eGovernment Strategy:
One third of New Zealand councils have no strategy to design, build or launch eGovernment services and few follow the central government’s e-GIF principals sufficiently. (Link to e-GIF principals here )
Delivering Services:
Most council’s cater for the information-getting side of engagement but ‘two-way functionality’ which is a precursor for authentic engagement with citizens is notably limited.
Promoting eGovernment to users:
Council’s rely most heavily on the local paper to advertise eGovernment services (a method unsuited to targeting youth) however, web promotion of eGovernment services is increasingly popular but still underutilised.
Enabling variety in Communication:
100% of councils utilise council websites
75% utilise email
17% utilise sms (txt) messaging
11% utilise RSS feeds (although four Auckland councils did)
11% utilise Blog formats
3% utilise Wiki formats
2% utilise Digital Broadcasting
0% utilise Podcasts
Judging eGovernment success:
The criteria most adopted by councils in relation to judging the success of their eGovernment programmes is related to their ‘development/cost-saving’, with ”benefit to users’ the second most used criteria (placing this as the main criteria for evaluation would help foster user-centric eGovernment, thus make it more effective).
View the report at: www.lgnz.co.nz/library/files/store_020/BenchmarkingReport_e_government.pdf
To go back to eGovernment use in New Zealand click here.