2. Transformational government: packaged services

A much smaller range of countries is using the development of e-government as a catalyst to rethink the delivery of government services. French citizens for example, are high users of the Internet and are used to using IT as a means of accessing information, and obtaining services. The French government therefore is expecting a high uptake of government e-services as they are developed. E-government is seen as a part of a comprehensive public management reform agenda. [Commission for the Reform of the State, Preparing France's entry into the information society, 1998 (www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr)]

A number of steps have therefore been taken to ensure that French citizens are prepared for the implementation of government e-services. This includes the provision of Internet access points through local Post Offices. Internet skills are now accepted as one of the core competencies expected of French public servants.

It was difficult to ascertain from the literature how much progress has been made in France towards providing full transactional government services to French citizens at this stage, but it is apparent that the platform for such services is being well laid, and that the long-term transformational potential of online government services is recognised, and being accounted for.