Multi-channel provisioning of public services - Department of ...

SERVICE DELIVERY IN
TRANSFORMATIONAL GOVERNMENT:
MODEL AND SCENARIOS
Abstract
Gustav Aagesen and John Krogstie
By formalising the processes related to government service provisioning, it is possible to identify best
practice, rooms for improvement and potential for added service value. Work supported by ICT has
the potential of increased efficiency and control, but there is also danger of locking down to a suboptimal
service delivery with low flexibility. Through experimental methods and supported by case
studies, we have established a model to aid the conceptual understanding of the dynamics of modern
government service delivery. In light of this model, scenarios for service-centric and citizen-centric
delivery of government services are presented. The paper describes areas crucial to government
service delivery and its supporting tools, methods and infrastructure for process work in the
transformational government scenario.
Keywords: e-government; transformational government, service delivery, process modelling,
requirements, infrastructure, model, scenario, citizen-centric, inter-organisational collaboration.
1 INTRODUCTION
E-government is about the continuous optimisation of public administration and service delivery. It is
mainly motivated through the use information and communication technology, facilitating the
reorganisation and development of new services and with the potential of reorganising the service
administration as well. Even though ICT-driven government modernisation has been going on for
decades (Yildiz, 2007), the first wave of e-government initiatives has come as a reaction to e-mail, the
World Wide Web and the Internet reaching critical mass and opening for new service channels. Most
e-government system implementations until now have been about the digital representation of prior
existing workflows and providing service information online. The early models describing the
maturity of e-government (Mofleh et al., 2009) have so far been aligned to the reality they describe.
However, e-government has basically moved public administration from one representation of a solid
state to another; the old routines and file cabinets have been electrified and computerised.
It is suggested that e-government perhaps overpromises solutions to many public sector problems
(Heeks, 2006). Transformational government (Janssen and Shu, 2008) is in many ways credited the
solution to all problems not yet solved by current e-government initiatives. But the truth is that even
though the outcomes of transformational government are known, the concept is not very well
investigated, and so far, it is easy to add solutions to issues such as wicked problems into black boxes
or to disregard them as a whole. Within transformational government lays the promise of an effective
platform and administration of systems in constant change, supporting a modern government. As put
by The Norwegian Ministry of Government Administration and Reform (FAD, 2009):
Public administration must adapt to a highly changing society while adhering to set fundamental
values. Adaptation must be consistent with the Nordic traditions of three-party cooperation,
codetermination and participatory inclusion of the employees.
To support this adaptation from a technological point of view, the necessary infrastructure is required.
It is, however, not currently apparent what this necessary infrastructure, Cyber Infrastructure
(Wimmer et al., 2008), or Next Generation of Digital Government Infrastructure (NGI) (Janssen et al.,
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