New Zealand eGovernment 2003 Report Card

1
New Zealand eGovernment2003 Report Card

• GOVIS 2003 conferenceNovember 2003Laurence
  Millar
• laurence.millar_at_prosperos.co.nz

2
Agenda

• Brown University assessment of global
  eGovernment, including New Zealand
• In depth presentation on the results
• Four other assessments of New Zealand
  eGovernment/e-Readiness
• Discussion and conclusions

3
Center for Policy Studies Brown University

• Comprehensive review of eGovernment at local,
  state and country level
• http//www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/
• Annual study of global eGovernment published
  annually since 2001

4
Brown University Assessment

• Overview of results
• Description of methodology
• Focus on New Zealand assessment
• Example of top achieving country

5
New Zealand ranking in Global eGovernment survey

• 2001
• New Zealand scored 36.8, ranked 26th
• 2002
• New Zealand scored 42.3, ranked 81st

6
Overview of results 2002

• Every region and most countries have improved
  since 2001 survey.
• 50 increase in government websites that offer
  services fully executable online (from 8 to
  12).
• 77 of web sites provide access to publications
  and 83 have links to databases.
• 14 show privacy policies, while 9 have security
  policies.
• 33 of government websites have some form of
  disability access, meaning access for persons
  with disabilities (dramatic increase from 2 in
  2001).
• 19 of agencies responded to the email
  responsiveness test, 75 did not and 6 had
  broken email links.
• 43 of sites are multilingual, meaning that they
  offer information in two or more languages.

7
Overall change from 2001 to 2002
8
New Zealand ranking (2002)

• Improved score from 36.8 to 42.3
• Large number of countries improved score much
  more dramatically (eg South Korea from 33.4 to
  64.0)
• NZ dropped from 26th ranking to 81st
• Different countries as neighbours ?

9
New Zealand 2001 to 2002
10
NZ neighbours 2001
11
NZ neighbours 2002
12
Brown University Assessment

• Overview of results
• Description of methodology
• Focus on New Zealand assessment
• Example of top achieving country

13
How does the scoring work?

• 1,197 national government websites for the 198
  nations selected from executive offices,
  legislative offices, judicial offices, Cabinet
  offices, and major agencies serving crucial
  functions of government.
• Functions included health, human services,
  taxation, education, interior, economic
  development, administration, natural resources,
  foreign affairs, foreign investment,
  transportation, military, tourism, and business
  regulation.
• Websites for subnational units, obscure boards
  and commissions, local government, regional
  units, and municipal offices were not included.
• Regardless of the type of system or cultural
  background of a country, websites were evaluated
  for the presence of various features dealing with
  information availability, service delivery, and
  public access.
• Features defined as services only if the entire
  transaction could occur online. Print out a form
  and mail back does not count as an online
  service. Searchable databases are services only
  if they result in a service response.
• Also email responsiveness test - "I would like to
  know what hours your agency is open during the
  week. Thanks for your help."

14
Access to Information
15
Services Provided Enable

• Only 12 of sites offer services that are fully
  executable online.
• Of this group, 7 offer one service, 2 have two
  services, and 3 have three or more services.
• Most Frequent Online Services, 2002
• 18 sites Order Publications
• 7 sites Travel reservation
• 6 sites Search and Apply for Jobs
• 5 sites Apply for Passports Renewal of vehicle
  license File complaints/police reports.
• 4 sites Order birth/death certificates File
  taxes
• 3 sites Apply for patents Check exam results

16
Privacy and Security and multi-language

• Only 14 percent (up from 6 percent in 2001) of
  examined sites have some form of privacy policy
  on their site.
• Only 9 percent have a visible security policy (up
  from 3 percent in 2001) .
• About half (43 percent) of national government
  websites have foreign language features that
  allow access to non-native speaking individuals.
  Ninety-five countries had no language translation
  on their site other than their native tongue.

17
Disability Access

• 33 of sites had some form of disability access
  (up from 2 in 2001)
• TTY (Text Telephone) or TDD (Telephonic Device
  for the Deaf) phone numbers.
• "Bobby Approved," deemed disability-accessible by
  a non-profit group that rates Internet web sites
  for such accessibility (http//www.cast.org/bobby/
  ).
• Web accessibility consistent with standards
  mandated by groups such as the World Wide Web
  Consortium (W3C) or legislative acts of the
  national government.

18
Ads, User Fees, and Premium Fees

• Twice as many government websites in 2002 were
  likely to rely on ads (8) as in 2001.
• Ads are much more prevalent than user fees (1)
  or premium fees (0).
• The only countries that have started to move into
  premium fee areas are Canada, and to a lesser
  extent, Australia. Five percent of Canadian
  public sector websites had areas requiring
  payment to enter.

19
Restricted Areas

• Some countries have started to develop restricted
  areas on their websites that require a username
  and password for accessibility.
• Sometimes, this is for security reasons, while at
  other times, it occurs through an interest in
  personalizing service delivery.
• This year, 6 of government websites across the
  world had restricted areas.

20
Public Outreach
21
Email Responsiveness

• It is useful to have email contact information
  on government websites, but this material is not
  helpful unless there is someone who actually
  answers the email.

22
Metric for eGovernment Index
Four points were awarded to each website for the
presence of the following 24 features

• phone contact information
• addresses
• publications
• databases
• links to other sites
• audio clips
• video clips
• foreign language access
• not having ads
• not having premium fees
• not having restricted areas
• not having user fees
• disability access

• having privacy policies
• having security policies
• having a portal connection
• allowing digital signatures on transactions
• an option to pay via credit cards
• email contact information
• search capabilities
• areas to post comments
• broadcasts of events
• option for email updates
• option for website personalization

23
Metric for eGovernment Index

• Features provided a maximum of 96 points for
  particular websites.
• Up to four points were awarded, based on the
  number of online services executable on that site
  (1 point for one service, two points for two
  services, three points for three services, and
  four points for four or more services).
• Totals for each website within a country were
  averaged across all of that nation's websites to
  produce a 0 to 100 overall rating for that nation.

24
Top Countries

• The top country in the 2002 ranking is Taiwan at
  72.5 percent. This means that every website
  analyzed for that nation has nearly
  three-quarters of the features important for
  information availability, citizen access, portal
  access, and service delivery.
• In second position is South Korea (64.0).

25
Brown University Assessment

• Overview of results
• Description of methodology
• Focus on New Zealand assessment
• Example of a top achieving country

26
How did NZ score (2002)?

• Full details are not provided in the research
  report
• Scores for some of the criteria have been
  provided

27
How did NZ score (2002)?
28
How did NZ score (2002)?
29
How did NZ score?For the following functions,
not reported individually, NZ scored an average
of 26

• phone contact information
• addresses
• links to other sites
• audio clips
• video clips
• having a portal connection
• allowing digital signatures on transactions,

• an option to pay via credit cards
• email contact information
• areas to post comments
• broadcasts of events
• option for email updates
• option for website personalization

30
Brown University Assessment

• Overview of results
• Description of methodology
• Focus on New Zealand assessment
• Example of top achieving country South Korea

31
South Korea

• In 2001 South Korea scored 33.4 - less than New
  Zealand (36.8).
• In 2002 South Korea scored 64 and was ranked in
  second place.
• Check out the government portal -
  http//www.kois.go.kr/ - English language,
  focused on overseas items of interest.

32
Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy
http//www.mocie.go.kr/

• The Korean (Republic of Korea) sites are mostly
  bilingual, interactive, informative and well
  organized. As shown in the mocie site,, the
  navigation bar at the top displays all categories
  of provided information. It also provides
  statistical data on the side such as the stock
  prices and exchange rate. The search feature,
  link to the sitemap and contact information can
  be located very easily from the opening page. In
  addition, the colorful link bars to sites of
  affiliated groups and governmental agencies
  facilitate access to a variety of information.
• Comments from Brown University report Best
  practises of Top Government Sites

33
(No Transcript)
34
Brown University Assessment

• Overview of results
• Description of methodology
• Focus on New Zealand assessment
• Example of top achieving country
• 2003 update

35
New Zealand ranking in Global eGovernment survey

• 2001
• New Zealand scored 36.8, ranked 26th
• 2002
• New Zealand scored 42.3, ranked 81st
• 2003
• New Zealand scored 35.5 ranked 13th

36
Change in scoring 2003
Net effect is to reduce scores by 16

• phone contact information
• addresses
• publications
• databases
• links to other sites
• audio clips
• video clips
• foreign language access
• not having ads
• not having premium fees
• not having restricted areas
• not having user fees
• disability access

• having privacy policies
• having security policies
• having a portal connection
• allowing digital signatures on transactions
• an option to pay via credit cards
• email contact information
• search capabilities
• areas to post comments
• broadcasts of events
• option for email updates
• option for website personalization.
• PDA accessibility

37
New Zealand ranking in Global eGovernment survey

• 2001
• New Zealand scored 36.8, ranked 26th
• 2002
• New Zealand scored 42.3, ranked 81st
• 2003 (adjusted to reflect change in approach)
• New Zealand scored 51.5 ranked 13th

38
How did NZ score
39
How did NZ score?
40
New Neighbours (2003)
41
2003 Summary of study findings

• Continues to be steady increase in information
  and services available on-line.
• Slow loading speed of many sites.
• Privacy and security policies need more
  prominence.
• Regular updates are essential.

42
Brown University study conclusions for NZ
assessment

• Volatile score in 2002 probably a result of
  sampling.
• Steady improvement in NZ eGovernment capability.
• Absence of second language option on NZ sites
  should be a concern.

43
Agenda

• Brown University assessment of global
  eGovernment, including New Zealand
• Four other assessments of NZ eGovernment/e-Readine
  ss
• Discussion and conclusions

44
Other eGovernment surveys

• UNPAN - United Nations Public Administration
  Network http//www.unpan.org/egovernment2.aspsurv
  ey
• UNCTAD http//www.unctad.org/Templates/Search.asp?
  intItemID1397lang1frmSearchStrICTdevelopment
  indicesfrmCategorydocsectionthisdoc
• IBM/EIU Economist Intelligence Unit
  http//www.ebusinessforum.com/
• Accenture - http//www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it
  enwebxdindustries\government\gove_thought.xml

45
Other eGovernment surveys

• Review of approach and NZ assessment.
• Each survey is a major work and could easily be
  the subject of a single presentation.
• Provide an overall impression of the different
  perspectives that can be taken, and how NZ fares
  under each.

46
UNPAC

• Researched 144 countries in 2001
• Created an eGovernment index
• Measure of web presence in 5 stages
• Emerging, Enhanced, Interactive, Transactional,
  Seamless
• Measure infrastructure
• PCs, internet hosts, telephones, mobile phones,
  TVs and population online
• Human Capital Measure
• Human Development Index, Information Access
  Index, Urban as of population

47
UNPAC results

• New Zealand ranked 3rd in the World
• New Zealand web presence one of 17 countries
  assessed as level 4 (transactional)
• Complete and secure transactions like obtaining
  visas, passports, birth and death records,
  licenses, permits where a user can actually pay
  online for a services pay parking fines,
  automobile registration fees, utility bills and
  taxes. Digital signatures may be recognized in
  an effort to facilitate procurement and doing
  business with the government. Secure sites and
  user passwords are also present.
• No country achieved level 5 (seamless)

48
UNPAC NZ ranking

• Infrastructure index
• PCs/ population 13th
• Internet hosts/population 6th
• Percent of population online 13th
• Phone lines/population 18th
• Mobile phones/ population 26th
• TVs/ population 23rd
• Human Capital Index
• Human Development 18th
• Information Access Index 1st (with 17)
• Urbanisation 18th

49
UNPAC New Zealand rating

• Referenced in Cabinet paper (June 2003)
  http//www.eGovernment.govt.nz/docs/cab-paper-stra
  tegy-200306/.
• New Zealand ranked 3rd in the World.
• Biggest factor is web presence we scored well
  because of the assessment that we are level 4.
• Ranking of top 20 nations (all assessed as level
  4 or 3.5 for web presence) determined by
  infrastructure and human capital indices.

50
UNPAC conclusions

• Indispensible elements of success
• Visionary leadership and political will
• Commitment to deliverable outputs and services
• Accountability for results
• Respect for the needs of citizens
• Has eGovernment made a difference?
• Improving administrative practices ?
• Providing information and services ?
• Increasing transparency and accountability ?

51
UNCTAD assessment

• Measures ICT development of the nation
• Connectivity (Internet hosts, PCs, landlines and
  mobiles)
• Access (users, literacy, GDP, cost of calls)
• Policy (internet exchange, local loop, domestic
  long distance, ISP market structure)
• New Zealand ranked 15th in 2001, 15th in 2000,
  14th in 1999.
• No more recent published work

52
EIU/IBM

• Measures the e-readiness of 60 countries using
  a wide range of factors almost 100 criteria.
• 2003 rankings
• Scandinavia leads - Scandinavians wholeheartedly
  embrace the information society.
• In Asia - South Korea (16th) is making the
  largest strides, spurred by an ambitious
  government and heavy infrastructure spending.
• Small countries have an edge - Smaller, nimbler
  economies are better able to implement nationwide
  projects.

53
EIU/IBM conclusions (2003)

• Economic downturn affects e-readiness
• Most countries have improved their scores since
  last year, thanks to continued rollout of
  broadband services, uptake of mobile telephony,
  and a spate of Internet-related legislation and
  government programmes.
• No country is a back-pedaller
• Even in tough economic times, governments are
  pushing through IT infrastructure projects
  programmes to bring the Internet to schools, post
  offices and other public venues and legislation
  to encourage e-business and safeguard its
  participants. They are reducing connection
  charges by liberalising local telecoms markets,
  subsidising public access and encouraging price
  competition. And they are putting government
  services online at a fast clip.

54
EIU/IBM - New Zealand rating

• New Zealand position
• 20th in 2001, 18th in 2002, 17th in 2001
• 2003 position by factor (weight)
• Infrastructure (25) 9th
• Business environment (20) 12th
• Consumer and business adoption (20) 21st
• Legal and policy environment (15) 18th
• Social and cultural infrastructure (15) 19th
• Supporting e-services (5) 21st
• Measures the business e-friendliness of countries

55
Accenture

• 2000 survey Connecting the Dots
• NZ not included
• 2001 survey Rhetoric v reality closing the
  gap
• NZ 9th out of 22
• 2002 survey Realizing the vision
• NZ 14th out of 23
• 2003 survey Engaging the customer
• Countries were selected based on the location of
  Accenture offices worldwide. This approach
  resulted in the exclusion of New Zealand, which
  had been surveyed in past years, from our 2003
  study.

56
Accenture overall comments (2003)

• eGovernment matures through a series of plateaus
  from basic capability to service transformation
• Value drives eGovernment visions
• CRM underpins eGovernment
• Increasing take-up is a priority
• New eGovernment targets are needed

57
eGovernment Maturity stages
58
Accenture comments on NZ (2002)

• A number of foundation projects have been
  announced but have not yet resulted in an
  increase in the delivery of mature online
  services.
• New Zealand has lost ground as other countries
  have focused on increasing service maturity
• The number of agencies delivering more
  sophisticated services at the Transact level
  remain very limited.
• Although many services are interactive and
  designed around the needs of citizens, few
  responded to the needs of the visitor on an
  individual basis
• There are few if any services that are
  approaching best in class
• New Zealand may not keep up with the rate of
  change in the delivery of mature online services
  by other countries

59
Agenda

• Brown University assessment of global
  eGovernment, including New Zealand
• Four other assessments of New Zealand
  eGovernment/e-Readiness
• Discussion and conclusions

60
Conclusion from surveys

• There are differences between the surveys
• Measure different aspects of eGovernment
• Differences in sampling.
• It is important that we seek out and review the
  findings from the unfavourable as well as the
  favourable surveys.
• My overall impression is that NZ could accelerate
  the realisation of eGovernment benefits.

61
NZ where are we going?

• By June 2004, the Internet will be the dominant
  means of enabling ready access to government
  information, services and processes.
• By June 2007, networks and Internet technologies
  will be integral to the delivery of government
  information, services and processes.
• By June 2010, the operation of government will
  have been transformed through its use of the
  Internet.

62
How good is this strategy?

• In the Accenture model, our peer group has
  achieved Internet integral to the delivery of
  Services (we want to be there by 2007)
• Canada is on its way to transformation (we want
  to be there by 2010).
• With the level of commitment shown by South Korea
  in 2001/2002, we can achieve our strategic goals
  in a much shorter time frame.

63
Possible reasons for not moving faster

• Service delivery is much harder in larger
  countries, and the value of online is therefore
  higher.
• Cooperation between agencies around citizen life
  events is time consuming and expensive (cf Change
  of Address).
• NZ government machinery is complex.

64
Does it matter?

• I imagine this audience is generally supportive
  of the strategic benefits of ICT enabled service
  delivery.
• Businesses increasingly use ICT to empower
  customers, and improve service delivery quality
  and efficiency.
• NZ government agencies are missing the
  opportunities being taken up elsewhere.
• We have not made the progress we could have made
  since 1997.

65
Government Web Participation(presentation April
1997)
DEPTH of Content

Full Info Services Delivery
All agencies with full web sites
Online Billing
Systems Integration
Eligibility Forms
Online Publications
Site Searching
Info Services Descriptions
All agencies with web sites
Organisation Contact Info
Corporate Introduction

0
100
BREADTH - of Central Government Agencies
66
Government Web Participation(progress since 1997)
DEPTH of Content

Full Info Services Delivery
All agencies with full web sites
Online Billing
Systems Integration
2003 estimate
Eligibility Forms
Online Publications
Site Searching
Info Services Descriptions
All agencies with web sites
Organisation Contact Info
Corporate Introduction

0
100
BREADTH - of Central Government Agencies
67
Conclusion and call to action

• NZ strategic objectives are too timid.
• Need a commitment to service delivery.
• ENABLE NOW!!