This post shares highlights from a summary of Accenture’s 2007 report on egovernment Leadership in Customer Service: Delivering on the Promise

This annual report, the eighth issued by Accenture, is a global scorecard ranking the progress of e-Government initiatives and best practices from 22 countries (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States).

I’ll start with the US and then highlight notable developments in other countries (emphasis mine in all quotes):

United States

“While the United States came in third
overall in our rankings, it lost some ground
to both Canada and Singapore, which
both ranked several places higher than
the United States in the citizen voice
component of our rankings.”

“Last year, we commented that although
the US eGovernment program had been
very successful, the government needed
to evaluate whether its current service
agenda would be adequate for building
the trust with citizens in the future.
We believe that advice still stands today.
The United States has a very implementation focused
agenda, and this is undeniably
one of its strengths. The government makes
things happen. The piece that still needs
further development, however, is incorporating
the citizens’ voice.“

On a different note, further in the review of US e-Gov performance:

“An interesting example of the type
of collaboration the United States hopes
to foster comes from the increasing
interest and use of “wikis.””

The report goes on to mention NIH’s experimentation with a closed wiki (only registered members may participate), and NASA’s use of a public wiki to manage the source code and ongoing development of World Wind, a satellite viewing software.

Here are some of the innovative things that are happening in other countries:

Canada

“Canada has developed standing panels of citizens that
the government can tap at any point to get
direct and detailed feedback about service
plans and performance. The government
uses this capability as a near-instant focus
group. More important, policy-advisors
distribute transcripts of the actual dialogue
with citizens to decision makers along with
summaries and conclusions. In this way,
government leaders “hear” the true voice
of the citizen for themselves and factor it
into their decisions.”

Denmark

“Government officials
conducted what they called “Future
Seminars,” in which members of the public
sector and others brainstormed big ideas
about the citizens of 2012 and about how
to translate their likely expectations into an
implementable plan. They then took their
forward look at what the citizen outcomes
needed to be in 2012 and determined
what service development steps could be
undertaken with the capabilities of 2008.”

Norway

“We have eDemocracy issues on the agenda
and there are systems already in place
for citizens to be able to contribute to this
kind of debate. But I think such debates
will mostly be conducted at a local level,
because the citizens, as far as I can observe—
and in Norway maybe particularly—are
mostly concerned about local issues in the
municipalities, and the issues concerning
their nearest environment,” explains
Katarina de Brisis, Senior Advisor for the
Department of IT Policy in the Norwegian
Ministry of Government Administration
and Reform.”

Singapore

“While Singapore exhibits strength in
multichannel integration, its clear intent
is to continue to push its tech-savvy
citizens toward efficient online channels,
particularly mobile channels. Singapore
has one of the world’s highest mobile
penetration rates; currently citizens and
businesses have mobile access to
approximately 150 government services,
with mGovernment becoming an
increasingly important delivery channel.
The government aims to have at least
300 mGovernment services available
by 2008. In addition, in July of 2006, the
government also introduced a common
SMS number 74688 (SGOVT) and format
for new SMS-based government mobile
services, to simplify use for customers.
Future service channel options may include
voice recognition and interactive TV—
both of which the government has recently
piloted.”

The report summary lays out a path that is partly descriptive and (from my read of the text, partly prescriptive):

“Taken together, our four key findings
paint a dramatic new picture and lay out
a new direction for customer service in
government. National governments will
be using sophisticated tools and analysis
to develop a deep and nuanced understanding
of the wants and needs of their
citizens—as individuals, in families and
in communities. They will be putting solid
infrastructures in place to implement
excellent service delivery and transforming
their workforces into smaller organizations
of highly skilled service entrepreneurs.
Then they will contribute their resources
and their effort, along with those of other
members of the social ecosystem, to drive
the outcomes their citizens demand.”

e-Government efforts thus far focus overwhelmingly on using technology and leading business practices to improve the delivery of government services. The other side of e-Government, the empowerment and engagement of citizens has not recieved the same focus or energy, in part due to lack of clarity as to how to do that. This is changing, as the emerging phenomenon of social media/web 2.0 begins to hint at the kind of citizen engagement and direct participation that is possible.