The Implementation of Citizen - Centred E - Government : a Stakeholder Viewpoint

E-Government provides unprecedented opportunities to improve citizen services and achieve cost efficiencies through process change. As a result, implementation models have been developed to support the successful attainment of citizen-centred e-government. This paper reports from a comprehensive study of e-government implementation in Ireland, conducted over the last two years, the outcome of which is assessed from the view-point of multiple stakeholders. This paper argues that the potential of the Internet to transform service delivery has influenced the focus of implementation models for e-government, precipitating governments to concentrate on achieving webenabled service delivery and ignoring wider issues of stakeholder management and involvement. A central problem in Information Systems (IS) is the mismatch in expectation of what IS can and cannot deliver; in the context of egovernment in Ireland, IS has not delivered the hoped for panacea. This paper argues that the role of stakeholder involvement should be an essential component of implementation strategy in order to develop realistic and achievable expectations of the capability and function of e-government.