Today, the legal framework for open government is largely in place in OECD member countries, and consists of...

A high level of readiness to develop and implement e-government services is a prerequisite for a highperforming and innovative public sector that delivers integrated services, making life easier for citizens and businesses. E-government readiness is therefore a significant indicator of whether a country is prepared to harvest efficiencies gained from ICT-enabled public administrations.

Since 2000, OECD member countries have been working towards making all public services for citizens and businesses fully available online. In addition to the potential efficiencies gained by lowering the administrative burdens on clients, developing and implementing integrated e-government services often requires governments to standardise internal processes and data in order to integrate back-office functions across the public sector. However, some countries have legal or regulatory constraints that limit or prevent them from sharing data for service integration. Nevertheless, e-government service maturity can be a proxy for the extent to which countries are generating internal efficiencies through the use of ICT.

For e-government to be successful and for its efficiencies to be fully realised, citizens and businesses must be willing to use e-government services on a regular basis. The maturity of those services and the internal efficiencies associated with providing them can only be realised if people use this delivery channel.