Egypt E-Government portal for better services

Dr. Ahmed Darwish during a visit to the exhibition

Cairo UniversityFaculty of Computers and InformationDecision Support and Future Studies Center

In accordance with the Ministry of State for Administrative Development’s goals

and with continuous consideration for identifying the citizens’ attitudes as well

as improving the services, the ministry made use of the Information Technology

Exhibition held at Cairo International Con-

vention (February 2010) as a venue to as-

sess the citizens’ opinions of the quality

of electronic services provided on the E-

government portal (www.egypt.gov.eg).

The ministry also seized such oppor-

tunity to measure the citizens’ benefit

from these services on one hand and to

determine the obstacles that may result

into non-use on the other hand. It turned

out, through the study, that the majority of

respondents (the sample) are acquainted

with the existence of the portal. Nonethe-

less, they do not use the services avail-

able for various reasons to be explained later in this report.

The study further found that confidence in the services and costs did not rep-

resent a major obstacle for use. Most users thought that the benefit and cost

of the service were worth the paid fees. Moreover, the organization and brows-

ing of the portal represented a significant constraint for both users and non-

users, in addition to dissatisfaction with the loading speed of the portal pages.

All respondents agreed on the availability of information and forms required by

the citizens. It was also observed that a large proportion of the sample couldn’t

get help when needed via phone or e-mail. Additionally, the study found out that

the most services used by the citizens were mainly related to Telecom Egypt,

personal documents “ID Replacement card”, and Motor vehicle license.

the first Egyptian electronic website to carry out electronic surveys through the

internet, www.mywebsurveys.net, as a stimulus for the companies specialized

in research. DSFS Center has hired experts specialized in this area for design-

ing, studying and analyzing the survey. The

study was applied on a sample of 164 re-

spondents, most of which are university

graduates. Of those, 109 respondents use

the portal whereas 55 don’t.

Survey, which is considered one of the most

important scientific research methods used

by researchers, has been used in this study.

Two questionnaires are designed; the first

is to measure the opinions of citizens who

use the portal and the other for those who

don’t. The researchers have adopted the

“closed questions” style in the design of

these forms.

Decision Support and Future Studies Center (DSFS) at the Faculty of Computers

and Information, Cairo University has carried out this study in collaboration with

Each questionnaire contains:

• 9 questions to measure the demographic factors of respondents (sex, age, mari-

tal status, and academic qualification) and the nature of the portal use.

• 15 questions to assess the quality of services provided through 11 dimensions;

(functionality , response, browsing, reliability, safety, availability, precision, per-

formance, immediacy, efficiency, awareness).

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first cooperation between the Ministry

of Administrative Development and DSFS Center. Another project was imple-

mented in 2008 using the same model to evaluate 20 services provided by the

portal to the citizens.

The present report introduces the results of the survey in brief for a better under-

standing of the real vision of government services on the Egyptian Government

Portal. This would equally help clarify the vision so as to have a positive impact on

this type of services in the future.

Electronic surveys Site www.mywebsurveys.net in brief ......

• This site was established in 2009 due to the difficulty of designing, implement-ing and obtaining results from surveys done in the traditional way. Therefore, the sponsors for this website began to think that these stages can be completed electronically. As a result, this site has been launched as a new service for re-searchers.• The site provides the following tasks:o Designing and implementing a system that allows the researcher to make surveys scientifically and easily. o Helping researchers gain access to as many respondents as possible in a simple and easy way.o Creating a huge database of (members / respondents) of different age groups and social status ... etc.o Assisting researchers select respondents from the members registered in the website database based on the criteria set by the researcher.

Decision Support and Future Studies Center in brief ......- Established in 2002, in the Faculty of Computers and Information - Cairo University to act as an independent unit to provide scientific consultancy.

- It aims to satisfy the needs of the university, the community, and the state to improve the performance of systems to arrive at the best alternatives in the decision-making process. - It provides its services (research, consulting, training) to a wide range of applications as follows: o Participating in research projects at the local and global levels.o Providing technical support for both the private and public sectors.o Holding workshops and panel discussions (Seminars). o Supplying software applications development.o Granting technical diplomas and training courses.o Assisting in the establishment of decision support centers in different authori-ties/ organizations.

Non-users of the portal

* Based on the results, it has been found that a high percentage of the respondents are dissatisfied with the technical performance of the site as well as the accuracy of the promises of service.. * A high percentage of respondents are also dissatisfied with the response speed of the site in case of problems or questions and its ability to provide assistance. * (40%) of respondents agree on the ease of browsing the site and the presence of a good search function/engine for an easy access to the services the browser seeks.. * Contrary to popular belief that the lack of public demand for the use of e-government services is a result of their skepticism in maintaining their privacy and the security of their financial data upon payment, the sample showed the inaccuracy of this belief. Most respondents who don’t use the e-government portal think that it is safe from any external interventions and protects their personal data. * A large number of respondents find that the site is permanently available on the internet. * A small proportion of respondents do not trust the accuracy of the data available on the site. * A small percentage of the sample can complete transactions on the portal at high speed. This means that the performance rate is slow to some extent. * (35%) only of the sample believe in the effectiveness and efficiency of the portal. * A very small proportion of the respondents have no idea about the portal.

Note: Answers are measured on a 5-point scale in which (1) = strongly disagree and (5)= strongly agree.

%

%

The portal does not provide necessary information and forms to be downloaded

%

Scale

The portal does not always works correctly

Scale

I do not get help when I needed assistance (through portal, telephone, or online

representatives)

Scale

%%

The portal does not protect information about my credit card

%

The portal does not protect my personal information

Scale

Scale

I do not feel confident in dealing with the portal due to its reputation

%

Scale

It was not easy to find what I need

%

Scale

Information on the portal is not well organized

%

Scale

Information on the portal is not free from errors

%

Scale

Pages at this portal freeze after I enter my order information

Scale

%

Scale

The portal does not enable me to complete a transaction quickly

%

Scale

The portal does not seem to be up to date

%

Scale

The portal does not deliver serviceswhen promised

The costs of the service are not adequate

%

Scale

I did not know about the existence of the gate

Scale

%

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Users of the portal

* Based on the results, it has been found that a high percentage of the respondents are satisfied with the technical performance of the site and the ac--curacy of the promises of service. * A high percentage of respondents are satisfied with the response speed of the site in case of problems or questions and its ability to provide assistance. * The percentage of the respondents who agree with the easiness of browsing the site and the presence of a good search function/engine for the services is very close to the percentage of those who don’t. * A high percentage of the sample trust in dealing with the website and the services and information provided. In addition, more than half of the respon-dents believe that the site is safe from external interventions and can protect their personal data. * A very small proportion of the respondents find that the site is not permanently available on the internet. * A high proportion of the sample trusts the accuracy of the data available on the site, in contrast to those who doesn’t.. * A small percentage of the sample can complete transactions on the portal at high speed. This means that the performance rate is slow to some extent..

* Most of the sample believe in the effectiveness and efficiency of the site, and find that the information on the portal is constantly updated..

Note: Answers are measured on a 5-point scale in which (1) = strongly disagree and (5)= strongly agree.

The costs of the service are adequate

%

Scale

The overall value I got from this portal for my money is high

%

Scale

The portal enables me to complete a transaction quickly

%

Scale

The portal seems to be up to date

%

Scale

The portal delivers services when promised

%

Scale

The portal always works correctly

%

Scale

The portal provides necessary information and forms to be downloaded

%

Scale

I got help when I needed assistance (through portal, telephone, or online

representatives)

%

Scale

It was easy to find what I need

%

Scale

Information on the portal is well

%

Scale

I feel confident in dealing with the portal due to its reputation

%

Scale

The portal protects my personal information

%

Scale

The portal protects information about my credit card

Scale

%

Pages at this portal do not freeze after I enter my order information

scale

%

Information on the portal is free from errors

%

Scale

Perfo

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Decision Support and Future Studies

Cairo University , Faculty of Computers and Information, 5 Ahmed Zwaeil Street ,

Orman, Giza - 12613 - Egypt

Phone/Fax: +202 3749 0598

Email: dsfs@fci-cu.edu.eg

Website: http:\\dsfs.fci-cu.edu.eg

Education

What is the service which you used:

Results of questions of measuring demographic factors of respon-dents and how they use the portal

How did you know about the portal and its services

Did someone help you ?

Did you help someone ?

Internet Friends Newspaper Ad

T.V Ad

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LogIn2EGYPT is a research project funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (www.idrc.ca).

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