Constitute the next-generation e-government system

The major functions of government lie in economy regulation, market supervision, social administraton and public service.Then what is e-government? It aims at enhancing the lawful administration level of government departments by adopting electronic and network means to execute the four functions of government, as Neusoft understands.

Constitute the next-generation e-government system

Lu Zhaoxia deciphers e-government system

Lu Zhaoxia, senior vice president of Neusoft Co., Ltd.

Digital city, digital government, digital civil affairs administration, and digital environment have all together formed the upsurge of e-government.What lies behind the upsurge is the transformation of government functions and of the working and practice of public servents.In this profound social reform, what is the key role that e-government system construction plays? What are the most difficult points in e-government system construction? How shall we build the next-generation e-government system? How shall we evaluate the benefits brought about by e-government? Senior vice president Lu Zhaoxia of Neusoft Co., Ltd. has formed her original "theory" in e-government in her long-term work practice.

If we break down the city in which we are living by flows, the first is flow of people, the shifting of people; the second is goods flow, and the third is capital flow that accompanies people flow and goods flow. No matter it is people flow, goods flow or capital flow, information flow is always accompanying them. And therefore, the next-generation e-government system is based on information processing. It is an on-line processing information system focusing on serving the needs of enterprises and city residents.

E-government in Neusoft's eyes

Premier Zhu pointed out in his government work report 2002 that the major functions of government lie in economy regulation, market supervision, social administraton and public service.Then what is e-government? It aims at enhancing the lawful administration level of government departments by adopting electronic and network means to execute the four functions of government, as Neusoft understands.

The development of e-government has undergone two stages. The first one started at the end of 1980s when the state and local organizations began to launch office automation projects and thus set up various internal information office networks.The second stage began with the "Three Jin Projects" started up at the end of 1993, namely Jinqiao Project, Jinguan Project and Jinka Project.These projects laid an emphasis on building information infrastructure and transmitting data and information to important industries and departments.

On January 22, 1999, jointly sponsored by China Telecom and Economic Information Center of National Economy and Trade Committee, "Government Accessing the Internet Project" was initiated by more than 40 information administration departments of national-level government departments and committees.As statistics shows, up till now, more than 50% government agencies above county level have completed the preliminary construction of internet connection infrastructure, which technically enabled the information publication through internet.

In recent two years, e-government began to develop toward a higher level.This development trend is seen in the following three aspects.Firstly, many local governments have included the building of national economy and society information infrastructure as an inportant content in the tenth "five-year-plan".

And as a result, many coastal cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Tianjing proposed plans for building digital cities or digital ports with e-government system building as the core content.Secondly, professional websites of government service are increasing in number, service scope, function and interactivity.

Industrial commerce, customs, central taxation, and local taxation departments of both the central and the local governments began to offer business and service through internet. Thirdly, with constantly improved security, the development of e-government system has dramatically promoted China software industry.

So far, major domestic IT enterprises have released their e-government solutions one after an other other and they have been actively promoting the development and perfection of China-feaured e-government office system.

In terms of e-government system application, it covers all the functions of government departents. The application consists of four components.The first one is network including foundation framework and development tools. The second one is system platform containing operation system, relational database and email system.

The third one is e-government application system covering extensive areas like labor, public security, medicine and health, civil affairs, culture and education, finance, taxation, social insurance, auditing, enterprise management,etc. And the fourth one is decisionmaking support including macroeconomy regulation, policy and law enaction,thought bank, function analysis, virtual city, etc.

The most important link: restructure of government business process

The key point in e-government system construction virtually lies in a combination of IT infrastructure building and administration reform whose foremost task is business process restructure.Attention should be paid to combining the long-term planning with short-term goals and to the construction cycle of information platform.

On the other hand, as the information infrastructure construction is in large scale, it requires a unified planning and step-by-step implementation. The construction should start with local boosting campaign into overall planning and then develop into network integration, data centralization, information interaction at application layer and thus shifting the fucus from technology-driving to satisfying business needs.

The most difficult part: co-ordination of information infrastructure throughout the society

Because the e-government system is currently in its starting stage, its standards and regualations need to be constantly upgraded. Further more, as the various government departments are involved in the e-government system, coordination between them has become a task of first importance.In addition to these, data security is a difficult task in building this e-government system. In order to overcome all these difficulties and improve the current situation, it is necessary to build the next-generation e-government system.

The most urgent task:

Constitute the next-generation e-government system

The current integrated e-government system consists of four layers of relationships, namely government vs enterprises, government vs city residents, government vs suppliers/partners and government vs its internal employees.

At present, the most urgent task is to build the next-generation e-government system. This next-generation e-government system should be focused on city residents and should have a considerable advancement over the present one. While the present e-government system provides public service, the future e-government system will enable the public to select services.

The present system offers coordinating public services and the future system will be offering online public services. The present system is like a digital isolated island, which has chimney-styled organazation with comparatively weak system and different sources of information and is mainly used in employee management with a focus on internal affairs handling.

However, the future e-government system will realize digital democracy, and it will be an organization integrating the functions of consistant business, correct information, employee self-help service, communitiy coordination, intelligent government.

The development of e-government system can be divided into four stages: the first stage is on-line information; the second unidirectional interaction; the third bidirectional interaction and the fourth total online transaction including deliver order and payment.

Network is the core in constituting the next-generation e-government system.Since software is indispensible to network, it is practically the core of e-government system. Software is service which includes consultation, integration and personnel training, while in the past service was always intepreted as after-sale service.

It is not the case now for service.The service today is defined as maintenance. Software has a life cycle and regular check, return visit and modification are necessary for its proper functioning. With the constant alternating of software life cycle, manufacturers are also needed to provide tracking service to find out problems and solve problems for customers.

Service is also an attitude

Neusoft believes that software is an attitude and practically service is also an attitude. Attitude is the decesive factor to everything. No matter it is active service or passive service, it reflects an attitude. Service is also a responsibility, which indicates that manufacturers should think and solve questions from where the customers stand and they should offer service with high responsibility.

Service is also ability. Only when we have comprehensive abilities to solve problems can we offer better service to our customers, and of course, this ability is acquired through study and accumulation. Responsibility and ability also substantially reflect an attitude. And therefore, Neusoft believe that attitude is important to constituting the next-generation e-government system.