E-GOVERNMENT INICIATIVES IN LOCAL ADMINISTRATION. APPLICATION IN A SMALL TOWN COUNCIL.

E-GOVERNMENT INICIATIVES IN LOCAL ADMINISTRATION. APPLICATION IN A SMALL TOWN COUNCIL. Pablo Díaz Cruz Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria [email protected]

Rosario Berriel Martinez Dpto. de Matemáticas Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria [email protected]

Isabel Sanchez Berriel Dpto. de Estadística e Investigación Operativa Universidad de La Laguna [email protected]

Margarita Calvo Aizpuru Dpto. De Economía y Dirección de Empresas Universidad de La Laguna [email protected]

ABSTRACT The actual Information Technology permits us to establish the model of management and relationships in the Public Administration, different to the traditional. In this paper we will give solutions recommending implanting e-government in the technologically slow down organizations, in term of evolution and no revolution. With this, the organization will be capable of overcome the digital divide, improvement more quickly that those that are with a better position and they can find the objectives, at least, at the same time. A recent study of IDC demonstrates that 73% of the e-gov projects designed per and for the public sector in Spain it has ended up in failure due to the ignorance of the normative frame, the functional setup of the project and the existing technological possibilities. This comes to recognize our idea that it is impossible to implant e-gov without knowing each population's necessities. We establish a form of implanting e-gov in a practical way that is not guides to the failure, in those that the preparation of all participants is developed Information Society (IS) before adopt internet, mobile or other channels initiatives because the available of the on-line services doesn't assure that the citizens use them. KEYWORDS Information and Communication Technology, e-Government, Public Administration, Digital Divide

1. INTRODUCTION The accelerated development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which began in the 1970´s has radically changed the nature of the human relations; its main contribution has been the capacity to process enormous amounts of data, creating information and knowledge and transferring it to any other place, and at all the human being (de Pablos, et al, 2004), which has allowed the rhythm and the quality in the interaction between practically all the areas of human activity to be accelerated. The impact of ICT on society has meant improved access to the information and a new way to carry out most of the interactions with the

Public Administration (PA), without the need to waste time waiting. In the same way the use of technical language related to the juridical-legislative sector, as well as the difficulty of having available and obtaining all the necessary information from PA, made the process more difficult, it made in unnecessarily slow and contributed to creating a bad image of the relation between the PA and the citizen, that could be improving through the possibilities that the new technologies offers. This improvement should be understood as an ever changing process, which means costs and risks, both financial and political. If the initiatives in this field are not known and correctly implemented, resources can be wasted, fail in their promise to offer useful services and therefore increase public frustration with the government. Success means changing the way the PA work, how the information is used and how the governor see their work and their interaction with the public (Albizu & Olazaran, 2004). Being successful also requires active associations between the government, the citizens and the private sector. In Spain the decentralization of the administrative structure means an additional complexity, as opposed to the countries with a more centralized administrative structure which makes the vertical integration between levels of administration necessary, central, autonomous, local, etc. Clearly explain the nature of the problem, previous work, purpose, and contribution of the paper.

2. TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN THE ORGANIZATIONS Notes, (1981) shows an evolutionary outline of progression that all the organizations must check until arriving to most advanced states in the conception and use of the technologies. This outline saves certain grade of independence regarding the variable time, although it is also true that is not completely standalone of the date in that it starts its journey. This way, of the outline of evolution of ICT will be tried to extract their main phases and their final characteristic and, if it is possible, to point the foregone final destination in the economic frame / technological current. The phases of growth are:      

Initiation: takes place the automation of offices and the indictment realizes in batches to achieve a reduction of the costs. In this stage the systems are only operative. Infection: a fast growth takes place due to the biggest lawsuit of applications on the part of the users and a high-level of current expenditures to satisfy to such lawsuits. Practically control doesn't take place. Control: takes place as answer on the part of the address in connection with the costs. It is expected that the projects of the systems show a benefit with the layout of plans and development methodologies. Integration: in order to avoid duplicated data and to try to integrate the systems it is invested in this stage considerable quantity of money. Management of data: the requirements of data are those that direct the form of sharing the same one and the portfolio of applications. In this phase the users understand the value of the data. Maturity: the planning and development of the binomial IS/IT in the organizations is intimately bound to the development of the business.

This model went object of critical when considering that it suffers of lines teachers to tag and to explain the strategic opportunities of IS, not contemplating them as factor that can affect to the enhancement of the competitive position of the organizations (Wiseman, 1985) Later on, the pattern of Hirschheim appears (1985) that tries of giving an integrative vision of the previous ones and offering a floppy conceptual frame, so much for the analysis of the evolution of IS in the past as to project the trend of the possible development of these in the future. This way, it integrates the strategy concept for the administration of the binomial IS/IT in the following stages:  

Surrenders: the aspects of IS they are basically internal, making stress in the enhancement of the abilities for the delivery and support of the systems and technologies. Reorientation: where the objective is to offer a valuable service to the address of each one of the functional areas of the business, supporting the lawsuit of these by means of the offer of a variety of services and computation capabilities.



Reorganization: the objective is the search in the best way of satisfying the necessities of the business by means of the reorganization of responsibilities to direct the data and the systems.

3. FRAME OF ACTION The application of our work is focused on the Town Council of Candelaria (Canary Islands), which is located in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The distance with respect to the capital of the island is around 19 kilometers, and the municipality has 49,52 square kilometers, which represent 2,43% of the island surface. It has composed of six nuclei of population very disseminated which represent a difficulty to the citizen when they must go to the Council in order to make same bureaucratic process. Furthermore, we must consider the bad access of its roads and public transport system. Candelaria has become one of the most attractive areas to live in over the last few years, as a result of its proximity to the capital of Tenerife. It is thought that this tendency will continue to increase, making Candelaria one of the municipals with the most density of inhabitants on the Island. The population growth has almost doubled from 1996, growing from 12.627 inhabitants in 1996 to 21.501 in 2004.

4. DETECTION OF PROBLEMS By the direct observation, investigation and interview, we have collected valuable information that has permitted us to make a SWOT analysis. Interviews were carried out by means of data software, being four the identified groups. We realized an interview to the informatics area manager, another to the employers, another to the political members and a quality survey to the citizens. The observation was carried out by means of the continuing rotation in the workstation. The obtaining of the SWOT allows to realize an analysis for the election of a strategy and some objectives that make possible the modernization and installation of the e-gov in the local authority. STRENGHTS  Enough technology internal  Broadband Connection  Official e-mail  Safe-deposit daily Copies OPORTUNITIES  Municipal libraries  Economic and fiscal frame  University ICT human resources  Increase of Internet users  Connection with PA  Legal and programmatic frame  Internet: continuing access, etc

WEAKNESS  Not orientation to the citizen  Not systems of municipal quality  Not developing of IS plans  On-line services don't exist  Not personal in ICT  Not culture and formation ICT  Not vision of e-gov TREATHS  Disappointment of the citizens  Digital divide in citizens and companies  Not trust in e-procedure  Resistance to the changes

5. SOLUTION APROACH Of among the possible strategies we choose one of reorientation, consistent in to minimize the internal weaknesses and to maximize the opportunities of the environment, the objectives are shown in the table 1, where they are defined the performance lines to get this objectives which should be edited having like base the e-gov.

Table 1. Objectives for the public administration with technological backwardness PERFORMANCES OBJECTIVES RECOMMENDS LINES To elaborate a strategic plan To modernize the management and e-government to the municipality administrative process To promote the IT in the To increase the infrastructure the Hardware y Software to City Council human resources and the training support the ein IT government Reorganice the resources Redesign functions, data bases, As a base to eeficiently and information systems government To promote the Information Modernization, flexibility e-government Society efficiency and efficacy

Due to the resistance to the organizational change and the traditional way that the citizen ha to be related to the corporation we recommended to perform these objectives in an efficient way takes place in accordance with the model of figure 2, that we developed in five phases and based in the conclusions of section 2.

Level of training of the participants to confront the measures (citizen, companies, civil employees)

Figure2. Phases for install e-gov culture in PA The complexity of the measures to adopt will continue growing

Phase V

Own initiatives Citizen demand more customized services through Internet, due to its level of training, being these more complex

Benchmarking

Creation of New Technology Area

Backoffice and frontoffice reorganization

Phase 2 to phase 3 will require the greater challenge, since it supposes an exponential jump in the complexity of the measures to take

Preparation of the citizens (skills) increases more express than the complexity of the adopted measures Digital Alphabetization

Phase I

Complexity of the measures to adopt

Phase 1.- Digital alphabetization and communication of the change Justification: Not culture and ICT formation, resistance to the organizational change The ignorance that has a council of the preparation in ICT matter, so much of their officers as of the citizens is one of the lawsuits that take to the failure when they take initiatives in the field of the egovernment. Due to this perception, in a first phase proceed to form to the employees, citizens and companies by means of the realization of information chats making that these they are you participate of the evolution avoiding this way the rejection to a change that appears many times for the ignorance. Work to develop in Government to Business (G2B)  Chats to the companies of the importance of to invest in new technologies and to modernize their network of computers, intranets…  Advice in the request of subventions Government to Citizens (G2C)  Courses to obtain a digital passport that warrants that the minimum knowledge are possessed in New Technologies (Office, Internet, e-mail). Government to Employment (G2E)  Chats of understanding the necessity of the organizational change in those that it is patent the political implication and the necessity that they are active part of the change.  Manage of the internal software programs Phase 2.- Reorganization of frontoffice and backoffice Justification: Not vision of e-gov, not orientation to citizens, no e-procedure This change must be made after first stage, our recommendation is to wait to that the civil employees are prepared

and persuaded of the necessity of an internal reconstruction, for this reorganization. Work to develop in G2B  Definition of the matrix of offered services to the company.  Structuring of a specific field for the company in the new portal web G2C  Definition of the matrix of offered services to the citizens  Structuring of the citizen's folder in the new portal web  Creation of the Citizen’s Attention Office G2E  Definition of the matrix of offered services to the employee.  Structuring of the employee's space in the new portal web Phase 3. - Creation of New Technology Area  Justification: Not developing of IS plans, not systems of municipal quality, economic and fiscal frame, University ICT human resources The creation of a specific area is fundamental that is in charge of the pursuit and study of the cases of success in the national and international scope and that analyzes the solutions that can be used for the implantation in their administration. It will also be in charge to look for the routes of financing for these initiatives. This area will be in charge of developing the new web portal, as well as the municipal plans in matter IS/IT Phase 4.- Benchmarking. Experiences pilots in far away areas. Evaluation of the new web portal. Justification: Municipal libraries, digital divide We considered that the maximum beneficiaries of the internet initiatives must be those that more difficulties have to move to the city council. It is by that, pilots experiences must be created in the away zones where the citizen have to the web of the city council and from where can make proceedings of displacements with no need.. Phase 5.- Development of own initiatives Justification: Increase of Internet users, Disappointment of the citizens Once a specific area of work is counted and the suitable personnel, it will be possible to be innovated in the field of egovernment, discovering the necessities of the citizens and their restlessness with respect to the, arriving therefore at the last level of development, that we defined as that in which the City Council is able to raise internet solutions under own necessities, that is to say, trims in which the citizens need or will need.

6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMEMMEDATIONS In the different areas of the councils, with the resources that they have, are development its jobs with more or lest efficiency and citizen satisfaction. But in all cases the dairy jobs implicate different problems that could be reduced or resolved by the use of IT. The correct use of IT needs training of the citizen and employees, only so will be possible to overcoming the Digital Divide that exist, mainly in small councils. As a solution we recommend to implant e-government, it will permit overcome the change resistance and the classic form of work, as establish a better relationship between the citizen and the council. But our idea is that is impossible to implant e-gov solutions without to know each population and each region idiosyncrasy. For this reason although resources to implant exist, the lack of confidence of PA make that they remain out of this initiatives. Only accepting this new challenge the Candelaria Council will can be in the group of innovative Local Administration of the region.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To the Council of The S.A.y P de la Villa de Candelaria by its help and collaboration. REFERENCES Book Albizu, E. & Olazaran, M, 2004. Reingeniería y Cambio organizativo. Prentice Hall, Madrid. Ballestero, F. 2002. La Brecha Digital. Fundación Retevisión Auna, Madrid Danish Technological Institut & Institut für Informationsmanagement Bremen, 2004. La eAdministración: Aspectos estratégicos y operativos. Fundación Auna, Madrid. De Pablo, C., López-Hermoso, Martín-Romo, S., y Medina, S. (2004). Informática y Comunicaciones en la Empresa. Esic Editorial, Madrid.

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