E-Government Implementation Challenges at Local Level: A Citizens' Centric Perspective

Majority of the studies reported in e-government literature identify the challenges involved in any e-government implementation from technical or project implementation perspective. In contrast, in this study, we take the citizen centric perspective to identify the factors and issues that influence the success of e-government implementation at local level. In this paper, we report the findings of a case study of e-government implementation undertaken recently at a local government authority in the UK. We conducted the study in two phases. During the first phase, we interviewed operational and managerial staff members at a local government authority in the UK who were involved with the e-government implementation. In the second phase, we interviewed 88 citizens to understand the issues and perceptions about e-government services available to them. We use the design-reality gap analysis framework based on seven 'ITPOSMO' dimensions proposed by Heeks to compare and contrast the issues from citizens‟ perspective and those from government perspective. Our findings indicate that the success of e-government at local level requires a strong partnership between local government and citizens. The study results point to lack of clear strategy at local authorities‟ level for changing the way the government interacts with citizens. This paper contributes to our understanding of issues involved in implementing e-government at local level both from citizens‟ perspective and government perspective.