Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services
2 Introduction
2.1 Background
Governments around the world are grappling with the challenges presented by the planning and implementation of e-government. What was conceived as a seemingly simple process of replicating key government activities on new channels has developed into a step change in the way that people access government services. The benefits for governments that have been able to get e-government right are considerable. They include reducing the cost of government service delivery and providing businesses and consumers with easier, cheaper and more effective ways to access governments.
Australia has been at the forefront of e-government policy and implementation, consistently ranked among the top five countries in terms of e-government maturity.[3]
2.2 Definition of e-government
For the purposes of this study e-government services are those provided via both the Internet and telephone.
E-government is defined [4] as the process of transforming government, so that the use of the Internet and electronic processes are central to the way government operates. E-government is about managing the issues around access to services by individual citizens and businesses. For the purposes of this study, e-government services refer to services provided via both the Internet and telephone.
2.3 Need for a study of this type
Despite Australia’s strong record in e-government, the bar is being continuously raised as jurisdictions globally become convinced about the benefits. The pressure for better e-government performance, however, is being exerted only in part by `competing’ governments. Community and business expectations are exerting the greatest influence on governments.
Until recently, e-government performance was judged against a range of internal indicators. These included the percentage of services and transactions migrated to online channels and simple project management performance, such as progress against timelines and budgets.
In the next phase of e-government’s maturation, performance of systems, channels and strategies will increasingly focus on indicators external to government. In essence, the one that will really matter is what the user thinks.
Governments need to develop a more granular understanding of who is using e-government services and why.
As a first step in this process, governments need to develop a more granular understanding of who is using e-government services and why, to what extent the services are delivering on the promise of `simplified’ interaction with government, what users feel about the services offered, what they are looking for in future and what they see as the `appropriate’ role of government.
2.4 Terms of reference for this study
This project is a study of Australians’ use of government services provided via the Internet and telephone. It demonstrates and measures the uptake of, and satisfaction with, e-government across all tiers of governments; enabling Australian governments to plan for the future, identify priority areas and deliver more responsive, citizen-centric services.
The project’s objectives were to provide a snapshot of the uptake of, and satisfaction with, e-government services. The study was also designed to investigate the behaviour of e-government users, and identify what motivates people to use these services and what prevents them from accessing government services electronically.
The project focuses on citizens rather than businesses.
2.5 Approach to the study
The approach to the study consisted of two stages.
Stage 1 focused on collecting quantitative data and providing further insight into the findings through qualitative focus groups and interviews. The collection of quantitative data was undertaken through two surveys:
- A national random survey of 3800 people (primarily to collect usage data). This survey is referred to throughout the report as the random survey.
- A survey of 2000 known e-government Internet users (primarily to collect Internet satisfaction data). This is referred to as the re-contact survey in this report.
Stage 2 focused on identifying people’s motivations for using e-government services, and to develop an understanding of the decision-making processes that people use when choosing which channel to use. This phase consisted of four focus groups in Melbourne, Shepparton, Adelaide and Bunbury. Selected interviews supplemented this process. A more detailed description of the methodology is included in the Appendices.
2.6 Authors of the study
A consortium consisting of three companies conducted this project. dandolopartners, a specialist firm providing advice on government policy, strategy and marketing for private and public sector clients, led the project. dandolopartners was supported by Roy Morgan Research, a market research company with over 60 years of public sector research and polling experience and BDO Consulting, specialising in research, program reviews, business strategy, risk/performance management.
[3] These rankings are from the yearly Accenture Report on eGovernment Leadership.
[4] In a report prepared for the Australian Government Information Management Office (Demand and Value Assessment Methodology for better government services, p. 111)
Contact for information on this page: <a href="mailto:e-government@finance.gov.au">e-government@finance.gov.au</a>