The UK is the second best place in the world for e-commerce,
according to a major international report launched at the
government's e-summit in Whitehall today (19 November). All that
needs to happen now is for the public to start using them, writes
James Rogers.
According to a major international report from management
consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, the UK is second only to the US in
e-commerce.
The report also revealed that the UK rates highly at making
government services available electronically but warns that too few
people are using the services on offer.
The research assesses the performance of nine countries: the UK,
US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Japan and Canada. It
covers four areas: government e-maturity, citizen e-maturity,
business e-maturity and e-environment (e-commerce).
The Office for National Statistics and policy makers from the nine
countries participating in this week's E-Summit in London all took
part in the study.
With £1bn of funding earmarked to boost central government's online
presence between 2001 and 2004 the UK has a lot riding on the
successful delivery of online public services.
The benchmarking study does, however, show that demand for these
services has yet to match supply.
Earlier this year, the Commons Public Accounts Committee warned
that there is a significant danger that even if the government
meets its target of offering all services online by 2005, people
will stick to established methods of dealing with the public
sector.
Departments such as the Inland Revenue, which is seen as the
standard bearer in the drive to develop public services that can be
accessed electronically, are already coming under close scrutiny.
In February, the National Audit Office reported a disappointing
take-up of the Inland Revenue's online self-assessment service,
although the department claimed that user numbers are
growing.
According to the Inland Revenue, about 240,000 of the four million
tax returns received by 30 September this year were completed
online. This is a threefold increase on the same period last year.
E-government and e-commerce are both intrinsically linked. Dealing
with central and local government online, for example, has a
knock-on effect on the broader impact of UK e-commerce. For many
members of the public, paying their council tax online could be
just the first step to using a wider range of e-commerce
services.
Martin Greenwood, Insight programme manager at the Society of IT
Management (Socitm) has urged the government to do more to promote
the take-up of electronic services and help boost e-commerce.
"Maybe the government could think more about giving people
incentives to do things electronically, such as making things
cheaper," he said.
James Roper, chief executive of industry body the Interactive Media
in Retail Group (IMRG), said that this could mean cheaper council
tax bills for people paying online. "People could get the same
benefits of paying council tax online, for example, as they get
when they pay bills by direct debit - both a discount and a
deferred payment."
Companies such as low-cost airline EasyJet have already offered
discounted online transactions, according to Roper. "If you want
people to do something, you have to give them a benefit, it has to
be easier and cheaper," he said.
Greenwood said, however, that people needed to acquire new habits
in their dealings with the government to make e-government a
success. He also believed that effort should be focused on ensuring
that people turn to government Web sites as natural sources of
information.
"You have got to make government and local authority Web sites
places that you would want to go," he said, citing the
foot-and-mouth crisis as a good example of how central government -
and some local authorities - provided information that people
wanted, but on a local level.
Despite the lack of take-up of online services identified by the
benchmarking report, the UK remains one of the world's e-leaders.
The study listed the low cost of Internet access for both
narrowband and broadband as positives.
It also found that the UK is one of the few countries surveyed that
has established a separate office to drive its e-agenda, in the
shape of the Office of the e-Envoy.
Earlier this year, a worldwide e-government report from consultancy
firm Accenture ranked the UK sixth out of 23 countries surveyed.
The study praised the UK's "strong leadership structure" for
delivering government services online, but Accenture's UK
e-government partner Steve Dempsey also highlighted the fact that
services could be better tailored to meet people's individual
needs.
According to Dempsey, creating a "warm" online interaction for
members of the public is key. "When you go online, e-government
services could recognise you and report the last time that you
logged on," he explained. Experiencing a "warmer" interaction with
government would make individuals more inclined to use the services
again.
Roper believed creating a "warmer" online experience for the public
should not be too difficult a task for the government. He said, "It
shouldn't be a difficult technical task - the government should be
able to hold information on individuals securely."
In the meantime, the government is facing a challenge to entice
members of the public to use its electronic services. But the good
news is that overall, e-commerce in the UK is growing at a rapid
rate. Research from the IMRG suggests that 14.3 million shoppers in
the UK have shopped online this year. The industry body also
tracked £860.5m of online sales in October, a ninefold increase
since April 2000.
For his part, e-envoy Andrew Pinder has already said that he is
"dead chuffed" with the UK's position in the worldwide e-commerce
table, although he acknowledges that the government must increase
take-up of its services. "We are on track for 2005, but the point
is getting those services used," he added.
The UK may already be one of the world's most fertile e-commerce
environments, but it remains to be seen what lessons we can learn
from our fellow e-leaders when it comes to boosting the take-up of
e-government services.
Why the UK is the second-best place in the world for
e-commerce
- Investment in ICT skills. Between 1998 and 2004, the government
has made £1.8bn available to increase access to ICT for pupils in
schools.
- The promotion of competition to bring down Internet access
costs
- The modernisation of the regulatory environment to support
e-commerce
- Government working with industry to improve the UK's
telecommunications infrastructure.