E-government and e-services

E-Government and E-Services –

Norway 2013

for IBE250

February 2013

What is e-government? E-government is the use of 

ICT to interact with citizens and other sectors.

• E-government uses IT and EC to provide:

– Convenient access to government information and 

services

– Delivery and support of public services

– Efficient and effective method of conducting 

business transactions

• Digital online access to information

• Online transaction services for citizens

•Community Administrations are taking a more holistic 

approach for adopting e-Services into their communities. 

•Communities use of e-services are only one level of e-

government. Often these e-services must be introduced 

and integrated at community, county (fylke), state, 

national and international levels. 

A view of e-Government in Norway (2003) 

Categories of e-government

• G2C (Government to Citizen)

• G2B (Government to Business)

• G2G (Government to Government)

• G2E (Government to Employee)

Categories of e-democracy

• C2C (Citizen to Citizen)

What is e-democracy?

• E-democratic perspectives on citizens stress the deliberative 

qualities of the human being. It means that the citizens are 

assumed to reflect on social conditions and express their 

opinions in ongoing debates. This is an important difference to 

the perspective of e-government which considers the citizens as 

customers and clients with different needs and desires. The 

purpose of e-government is to meet peoples demand concerning 

e.g. social service in the most effective and economic way. 

Citizen participation as conception and empirical 

phenomenon is a condition of e-governance; in particular of a 

vivid e-democracy since citizen participation seems as an 

imperative for deliberation and real debate. – Signe Bock 

Segaard (UIB)

• In e-democracy, it is not only the communication between 

politicians and citizen (G2C) that is important, but also the 

communication between citizens (C2C). 

Major Categories of 

Applications of E-Government

• Government-to-citizens (G2C)

– enabling citizens to interact with the government 

from their homes

– Citizens Benefits:

• Find all the information on the Web

• Ask questions and receive answers

• Pay tax and bills

• Receive payments and documents

Major Categories of Applications

of E-Government (cont.)

– Governments (services)

• Disseminate information

• Conduct training

• Help find employment

– Electronic benefits transfer (EBT) is an example of 

G2C applications

• System relies on a single smart card that 

accesses cash and food benefits

• Recipients get e-transfers to bank account or 

download to smart card

• Reduces fraud

Major Categories of Applications

of E-Government (cont.)

• Government-to-business and business–to-

government (G2B)

– E-procurement

• Large amounts of MROs and materials direct 

from many suppliers

• Uses basically a reverse auction system

– E-auctions

• Auction surpluses from vehicles to real estate

• May use 3

rd

-party site

Major Categories of Applications

of E-Government (cont.)

• Government-to-government (G2G)

– Intelink—sharing information between intelligence 

agencies

– Buyers.gov—general services administration

– Federal case registry—health and human services

– Procurement marketing and access network—small 

business administration

• Government-to-employees— (G2E)

– Payment for employees

Vision from 2001:

The Stages of E-Government

Source: Deloitte Research (see Wong, 2001).

Implementing E-Government

• Stage 1: information publishing/dissemination

– Individual government departments set up their own Web 

sites that provide:

• Information about them

• Range of services available

• Contacts for further assistance

• Stage 2: official two-way transactions

– Using legally valid digital signatures and secure Web 

sites, customers:

• Submit personal information

• Conduct monetary transactions

– Customers must be convinced that:

• System keeps their information private

• System is free of piracy 

Implementing E-Government (cont.)

• Stage 3: multipurpose portals

– Customer-centric governments enhance service 

delivery 

– Customer needs can cut across department 

boundaries, portal allows customers to use single 

point-of-entry to:

• Send and receive information

• Process monetary transactions across multiple 

departments

– Access to Government managed, centralized 

databases

Implementing E-Government (cont.)

• Stage 4: portal personalization

– Customers can access a variety of services at a single 

Web site

• Customers can customize portals with their desired 

features

• Requires sophisticated Web programming allowing 

interfaces

• Added benefit is that governments get a more 

accurate read on customer preference

– Electronic services

– Non-electronic services

Implementing E-Government (cont.)

• Stage 5: clustering of common services

– All real transformation of government structure takes shape here

– Customers see a unified package instead of once-disparate 

services

– Distinction between departments begins to blur

– Recognize groups of transactions instead of groups of agencies

• Stage 6: full integration and enterprise transformation 

– Digital encyclopedia is now:

• Full-service center

• Personalized to each customer’s needs and preferences

– Old walls defining services are torn down

– Technology integrated across new government 

structure bridging gap between front and back offices

Reference (Norwegian Government, 2012):  

http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/FAD/Kampanje/

DAN/Regjeringensdigitaliseringsprogram/digit_pr

g_eng.pdf

Digitizing public sector 

services Norwegian

eGovernment Program 

2012

Need for coordination between subsectors

Principles of the eGovernment Program of Norway

1.

Digital communication is to be the general rule for communication 

with the public sector

2.

The public sector is to provide unified and user-friendly digital 

services

3.

Login to public online services is to be simple and secure

4.

Citizens and businesses will receive mail from the public sector in a 

secure digital mailbox

5.

Citizens and businesses will be notified via SMS text messages and 

e-mail

6.

Necessary assistance is to be provided to citizens to ensure they will 

be able to find and use digital services

7.

Development of ICT solutions is to be viewed in the context of the 

public sector’s work processes and organization

8.

Protection of privacy and information security are to be safeguarded

9.

Digitization measures of relevance for several services are to be 

coordinated

Concepts:

•eID

•ID-gateway

•MyID (level 3 secure)

•eID (level 4, e-signature)

•eID for suppliers

•national ID card (valid travel)

•ID-gateway

4.1 Work and Welfare (p.32)

by 2020. Pensions already on

new principles.  

4.2 Health and care 

– pp.33-35

•Electronic prescriptions (e-resept)

•Automatic exemption cards

•Helsenorge.no portal

•National patient summary

•Smart buildings

•Helsenett

4.4 Tax

4.6 Municipalities

6.7 Information on quality

Examples of Levels of E-

government in Norway

State Level: 

www.regjeringen.no

and

http://tjenester.norge.no

Fylke Level: 

www.mr-fylke.org

Community: 

www.molde.kommune.no