Title: The Swiss eGov Case: “Metadata 2010”
Authors; Philip Boxer & Dr Hans Sassenburg
Category: Published
Where published: SEI Special Report
eGov projects are designed to impact on the relationships possible between the citizen and government, typically including relationships with multiple parts of government at different levels of government. As a result, the effects of eGov projects cannot be justified based on the direct effects of a project because the main benefits are indirect, intended as they are to affect the ways in which government activities can be aligned to the needs of the particular citizen. Multi-sided markets provide a way of describing the relationship between a supplier of services and the value of indirect benefits.
The traditional basis for justifying an investment is in terms of the supply-side economies of scale or scope generated by the direct effects of the investment on existing working practices and/or with respect to new revenues that can be captured. In the case of eGov projects, no such justifications are possible because all the effects are indirect, given the multi-sided nature of the demands being met. In their place demandside economies have to be identified, being economies in the costs of aligning government activities to the needs of particular citizens. A way of meeting the need to express monetary effects can be found in valuing the impact of introducing new eGov-investments on these costs of alignment, through the use of real option analysis.
This special report describes the results of a feasibility study executed in October-December 2009 for the Swiss Government. Fundamental objective was to be able to assess the value of different investment options aiming to increase the responsiveness of the Swiss Government to questions asked of it by its citizens and enterprises. The four different steps in the study are described, including their outcomes:
(1) demand analysis regarding the questions raised,
(2) main analysis to compare the different investment options considered using Monte Carlo simulation and real op-tion analysis,
(3) conclusions regarding the study, and
(4) recommendations for a follow-up project.