Factors influencing success of Malaysian e-government implementation focused on websites assessment, infrastructure readiness and change management

Abstract

The thesis explores the three main activities of websites assessment, infrastructure readiness test and change management as factors influencing the implementation of Electronic Government (EG) or Digital Government in Malaysia. The objectives of this research include understanding key factors that influence EG success in Malaysia, investigating the use of indicators within the factors that could facilitate measuring or monitoring the delivery and usage of online services, and developing a model based on factors and indicators that would help government agencies to deliver online services in EG. It is to facilitate delivery of online services and drive usage for the convenience of users or public at large. Mixed methods through triangulation evaluation approach where real life activities were emphasised with theoretical definitions for the case studies were used in seeking success of EG implementation. The first factor is the case study of the annual nationwide assessment and ranking of government agencies’ websites or portals. Websites were assessed based on a set of criteria and scored accordingly. These scores were then ranked according to 1-5 star ranking. The second factor is the case study with the activity of infrastructure readiness test for the bandwidth required for EG transactions over the internet. This was a crucial exercise since internet infrastructure is the basic requirement for EG implementation. The third factor is the case study of change management activity where awareness programmes and motivation practices towards respective agencies can be translated into usage increase of online services for the users. These case studies were conducted independently. Amongst the factors, the websites assessment was the key case study as it involved all government agencies nationwide and data of online services yearly could be gathered. The other two factors were to promote EG usage and have indirect contribution towards the delivery of online services. Selected agencies were used to correlate with the number of online services offered for a period of time against star ranking. A positive correlation between online services and the websites assessment rankings attained by the respective agencies was found. This is in line with the findings that using these factors increased number of online services and usage. A directional model illustrates the use of factors and indicators for future activities in implementing EG successfully.