Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

As a whole, Australia is demonstrating a strong drive
to provide value through its eGovernment program.
The emphasis of its Better Services, Better Government
vision is on agencies establishing “business cases for
investments in changes to their operational and
business processes enabled by information and communications
technology and the online environment.”
This ensures the value proposition for change is
realized in implementation.
A number of innovations have emerged in response.
For example, the Australian Tax Office designed the
Tax Agent Portal in response to a strong desire from
the accounting, business and finance sectors to be
able to access an online self-service library of tax
office products, services, tools and information
concerning the tax system. The Tax Agent Portal currently
has nearly 16,600 registrants, who conduct
more than 20,000 log-ins and generate more than
745,000 page hits per week.
Much of the drive toward value comes as a result of
the E-government Benefits Study published in April
2003 (www.noie.gov.au/projects/egovernment/
Better_Government/egovt_benefits_study.htm). The
study was a survey of citizens, businesses and federal
departments and agencies commissioned by the
National Office for the Information Economy. It
looked at the demand for eGovernment, measured
the benefits of eGovernment and determined the
return on investment for government.
Australia has a very high Internet penetration rate,
at 77 percent of the population. Additionally, our
own citizen survey showed it to be among the
top three countries in which regular Internet users
have actually used a government website. Yet, use is
primarily confined to looking for published information.
Australia has a mature online government
program, with many rich and mature transactional
services, but it may be that its federated approach
has led to suboptimal use. In fact, one of the key
criticisms in the E-government Benefits Study was
that government agencies and departments need to
lose their silo mentality and provide outcomefocused
services that transcend agency boundaries.
Our own research showed that the top reason
Australians did not use the Internet more frequently
for government services was because it was difficult
to find the correct website. Currently, 19 portals
comprise the government’s customer-focused portals
framework. There are two whole-of-government
online entry points, www.australia.gov and
www.fed.gov.au. Perhaps in response to the criticism
and to the low take-up of its services, one of the
proposed enhancements to Australia’s eGovernment
program is merging the two entry sites.
Other barriers to effective transactional/interactive
use of government websites by citizens are the lack
of a common identifier, limiting integration across
agencies, and the perceived inconvenience of the
security approach (that is, digital certificates).
Individuals typically conduct infrequent, lower-risk
transactions that do not necessarily warrant a full
digital certificate-based approach (until that approach
is more effectively supported by commercial products).
While there is a challenge for Australia to enable
transactions that traverse state and federal boundaries,
perhaps a greater challenge is the removal of
boundaries within solutions. Australia must turn
more attention toward integrating the technologies
with the operational process and business reform
needed to truly drive value, both to government and
to citizens, from having an electronic presence.
Another key outcome of the E-government Benefits
Study was the development of demand and value
assessment methodologies. These provide a consistent
framework for measuring the social and financial
benefit/cost ratio and strategic alignment for existing
and proposed government online programs. The
framework will allow business managers to assess
the intrinsic worth of government online programs
provided as components of their overall servicedelivery
strategies.
Australia has a strong eGovernment history and a
current focus on deriving value from its online
investments. However, it also has a population that
is not taking advantage of the offerings already in
existence. The devolution of responsibility, while
leading to greater eGovernment agility, has also
led to confusion for the user. The government now
has the challenge of building interoperability across
these fragmented services to provide a meaningful
experience for its customers. The stakes are high—
Australia’s Internet-savvy population holds
tremendous potential for greater take-up—and
hence, for the government to deliver an overall
program of better service more cost-effectively.
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