E-govt inches towards success

A review of government's online strategy has revealed improvements in availability, content freshness and general look and feel.

However, bad apples such as the home affairs, Cipro and Ministry of State Security Web sites, mean the room for improvement is vast.

So say online strategy experts, Howard Rybko, CEO of Syncrony; and Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx.

Rybko points to government's online strategy, dating back to 2001, to deliver economic and social development in the form of e-services and e-government, arguing that an effective online presence underpins the success of these goals.

To this end, Rybko feels government is making strides in achieving its goal. “Most government sites have up-to-date information available on their home pages. This is a major achievement which clearly demonstrates delivery of the government's commitment to online service delivery.”

Goldstuck agrees there is some cohesion in government's use of the service delivery perspective online. He argues, however, that government doesn't appear to have an integrated online strategy that embraces all agencies and arms of national and local government from both an information and service delivery perspective.

Both experts point to examples of where government's online strategy is succeeding and where it is failing.

Goldstuck highlights the gemstone in government's online strategy. “The big success story is the SARS Web site, which has transformed tax filing through the e-filing system. At the same time, it has worked hard to benchmark itself against the best internal revenue agency sites in the world; although it does not succeed on many scores, it is moving in the right direction.”

Rybko took a different approach, reviewing 28 government Web sites focusing on availability, content freshness, general look and feel, and cross-browser compatibility.

According to his review, government scored 96% for availability. “Only one out of the 28 sites was not available and listed as under construction (safety and security). This is a really good result,” he explains.

Content freshness scored 85%, according to Rybko. “Almost 100% of all the 27 available sites had news items newer than one month old. This shows a strong commitment to maintaining a relevant online presence. About half the sites have news items less than a week old.”

Rybko rated general look and feel at 65% - but had mixed feelings about this category. “Usually putting up a government Web site hinges on getting a ton of information across using a look and feel that is based on a hideously antiquated and garish department logo. Some of the 28 sites have indeed stuck to the knitting and produced serviceable but bland offerings.”

Lastly, cross-browser compatibility scored 60%. “Although it is vital to check sites across Web browser platforms, some of the sites have obviously been developed for Internet Explorer (IE) only. For example, the Department of Education site becomes unusable in some non-IE browsers. More work needs to be done in this area,” he advises.

Both Rybko and Goldstuck have identified government Web sites that just don't make the cut. For Goldstuck, the Ministry of State Security has failed in its implementation.

“The Ministry of State Security has always had a dodgy site - either badly designed or not accessible. Right now it's down, which is an improvement on an astonishingly bad site when Ronnie Kasrils was minister,” he notes.

Rybko says the Cipro Web site has been a source of ongoing frustration and embarrassment since 2009. “Major technical issues have plagued the system, and services offered from the site have been erratic or simply not available over various periods of this year.

“Access to services and information is hidden behind a navigational maze that flies out over a chain of notices that disappear below the screen and seem to continue downwards en route to the centre of the earth,” he adds.

However, Rybko awards the worst government Web site of 2010 award to the Department of Home Affairs. “The site needs a complete rewrite. It has an arcane navigation system that seems to dare the user to find where to click and all styling is lost beyond the home page.”

Overall, Rybko gives government's online strategy a B+ rating. He suggests the ongoing goal for government sites should be to continue to move paper-based processes online.

“This does not mean providing PDF documents for download, a pernicious practice evident on all government sites. Having a PDF online is often considered to be the end of the process of going digital. Nothing could be further from the truth,” argues Rybko.

“Making it possible for citizens to complete processes online that used to require standing in queues is a goal that is definitely achievable by building on our current online capabilities,” he adds.

“Our Web agility benchmarking system has rated the best of the government sites at between 60% and 70%, which gets those close to a B, but the worst score between 30% and 40%, which would be an F, so the average would have to be a D+. They pass, but would benefit from extra lessons,” concludes Goldstuck.

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