Transforming Government: Management Challenges of the E-Government Revolution (Manuscripts‪)‬

INTRODUCTION: THE DAWN OF E-GOVERNMENT Back in 1997, a report from KPMG Consulting stated that the public sector was facing a "crisis of expectations"--a widening gap between the capabilities of government to provide services and the needs and demands of citizens. In short, all public sector agencies had to face a looming reality; namely, that "the same old ways" would simply have to be transformed in a challenging new environment, moving from a resource or agency-based perspective to more of a customer or needs-based approach. Successful leaders in the public sector were thus challenged to focus on "What do our customers need and how can we provide it?", as opposed to "What can we do with what we got?" (KPMG Consulting, 1997, 14). E-government is certainly a buzzword today--and properly so. In the observation of Tim Bergin, an American University Professor of Computer Science: "The purpose of government is to collect taxes, provide infrastructure like roads and highways, supply people with information and to serve as the intermediary, and you can do it all online" (Caterinicchia & Haubold, 2000, 32).