectations. For example, at the simplest level
citizens now expect routine government information
to be available online. Increasingly, they also expect
routine transactions to be available online and to
be of a consistent quality. If government does not
meet these expectations it will not only not be
adding public-sector value, but it will be actively
destroying it, as government services are perceived
to fall behind now generally accepted standards.
The General Register Office in Ireland
(www.groireland.ie) provides an excellent example
of how integrating services can add value for citizens
and government alike. The Office recently
implemented the Civil Registration Modernization
Program, which aims to streamline the civil registration
process, covering all life events, such as births,
deaths and marriages. In the first application to use
the Inter-Agency Messaging Service, registration of
a birth triggers assignment of the personal public
service number and also triggers a child benefit
application. In the case of child benefits, where it is
a first birth, a prefilled form is proactively sent to
the parents, who only need to fill in bank account
details where the allowance should be paid. For any
subsequent children, these details are used and the
parent does not have to make any application for
the benefit; it is automatic and transparent. From
the government’s perspective, registration of a birth
with the civil registration service automatically triggers
notification to other relevant departments.
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