Future Directions for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

This chapter discusses emerging issues and technologies, such as ethical responsibilities in a changing technological environment, the use of analytics and artificial intelligence, the evolution of communications technology, and the growth of block chain and mobile apps technology. Mobile apps technology is a very exciting development because the nature of the applications is very personal and target specific customer needs, hence gradually resolving the issue of explicitly knowing the customer and meeting its personal needs through the concept of personas. This chapter provides numerous examples of how the various technological developments can be specifically implemented to enhance public service delivery in the digital era. In this context, Chapter 12 has two important implications, namely the impact of the technology trends to revolutionise public service delivery on the operations of government entities and users of government services in the future.

Management Information Systems Needs for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

Chapter 8 continues the path through the ISSP framework described in Chapter 5 by considering the information systems (IS) application needs of government entities to support the identified information requirements. The basic principle is that the organisation needs to identify the information that it requires to run its business and then to determine the application systems that support the information needs. Hence, this approach provides a business-driven model rather than a technology-driven method. The chapter discusses various concepts related to the information resource management, information engineering, database management systems, data warehousing concepts, data mining concepts, business process reengineering, management information systems, decision support systems, executive information systems, and value chain analysis. These concepts link information management with application systems management, thus providing an integrated holistic view of the IS process.

ICT Implementation Considerations for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

The focus of this chapter is on various concepts that need to be carefully considered when defining an information systems strategic plan (ISSP) for enhancing public service delivery in the digital era. The first concept discussed is the critical success factors framework. This framework ensures that the ISSP strategic objectives are aligned with the corporate strategic objectives. The aim is to identify those critical success factors that ensure the successful implementation of the ISSP and to determine whether these factors are being achieved in the implementation process. Secondly, the chapter will consider the general implementation philosophy, including the IS application acquisition methods and the key IS features. This ensures the implementation of value for money IS applications. The third concept considered is related to the justification methods for undertaking IS applications. Finally, the chapter will discuss a number of ICT planning issues that may be applicable to the public sector.

Strategic Review of the Organisation for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

This chapter initiates the pathway through the ISSP framework described in the previous chapter. The chapter focuses on three aspects. It provides the approach for conducting the organisational information systems strategic review applying McFarlan's Strategic Grid. This model helps an organisation to determine the focus of its current application systems, where the entity wishes to be in the future, and generally assess where the competition (or best practice benchmark entity) is currently positioned. The chapter then provides a method to carry out the organisational data usage strategic review applying Marchand's Area of Information Use model. This model aids management to determine to what purpose the current available information is being utilised. Finally, the chapter illustrates how a government entity may conduct a review of its customer persona profiles to enable it to explicitly know its customers, thus enabling it to promote and target its specific services. All the models and techniques applied in this chapter are supported by examples.

Defining the Organisation's Needs for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

This chapter has the objective of defining a practical framework to define an ISSP for government entities to enhance public service delivery in the digital era. However, before it defines this framework, the chapter addresses a number of important and fundamental concepts. The chapter starts by addressing the confusion of terminology by providing an unambiguous explanation regarding the differences between various terms, such as information technology (IT), information systems (IS), and information communications technology (ICT), amongst others. The chapter then focuses on specifically identifying the end user and examining the role of the end user by relating the discussion to the research of the previous chapters regarding the ICT strategy-centric aspects. The chapter concludes with a practical ISSP framework that aims to provide enhanced public service delivery in the digital era.

The Impact of an ISSP on Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

This chapter analyses the recommendations made in previous chapters, particularly those related to defining the ICT strategies of governments. The purpose of this analysis is to identify the management disciplines that come into play when defining an ISSP. Ten management disciplines were identified: corporate strategy, public administration processes and reform activities, human resources, operations, technology, customer relations, legal aspects, data utilisation, security, and managing of projects. These management themes are considered critical for the formulation of the ISSP. This chapter also analyses the relationship of the ISSP with the identified management disciplines and shows why defining an ISSP is a complex undertaking. Throughout the chapter, real-life examples are provided to illustrate the various points. The chapter discusses the impact of an ISSP on governments and public administration organisations in supporting corporate strategies and creating economic growth. The chapter posits that the ISSP document is as good as the futuristic vision of the nation's leaders.

Defining the Information Systems Strategic Plan for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

Chapter 11 is the final chapter within Section 2 and specifically addresses the issue of defining and formulating the information systems strategic plan (ISSP) for public service delivery in the digital era. This chapter commences by discussing the key objectives of an ISSP and through this discussion links the lessons learnt through the research findings from Chapter 3. The chapter also examines the IS and IT strategic planning process and identifies the inputs for defining the ISSP. Basically, this chapter links the findings from the previous chapters to the ISSP input mechanism. Once this is completed, the chapter provides a step-by-step description for defining and formulating the ISSP document that is supported by examples.

Recommended ICT Values for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

Chapter 4 is the final chapter in Section 1. It elaborates further on the principles discussed in the three previous chapters. It outlines a number of strategic objectives in the quest for change. The chapter discusses a suggested multi-centricity model that is based upon the five centric pillars mentioned throughout the first four chapters. This multi-centricity model prescribes a number of fundamental principles that should be considered in formulating government ICT strategies. This chapter also examines the latest technology trends to achieve IT-enabled services that are viewed as key to immediate economic development. It also examines the internet of things and communication trends that are seen as the door to the future for public service delivery and a fast way forward for future innovation. The chapter concludes by cautioning governments that failing to make the transition to the new digital environment will likely see them experience significant negative consequences.

Analysis of National ICT Strategies for USA, EU, India, South East Asia, and Australasia

This chapter examines available secondary research data from various national ICT government strategies of the USA, EU, India, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand to determine the centric inclination of these strategies and how these strategies support and facilitate public service delivery in the digital era. This research had the objective of determining the major ICT trends of the respective countries by five dimensions, namely citizen centric, civil society centric, business centric, government administration centric, and technology centric. The ICT strategies from the various geographical regions may be summed up by two aims, as expressed by the USA President Obama in his directive “Roadmap for a Digital Government” of 2012, namely to use technology to make a real difference in people's lives (i.e., government reinvention through the transformation of processes) and to innovate more and enable entrepreneurs to better leverage government data to improve the quality of services to the general public (i.e., utilisation of information for improved decision making).

Organisational Information Needs for Public Service Delivery in the Digital Era

Chapter 7 continues the path through the ISSP framework by considering the information needs of the government entities. However, before it applies various suggested models, the chapter discusses concepts related to the transformation of data to information to knowledge and to wisdom. The chapter discusses this transformation process in detail, including the knowledge-based economy and knowledge management. Once these various concepts are addressed, the chapter focuses on the application of various models to explicitly determine the information needs of the government entity by providing a step by step description of the procedure for doing this, with supporting examples for each step. The outcome of this process is the entity's information gap and resultant database contents for the government organisation under examination.