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Although many government bodies are taking steps to implement online services, a report released Tuesday by consulting firm Accenture concludes they still have "a long way to go."
The study, "Rhetoric vs. Reality - Closing the Gap," found that only in rare cases can businesses conduct transactions with government entities via the Internet.
Canada, Singapore and the United States significantly outpaced the other 19 countries surveyed and were "innovative leaders" with their e-government initiatives, including nationwide portals that provide citizens with a single point of access to government services, the report said.
"Tomorrow's e-government leaders will advance by building on these efforts and by learning from other countries' experiences," said Accenture global managing partner David Hunter.
Glass Half Full
Despite the advances made by Canada, Singapore and the U.S., Accenture said these three countries still have completed less than half the work required to develop and provide fully mature service and delivery models as part of their Internet extensions.
While the e-government portals developed by the leading countries are emerging "as a means of bringing order and customer-focus to e-government services," few comprehensive and customer-driven portals exist in other countries, the Accenture report said.
"Innovative governments providing online services around citizens and businesses need to realize opportunities to build new relationships and alliances with the private sector," Hunter said. "In addition, they need to harness the wide range of benefits offered by e-government, making the current government landscape unrecognizable within two to three years."
Top Performers
According to Accenture, a number of government organizations have already started to integrate more sophisticated functionality into their sites and are developing portal models that will eventually allow citizens and businesses to gain easy access to cross-agency services.
The U.S. Postal Service is one of the few government agencies demonstrating a high level of delivery services and employing customer relationship management, the report found. The postal site allows customers to establish an online postal account to purchase stamps or pay utility bills. Similarly, postal organizations in Finland and the Netherlands ranked high for providing electronic services.
Meanwhile, Canada's site was the leading "service maturity" position according to the study, because it offers citizens and businesses the opportunity to conduct electronic transactions and also offers an extensive library of government publications online.
Country Codes
Norway, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were categorized as "visionary followers" by the consulting firm because they provide a high number of services online and a moderate level of site sophistication.
Countries that were identified as "steady achievers" -- which was defined as those governments offering a wide batch of services with significant opportunity to mature their service level and delivery model -- include New Zealand, France, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Germany and Belgium. Hong Kong also landed in this category.
The countries with low levels of government services online were Japan, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, Italy and Mexico. However, the report noted, those countries are well positioned to develop coordinated cross-agency Web presences.
"Overall, the innovative leaders and other countries paving the way to e-government achieved their status as a result of the political will asserted by their government leadership," said Accenture managing partner Vivienne Jupp. "They have set targets and timetables to ensure that their visions are being translated into reality."
Passport to E-Government
To compile data for its second annual study of e-government, Accenture attempted to conduct business with 22 governments via the Internet, with a focus on e-government services.
The firm reviewed these service areas, among others:
justice and public safety, revenue, defense,
education, administration, transportation and postal.
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