E-Governance Research Paper: An Overview of E-Government Systems

This report delves into the realm of e-governance, elucidating its concept, historical evolution, and the transformative impact it has on modern societies. It examines the shift from traditional government models to digital platforms, highlighting the advantages such as increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved transparency, and enhanced public service delivery. The report also critically analyzes the disadvantages, including the digital divide, security concerns, and the potential for increased surveillance. Furthermore, it explores the barriers to widespread adoption, such as technological literacy, infrastructure costs, and cybersecurity threats. Through a comprehensive overview, the report provides a balanced perspective on the opportunities and challenges associated with e-governance, offering insights into its role in shaping the future of public administration and citizen engagement. The paper covers the concept and history of E government, traditional government versus E government, examples of E government, advantages E government, disadvantages of E government and barriers of E government.

Running head: E GOVERNANCE RESEARCH PAPER
E Governance Research Paper
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Concept and history of E government....................................................................................3
Traditional government Versus E government......................................................................5
Examples of E government....................................................................................................5
Advantages E government.........................................................................................................6
Disadvantages of E government.................................................................................................7
Barriers of E government...........................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
In this modern world, digitalization has effectively enhanced the lives of people. The
continuous exposure to internet and electronic devices has made the people work at ease.
Therefore, the need of electronic government services is necessary to fill the gap. The rapid
utilization of technologies has helped in solving millions of problem with just one click. This
report illustrates the role of electronic government and how the people as well as
organizations can benefit from it (Oecd, 2016). The paper provides the real concept and
importance of e government. The idea of E government is to operate with the help of
emerging technologies which will enhance the process of public sector organization. Due to
this popular connect, more government are introducing this system. The implementation of E
government and internet together has made positive changes in the structure of society. The
objective of E government system is to eliminate the use of traditional processes and adapt
more use of ICT technologies. It tends to make the whole system automated so as to save its
valuable time and money. The quality of services that are provide to the public will help in
more public engagement (Anthopoulos et al., 2016). With the implementation of E
government, it will help in building the trust of the citizen. The belief and faith of citizen
towards their government is an important aspect for the growth of the country. The Electronic
Government (E-Government) provides a digital approach in the governing system. It delivers
any local or national information via internet. It provides major government services with just
an internet access. The central websites have been setup which provides relevant information
to the public. The public can download necessary information from the website and can even
communicate with the customer care service online regarding any query. They can contact
the government representatives and directly get help from them. E government not only helps
the public and then society but it also facilitates the different government agencies to

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communicate with other agencies. It encompasses all the functions of the government
(Schattschneider, 2017).
The E government system aims to eliminate the use of paperwork and instead use
electronic methods to collect and store data and information. The E government has helped
the government to communicate with various other companies and share useful information
with them. Digital government offers a specialized way to manage and the public affairs and
organizational issues. According to (Deming, 2018), the E government is the optimization of
the normal services provided to the public. There has been a great progress in the field of
delivering online services. This concept has offered the public to perform their task speedily
and in more efficient manner. It uses ICT as the means of exchanging information and gives
faster service to the public and reduces their cost and providing better quality of services
(Alenezi et al., 2017).
Discussion
Concept and history of E government
The concept of Electronic Government was initiate in 1990. It is also referred as
connected government or online government. This term was aroused from the interconnection
among the sets of forces. The external factors influenced to give rise to E Government while
it is still under evolution. It was introduced as a practitioner field. E government was applied
to enhance the efficiency and delivery of the service. It aims to increase the transparency
between the public and the government that helps in better management of economic and
social resources of the country (Rose-Ackerman & Palifka, 2016). The use of Wide Area
Networks (WAN), internet and mobiles has helped the government agencies to enhance their

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relationship with the citizen and other governmental parties. With the emergence or World
Wide Web and internet, peopling are adapting themselves as advanced and learning to use the
upcoming technologies (Al Balushi & Ali, 2016).
Technological evolution: the evolution of Millennium Bug in 2000, forced the government
to notice the rapid increase in technology. It has made an attempt to focus on the electronic
infrastructure. The invention of computer devices and telecommunication was in early stage
but now there has been certain technologies like wireless communication.
Management evolution: with the evolution of ICT technologies there has also been the
evaluation of management thinking simultaneously (Mahmood, Nayyar & Ahmad, 2018). In
1980, New Public Message Management system was established that offered number of
models and instruments for the government.
The stage of E government includes:
1. Computerization: In the initial stage, the government was equipped with computers. It
began with the word processing and followed by data processing.
2. Networking: This stage connects the organization through a hub that helps in sharing
information and facilitates data flow between various entities.
3. Web presence: With the evolution of internet, the need of online presence was
required in order get recognized by the citizen (Al Salmi, Mohtar & Hasnan, 2017).
The websites contained important information about the structure of the organization,
emergency contact numbers and reports.
4. Online interaction: the main reason for this stage was to minimize the personal
interaction and promote more interaction digitally (Arfeen & Nielsen, 2017). It
involves the ability to download forms, instructions and any other document for
effective communication between citizen and the government organizations. It was

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also noticed that more people participated when the government was computerized
and used ICT tools.
Traditional government Versus E government
 The traditional system requires a lot of paper work whereas the electronic
government is digitalized and is easy to use.
 The traditional government requires storing of data and important information on
a form of hardcopy which was also difficult to find when needed, but the
electronic government is capable of collecting information electronically and
stores it in a form of file or folder. The public or even the government can have
easy access to these system (Al-ajwad & Carr, 2016).
 The cost of employees to manage the files and documents are minimized as it is
controlled by the computer, whereas the traditional government had to give
maintenance costs.
 The E government improves efficiency as it minimizes the chance of any mistake
that is high when done manually in the traditional manner (Kumar, 2015).
 The tasks that are done manually demanded more time and effort whereas the
electronic government eradicates these problems and saves time.
Examples of E government
There are a lot of examples of E government. There are some agencies that used BBS
system before the concept of internet was born. The various electronic services that are
offered to the public can be the right example of E government facilities (Lopes, 2017). The
E procurement, tax payment by using credit card via internet, renewal of personal ID and

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driving license are the examples of E government. Download of forms and applications from
the E portal, communication with public administration (Mahmood, Nayyar & Ahmad,
2018). Registering of complaints and issues, apply for permits via mobile phones and
computers are some of the facilities that are offered by the electronic government. E visa is
also a kind of e government initiative that has made visiting to other countries which
eventually boosts tourism (Scholl, 2015). All these services are made possible by accessing
the E portal which acts as an interface to serve as a gateway for the public’s specific field of
interest. Hence the E portal allows many government services under a single umbrella.
Advantages E government
The objective of E government is to facilitate the ICT technologies to the public in an cost
effective manner. It allows transparency by informing the public about the government
policies and strategies. The idea of this system is to replace the paper based traditional
system, of working by the advanced use of computers within the system (Dai, 2018). It
allows good communication between business and government. It will allow coordination
between both small and large businesses thereby creating a strong economy. The E
government provides its service to the citizens irrespective of their location. Hence the
benefits that E government has provided to the public as well as organizations are:
 Implementation with an Ease: the information can be shared from one agency to
another in a quicker manner. The public has the permission to access the information
about the government rules and policies.
 Greater efficiency: the efficiency of this service attracts the public and helps to build
a positive relationship with the government. The operations are delivered with much
efficiency and in more enhanced manner (Nielsen, 2016). There is less chance of any
error as it is not handled manually.

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 Reduces Cost and Savings: the centralized decision making reduces. If the
government want any opinion from public then it can implement surveys in a very
cost effective manner. It also collects data very fast with the help of cloud solution
technology which makes the government to earn more savings (Kamolov, 2017). It
not only saves the money and operates in low cost but it also stores valuable
resources.
 Provides quality service: It considers the requirements of the general public and
provides good online quality service. With the better understand the sentiments of
public it executes themselves according so as to satisfy all their needs.
 Saves valuable time: since the services are offered with the help of a website, it saves
time of both the government and its users (Sharma & Kalra, 2017). The energy to go
and find out information is saved and they access any service just by one click of
mouse. The tasks that are doe with hand requires more time and effort.
 Data security: since the important information are store form of files and data, it can
be protected by passwords. The traditional method of hardcopies has high chance to
get stolen by the competitors but now by the use of effective passwords we can save
our valuable data and information (Misuraca & Viscusi, 2015).
Disadvantages of E government
The main disadvantage of E government is that, on the verge of moving the services
to a new format, it has lost the interaction between the people. The people also suspects the
operation of this system as it is done by the government themselves (Valle-Cruz, Sandoval-
Almazan & Gil-Garcia, 2016). If any of the requirements is not considered by them then they
can easily give excuse that the internet server was slow.

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 Literacy of the users: there can be some citizen those who have no knowledge
about the computers and internet. Especially the senior citizens, they have limited
knowledge regarding the technologies, therefore they can face difficulties while
handling these kinds of systems.
 Increase in cybercrimes: there can be chances of security breach. The data can
be thefted and there can also be chances where the rouge government is misusing
the data of the public (Nielsen, 2016). The fear of getting spam mails and loss of
personal data is some of the disadvantages that can be encountered. This will
hamper the trust of the public to their government.
 Hyper surveillance: the implementation of such services can force the citizen to
interact electronically which will increase the control over public by the
government.
 Costly infrastructure: the use of internet services and hardware devices requires
high costs. The public will have to pay for the connection to get the access. There
are also certain agencies that need advanced servers to carry the massive amount
of data. They also need to implement security services and firewalls for their
websites to avoid cybercrime which will need more cost (Alryalat et al., 2017).
This can be a challenging situation for the people and business agencies who
cannot afford such services.
 Resistance to change: there also exist bunches of populations that do not want to
undergo any changes. There can certain part of the country where the person
invite and accepts the changes whereas there are also some who are unlikely to
accept any change easily.

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 Total dependency on internet: there can be situation where the internet is
troubling (Azad & Zablith, 2018). This will hamper the reputation of the
government. Sometimes, the government site becomes hard to access and use.
Barriers of E government
While implementing the E government number of challenges are faced. The number of
barriers can delay the progress of the implementation of E government. The complexities that
occur during the initial sates of the execution is high and unavoidable. The list of some
barriers are explained below:
 Technical Barriers: while implementing e government, some technical issues
arises. The issues can be lack of compatible infrastructure. There can be devices
which are not well maintained and the system corrupts while performing
important task. Weak ICT infrastructure is unable to share and cope up with new
challenges. If the investment is not done properly then system trouble can occur
anytime. The privacy is the most important factor of the technical barrier. The
government sometimes finds it difficult to protect the confidential data from the
hackers and falls into the pit of cybercrimes. Thus, the protection of important
data must be prioritized in order to gain potential confidence of the public. They
must make the public feel safe on order to maintain good relationship. Therefore,
security policies must be established to meet the requirements of public. Some of
the security standards such as digital signature, data encryption will help in
overcoming these kinds of challenges (Al Balushi & Ali, 2016).
 Social Barriers: The social issues such as digital divide plays a major challenging
role in the implementation of E government system. It suggests that the people
must have access to the interface. The difference in educational level and income

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has also impacted the society. Digital divides actually divides the population
between two half. The one who is exposed to the benefits of internet and the other
who are not benefited. Therefore, this creates a huge gap and creates two different
community. There are also some area of population who do get potential income
to have access to internet. They cannot afford the internet services and even
computers for themselves and are always refrained from the use of digital gadgets.
Some also lacks necessary skills to operate this services. One of the greatest
method suggested to eliminate this digital divide is to make computers available
for these publics in locations such as shopping malls and libraries.
 Financial Barriers: It is considered to be the most significant factor in
contributing to the barriers of the ICT implementation. The lack of financial
support can affect the performance and the trust of the citizenship. The lack of
money will make it impossible to implement the plan of electronic government.
Though it is a onetime investment but still its execution is bit expensive and
requires a huge budget. Since the government budgetary is already under debt, it
can be hard for them to undertake this implementation unless massive amount of
money is not arranged. The lack of capital investment and the increasing cost of
hardware and software makes a combinational barriers for the government.
 Organizational barriers: the support from the management is necessary to
implement ICT technologies. There must be upper level of mangers or leaders
who looks forward to support the organization in terms of money and resources.
The help of high level leaders will provide effective coordination with the
stakeholders for the success of the E government. The collaboration with partners
is necessary to gain success. The cooperation with the private parties will help in
gaining resources and experiences. The training program can help in the progress

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of these systems. To ensure the success of E government project, the government
must include a training program. The legal awareness of technologies will help the
public to understand in a better manner. a tutorial session or video must get
included which will teach the public how to use the E portal. Electronic portal is a
kind of a webpage which connects the citizen with the government (Anthopoulos
et al., 2016). With the help of the E portal, the public can get any relevant
information that they are looking for.
 Cultural Barriers: the cultural impact of the ICT has created another barrier for
the implementation of E government. The difference in culture in individuality has
made it difficult to use the ICT technologies. There can be some people who is not
comfortable with the new pattern of culture. It is hard for some to access and
adapt the changes in the governmental system.
Conclusion
The paper finally concludes the importance of E government that will help to provide
quality service to the citizens. The idea to increase the public engagement and to serve
independence in administration has attempted to resolve the issues of the public. Therefore
this concept represents the progressing economy. The ICT technologies such s cloud
computing will help in accelerating the e services and will provide advantages from social
and economic communities. The introduction of such technologies will transform the nation
into an integrated informative society. The proper support from the high authorities will
provide better imp0lementaion of ICT. Therefore the E governance will also promote the
concept of good governance. Good governance aims to provide best quality of services to its
citizens and will help to improve the structure of the organization thereby improving the
process of decision making in the organization. Hence the e government system has proved to

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be fruitful and contributes to increase agility, improve efficiency, boosts performance and
reduces costs of the government. The system will have positive impact on the services that
are delivered, development of public policies, and the operation of administration.
From the paper it can be understood that the implementation of this concept involves
various stages that as potential advantages associated with it. However, there are challenges
and barriers that might be faced. The major gaps that are restricting its process needs to to be
filled. Therefore protective measures must be undertaken to reduce the chances of facing
those challenges. The government must re arrange the procedure for the smooth working of
the online services. There must be a balance between preserving the rights of the citizen and
also satisfying their needs with the help of integrated and efficient processes.

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