Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

Conclusion
Transforming service, transforming governments
Governments have begun to realize that the time for
quick wins and dramatic progress in eGovernment has
passed. However, the plateaus some countries have
reached need not signal the limit of eGovernment’s
potential. There are significant savings to be reaped
from eGovernment, and most governments are just
beginning to realize this. Governments should concentrate
on promoting take-up and communicating
the benefits to all in order to attain these significant
savings. It is now time for governments to focus on
driving high performance through their online programs,
so that they can get better outcomes in a
more cost-effective manner.
Governments around the world are at a crossroads—
each one faces challenges based on its current state
of eGovernment maturity and must set its future priorities
accordingly (see Figure 19). For some, that
means thinking differently. More resources and effort
expended in the same ways yield neither the advances
they once did nor the savings that are possible.
Countries with low eGovernment maturity should
identify and focus development on high-value
services. Then, they should promote these services
more aggressively to drive greater take-up and
greater savings realization. Countries in the midrange
of maturity should ensure eGovernment
targets are balanced between outcomes and costeffectiveness.
They also should break down barriers
between departments and agencies, to enable a single
point of contact for citizen and business information
and transactions. High-maturity countries should
adopt a whole-of-government approach, building
on strong governance and cross-agency collaboration.
Their aim should be to establish seamless
integration across all levels of government.
Governments at the highest level of maturity face
perhaps the biggest leap in making future gains. In
fact, they may even be unable to define clearly what
awaits them at the next level of eGovernment. True
eGovernment leaders sense that it is service transformation,
that there is a far greater potential in
eGovernment than simply replicating the physical
world online. They are unsure, however, what transformed
service will look like, and what transforming
it will entail.
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