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Chapter 1. Service
- University of Ottawa Press
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Chapter 1 Service The rapid expansion of Internet access and online connectivity in the 1990s gave birth to the e-government movement as the public sector sought ways to capitalize on the vaunted potential of a new, more pervasive and interactive digital infrastructure. With e-commerce as a model, online service delivery became the hallmark of e-government as efficiency, responsiveness, and simplicity became the guiding principles of public sector action. These principles have since underscored the need for 'enterprise-wide perspectives' in order to align technology, share information, and coordinate organizational action in order to realize the sorts of integrated outcomes being promised by 'one-stop'portals and political rhetoricalike. Although much progress has been made, the considerable amount of risk and complexity involved in creating a new set of governance mechanisms that nonetheless coexist with traditional structures and channels has resulted in a more modest gravitation of public services online than initially conceived. In dissecting this complexity and the main challenges that have arisen, this chapter unfolds asfollows. Section 1.1 provides a brief introduction to the emergence of e-commerce and e-government in terms of their present scope. Section 1.2 describes the citizen-centric governance mentality at the heart of online and multichannel service delivery strategies. Section 1.3 then examines the term 'federated architecture' as a shifting balancing act between decentralized autonomy on the one hand and central coordination and government-wide capacities on the other. Section 1.4 outlines the major relational scenarios involving new partnerships, both externally with industry and internally via shared servicesentities within the public sector.And, finally, section 1.5 concludes the chapter with a summary of the key issues and some lessons learned. 1.1 Introduction Remarkably new by any historical measure, the rapid emergenceof the Internet as a mainstream tool in all sectors has altered the mindsets 6 E-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA and strategies of all organizations thinking about delivering products or services in this new environment. With respect to e-commerce, expansion in the private sector islinked to an online population that has now surpassed half abillion people worldwide. Yet,despite progress in most regions of the world, this group remains relativelyconcentrated in the developed world, within the most advanced economies ofAsia, Europe, and North America (Geiselhart 2004). This concentration stems, in part, from the catalytic role played by the private sector. Across most industries, the Internet has served three main purposes in shaping market behaviour and organizational dynamics: a source of product and process innovation, an efficiency tool, and an alternative channel of client service.The widening scope of digital technologies means that few, if any, industries are exempt from some degree of transformation (Andal-Ancion et al. 2003) and electronic commerce levels, though a modest proportion of overall economic activity continues to grow in a manner that would have been unthinkable only a decade ago. In terms of the Canadian online marketplace, for example, consumers spent more than $3 billion shopping over the Internet in 2003—a twenty-five percent increase in spending from 2002 levels that comprises the collective purchases made by more than 3 million Canadian households.1 South of the border, retail sales online are expected to reach nearly $120 billion by 2008, according to Jupiter Research. Beyond these direct lines of sale, organizations and industries are deploying new technologies to restructure their corporate boundaries and extended networks ofoutsourcing partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders. An April2005cover of Business Week in the United States claimed that "IBMwants to run your business/7 a portrayal of the efforts of this bellwether company to reinvent itself yet again for a more flexible, digital, and virtual age.2 For governments, such Internet-induced trends are relevant. Much of e-government reflects private sector activity that has both encouraged and pressured public sector organizations to actin a similar manner. Fiscal constraints imposed by a quasi-competitive systemof global investors and domestic politics, as well as a strategic desire to generate cost savings and reallocate spending to new and politically attractive priorities, make the nexus between technologymanagement and efficiency a central concern in government today (Mclver and [23.20.220.59] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 06:33 GMT) SERVICE Elmagarmid 2002;Pavlichev and Garson 2004). Thus, both corporations and governments share many common challenges, both in deploying new technologies and adapting to emerging online realities (Cairncross 2002; Gasco 2003). At the same time, a careful examination of government reveals important differences across the private and public...