Investments

Governments in Asia/Pacific are Asking For More Out of IT Investments, says IDC

Singapore, 1 July 2003 A recent IDC study "Asia/Pacific Policy and Strategies Influencing Government IT Spending, 2004" (Doc# AP633101L), has found that the focus of many Asia/Pacific governments is on squeezing more value out of their IT investments. In the region, the Australian and Singaporean governments have led in demanding more value out of their IT investments, as a result of tightening budgets. Other Asian governments with aspirations to position themselves as global egovernment leaders are beginning to view the value derived from IT investments as a measure of their capabilities.


"Reflecting on the last five years, Asian government's approach to building their IT infrastructure has been 'if it's possible to build, then we need to build it'", said Nathan Midler, Research Manager, Public Sector Research, IDC Asia/Pacific. "Today, leading governments realize that aligning government needs with IT solutions, and making strategic investments can cost less, yet deliver more in terms of cost savings, recognition, and user satisfaction."

Reminiscent of the dotcom boom years, governments have designed bold and grand plans for egovernment, but in many cases their efforts have failed to deliver the intended outcome. Plans have envisioned improving user satisfaction and modernizing the government, but despite their high aspirations, many eservices remain under utilized. Many governments continue to rely on offline work methods, or worse, with new IT solutions in place, continue to carry out the same inefficient work processes that existed offline previously.

The key to increasing the value of IT is to align IT solutions with government needs. Today, leading governments in Asia are gaining more value from their IT investments through focusing on cross-agency solutions, reorganizing their internal management of IT and eservices, increasing IT training, placing greater emphasis on tracking and evaluating performance indicators, and promoting collaboration. In order to bridge gaps and overcome the barriers to communication, government policies are being implemented to establish a common set of technology standards to which departments must adhere. Only when inter-department communication and data transfer across the entire network is achieved will the government be able to realize the benefits of IT investments and advance to the next stage of egovernment.

"Governments today are evaluating if funds can be better channeled elsewhere rather than investing in resources that simply duplicate work processes." For example, governments are now seeing the potential benefits of combining non-core government functions, such as human resources, via a centrally managed IT solution", added Mr. Midler.

At the same time, greater value in how IT is used to deliver government services is possible, particularly with citizen-focused eservices. Despite large investments, eservices have not managed to significantly reduce the use of offline channels of government interaction. In many cases, government employees have been under trained to use their own eservices and, not surprisingly, have difficulty inspiring citizens to use these eservices. As governments continue to rely on offline channels to interact with citizens, large investments in eservices are under utilized.

Singapore

Singapore has long stood out as a leader in the adoption of IT within the government. In comparison to the rest of Asia, Singapore benefits greatly from its small size, both geographically and in terms of population. As the regulatory environment driving IT adoption and user standards in Singapore is highly developed, it provides a strong foundation for IT investment decision-making. The Singapore government is also actively involved with building a clearly defined, advanced and legalized context for IT implementation. The government's Policy and Regulation cluster formulates and develops short and medium term IT policies intended to spur business development and growth, and citizen satisfaction with government services.

For more information on this report, please contact Ms. Selina Ang at +65-6228-7717 or email sang@idc.com. For press inquiries, please contact Ee Laine Ng at +65-6228-7769 or elng@idc.com

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