Key Messages

E-government is changing the way government works, and is doing so now. It enables delivery of government information and services in ways that better reflect what people need or want from government, rather than simply what agencies want or are prepared to provide to them.

One of the first expressions of this will be the new all-of-government web portal which will make government much easier to access.

But this is only the first step toward a major transformation of government. Meeting people's needs online will mean integrating processes and services across the traditional boundaries between government agencies. To achieve this, the public sector will adopt a wide range of common information and technology standards; develop shared data resources, software applications and technology infrastructure; and find innovative ways of managing business processes across multiple agencies.

E-government will be a major challenge for all agencies. The key challenges include:

• Authentication, privacy and security

• Governance

• Data quality

• Measuring the uptake and effectiveness of e-government.

Funding will also be a major issue, as the transformation involved in e-government is potentially very wide ranging.

To enable agencies to participate in this transformation process and help them through it, the E-government Unit of the State Services Commission provides leadership and develops the supporting foundations of the e-government environment (e.g. policies, standards, some shared infrastructure, etc), so that agencies will be able to align more easily with the overall objectives of this change process, and create e-government in the way that the Government expects they will.

The E-government Strategy has been in place for about a year now. There has been good progress to date, but a lot more is needed. To help agencies play their part in making e-government happen, the strategy will be reviewed and updated at least every 12 months. This revision does that, preparing the public sector for the e-government work needed in 2002/03 and beyond.