The study, e-Government Leadership: Engaging the Customer, explores the status of 22 e-governments across the globe, from Canada and the United States to Singapore and Australia. This is the third year in a row Canada has assumed the number one position.
Graeme Gordon, Accenture Canada's e-government partner in Ottawa, says he isn't surprised to see Canada leading the survey.
"E-government isn't just about offering services online, which a lot of countries still focus on," Gordon said. "E-government is more about transforming government services to provide more effective and more efficient services and also coming to the realization that those services have to be customer-centric."
The study ranked 22 countries by researching the sophistication of the online services being offered. Various researchers conducted online tests of the government Web sites to survey the services being offered. Such factors as publication of information, electronic interaction and transaction quality between the government and customers were all considered as part of the overall Web site. Accenture also conducted interviews with 143 executive representatives within governments.
Once the research was complete, each GOL was categorized into a plateau, or level of online maturity. The first plateau is the lowest overall maturity, which means the government has a little more than just an online presence. This year, Canada's GOL just moved into the fifth and highest plateau - which is overall service transformation.
"A lot of work is going on within departments to try to better understand what customers want," Gordon said.
Accenture is online at www.accenture.ca.