Doing it Tough: Factors Impacting on Local e-Government Maturity

As growing numbers of citizens seek to use the Internet to do business, governments across the world have moved into the area of electronic service delivery. For the last decade significant advancements have been made in the area of e-Government. Today, e-Government is often assumed to be wellestablished. However, ongoing support is often missing, particularly at the local government level. The multi-level nature of government often means that citizens are frustrated when accessing services that span many levels of bureaucracy. This paper describes an empirical study which explores the factors influencing local egovernment maturity and identifies the barriers, enablers, priorities and objectives that impact on local e-government maturity in Australia. It concludes by presenting a model that describes both the internal and external factors that impact on local government maturity.