Transformational Government? The role of information technology in delivering citizen-centric local public services

Abstract Following on from five years of ‘electronic government’, the Labour Government has recently announced a new five year plan for ‘transformational government’. Like its predecessor, t-government emphasises the important role of information technology in enabling the delivery of modernised public services. Modernisation is defined as an increasing emphasis on citizen choice, personalisation of services and understanding and responding to service user needs. This paper explores the appropriateness of the t-government agenda by drawing upon lessons learned from the preceding e-government era. Arguably the most significant citizen-focused technology of the e-government era was customer relationship management. The potential of CRM to support service transformation is explored and co-production, an alternative approach to citizen-centric service design, is examined both as a way of addressing weaknesses in IT-enabled service transformation and as a candidate later stage in the evolution of citizen-centric local public services.

[1]  John Saunders,et al.  Principles of Marketing, 2nd edition , 2001 .

[2]  Rodney McAdam,et al.  Evaluating the best value framework in UK local government services , 2004 .

[3]  A. Ho.  Reinventing Local Governments and the E‐Government Initiative , 2002 .

[4]  Peter C. Verhoef,et al.  The commercial use of segmentation and predictive modeling techniques for database marketing in the Netherlands , 2003, Decis. Support Syst..

[5]  R. Cowell.  Community Planning: Fostering Participation in the Congested State? , 2004 .

[6]  J. Richard Alldredge,et al.  Transformational Government: Enabled By Technology , 2005 .

[7]  Ke Te Le Mei Ru He Deng Yi.  Marketing management: analysis. planning. implementation and control , 2000 .

[8]  Ranjit Bose,et al.  Customer relationship management: key components for IT success , 2002, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[9]  G. Wistow.  Modernisation, the NHS Plan and healthy communities. , 2001, Journal of management in medicine.

[10]  GefenDavid,et al.  Implementation Team Responsiveness and User Evaluation of Customer Relationship Management , 2002 .

[11]  M. J. Moon.  The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality? , 2002 .

[12]  K. Orr,et al.  The Modernisation of Local Decision Making: Public Participation and Scottish Local Government , 2004 .

[13]  Geoff Mulgan,et al.  Joined-Up Government: Past, Present, and Future , 2005 .

[14]  C. Hood,et al.  Joined-up government , 2005 .

[15]  Ewan Ferlie,et al.  Changing Public Service Organizations: Current Perspectives and Future Prospects , 2003 .

[16]  Rachel Silcock.  What is E-government , 2001 .

[17]  David Swain,et al.  Measuring Progress: Community Indicators and the Quality of Life , 2003 .

[18]  Mildred E. Warner,et al.  Privatization and Its Reverse: Explaining the Dynamics of the Government Contracting Process , 2004 .

[19]  Ron Kahan,et al.  Using database marketing techniques to enhance your one‐to‐one marketing initiatives , 1998 .

[20]  S. Snape.  Health and Local Government Partnerships: The Local Government Policy Context , 2003 .

[21]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Data completeness: a key to effective net-based customer service systems , 2003, CACM.

[22]  Barbara Wixom,et al.  Realizing Business Benefits Through CRM: Hitting the Right Target in the Right Way , 2002, MIS Q. Executive.

[23]  J. Mawson,et al.  Delivering devolved approaches to local governance , 2003 .

[24]  S. Leach,et al.  Public participation and the democratic renewal agenda: Prioritisation or marginalisation? , 1999 .

[25]  Vivien Lowndes,et al.  Like a Horse and Carriage or a Fish on a Bicycle: How Well do Local Partnerships and Public Participation go Together? , 2004 .

[26]  Leslie M. G. Pang,et al.  Applying Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to Government , 2002 .

[27]  W. Johnston,et al.  An Evaluation of Divergent Perspectives on Customer Relationship Management: Towards a Common Understanding of an Emerging Phenomenon , 2004 .

[28]  Janet Newman,et al.  Developments: Transforming Local Government: Innovation and Modernization , 2001 .

[29]  John R. Miglautsch.  Application of RFM principles: What to do with 1–1–1 customers? , 2002 .

[30]  David Gefen,et al.  Implementation Team Responsiveness and User Evaluation of Customer Relationship Management: A Quasi-Experimental Design Study of Social Exchange Theory , 2002, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[31]  Geoffrey Randall.  Principles of Marketing , 1993 .

[32]  T. Ling.  Delivering joined–up government in the UK: dimensions, issues and problems , 2002 .

[33]  G. Stoker.  Joined-up government for local and regional institutions , 2005 .

[34]  Robert C. Blattberg,et al.  Manage marketing by the customer equity test. , 1996, Harvard business review.

[35]  D. Hendrick,et al.  Introduction , 1998, Thorax.

[36]  Shan Ling Pan,et al.  Using e-CRM for a unified view of the customer , 2003, CACM.

[37]  Jeong Yong Ahn,et al.  On the design concepts for CRM system , 2003, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[38]  Ronald Swift,et al.  Accelerating Customer Relationships: Using Crm and Relationship Technologies , 2000 .

[39]  M. Warner,et al.  Applying Market Solutions to Public Services , 2002 .

[40]  M. Bevir,et al.  Searching for civil society: changing patterns of governance in Britain , 2003 .

[41]  Steve Martin,et al.  The Joy of Joining Up: Modes of Integrating the Local Government Modernisation Agenda , 2003 .

[42]  Alexandra J. Campbell.  Creating customer knowledge competence: managing customer relationship management programs strategically , 2003 .

[43]  P. Beynon-Davies,et al.  Electronic Local Government and the Modernisation Agenda: Progress and Prospects for Public Service Improvement , 2004 .

[44]  Ronald S. Swift,et al.  Executive Response: CRM is Changing Our Eras, the Information We Require, and Our Processes? , 2002, MIS Q. Executive.

[45]  Frank Bannister,et al.  Dismantling the silos: extracting new value from IT investments in public administration , 2001, Inf. Syst. J..

[46]  George Alexander Boyne,et al.  What is public service improvement , 2003 .