Towards excellence in e-governance

Purpose - E-governance initiatives are common in most countries as they promise a more citizen-centric government and reduce operational cost. Unfortunately most of these initiatives have not been able to achieve the benefits claimed. Often the reason for this failure is a techno-centric focus rather than a governance-centric focus. The aim of this paper is to explore the necessary attributes of a governance-centric initiative under the banner "excellent e-governance"(e(2)-governance), and describe a methodology for ensuring such excellence in e-governance implementations. Design/methodology/approach - The paper follows a case study approach for developing the concept of excellent e-governance. It first conceptually differentiates between e-government and e-governance and describes the status of e-governance in developing countries. It then differentiates between the two approaches to e-governance: techno-centric and governance-centric. Next, the attributes of excellent e-governance are explored in detail, and illustrated by two case studies. Then, the major issues for bringing excellence to e-governance initiatives are identified. Last, a methodology under development, called "e-governance engineering", is described, which when applied to an e-governance initiative, will ensure excellence. Findings - Excellence (or governance-centricism) in e-governance requires the initiative to be effectiveness-driven and not merely efficiency-driven. This will require the initiative to be led by a "good governance" driven goal/purpose: additionally, the initiative must be outcome-focused. Practical implications - There has been a dearth of methodologies for implementing e-governance initiatives, and an increase in the number of failed e-governance projects. This paper proposes a methodology, "e-governance engineering", which aims to fill this gap and at the same time bring excellence to the e-governance initiatives implemented. Originality/value - The paper introduces the notion of "excellence" in e-governance (e(2)-governance), which is supposed to be the goal of all e-governance initiatives. It also introduces a methodology to accomplish this goal. It is hoped that the methodology will help public administrators and public organisations in successfully designing and implementing e-governance projects, thereby contributing to enhanced governance at optimal cost.