EDI and Data Networking in the Public Sector

Contributors from eight countries report on modes of governmental intervention to stimulate the use of EDI, and the challenges facing governments as they try to increase the smooth-running of their own units via organizational management. With cases (a total of 14 chapters) from Singapore, Denmark, USA, Sweden, England, Australia and the Netherlands, the book reveals that governments at supranational, central and local levels in some countries are ahead of the private sector in the utilization of EDI. Local levels of government and quasi-governmental organizations provide an important supplement to the efforts by central government to increase its use. The book also indicates that the pay-off from investments in EDI is slow to evolve, and that returns from investments are closely linked to the organizations' ability to change their work processes along with the investments in EDI. The authors argue that many public-sector organizations lack the steam and vision necessarily to transform the government to a more technologically-based organization, where public procurement, taxation, medicine ordering, etc, take advantage of the potentials of EDI and data networking. The book is intended for researchers and practitioners in MIS, computer science and international trade who are working on the adoption of new technology.