E-GOV PORTAL
"The New Zealand government portal is a website providing search capability for, and links into the online and offline information and services of most government agencies. The government portal:
• s provides a single Internet address through which you can search for online and offline government information and services without having to look through a number of government agency web sites;• s provides a complementary alternative to across the counter and telephone contact with government". 42
E-GOV CURRENT ENVIRONMENT
"The government is focusing on outcomes - achieving results - and is applying continuing pressure on agencies to work together to deliver the right things at a fair price and in a spirit of service. E-government is an enabler of this. The e-government strategy recognises the potential for the Internet and associated technologies to have a profound effect on the way government, business and people interact. It emphasises delivering information and services in ways that better reflect what people need or want from government, and are less constrained by how government agencies are structured.
The e-government program is about managing this process of change within the public sector. The main objectives for e-government are:
• s Better services - more convenient and reliable, with lower compliance costs, higher quality and value.• s Cost effectiveness and efficiency - cheaper, better information and services for customers, and better value for taxpayers.• s Improved reputation - building an image of New Zealand as a modern nation, an attractive location for people and business.• s Greater participation by people in government - making it easier for those who wish to contribute.• s Leadership - supporting the knowledge society through public sector innovation.
The Government has also stated that it wishes e-government to lead to three characteristics of government in the future
• s convenience and satisfaction,• s integration and efficiency, and• s participation.
Recent research has confirmed that New Zealanders are looking for government services to be delivered:
• s Seamlessly - "with one search" and "in one place" (interested 60-70%);• s "Quicker/faster" (44% of e-govt users); and• s "Self service" (33% of e-govt users).
Business delivery systems in government are heterogeneous, reflecting the wide range of services and users. This diversity reflects the complexity of the environment in which agencies operate. Diversity has also been encouraged by the approach to public management introduced by the State Sector Act 1988. The business systems environment which will support these emerging pressures and requirements, must address:
• s a requirement to work together more collaboratively;• s the integration of service delivery;• s the need for more flexible configuration;• s an ability to support more complex outcomes (requiring more complex delivery mechanisms/systems);• s the need to maintain, and even improve, efficiency of resource allocation and usage in the public sector." 43
A SERVICE DELIVERY ARCHITECTURE
"E-government, with its citizen-centric focus and the focus on technology-enabled business transformation, provides the opportunity to improve government service delivery. An architecture, already part of the e-government strategy, allows us to plan and manage the change effectively. Experience has shown, however, that the existing architecture in the e-government strategy needs more detail to make it more usable.
In the architecture we have classified the components into six categories or building blocks. The categories are a useful construct to identify the required business functionality in a generic service delivery process, together with the components that need to exist to provide that functionality. These categories are:
• s user access;• s user services and guidance;• s service enabling tools;• s connection tools;• s business delivery systems; and• s the surrounding e-government environment - governance, policy and management regime." 43
E-BILLING
"A whole of government approach to electronic billing and payment systems has been investigated. It was concluded that there is currently no case for adopting a centralized approach to e-billing and e-payments. Some further research into various legal aspects of electronic billing/payments is being undertaken." 44
ONLINE AUTHENTICATION
"The authentication project is looking at ways of ensuring that government services delivered over the Internet are going to the right person. This will be achieved by electronically verifying that people are who they say they are, and that privacy is protected at all times. Authentication will:
• s provide an all-of-government framework to allow people to use government services over the Internet with appropriate protection of their privacy at all times• s be used for government transactions with individuals, communities and possibly businesses where authentication is required." 45
NARRATIVE & ANALYSIS
While New Zealand's "E-Gov" site is helpful in explaining how helpful it will become and does provide some access to other government sites, it lacks in many areas. These areas include:
• s Difficulty navigating through site;• s Less than helpful search engine; and• s No apparent service delivery other than pointing to other sites with document-downloading capabilities.
For example, this author attempted to search for "voter registration", "motor vehicles", and "vehicle registration" with no matching returns from the search engine. When prompted to try these entries minus the quotation marks, many "matches" were returned, but none were relevant in terms of where a citizen might go to access these services.