We in the public sector face a real challenge. At the same time that our constituents are clamoring for fewer taxes, they're asking for more responsive government. So with smaller and smaller budgets, government agencies are being asked to do more and more.

One way to help address that challenge is to develop an enterprisewide, self-service e-government strategy. When such a strategy is truly enterprisewide — crossing multiple agencies — governments can improve relationships with constituents and increase productivity of government employees.

Self-service e-government transactions allow citizens to interact with the government when it's most convenient for the citizen. In addition, a government's Web site can offer timely and accurate access to relevant information. Such offerings not only improve relationships with constituents but also increase constituent participation in government activities. That is, e-government encourages compliance with the laws by making it easier for citizens to comply.

Let's say I need to renew the license plate on my car and pay the annual vehicle tax. I shouldn't have to know whether this is something that takes place at the Department of Motor Vehicles, because it has to do with my car, or the Department of Revenue, because it has to do with paying taxes. As a citizen, I should have to know only that I need to pay my taxes on my car.

An e-government solution should enable citizens to conduct such common transactions online, without users having to understand the structure of the government agencies involved.

These same integrated self-service capabilities can enable government employees to more easily find information both within their agency and from other agencies. This is especially true if the government has made certain that the ability to publish and update information online is in the hands of those business process managers who understand the particular agency functions and responsibilities.

Government employees can realize an additional benefit from an e-government strategy: improved productivity. By providing self-service capabilities for constituents, you've taken some of the load off employees. If a citizen can renew a license plate online, the transaction requires less work from the government employees responsible for that transaction.

In general, e-government has involved a three-step evolution:
1. Offering a Web presence with basic information, including publishing legislation and placing tax forms online.
2. Enabling transaction capabilities for individuals and businesses.
3. Providing integrated information and transactions, with collaboration among multiple agencies.

Many governments around the world are slowing as they try to move to stage 3. The challenges in going further are not so much technical as they are procedural, strategic and political. Cross-agency cooperation is one of the keys to making this happen.

In developing your e-government strategy, you need to examine the way your organization interacts with other organizations within your government, and ask some pertinent questions: How should our organization function three years from now -- individually and in relation to other agencies? What will be our models for integrated e-government? What new people skills will we need? How should we best organize our department as we learn to work with other agencies and start allowing citizens to have one-stop shopping?

What might have been the appropriate organizational structure in the past is very unlikely to be so in the future.

We have some excellent examples of cross-agency cooperation already in place. In the United States, the government Web site developed by the General Services Administration allows some 500,000 documents with 27 million pages to be searched in a quarter-second across hundreds of federal government Web sites.

In Bologna, Italy, a government e-community ties together the delivery of government services with local e-commerce capabilities, and has resulted in a very effective consortium of public and private sector organizations working together. The citizens are happier with the government and can more easily do business with local organizations.

And Singapore's e-Citizen's Center ties together 150 different government services for individuals or businesses across 49 government agencies.

I issue this challenge to you: Create an e-government strategy that provides more value and better service for your customers, increases employee productivity, and strengthens relationships with citizens, employees and other organizations. All it takes is the willingness to work together and an understanding of the tools that can let you do it.

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