Volume 18, Number 4 Article by Gyan Prakash December, 2006
Implementing and Managing E-Government: An International Text : By Richard Heeks, 2006, Vistaar Publications, New Delhi, pp 292, Price: Rs 450. :
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have tremendous potential to transform the ways in which governments manage and conduct their business. E-government is simply the use of ICT for public and development administration. However, it goes beyond office automation and information systems to include web-based delivery of information and services in a citizen-centric manner by interweaving technology, people and processes.
E-government aims to make public management more transparent, efficient, and democratic. It has enabled several governments to use technology to enhance access to and delivery of services to citizens, business partners and employees1. For this and other reasons, an increasing number of e-government projects are being implemented in developing and transitional economies. Governments are facing the pressure and challenge of enhancing their processes and products by means of ICT applications2. Behind the hi-tech glamour of these projects, though, the reality is that the majority of the projects are failures3. Despite immense potential, experiences with e-government initiatives are reported as chaotic and unmanageable4.
Two strands of literature are developing on e-government: the reports (on experiences of e-government) sponsored by donors, and the academic scholarship on e-government that is still in a nascent stage. This book by Richard Heeks on implementation and management of e-government fits into the second category. Heeks presents the e-government system as an information system consisting of information, technology, processes and people, which is embedded in the intra-organisational environment. External stakeholder concerns and macro-environmental factors impinge on the e-government infrastructure. Heeks approaches e-government information systems from a hybrid perspective. He adopts the middle path between the scientific rational and the socio-political approaches, or the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ approaches, as he likes to call them. On the second dimension, his approach is a hybrid of centralised and decentralised systems.
The book consists of two parts, namely, managing e-government and implementing e-government, organised in five and 12 chapters, respectively. Heeks begins by providing the foundation of an information systems based framework to understand e-government systems. Subsequently, he elaborates his framework by drawing on the international experiences of e-government. In Part One, he delves on the issues practitioners face in planning, operating and managing e-government. These include management of strategy and projects, data security, privacy, quality, managing resources, policies integral to e-government and dealing with political challenges. In Part Two, the focus is on implementation of e-government, in particular, specific actions required to introduce a new e-government system. Heeks explains the development of e-government systems by weaving his discussion around the phases of the system development life cycle. He explores a set of activities, such as feasibility study, system analysis, system design and construction, and implementation and post-implementation tasks such as marketing. He discusses formulation of strategy and data quality at length to provide a road map to the desired goal.
Heeks has woven together examples of various aspects of e-government from various parts of the world such as the US, Canada, and Australia. Those specifically looking for issues related to management and implementation of e-government in developing countries are likely to be disappointed. This is a serious lacuna in the book. While computerisation of e-government processes may not be new to the western world, the scale and scope of computerisation in government departments in developing countries such as India is only a recent phenomenon, and the use of the term ‘e-government’ is certainly new to these countries, and therefore, warrants attention. Heeks favours a hybrid approach to change: less radical, more incremental.
The context in which e-government implementation is occurring in developing countries is entirely different from that of the developed world. The public system in India is rigid, hierarchical, and bureaucratic. The use of ICT in the public system accelerates the pace of decisions, reduces paperwork and improves access to information by redesigning existing processes so as to streamline and integrate them. It is envisaged that it can lead to increased transparency and reduction of corruption. Thus, e-government can lead to improvement in efficiency and greater responsiveness on the part of the government, and increased democratisation for citizen-customers. This actually is the ‘rose tinted hype’ that Heeks talks about. In reality, implementation of e-government is fraught with several problems such as resistance to change due to perceived loss of control on information, technological obsolescence, and weak infrastructure such as power supply.
Looking at it from a governance perspective, the role of the state is changing from that of a doer to that of a facilitator. The state is withdrawing from its interventionist role and creating space for the private and voluntary sectors. In other words, hierarchies are collapsing to make way for a de-centred, pluralistic and networked society. Although there is a lot of debate on the role of the state and the shifts in power equations enabled by digital technologies, the question remains as to the directional approach governments should take in implementing e-government. Are the models adopted by the developed world replicable in developing countries like India? Is the top-down approach in implementing e-government or the bottom-up approach, enabling the participation of the citizen-customer, more appropriate? E-government initiatives are being developed and implemented in an environment of increasing technological possibilities and increasing stakeholder expectations, which tend to pull the e-government system in different directions. ICTs are changing our pattern of social, economic and political interactions. These are times of change, with many issues not yet fully understood, let alone resolved, making the outcomes difficult to predict.
The rapid proliferation of mobile technology and the surge in the use of cellular phones offer an immediate and low-cost alternative to the conventional computer-internet road to e-government. In India, several government departments have just embarked on the use of SMS (Short Message Service) in e-government. For instance, railway and flight booking can be availed of through SMS. SMS is ideal for receiving and sending small amounts of precise information. Heeks could have incorporated these issues in his discussion.
The modelling methodologies described in the book are of an elementary level. A discussion of methodologies such as object oriented analysis and design like the Unified Modelling Language (UML) or Agent Relationship Morphism Analysis (ARMA), with suitable illustrations for re-engineering of processes, would have provided the readers with deeper insights.
The simplified presentation of key points and summaries makes the text lucid and easily comprehensible. Each chapter is followed by numerous assignments and practitioner exercises, which would help in applying the framework to the situation at hand. This book would be useful for practitioners such as administrators who are involved in the development and implementation of e-government systems. It would also serve as a reference for students taking courses on information systems. The book is a useful contribution to the still-evolving literature on e-government. Though the text provides an exhaustive list of references, those with a deeper interest in the subject would find Janet Caldow’s Seven e-Government Leadership Milestones and the Harvard Policy Group’s The Eight Imperatives insightful.
References
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