The member firms of Deloitte and TeleCities  — a network of European cities committed to the development of an inclusive, information-based society — have embarked on a strategic partnership to enhance the level of eGovernment implementation across Europe. As a part of this partnership, Deloitte conducts an annual benchmark survey, with the results reflecting the state of eGovernment within these TeleCities. The members, including more than 100 local authorities across 24 European countries, are then able to benchmark themselves against each other, with the best practices nominated for annual awards. Learn more from our press release, the list of 2003 eCitizens for All Award winners and the benchmark survey results, which are available at the bottom of this page as a PDF file attachment (In English and Spanish).

"Cities of Europe are exposed to many challenges in attracting, retaining and best serving their citizens and businesses. Over recent decades the impact of the computer, software, Internet, e-mail and the many downstream capabilities emanating from these have had an enormous influence on all our lives," says Hans Bossert, chairman of Deloitte's Public Sector group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "In this context, eGovernment is increasingly impacting business productivity and people's quality of life. By Web-enabling and streamlining activities such as permitting, licensing and reporting, governments can significantly ease regulatory compliance burdens, which, in turn, help fuel economic competitiveness."

The primary objective of this inaugural benchmark survey, undertaken in 2003, is to establish the status of eCitizenship and eGovernment among TeleCities members by investigating four key areas:

eLearning and inclusion is the use of digital technology in the service of citizen education. Nine in 10 participant cities saw eLearning a political issue. One third had an eLearning strategy and many used regional structures to deliver. Information Communications Technology, or ICT, has entered classrooms, but is not yet a fully integrated component of the educational process. Respondents were aware of excluded minorities such as the elderly, immigrants and handicapped and had created strategies and programmes focusing on many of these specific groups. The need for training represents a barrier to progress.

eDemocracy and community building is the use of computer and related facilities in service of the democratic process. It is the adhesive between the top-down process of eGovernment and the bottom up process of eCitizenship. At the heart of eDemocracy is the knowledge-based city. eDemocracy is still in its infancy with many processes continuing to merit improvement. While the process is facilitating democratic renewal and improving citizen participation, most effects and benefits are still to come. e-Voting is still relatively untested. The cost of innovation remains an issue.

eSecurity  is the process of data protection in its widest sense. eSecurity introduced currently lag behind the services and awareness of the security challenge. While more than 85% of e-services incorporate personal information on citizens, only one in four cities have intrusion detection processes in place. Barriers to progress include restricted awareness of new technology and resistance to change. The larger a city the more it makes of advanced e-services and eSecurity.

Re-engineering of local public administration  is the process of changing the means of delivery of traditional services to match the capabilities of the computer age. Participant cities broadly had electronic services high on their agenda not only for reasons of cost reduction but also in response to central government encouragement. Re-engineering projects tended to be more supply-driven initiatives from municipal authorities (inside-out) than demand-driven initiatives responding to citizen needs (outside-in). The main obstacles to further development and implementation are limited budgets and resistance to change. There is clear ambition to raise the level of interaction from the traditional one-way and two-way interaction to transactional and integrated service levels.

The survey confirms that while progress is being made toward all objectives, there remain numerous obstacles. Learn more about Deloitte, TeleCities and this survey by reading the report in its entirety in the PDF file attachment below (In English and Spanish). And, for further information, please contact Deloitte's Peter Zimmermann of the global Public Sector group via email at: ecitizenshipforall@deloitte.com.