An eGovernment Survey among Austrian Municipalities

In 2002 the Austrian Association of Municipalities (Österreichischer Gemeindebund) authorized the Danube University Krems, Austria with the execution of a paper and pencil survey among all Austrian municipalities. As a result, a methodology was created which ultimately led to the establishment of kommunalnet.at. In 2008 the Austrian Association of Municipalities decided to repeat the survey, this time with an online questionnaire. Highest priority lay on comparability of results between 2008 and 2002 which did not permit fundamental redesigning.

In total, 30 questions were asked, some of them with sub-questions. The questions concentrated on these areas:

• General statistical questions: number of employees and those engaged in IT management
• ICT infrastructure: network and connection speed, available hardware, security appliances
• Municipal web site and electronic services: What (e)Services are available?
• Austrian eGovernment core components, such as possession and application of an eID citizen card, availability of a municipal web site under governmental domain, electronic (signable) forms, electronic delivery
• Degree of electronic process management: Email for starting/closing an inquiry
• The most frequent processes of the municipality throughout the year
• General opinion towards ICT and eGovernment projects: Do eGovernment applications help to get daily work done more easily? Which projects are planned?

A Comparison between 2002 and 2008

The decline in the number of employees is remarkable; most probably due to political will and not due to efficiency gains because of ICT application (Heintze & Bretschneider 2000, p.162; Garson 2003).

The adoption of the governmental domain, gv.at, has increased remarkably between the two samples, yet a mere 50% of adoption seems still rather low given the fact, that the .gv.at – domain is sponsored by the Austrian Chancellery and does not imply additional costs for municipalities.

Between 2002 and 2008 the number of network appliances has increased by almost 67% which is an enabler for centralized network services, either in the municipalities themselves, on the provincial or on the federal level. The relatively low use of backup services was astonishing. As more and more documents are legally valid in their electronic form and electronic documents start to replace paper records, a service outage of hours or days or the loss of data would be catastrophic.

Especially the results with regard to efficiency gains through IT application were very astonishing: A decline of 15.2% within six years is notable. A negative attitude of municipal employees towards IT applications will affect future eGovernment and IT projects.

Analysis of the 2008 Survey

53 % of all Austrian municipalities participated in the survey. While the large and largest municipalities clearly experience efficiency gains through IT, the smaller ones cannot realize them. Small municipalities cannot raise net effects by division of labor. Every employee has to be capable of operating any IT system and the knowledge therefore may not be available to the necessary extent, causing frustration.

The number of available IT infrastructure per employee (PC, laptop, internetconnection) and the type of network connection are further important factors for eGovernment progress. For all the municipalities that answered, there is a mean of 1,33 employees per computer. This number makes perfect sense if one takes into account operative personnel, who may not be equipped with computers at all. The distribution of the number of computers to the number of internet accesses is uniform.

Discussion and Recommendations

The highest priority for communal web pages is accessibility: It is mandated by (Austrian) law (Parlament der Republik Österreich 2008), one cornerstone of i2010 (The European Union 2005) and is an ethical and moral obligation. A study commissioned by the Austrian Chancellery (Gregor Eibl & Heike Wagner-Leimbach 2007) showed adherence to WAI-A is fulfilled between 83% and 100% with a mean at a respectable 94%.

The tendency of smaller municipalities to provide less online services and their generally negative attitude towards IT application and projects is mainly an infrastructural problem. Inter-municipal collaboration with service orientation and a possibility for higher specification may be a solution.

Some cornerstones of the Austrian eGovernment strategy require better marketing and information policies or a change in general conditions: 49.6% of respondents did not know about eDelivery and 52.6% will never sign any files electronically. Better cooperation of software providers, public management consulters, and a strategic brochure “5 steps towards eDelivery” would improve the situation.

Awareness of IT security is generally very good: People know about the risks of viruses and malware and computer systems are secured, though backup strategies are lacking.

Sources:

• Garson, G.D., 2003. Public information technology: Policy and Management, Hershey, PA, USA: IGI.
• Gregor Eibl & Heike Wagner-Leimbach, 2007. Erhebung Barrierefreiheit 2007, Wien: Bundeskanzleramt, IKT-Strategie des Bundes, Abteilung I/11, E-Government – Recht, Organisation, Internationales. Available at: https://www.digitales.oesterreich.gv.at/DocView.axd?CobId=24558 [Accessed February 25, 2009].
• Heintze, T. & Bretschneider, S., 2000. Information Technology and Restructuring in Public Organizations: Does Adoption of Information Technology Affect Organizational Structures, Communications, and Decision Making? J Public Adm Res Theory, 10(4), 801-830.
• Parlament der Republik Österreich, 2008. E-Government Gesetz, Available at: https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?QueryID=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20003230 [Accessed February 24, 2008].
• The European Union, 2005. i2010 | EUROPA. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm [Accessed January 5, 2009].
• For additional information in German click here.

Tags: Austria, eGovernment, Municipalities