Abstract
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One-stop government is one of the most promising concepts of service delivery in public administration. Its implementation is part of e-government strategies of practically all countries. Originally one-stop government denoted physical (one-stop shop) however in the last decade within the e-government environment more often virtual (web portal) location where the users (i.e. citizens or organisations) can settle their matters with public administration in one place, with minimum number of contacts, and possibly using communication channels of the users’ choice. Hence, one-stop government characterizes integration of public services from a users’ point of view. This integration most usually happens virtually at the front-office where public services are provided preferably according to users’ needs and circumstances (usually using a life-event approach), while back-office processes are by and large left unchanged. By this, one-stop government overcomes and hides the complexity and organisational diversity of existing public administration and focuses instead on what users perceive in their relationships with public bureaucracy. This leads to the realization of user-oriented or user-centred government, which is one of the main objectives of e-government development.
Applying one-stop government concept can bring several benefits to users of public services, i.e. citizens and businesses as well as to public administration, from faster and cheaper services to better quality of services. However, implementation of one-stop government in its ‘true’ sense require interoperation and integration of back-office systems at the front-office side as well as redesigning and integration of service delivery processes. This requires involvement and cooperation of many public as well as other organizations from different jurisdictions and fields of operation. Moreover, changes in organizational structures, reassignment of working posts, changes in skills, regulations as well as changes in organizational culture are also needed. All these make implementation of one-stop government extremely demanding.
Therefore it is not uncommon that practical experiences revealed that many efforts focused in implementation of online one-stop government solutions faced serious obstacles or even totally failed. Among the main reasons we can expose:
o lack of understanding of the concept itself,
o lack of strategic and/or holistic approach,
o lack of simple, concrete and comprehensive framework and guidelines aiming to assist public authorities in implementing one-stop government.
In the paper we will try to address mainly the first two issues by:
o presenting main driving forces, principles, benefits and barriers of one-stop government concept
o exploring different viewpoints of one-stop government (i.e. legal, organisational, technological, social, etc.)
o classifying different kinds of one-stop government services
o evaluating the current state and readiness for development of one-stop government in selected countries (i.e. Slovenia, Poland, Hungary and Kosovo).
Hence, the paper is aiming to contribute to the better understanding of one-stop government concept and to determine viewpoints and issues which should be taken into consideration when trying to implement one-stop government concepts in an individual county. Paper will define and describe the key elements on which a simple, concrete and comprehensive framework for implementation of one-stop government should be based. In addition, by evaluating the current state and readiness for implementation of one-stop government in selected countries the paper will try to evaluate the current experiences and to determine possibilities of best practice transfer. Prospects for (further) development of one-stop government services as well as some guidelines to overcome the current barriers will be given.
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