Abstract/Summary

e-Government is an increasingly important strategy to enable the public sector to realise the benefits of the Internet and a shift to digital technologies. This research reports on and addresses the challenges faced by e-government initiatives that are intended to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery and meet citizens’ expectations. Specifically, e-government in the UK and the Republic of Ireland is claimed on the whole to be successful, yet this and prior research identifies significant challenges. Studies of IT alignment with strategic objectives have been conducted mainly in the private sector and there is a shortage of research focusing on the public sector. Given this and the mismatch of expectations and results, an exploratory research methodology has been adopted, within a conceptual framework derived from prior studies. As a result, this research was conducted from an interpretive stance utilising case studies and qualitative data sources such as semi-structured interviews, milestone documents and archival records. The scope comprises two substantial public-sector IT projects, namely the Directgov Portal (UK) and Revenue-on-Line (ROI), offering a longitudinal perspective covering a period of over ten years. One key finding has been that e-government is often overly concerned with technical delivery and efficiency savings, and not as much with the required organisational and business change. Furthermore, initiatives fail to engage sufficiently the multiple stakeholders and intended users. Larger, complex projects are more likely to fail for reasons such as over-ambition in the planning process and overstating the benefits of the intended system. Lack of understanding by the commissioning bodies as to the intricacies of IT projects can also inhibit success and thus the attainment of best ‘value for money’. Many of these points can be categorised as alignment issues. The conclusions, and new issues that emerge from the study, help to conceptualise the successful strategic alignment of the adoption of e-government services. The resulting conceptual framework, along with recommendations, adds value to the existing body of academic knowledge with regard e-government projects, and offers insights for further research. In addition, the results are intended to introduce practitioners and policy-makers supporting the evolution and implementation of such systems to an efficient, effective, and citizen-centric design paradigm that yields public value.