Joined-up e-Government: an exploratory study of UK local government progress

Abstract

The introduction of e-commerce activity into an industry’s value chain has
the potential to radically transform it. Some participants may become redundant
as others use the Internet to sell their products; new digital intermediaries may
enter the supply chain to compete with traditional participants. In the UK public
sector, the government is driving forward an agenda for modernisation in its e-
Government programme. The target has been set for complete availability of
electronic service delivery by 2005. Government policy has been to steer local
government away from direct service delivery, encouraging an ‘enabling’ role,
where they are made responsible for commissioning and monitoring service
provision by other partners. The intention of the e-Government programme is
for councils to become more customer-focussed in their approach, joining up
services in ways that better meet customer needs. This joined-up working may
horizontally integrate functional areas across the council or vertically join services
across multiple tiers of government. This paper presents the results of an
exploratory study of the phenomenon of joined-up e-Government. The outcomes
of two phases of research are presented. The first phase investigates the extent
to which council websites are becoming digital intermediaries in the supply of
joined-up e-Government services. This explores joined-up working from the
customer’s perspective, using a ‘life episode’ transaction. The second phase
evaluates the challenges of joined-up e-Government from the council perspective.
Based on qualitative survey work with a sample of council e-champions, it
concludes that joined-up e-Government is still more of an aspiration than
actuality.
Keywords: e-government, local government, joined-up government, hybrid
managers