e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

x 30% of respondents with a plan provide electronic services that allow for transactions (stage
3 services) with citizens, compared to 14% for those that do not.
x 35% of the respondents with a plan provide electronic services that allow for transactions
with businesses, compared to 10% for those that do not.
x 5% of respondents with a plan provide data sharing (stage 4 services) to citizens and 5% to
businesses. None of the organisations without a plan provides electronic services that allow
for data sharing.
168. These survey results indicate that an e-government plan influences the degree and level of
complexity of electronic services. As the survey only looked at whether or not an agency had a plan,
however, it did not measure quality of plans, how well the plans were integrated into overall operations or
the link between these variables and the number and complexity of services.
169. In and of itself, the existence of a plan is not sufficient. Interviews with another small agency
suggested that there was a split between the administrative unit that developed the e-government plan and
the operational unit that implemented e-government initiatives. The strategic plan, which included a vision
statement and “wish list”, was not linked to resource allocation and so did not seem to be a very effective
planning document. Moreover, there was not a great deal of ownership of the plan.
170. Without buy-in at all levels of an organisation, from agency heads to operational IT officials,
agency and ministry strategic plans will have little impact on the commitment to developing e-government,
on what types of service and engagement are developed and how results are achieved.
Key Points - 28
x Among Finnish ministries and agencies, the existence of an e-government plan is
correlated with whether an organisation is providing electronic services and how advanced
those services are.
4.1.3 E-government goals and targets
171. The e-government planning process within the central government helps to establish and diffuse
the e-government vision and to translate it into concrete goals and actions. As the OECD’s E-government
Imperative (2003) indicates, e-government goals are distinguishable from the more general vision in that
they translate the broad values contained in the vision into more concrete objectives, usually with a
stronger operational basis, reflecting actual programmes, procedures or outputs. Goals can either indicate a
general principle or desired programme direction (i.e. “serve more citizens”) or a more specific target
(i.e. “serve all eligible citizens by 2005”). Goals can be set at the national, ministry, agency, or project
level, taking into account the specificity of each sector or organisation.
172. Since the mid-1990s, Finland has issued several documents containing e-government-related
goals. These range from very broad objectives in the Finnish information society strategies and
government programmes to very specific objectives in e-government decisions and acts. The main egovernment
objectives expressed in the information society strategies and government programmes from
1995 to 2001 focus on improving the quality of public services and strengthening customer orientation in
the public administration. To achieve this, they suggest improving information management and ICT
infrastructure. Other major goals include improving enablers of e-government and co-ordination across
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