Conclusions

Conclusions

All agencies use the Internet, including websites and records on the government portal, to provide ready access to government information and services.

Conclusions have been measured against the Strategy's three outcomes of convenience and satisfaction, integration and efficiency, and participation. The Achieving E-government project included feedback from e-government surveys and EGU contributions where appropriate.

Conclusions range from being quite specific, especially relating to good practice on websites, compliance with the Government Web Guidelines, and metadata, through to more general conclusions regarding the e-government programme and agencies' alignment with the Strategy.

Conclusions have wide applicability for agencies and the EGU. As agencies' e-government achievements differ and agencies have different roles, not all the conclusions refer to every agency. For example, some agencies do not provide services, some agencies have minimal contact with the public, and some agencies only work with specific groups of people.

Convenience and satisfaction

People will be able to find details of a wide range of government services on the Internet.
- 2004 goal

Agencies have achieved the June 2004 target of convenience and satisfaction by using websites, including the government portal, to provide ready access to information. Although the quality of websites and metadata records for the portal varies considerably, many agencies have websites and metadata records of a high standard. Generally, agency websites and the government portal provide the public with a good level of ready access to government information and services.

Feedback from e-government surveys concludes that people like accessing information and services on the Internet because the Internet provides:

• access anytime, anywhere
• time savings
• good breadth and depth of information
• instant communication.

Surveys also suggest that agencies actually provide significantly more information and services than people are aware of.

Metadata and the government portal

A number of agencies have exemplary metadata that is accurate, well written, up-to-date and provides good coverage of the agencies' information and services via the government portal.

As a single point of online access, the government portal enables convenient access to information and services that are easy to find. In June 2004, people could access over 300 agencies and 1500 services using the portal. The Achieving E-government project found that:

• most agencies are providing good metadata records
• general awareness of the portal is low
• once people know about the portal, they generally find it helpful to access government information and services.

The portal is a highly effective way for agencies to network their information with other agencies, especially to those with related information and services. Metadata records can be used simultaneously in other government portals; further enabling services to be bundled for different audiences.

The Achieving E-government project found that most agencies have created a number of metadata records on the portal to provide people with ready access to information and services. Mostly, agencies' metadata records:

• provide satisfactory coverage of their information and services through the portal
• are regularly reviewed as part of business processes to ensure information is accurate and up-to-date
• are clear, concise, written with their audience in mind, and avoid specialist and bureaucratic language
• include key words (from a web user's perspective) in descriptions, to help people find the information they want.

Formal website assessment

The formal assessment of agency websites concluded that websites are a good way for the public to access information and services. In particular, government websites had a very high level of information delivery, a reasonably high level of accessibility, and e-services are being delivered well.

The formal assessment highlighted a number of areas for improvement. Many agencies need to add content to their websites and could improve their website's usability. Some specific improvements included:

• providing website features for disabled users
• ensuring information is accurate and up-to-date
• providing alternative file formats to PDFs to ensure people with sight impairments have access.

The assessment also found that some agencies need to check their websites more regularly as broken links were found, and that some agencies need to make their information more useful by adding related links, help notes for e-services, and details about the intended audience.

Contact details on websites

Generally, agencies are using their websites effectively to provide alternative contact information including telephone numbers, office locations and postal addresses. Where appropriate, regional office contact details including email and postal addresses, and telephone numbers are often readily accessible. However, some websites would be improved by providing more detailed contact information to give people direct access to specific information and service areas within an agency.

Agencies should provide role-based email addresses (rather than email addresses for individuals) with shared mailbox administration. This ensures agencies can respond to emails regardless of personnel changes, contact details on web documents do not have to be changed, and staff privacy is upheld. Email addresses should be provided for each information or service area.

People in the Wired for Well-Being study wanted agencies to acknowledge that they had received their email. The formal assessment of websites concluded that most agencies already respond to emails to required addresses in a timely manner.

Website search functions

A good search function significantly improves ready access to information. Most agency websites have search functions to help people to find information. Some search functions need to be improved.

The formal assessment of websites concluded that agencies need to ensure that web-page titles have a high weighting, so that a search on the title returns relevant results. People should be able to search from each web page.

The Wired for Well-Being study concluded that people were sometimes unable to successfully use the search function of a government website to find current information. All agencies need to ensure that they maintain their search functions so that they show relevant and up-to-date information and results.

Agencies need to ensure that out-of-date information is removed or archived to maintain the credibility of their websites. Where information has been archived, agencies need to make it clear to website users that it has been superseded by a new version. Participants in the Wired for Well-Being study suggested web-pages show the date the page was last updated.

Forms online

Results from the Channel Surfing survey indicated that, of all types of contact, people contact government most frequently to complete a form. All agencies need to ensure that their forms are available and easy to find on the Internet. It is one of the main ways agencies can make it easier for people to interact successfully with government.

Many agencies are providing online access to their forms and an increasing number are providing forms that can be fully completed online. Ultimately, people should have the option of completing forms online, without having to download, print, complete and post the form to the agency. Online authentication will make this more achievable.

Internal IT systems

Ongoing improvements to internal agency networks and computer systems are a necessary and important aspect of the e-government programme.

Most agencies are using the Internet and networks to provide staff with ready access to information. Agencies whose staff have good access to information are better able to provide the public with information and services.

Some agencies have had to improve their internal systems so that they are able to provide online information and services to the public. Many agencies are introducing or revamping intranets to provide information tailored for staff. Electronic document management systems are widely used and increasingly necessary as the number of documents agencies have to manage is growing rapidly. More agencies are introducing mobile computing.

Agencies are increasingly using Internet-based systems to support traditional contact channels. Many agency call-centres are using internet technologies to route calls or provide staff with information to help them answer calls. This fits with the Strategy's goals for June 2007.

Integration and efficiency

Agencies will begin to integrate services through use of common e-government 'foundations' (technology, standards and policies). Agencies will be more citizen - and results - oriented in the way they design services.
- 2004 goal

Agencies have achieved the ready access goal for integration and efficiency. Agencies are beginning to integrate services, and consider the needs of users in the way they present online information and design services.

Website language

Many participants in the Wired for Well-Being study considered that government websites contain a lot of jargon, use confusing language and do not communicate directly to them. Participants wanted 'a user perspective built into websites, and not arranged and using language based on departmental priorities'.

Most agencies are trying to put greater focus on the people using their online information and services, such as using language that is likely to be understood by website users. Using appropriate language is a challenge with websites that have diverse audiences, or where technical information is presented. A number of agencies provide explanatory information or glossaries to increase user understanding.

Multiple websites

The use of multiple websites is an area that needs further consideration. In June 2004, agencies used more than 200 websites to provide ready access to information and services. Separate websites for different audiences or specific topics are an effective way to ensure information is presented in a way that's relevant for the audience. As multiple websites put increased onus on Internet users to use search engines and the government portal to find websites, it is imperative that agencies with multiple websites have comprehensive metadata records available on the portal.

A number of agencies are actively consolidating their websites to make them easier to manage and easier for people to search and find all the information and services that the agency provides.

Website design

Website usability is an area identified in the formal assessment, in the Channel Surfing survey and the Wired for Well-Being study where agencies need to make significant improvements. Participants commented on the difficulty accessing or using websites, including navigation problems.

Agencies are beginning to design their websites around the needs of people who use the website, rather than organisational structure. This is especially important as the majority of people's contact with government is on an infrequent basis (the Channel Surfing survey showed that most people only contacted government five times or less during the year).

Website navigation can be improved by providing navigation paths or themes (based on topics or user groups), clearly giving a person's location on a website, providing direct access to a search tool, and testing websites with small groups of users before launching the website.

Consistent website look and feel

The consistency of government websites needs further consideration. Some agencies are making the look and feel of their websites consistent, including website templates, website navigation and search functions. Agencies are doing this to improve content management and make websites easier to manage, modify and use.

Feedback from the Wired for Well-Being study indicates that the public prefer government websites to be consistent. This increases people's ready access to information as:

• people do not have to learn the navigation or search functionality of each website they visit
• people are more certain that the website they are using is a government website
• people know they are leaving a government website when they use website links.

Website links

In addition to the government portal, agencies use links on their websites to enable users to access related information, including information on other agencies' websites. Links give people the opportunity to find relevant information and increase their chances of finding the information or service they need.

The website assessment concluded that many agencies still need to put greater effort into ensuring the links on their websites and in their metadata records are properly maintained and not broken. Broken links can cause frustration and severely reduce the effectiveness of websites to provide ready access to information.

Participants in the Wired for Well-Being study wanted websites with internal links and links to other websites, with explanatory notes of what they link to. One participant noted that links between agencies would help to position agencies as working together.

Back-office integration

Agencies are increasingly sharing electronic data through the use of the Internet and CDs. The number of data-sharing agreements permitted by the Privacy Commissioner has increased from 28 in 1995 to 70 in June 2004.

Widespread adoption of information-sharing standards, such as the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) developed by the EGU, is helping to make information-sharing easier and less expensive for agencies. The use of the e-GIF is mandatory for Public Service departments.

The EGU is developing other standards to help agencies integrate information and services. These include a standard for recording names and addresses, and a standard for news-feeds.

The provision of many online integrated services will be feasible once online authentication is available.

Participation

Government agencies will be making better use of the Internet to inform the public of what is happening in government, and of opportunities to be involved in government processes. Agencies will be learning ways to make use of the Internet to consult people about policy development, and service design and delivery.
- 2004 goal

The Internet presents many opportunities for people to be better able to participate in government. They can get information from anywhere that there is Internet access, at a time that suits them. Agencies are beginning to use these opportunities to enable greater participation. The EGU policy programme includes a project to determine how e-government can improve the opportunities for people to participate in government.

Consultation

The project concluded that many agencies provide ready access to consultation documents, including advice and guidance on making submissions. However, as consultation documents are frequently located several levels from the home-page, an area for improvement would be to make them easier to find by having links to the home-page and access through the government portal.

Some agencies are experiencing an increase in submissions and software is being introduced to help manage the process of summarising submissions.

Email

Email subscription lists enable information to be 'pushed' out to individuals and are an effective way to keep people informed about what is going on in government, including opportunities to participate.

Other opportunities to participate

Some agencies are effectively using the Internet to encourage people to be involved in volunteer programs, or to attend lectures and community meetings.

Other conclusions

Demand for e-government

Participants in the Channel Surfing survey were asked 'what government services or information would you be interested in accessing over the Internet in future, which is not currently available as far as you know?' Many people suggested information and services that are already available, such as student loan and census information.

Although agencies now provide information and services over the Internet, public awareness of what is available online is limited. This is evident from the Channel Surfing survey and the Wired for Well-Being study.

The government portal, as a single point of entry to government is under-used. Survey feedback shows that public awareness of the government portal is low. Despite the low levels of awareness, the Wired for Well-Being study concluded that once people used the portal, the majority found it easy to use and found the information they wanted.

Low levels of awareness may be due to:

• lack of awareness-raising about e-government and the portal
• historically poor website design and navigation
• too many websites making it difficult to find information
• inadequate records on the portal
• broken links.

People's infrequent use of government services and lack of skills and experience in finding information online are also likely to be contributing factors.

Agencies can take steps to increase people's awareness of their websites and the information and services they provide online. For example, call-centre staff at the Ministry of Housing direct many callers to the Ministry's website as the information commonly requested is provided online. Improved e-government awareness helps reduce the number of general enquires to the call-centre, which in turn frees up call-centre staff to answer less regular questions and queries.

Agency alignment with the E-government Strategy

In some instances, agencies are already achieving the Strategy's future goals.

Agency alignment with the Strategy is good. Most agencies have altered their information systems strategic plans and other organisational-wide plans to align themselves with the Strategy's targets.

Many of the future goals and objectives of the Strategy relate more specifically to agencies that provide services to the public. The review of the Strategy needs to acknowledge the differences between those agencies that provide services and those that do not, and to increase its relevance for those that do not provide services.

Digital divide

The majority of people in New Zealand have access to the Internet. Yet while this proportion of the population and those that use e-government is expected to increase, the EGU needs to ensure the e-government programme continues to take into consideration digital divide.

Agencies need to consider Internet speed when designing websites and the information and services available. The Channel Surfing survey found that 65% of people use dial-up connections as opposed to faster broadband connections. Agencies can make it easier for people on slower connections to access their information by following the Government Web Guidelines.

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