AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science

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AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science Vol 04 (2013) 1084-1088

3rd World Conference on Innovation and Computer Sciences 2013

An Exploratory Study on e-Government Systems Success in Romania Andreea Ionica *, Management Department, University of Petrosani, Petrosani, Romania. Eduard Edelhauser, Head of the Management Department, University of Petrosani, Petrosani, Romania. Lucian Lupu-Dima, Mining Engineering and Surveying Department, University of Petrosani, Petrosani, Romania. Suggested Citation: Ionica A., Edelhauser E. & Dima L., L. An exploratory study on e-government systems success in Romania. AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 04, pp 1084-1088. Available from: www.awer-center.org/pitcs Received December 23, 2012; revised February 10, 2013; accepted March 05, 2013 Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Fahrettin Sadıkoglu, Near East University. ©2013 Academic World Education & Research Center. All rights reserved. Abstract In the area of e-Government Romania is lagging behind, especially in take-up, being at the lowest place in the EU for both citizens (at 8%) and businesses (at 50%). This clearly indicates that there is an urgent need for public management reform in what regards governments’ role as service providers towards clients. Cohesion Funds are the main source of public projects in most countries in the southeast Europe region. The study set sights on Romanian public administrations that have implemented an e-Government service, and were collected in 2012 year. The instrument used for collecting data is a quantitative questionnaire. The questionnaire sets the current stage of the level of implementation of information and management systems in the 2012 Romanian local public administration. The study aim is to set the basis of new eGovernment systems implementation, in the perspective of integration of new Romanian e-Government information system with European Funds in the 2014-2020. Keywords: E-Government, Public Administration, Information Systems;

* ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Andreea Ionica, University of Petrosani, Universitatii Street, No. 20, Petrosani, Romania E-mail address: [email protected]

Ionica A., Edelhauser E. & Dima L., L. An exploratory study on e-government systems success in Romania. AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 04, pp 1084-1088. Available from: www.awer-center.org/pitcs

1.Theoretical Framework of an e-Government Service in Romanian Public Administration The word e-Government translates literally as "electronic government". However, the term eGovernment has established itself worldwide as meaning "the administration of government by means of electronic technology". In general, it means the simplification of work routines and processes through the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the areas of information, communication and transaction within and between state institutions as well as between the government and citizens or businesses. Public authorities use technologies such as the Internet or mobile services to get into contact with citizens and businesses. They also use these technologies to carry out internal work processes. E-Government has an impact on every citizen, business and public authority. [http://www.digitales.oesterreich.gv.at/site/6506/default.aspx] 1.1. e-Government Service in EU. A Digital Agenda for Europe The overall aim of the Digital Agenda is to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits from a digital single market based on fast and ultra fast Internet and interoperable applications. The crisis has wiped out years of economic and social progress and exposed structural weaknesses in Europe's economy. Europe's primary goal today must be to get Europe back on track. To achieve a sustainable future, it must already look beyond the short term. Faced with demographic ageing and global competition we have three options: work harder, work longer or work smarter. To achieve this, the Digital Agenda makes proposals for actions that need to be taken urgently to get Europe on track for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Its proposals will set the scene for the longer-term transformations that the increasingly digital economy and society will bring about. E-Government services can reduce costs and save time for public administrations, citizens and businesses. They can also help mitigate the risks of climate change, natural and man-made hazards by including the sharing of environmental data and environment-related information. Today, despite a high level of availability of e-Government services in Europe, differences still exist amongst Member States and the take-up of e-Government services by citizens is low. In 2009, only 38% of EU citizens used the Internet for accessing e-Government services, compared to 72% of businesses. 1.2. e-Government Factsheet Romania – e-Services for Citizens This section is based on the common list of 20 basic public services contained in the annual report [http://www.epractice.eu/en/document/288410] [1] and other 2007-2011 surveys. Table 1. Romanian Information Society Indicators Information Society Indicators Overall ICT expenditure (as a % of GDP) % households with broadband connection % of enterprises with broadband e-Government usage by individuals (%) e-Government usage by enterprises (%)

Romania 1,1 23 52 8 50

EU‐27 2,4 61 86 41 75

(Source: Capgemini et al., 2010, p. 207) Table 2. Romania Position Positioning International Benchmarks UN e‐Government Development Index EIU Digital Economy EIU Digital Economy score

2010 (2009) th 47 47th (48th) 5.04 (5.07)

out of /184 /70 /10

(Source: Capgemini et al., 2010, p. 207)

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Ionica A., Edelhauser E. & Dima L., L. An exploratory study on e-government systems success in Romania. AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 04, pp 1084-1088. Available from: www.awer-center.org/pitcs

Table 3. E-government development in Eastern Europe

(Source: E-Government Survey 2012, p. 30)

1.3. The 12 Romanian services for citizens 1.Income taxes: declaration, notification of assessment. http://formulare.e-guvernare.ro/, http://www.e-guvernare.ro/ Payment of local taxes via the Internet is currently used in 50% of Romanian municipalities. Eight of our respondents are city halls or county councils. What is important to note, is that based on a national initiative, local public administrations have responded individually. For example, in the Jiu Valley, have been accessed funds from World Bank and through this founds were implemented at each city hall (Petrila, Petrosani, Vulcan, Lupeni) management tools to local taxes. The result was the ability to obtain interoperability. 2. The Job search services by labor offices. http://www.anofm.ro, http://www.semm.ro, online job search operates under the National Agency for Occupation and Labor (ANOFM). 3. Social security benefits. A project for a 'Computerized System for Health Insurance' (SIUI) is expected to raise the level of service when in operation. [http://www.cnas.ro/despre-noi/proiectprescriptia-electronica] The Electronic Prescription IT System (SIPE), is a National Health Insurance House project financed from non-repayable European funds, and is implemented from 1st of July 2012. SIVECO Romania, Romanian software company leader, will bring to this project the expertise gained from complex e-Health projects developed already. 4. Personal documents: passport and driver’s license. http://www.mai.gov.ro/ 5. Car registration (new, used, imported cars) gov.ro/ (section Utile) (http://www.drpciv.ro/infoportal/downloadFile.do?menu=forms&lang=ro&id=18, http://www.mira 6. Application for building permission. These are issued by the local Public Administration 7. Declaration to the police (e.g. in case of theft) no online service 8. Public libraries (availability of catalogues, search tools. http://www.cultura.ro 9. Certificates (birth and marriage): request and delivery. 10. Enrolment in higher education. Major universities offer the possibility to enroll online. 11. Announcement of moving (change of address). Information online is available, but no online registration facility to date. 12. Health related services (interactive advice on the availability of services in different hospitals; appointments for hospitals)

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Ionica A., Edelhauser E. & Dima L., L. An exploratory study on e-government systems success in Romania. AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 04, pp 1084-1088. Available from: www.awer-center.org/pitcs

2. An explanatory investigation of the Romanian Public Administration Information and Management Systems Based on the declared intention of the Romanian government and on the very few achievements, we have decided to fulfill a study that would allow us to make the connection between government intentions and reality. Further, we intend that the results of this approach, to be used in another project for identifying reasons why the e-Government is less that would be necessary for Romania. The present study set sights on Romanian organizations, which implemented an e-Government service, more specific, the basement for an e-Government service (ERP, GIS and QMS) and were collected in 2012 year. 2.1. Methodology The instrument used for collecting data is a quantitative questionnaire. The research based on a questionnaire was structured on 55 questions focused on hardware and software (5 questions), implementation of the ERP business software for five business function such as manufacturing, SCM, financial, HRM and CRM (16 questions), other 12 questions were dedicated to Geographic Information Systems GIS implementation, other 10 to Quality Management Systems QMS and the last 12 questions were dedicated to connections between ERP, GIS and QMS. 2.2. Respondents In the virtue of the questionnaire we achieved the results and we were able to formulate and validate hypothesis. We have analyzed the data using SPSS 17.0, and the respective response rates, excluding the unusable questionnaires received. There are, according to the territorial administrative organization of Romania 104 municipalities having over 40,000 inhabitants and 320 cities having over 10,000 inhabitants. We chose a sample of 45 local public administrations that represent 10% of the total number of cities and municipalities. The number is greater than 30 for which it is accepted that the distribution is normal. Also for descriptive research a total of 20% of the population is sufficiently investigated, and in our case from 424 local governments of cities and towns only half have a form of e-Government, so 45 respondents represent a sample of 20%. Currently the study is based on 10 organizations. 2.3. Results The 10 public organizations selected for the moment are: Timisoara City Hall, Brasov County Council, Arad City Hall, Petrila City Hall, Emergency County Hospital Resita, Hunedoara County Council, Veterinary and Food Safety Service of Buzau County and Vulcan City Hall, Bucuresti City Hall District 4, Fagaras City Hall. [3] In addition to the conclusions drawn from the survey we can issue a hypothesis that may be optimistic element in terms of ERP and GIS use in public administration. Increasing the number of users for the instruments Cloud certainly bring openness and among public administrations. Already, developers have made GIS solutions to its customers on Cloud tools. [2] Not only in this area have migrated to the Cloud. Oracle currently provides Cloud Applications, Cloud Platform and Cloud Infrastructure. Following this new way of providing solutions, Oracle has made a study regarding the Application Delivery Strategies, led by Joseph McKendrick, Research Analyst. He was released in April 2012 and resulted in consultation with a number of 364 enterprise application managers and businesses. [6]

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Ionica A., Edelhauser E. & Dima L., L. An exploratory study on e-government systems success in Romania. AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science. [Online]. 2013, 04, pp 1084-1088. Available from: www.awer-center.org/pitcs

Table 4. ERP Module Implementation

Discussion and conclusions Today’s local government organizations are turning to on-line service in order to improve access and reduce costs. Web-based services can make interactions with public agencies smoother, easier, and more efficient. According to the 7th Measurement of Online Service in EU, Romania is the last out of 27 members in terms of sophistication of services and online availability of services to citizens. This clearly indicates that there is an urgent need for public management reform in what regards governments’ role as service providers towards clients. The research performed within this paper aimed to investigate the Romanian society public administration. We identified the fact that the ERP, GIS and QMS have a low level of implementation in Romanian public administration. Only hardware platforms are well implemented and maybe some ERP and QMS Systems. Because these systems are the basis of implementing an e-Government (electronic public administration services) we have concluded that in Romania, the 2013-year is a very optimistic term. Taking into consideration the low level of absorption of EU Founds we can predict that 2020-year could be a realistic term for a real eRomania implementation. References Capgemini, IDC, Rand Europe, Sogeti and DTi, Digitizing Public Services in Europe: Putting ambition into action, th 9 Benchmark Measurement, December 2010. Chappell, D. GIS in the Cloud, The ESRI example, 2010. Edelhauser, E. Ionică, A. Lupu, L., Statistical Assumption as a Basis for Implementing e-Government Services in th Romania, 11 WSEAS International Conference, Advances in Data Networks, Communications, Computers and Materials, Sliema, Malta, 7-9 September 2012, pp 121-126. Homburg, V. Understanding e-Government: Information Systems in Public Administration, Taylor & Francis eLibrary, New York, USA, 2008. Ionica A., Leba M., Edelhauser E., Quality Approach on the Evaluation of the Users’ Requirements for an eLearning System, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference QMHE - „E” Era & Higher Education, 2012, Austrian Computer Society, pp.23-28. McKendrick, J. Cloud at the Crossroads. 2012 OAUG Surveys on Application Delivery Strategies. ***, E-Government Survey 2012, E-Government for the People, United Na

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