To get the most out of e-government initiatives, authorities should stop trying to move every function online without any real co-ordination, according to an industry expert.
Todd Ramsey, IBM's general manager for global government industry, said this advice ran counter to many e-government strategies, which aimed to offer as many public sector services online as possible.
These strategies had led to much repetition in e-government processes, he said. Instead, governments should take a cross-departmental view and focus their resources on projects in just a handful of areas that would most benefit the public.
'They [governments] need to start thinking about what the customer wants and making it easier for the customer to interact with them,' he said.
This would require a change in mindset for civil servants, who would have to interact more with different departments.
Such a cross-departmental strategy had paid off in New York state, Mr Ramsey said.