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Abstract The internet has emerged as a major, perhaps eventually the most important worldwide distribution channel for goods, services, managerial and professional jobs. This has profoundly changed the economics, markets and industry structure, products and services and their flow. The consumer segmentation, values and behavior has been shifting constantly due to new technological advances in electronic commerce and mobile commerce. E-commerce has given consumers cheaper products and services, instant delivery, no sales tax and information availability.
The changes in the Internet and World Wide Web technologies and services lead to new developments in the way E-government efforts provide services to citizens and businesses, and in the way government handles their internal operations. Evolution of E Business One of the biggest benefits of the Internet is its ability to allow organizations to perform business with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Internet actually grew out of a project known as ARPANET, funded by the US Department of Defense. The primary objective of this project was to study how researchers could share data in the case of nuclear attack.
The project was later transferred to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and became known as the “Internet”. In the beginning it was used by university scholars and researchers, then fueled by technological advancement of computer and communication it became World Wide Web (WWW). In the early days of WWW it was primarily used by both public and private organization to access information about the businesses products, services, and news. Due to massive increase in traffic on WWW, organization of all types and sizes worldwide began establishing their presence by having their own Web sties.
These websites were filled with all kinds of information about their organizations. Consequently, many organizations began expanding their presence on the WWW by developing new technologies and applications to allow customers and suppliers to conduct business transactions (IGI). It was discovered that through the use of this technology, customers could to business transactions with the organization electronically, and this led to the birth of “electronic business,” also referred as “E-Commerce”. An E-business model is an approach to conducting electronic business on the
Internet, E-business transactions take place between two major entities-business and consumers. All E-business activities happen within the framework of two types of business relationship: (1) the exchange of products and services between business (B2B) and (2) the exchange of products and services with consumers (B2C), this is taken from Business Driven Information Systems book. E-Government The discoveries achieved in early days of Web-enabled technologies through the use of electronic business led to the discovery of “electronic government”, also known as “eGov”.
Government organizations began using these technologies to develop various applications to serve and govern their population in a fashion that was not possible a decade earlier. E-government uses improved Internet-based technology to make it easy for citizens and businesses to interact with the government, save taxpayer dollars, and streamline citizen-to-government communication. (Whitehouse). Now a days, E-government applications allow governments to manage and reach their resources around the world in much more timely, efficient and less costly manner.
The businesses can reduce the burdens by using Government to Business (G2B) portals, which provides one stop access to information and enables digital communications using the language of e-business (XML). The deployment of more effective technology will help streamline the myriad of reporting requirement as well as facilitate a more efficient means for businesses to interact with the government. For example, with the implementation of the E-Rulemaking initiative, businesses will no longer need the assistance of a lawyer or lobbyist to participate in the regulatory process (Whitehouse).
One of the other ways for companies to save money is to use electronic filing for tax, payroll data and revenue or sales data; this can be easily done by using state, local and federal government websites. In construction companies the new trend now a days is to research government plans online and then submitting schematics electronically to License and Inspection department for building permits, this saves printing and shipping costs. M-Commerce The ability to purchase goods and services through a wireless Internet-enable device is called “mobile commerce”.
In recent years, consumers and organizations have benefited from many of the features of M-commerce technologies through numerous applications, such as conducting financial transactions, supply chain operations, advertising, portal access points, information and news services, entertainment and games, and education and training. As individuals and organizations become more mobile and virtual, it is expected that the number of M-commerce related applications will increase significantly.
The content delivery over wireless devices is becoming faster, more secure, and scalable which puts M-commerce in a line to surpass E-commerce as a method of choice for digital commerce transactions. One of the main fear of Information Technology manager is fear of data stolen from mobile devices, the mobile industry is developing Smart Cards which is a shield against counterfeiting and employs high level of security. The industries affected by M-Commerce include ???Financial Services, which includes mobile banking and brokerage services. Telecommunications, in which service changes, bill payment and account reviews can all be conducted from the same handheld device. ???Service/Retail, as consumers are given the ability to place and pay or orders on-the-fly. ???Information service, which include the delivery of financial news, sports figures and traffic updates to a single mobile device. M-Government- New Trend E-government efforts aim to benefit from the use of most innovative form of information technologies, particularly web-based internet applications.
These functions are now spreading the use of mobile and wireless technologies and creating a new direction: mobile government (M-government). Despite in its early stage, M-government seems to have a substantial influence on the generation set of complex strategies and tools, for E-government efforts and on their roles and functions. The number of people having access to mobile phones and mobile smart phones with internet connections such as iPhone and blackberry is increasing rapidly.
The mobile access is becoming a natural part of daily life, and the governments will have to transform their activities according to this demand of convenience and efficiency of interactions for all parties. The value of M-government comes from the capabilities of applications supporting mobility of the citizens, business and internal operations of the governments. The synergy between E-government and M-government may be of a concern especially for those countries that are already making substantial investments in E-government implementations.
Now that M-government is inevitable, extending activities to wireless devices and networks will enable these countries to be more proactive in their operations and services. The usage of advanced wireless applications such as location-based information exchanges will stimulate m-government by enhancing services such as fire fighting and medical emergencies (mGovlab). Following challenges will have to be tackled by technological companies for a successful transition ??? Infrastructure development, payment infrastructure, privacy and security, accessibility, legal issues and compatibility. Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that E-government does not mean putting scores of government forms on the Internet; instead it is about using technology to its fullest to provide services and information that is centered on business and/or citizen groups. Filing electronically will not only save money and make the information manageable for future. New technology developments in telecommunication industry has taken Mobile industry into a new era of Commerce. In terms of cost mobile smart phones are much cheaper then computers, this will help the companies to provide immediate services to consumers who use them for commerce.
M-government will be significant part of E-government efforts based on present technology application and services. It is a new trend of E-commerce. In order to achieve successful results M-government will have to rely heavily on existing M-commerce technology. Today’s M-commerce technology has tools such as Internet, mail, stock updates, video clips messaging and so on. The policy makers and IT professionals need to get ready to embrace these developments and participate in the ways to enhance E-government activities through M-government.
References Paige Baltzan & Amy Phillips (2008). Business driven Information Systems. IGI Website; On Line: http://www. igi-global. com/reference/details. asp? ID=5068=preface Europe media Website; On line: www. europemeida. net mGovlab Website; On Line: www. mgovbal. com Whitehouse Website; On Line: http://www. whitehouse. gov/omb/egov/g-1-background. html Mobile Computing Website; On Line: http://searchmobilecomputing. techtarget. com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci214590,00. html