Sunday, 5 February 2012
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Tax and Revenue Management: A government’s lifeblood
IT has provided the opportunities for governments to remodel the entire process of tax collection over the last decade. It is, however, a continuously evolving process and governments the world over need to constantly upgrade their tax systems to optimise their revenue workflows.
Unlocking Public Value
A recent SAP study confirmed that those organisations which adopt best practices in the areas of scope and adoption, process standardisation, technology and customer governance, do perform better, and do so as their best practice maturity increases.
Governments and Socialising
The advent of social media has seen governments hopping onto the bandwagon in a bid to further engage citizens.
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Central Government, Citizen Engagement
Australia: turned off by telephone, turned on by online
Fresh research spurs government to experiment with social media.
The Australian government released a report: “Interacting with Government: Australians’ Use and Satisfaction with e-Government Services – 2008” showing that the online channel has left traditional routes to accessing government services in the dust. Now the first and only contact with government is online, rather than in person or on the telephone.
Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation said: “Over the four years this study has been undertaken we have seen successive increases in use of the internet as a tool to interact with government.”
The results of the 2008 study is seen to demonstrate the increasing importance of online service delivery and the potential role new technologies could play in assisting governments to reach out and engage with citizens. When the survey was first done in 2005, Australians made their contact with government in person.
Tanner says that the study provides vital insight “not only into how and why people use e-government services, but also how they would like to do so in future”.
“That is why the Government is about to conduct trials involving Web 2.0 technology as a means of undertaking public consultation with the wider community. The 2008 study reinforces many of the trends seen in previous years while also dispelling some assumptions about who is using the internet, and how and why they are doing so.”
Results show that older Australians are using the internet more, and Australians of all ages are using it to contact government. New technologies are being used by all age groups, in all parts of Australia. Large numbers of people who are already using the internet to contact government also use blogs, social networking websites and wikis.
The focus for governments is changing from encouraging greater use of the internet to providing e-government services that meet the needs and preferences of the population. While Australians now regard the internet as a key way of interacting with government, they continue to identify areas where the delivery of e-government services could be improved. Such improvements may have the potential to lead to ever increasing use of e-government services.
Tanner said: “Research such as this study highlights the opportunities we have to improve government services by applying new technologies, providing secure and trusted environments and making the ways of interacting with government simple, convenient and easy to use.”
“Citizen-centric delivery of government services is evolving; governments must continue to keep pace with technological change and meet public expectations about how government services should be delivered.”
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