The other side of the coin: the e-government implementation in an Italian municipality

This paper ad to the body of knowledge on the implementation ofthe e-Government and aims to describe how this process was carried out inthe Delta municipality in Northern Italy. This organization is a public organization in an economically important Region and provides services to entrepreneurs such as validation for opening a new business. An interpretativeapproach used with several interviewees including managers and office employees permitted the collection of insights on the three main phases of implementation identified. However, despite efforts to reduce the costs, time,and bureaucracy involved, two years after the introduction of the informationtechnology tools, the process had not improved. The duration of the validation process had decreased by only one day and the quality of the service to citizens was no better. With regards to factors hampering the process, our findings highlighted concerns about the governance’s mismanagement of the process in all phases of the implementation. Further, the Delta municipality case study analysis suggested that more studies are needed to better understand the barriers that impeded the implementation from focusing on governance in terms of workflow and organizational change. (Less)