Customer Orientation in e‑Government Project Management: a Case Study

Abstract

Customer orientation is vital for success in today's competitive environment. Jaworski and Kohli (1993) proposed a model to measure customer orientation comprising three components: 1) intelligence generation; 2) intelligence dissemination; and 3) organization‑wide responsiveness. This model has been applied in several sectors. This paper applies it to an e‑Government organization of a municipality. To apply the model, semi‑structured interviews were conducted in the organization. Some of the major findings were: 1) an absence of concurrency in the design process; 2) a lack of input in the technology selection; 3) an absence of a knowledge management system for sharing lessons learnt; 4) a reactive nature of the organization; 5) use of different personnel for design and troubleshooting; and 6) a lack of training and standardized procedures. This research accomplishes three major purposes. The first is to elucidate customer orientation, as presented in other disciplines, the second is to elucidate how elements of customer orientation relate to e‑Government, and third one was to demonstrate how customer orientation concepts can be used to suggest improvements in e‑Government Project Management. All three purposes were achieved through the case study presented.