e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

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The central government, however, lacks the tools to encourage and guide additional e-government development in areas where agencies need assistance. the public and promote services. In many cases, services are sufficient at this level of complexity. The realisation of more advanced services, where appropriate, will require improved crossagency collaboration for seamless services and the exchange of personal data. Although the share of advanced services in all electronic services provided by the central administration is quite low, Finland has early on put in place a system of national data registers: shared nationwide databases that have the potential to greatly improve government efficiency in areas of authorised use. Register-based data collection for statistical purpose has been used by Statistics Finland since the 1980s, for example, to take the national census without additional data collection. Some basic applications of the registers have demonstrated the potential of exploiting data sharing for more advanced and efficient services while preserving citizens’ trust in public institutions by protecting privacy. This system should be further exploited in order to develop additional services. Rather than focusing on the overall number of online services available, Finland has focused on service quality, relevance and access in its e-government programme. This reflects, in part, Finnish attention to meeting specific policy objectives through e-government such as decreasing the cost of data collection, improving service quality and increasing access to services, rather than simply attempting to put all services online, whether or not value is added. The Finnish experience also shows that the expectation to improve services to citizens can be met, not simply by providing more services, but also by doing away with some unnecessary services. There is no need to put census reporting online because the need to report has been eliminated. The Finnish approach of persuasion rather than obligation within the administration, combined with highly independent ministries and agencies has promoted agency ownership in established online services. On the other hand, considerable potential clearly remains for putting many more services online, in particular services involving transactions and data sharing. Agency independence, however, means that the central government currently lacks the tools to encourage and guide additional e-government development in areas where agencies need assistance. In Finland, businesses have more online presence, are more frequent users of government services and have greater financial incentives to use e-government. This report found that Finnish e-government services provided to business are more advanced than those provided to citizens. The business orientation of service delivery seems, however, to have helped to advance the development of eservices generally. Possibly indicative of a more general trend in OECD countries, government to business services (G2B) tend to be more customer-oriented than government to citizens services (G2C). 14
Finland’s commitment to openness and citizen’ participation in public affairs has also been a fundamental aspect of the national information society strategy. As a result Finland is at the forefront in the development of e-engagement. The high rate of connectivity between agency websites and government portals, including the citizen portal, indicates the popularity of portals in Finland. The impact of e-government is highest in the areas of service quality and government processes. In general, respondents [to the OECD survey] saw much less impact on the underlying culture or structure of the administration. E-Engagement E-Engagement is an important dimension of e-government, and Finland has integrated activities into its e-government programme aimed at improving online access to information and citizen consultation and participation in policy-making. Ensuring equal opportunities to access public information and easing the sharing and exchange of national public documents became priorities of the government’s information management strategy in the 1990s. Finland’s commitment to openness and citizen’ participation in public affairs has also been a fundamental aspect of the national information society strategy. As a result Finland is at the forefront in the development of e-engagement. More lessons could be drawn, however, from the many experiments in e-engagement by improving co-ordination and structured sharing of good practice. Portals National government Web portals were created in response to public demand for easy access to a complex set of services across government. A national portal, along with other thematic and regional portals, has been launched in Finland with a view to creating a seamless interface between government and citizens and businesses. According to the OECD survey, the high rate of connectivity between agency websites and government portals, including the citizen portal, indicates the popularity of portals (four-fifths of survey respondents are connected to some kind of portal). Portal development has paid attention to providing solutions to problems related to the quality and accuracy of information, service integration and ease of use. Back-office changes This report looks at five aspects of back-office changes that are related to e-government implementation: 1) promoting internal change, 2) providing leadership, 3) ensuring co-ordination, 4) managing public-private partnerships and 5) improving skills. The reform of the back office is rapidly becoming one of the main challenges to e-government implementation in OECD countries. In Finland, back office changes related to e-government have been slow to take place. A few agencies are only now beginning to rethink their back office structures and processes as part of the implementation of e-government. Respondents to the OECD survey reported that the impact of e-government is highest in the areas of service quality and government processes. In general, respondents saw much less impact on the underlying culture or structure of the administration 15
Page 1: OECD e-GOVERNMENT STUDIES e-GOVERNM
Page 4 and 5: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Secretariat wo
Page 6 and 7: 4.2.5 Managing multiple service cha
Page 8 and 9: This report provides a first compre
Page 10 and 11: Finland could reinforce citizen sup
Page 12 and 13: Technical issues have been recognis
Page 16 and 17: E-government has helped improve pla
Page 18 and 19: OVERALL ASSESSMENT The first phase
Page 20 and 21: 6. The constitutional independence
Page 22 and 23: 6. As the first OECD report of its
Page 24 and 25: Box 1.1. E-government co-ordination
Page 26 and 27: x The central administration does n
Page 28 and 29: 2 THE CASE FOR E-GOVERNMENT 25. The
Page 30 and 31: Key Points - 4 x Public administrat
Page 32 and 33: 40. As a result of these earlier go
Page 34 and 35: is illustrative. An online transact
Page 36 and 37: Health care 50 29 21 Unemployment 8
Page 38 and 39: 3 BARRIERS TO E-GOVERNMENT 61. E-go
Page 40 and 41: action unclear. In interviews, IT o
Page 42 and 43: 80. As noted in Chapter 2, the Stat
Page 44 and 45: equired to provide e-government str
Page 46 and 47: most important way to fund e-govern
Page 48 and 49: obtain (38%), followed by funds for
Page 50 and 51: Figure 3.4. E-government technologi
Page 52 and 53: 113. Not surprisingly, the OECD sur
Page 54 and 55: 3.3.2 Types of barriers 119. Respon
Page 56 and 57: x Technology neutrality in legislat
Page 58 and 59: “backbone” of the government ne
Page 60 and 61: egional authorities is decisive, ev
Page 62 and 63: Box 3.5. The development of mobile
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x Improving the public administrati
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political leaders to impress upon t
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showed that top management commitme
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levels of government. In particular
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home and school, every business and
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E-government Imperative (2003) list
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Key Points - 31 x The proportion of
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Key Points - 32 x Basic online info
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Key Points - 33 x Interactive infor
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of using more efficient electronic
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Key Points - 35 x The proportion of
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233. The Finnish Vehicle Administra
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citizens’ access to information i
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4.3.2 E-engagement at the ministry
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Key Points - 38 x E-engagement init
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255. At the end of 2002, the curren
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Themes portal (e.g. environmental,
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partnerships”). The most signific
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job satisfaction enquiry and models
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Key Points - 42 x Structural impact
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Key Points - 43 x Change management
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Figure 4.17. E-government leadershi
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297. Interviews with ministries and
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x Horizontal co-ordination: lack of
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Figure 4.22. Government-wide leader
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catalyst as well as formal or infor
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operation of the Ministry of Social
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development of Internet service del
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Box 4.7. Adapting E-Procurement for
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strategies but also the ability to
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361. Moreover, the lack of opportun
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372. The OECD report on the Finnish
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x E-government plans are important
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5 NEXT STEPS 385. In May 2003, the
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completely new architecture for gat
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399. Brokers receive revenue from t
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409. In 1998, the government agreed
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Figure 6.3. Finnish electronic citi
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430. For both municipalities and KE
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6.3 Case study 3: The citizen porta
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tourism, immigration and emigration
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Key Points - 60 x The citizen citiz
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7.2 Appendix 2: Reports, strategies
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x Public Management in Finland (200
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ought together government, civil so
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freedom of choice and availability,
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499. The Ministry of the Interior c
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decision requires it to provide net
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522. Contrary to former reports by
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x By comparison, the term Web site
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7.4.2 List of acronyms AFLRA: The A
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7.5 Appendix 5: Methodology 7.5.1 D
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2. Responses are not included in ov
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8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ACCENTURE (2001),
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JUSSILAINEN, M. (2003), “Knowledg
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OECD (1992), “ICCP Reviews of Inf
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“GOVERNMENT RESOLUTION ON HIGH-QU
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VISTI, S. (1998), “Electronic Ide
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