1. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 1 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Prof. Elio Borgonovi Dr. Valentina Mele “Central-Local government in the Member States of EU in the field of e-Government”

2. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 2 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Why “Central-Local government in the Member States of EU in the field of e-Government”? Because E-Gov is organised through functional processes Because of orizontal and vertical integration among levels of Government Because we should start thinking of pan-European services

3. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 3 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Vision on benchmarking Benchmarking E-Government policies in Europe does not aim at appointing "champions" or identifying "winners," but at initiating a learning process whereby experiences can be fruitfully exchanged and good practices can be spread, so as to improve policies. E-Government good-practices has to move beyond copying of styles and discourses, to a thorough understanding of practice, function and performance.

4. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 4 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Building blocks l Who does what? l How does it work? l Does it work? l Structure (Institutions) l Functioning (Processes) l Critical issues

5. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 5 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Network mapping Institutional assets and level of devolution Institutional Actors involved in E-gov Resources for E-gov Responsibilities for E-gov methodology Research goals I: STRUCTURE Desk research Questionnaire part A

6. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 6 Rome, 13 th May 2004 1.POLICY AND STRATEGY DEFINITION 2.SERVICE DELIVERY 3.FINANCING Network functioning Questionnaire part B Interviews Research goals II: FUNCTIONING

7. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 7 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Identifying critical issues and emerging themes of coordination between central and local government in the field of e-Government Research goals III: ASSESSMENT Comparative analysis + focus group with the members of the E-Government working group

8. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 8 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Organizational structure IN THE GREAT MAJORITY OF THE MEMBER STATES THERE IS A CENTRAL AGENCY/UNIT/DEPARTMENT IN CHARGE OF E-GOV public sector typical over-reliance on organizational design number and heterogeneity of activities willingness to signal a high priority to the E-Government objectives Why?

9. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 9 Rome, 13 th May 2004 National strategy & policy making In most of the countries the formulation of a National strategy for E-gov is drafted by the Central body, and then showed/discussed/submitted to Local Administrations or to their Associations Active in all the 15 member states

10. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 10 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Integrated Service Delivery l For on-line service delivery, possible problems of co- ordination seem to be traditional ones, such as the definition of strategies, rules and standards by levels that do not deliver the service directly l In terms of co-ordination for delivering a joint service, most of the countries mainly provide data sharing, access to registries & databases. Some also provide expertise, approval and opinions. l Businesses are included in the online service delivery through outsourcing, PPP, technical intermediation

11. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 11 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Pan-European service delivery BENEFITs l Larger availability of services l Easier mobility PROBLEMs/CONSTRAINTs l Disomogeneity of service standards throughout the EU l In some member states the services are delivered by the private sector l Missing coherent implementation (authentification, etc) l Trade-off between usefulness for final users and difficult implementation l Low take-up

12. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 12 Rome, 13 th May 2004 How do off-line delivered services benefit from Central- Local co-ordination in E-gov? l Data content is better organized and quality- checked l Backoffice applications have been deployed l Better response time & speed-up the process l Reduction in errors l Services and procedure simplification l Potential for innovative services

13. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 13 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Funding mechanisms l Having ad-hoc funding for E-gov is often considered a fast- tracking mechanism l In few cases there is no specific budget for E-Gov l CRUCIAL ROLE OF CO-FINANCING! Autonomous budget management Special purpose fundsProjects/initiatives submission and selection process

14. ©2004 BOCCONI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIVISION 14 Rome, 13 th May 2004 Lessons learned 1. Including Local Administrations in E-Government strategy definition since from the early stage 2. Increasing the attention to co-ordinating mechanisms 3. Fostering vertical through horizontal subsidiarity 4. Supporting standards rather than standardization 5. Ensuring Central/Local accountability of government on- line presence 6. Considering the bigger EU picture