At a time when uncertainty abounds in the technology world, public sector executives need to be extra vigilant with their e-government plans, according to a recent report from Deloitte Research.
Barbara Kieley, principal with Deloitte Consulting’s public sector practice in Ottawa, says many governments have already met the challenge of using the Internet to get closer to their citizens. The next hurdle governments face is deciding how to create a strategy that maximizes user value and operational effectiveness, Kieley says.
According to Deloitte, such a strategy is based on a more realistic view of how staffing, business processes, technology and organizational structure must change to meet the demands of multi-channel service delivery.
“In a perfect world, everyone could use the Internet and it would always be the lowest cost delivery channel. That’s not realistic, so governments need to give customers multiple service options, and that means a lot of carefully planned changes to the enterprise,” says Kieley.
The report also provides a framework for building the new government enterprise while accounting for the common pitfalls of electronic service delivery. Deloitte says the report will help governments to focus on the “digital loyalty” of their citizens, understand the dynamics of costs involved in multi-channel service delivery, differentiate customer needs to build value-added services and implement a customer-centric enterprise. To obtain a copy of the report, visit www.dc.com/research.
