User:Halazyod/sandbox

Definitions of e-government range from “the use of information technology to free movement of information to overcome the physical bounds of traditional paper and physical based systems” to “the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees.”  The common theme behind these definitions is that e-government involves the automation or computerization of existing paper-based procedures that will prompt new styles of leadership, new ways of debating and deciding strategies, new ways of transacting business, new ways of listening to citizens and communities, and new ways of organizing and delivering information. Ultimately, e-government aims to enhance access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens. More important, it aims to help strengthen government’s drive toward effective governance and increased transparency to better manage a country’s social and economic resources for development.

The key to e-government is the establishment of a long-term, organization-wide strategy to constantly improve operations with the end in view of fulfilling citizen needs by transforming internal operations such as staffing, technology, processes and work flow management. Thus, e-government should result in the efficient and swift delivery of goods and services to citizens, businesses, government employees and agencies. To citizens and businesses, e-government would mean the simplification of procedures and streamlining of the approval process. To government employees and agencies, it would mean the facilitation of cross-agency coordination and collaboration to ensure appropriate and timely decision-making. E-Government services focus on four main customers: citizens, the business community, government employees, and government agencies. E-Government aims to make interaction with citizens, businesses, government employees, government agencies and other governments more convenient, friendly, transparent, inexpensive and effective. In an e-government system, individuals are able to initiate a request for a particular government service and then receive that government service through the Internet or some computerized mechanism.

THE ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT