Challenge 10: What is Our Role? From Monopoly to Service Provider

Abstract

Only recently has public administration started to see itself as a service provider to customers: the citizens Administrations are constantly approaching the status of commercial service providers, in the sense that they must cover their costs, and that users subscribe to the services on a voluntary basis. This transition is still under way, but there are important factors pushing development in this direction. One is competition in the same services from the private sector. This applies to services such as telecommunications and energy, but also health, education and so on. In many countries, private companies or public-private partnerships are introducing competition to services previously considered exclusively public sector business. Electronic services are likely to contribute to accelerating this process. Providing good services requires thinking about what users look for, how they look and so on. This chapter therefore introduces the perspective of users looking for a solution to a problem.