Comparative Study of Public e-Service Centres in - ePractice.eu

PUBLIC E-SERVICE CENTRES IN EUROPE
services all over the country.
7. Social contribution Beyond the ‘standard e-inclusion activities’ this also entails
promoting safer Internet use and child protection by organizing awareness raising
campaigns..
E. Financial
Project Telecentres started as a joint initiative of the Bulgarian Government and the United
Nations Development Program. It was initiated in December 2003 and received government
funding of one million USD. Since the beginning of 2004, the T-centres Project has received
additional funding of 4,2 mln. USD. In addition, the budgets of other projects implemented
within the iCentres network, such as I-government (training of the State Administration) and
MSUP (localization of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential learning curriculum), are 1 592 200
USD and 98,000 USD respectively. Moreover, the Project T-centres has received donations
and payments of approximately 180,000 USD for conducting a variety of training courses to
different marginalized groups on local level.
The T-centres Project has also attracted other investments such as approximately 300,000
USD from the Korean Agency for Digital Opportunity for the establishment of a demonstration
telecentre in Sofia. Almost all companies and vendors involved in the Project have provided
their low-cost offers and discounts such as 800,000 USD discounts from Microsoft licenses.
F. Recipes for success
1. Most countries have a project that does similar work to iCentres, even if on a smaller
scale. It makes sense to create a network and exchange practices. We already do
this in the Microsoft Unlimited Potential programme. Simonski adds, “last year we had
an initial workshop for this network in Barcelona to start disseminating our
experiences and knowledge. I am now chairing a committee to formulate the strategic
and pragmatic goals of this network. In April 2008 we will initiate a more formal
organisation in Riga.” The Unlimited Potential programme of Microsoft supports the
initiative. They don’t have a formal position in the network and it is open to nonmembers
of their programme.
2. Start validating results of the various initiatives in different areas and countries. Nice
things often happen in the periphery. There is a need for a standardised framework.
3. Organisations such as ours always need to keep a sensitive balance between
process and project…when you become a traditional structurally subsidised
organisation, your ability to innovate and to be dynamic is reduced…
4. Start writing a business plan: “Writing a business plan forces you into disciplined
thinking if you do an intellectually honest job. An idea may sound great in your mind,
but when you put down the details and numbers, it may fall apart..(Eugene Kleiner,
Venture capitalist)”
G. Policy & Strategy
We are looking for the right balance between social and business: between public and
commercial services. How do you value the social component if you operate in the market
place but are also have public service obligations? Social return on investment is a relatively
new phenomenon. Wikipedia defines it as: A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes
a social problem and uses traditional entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and
manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically
measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs also measure social returns.
“We want to be a sustainable eco-system”, Simonski states, “but we still depend on funds.
This is not a bad thing, but in the coming years we have to grown to maturity. The nation wide
coverage will help us. See our civil servants training example. No one else can do that. This
also means we have to transform our project and team driven organisation to a complete
process driven organisation. Financial stability is necessary to accomplish this next step and
create a stable organisation. We need to carefully plan this strategy with all our public and
private partners, because it is difficult to foresee what will happen in the coming years. It won’t
be the same. The need for e-access and e-skills will diminish. People have their infrastructure
at home or in their pocket. So our power is in our network (human and infrastructure). Let's
wait and see.”
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