Multichannel Delivery of Public Services: A New and Complex Management Challenge

Abstract

A strategic challenge facing all governments today is how to deliver services effectively and efficiently. At one time, they thought that they could meet this challenge by exploiting technology and going the E-government route with the promise of single-window, integrated, intelligent service delivery. Very quickly, however, they had to accept the fact that they would have to overcome a multitude of obstacles and that individual and corporate clients often preferred to receive service in traditional ways. As a result, the delivery of public services is becoming increasingly multichannel: over the counter, by mail and telephone, over the Internet, via text and television, etc. There is therefore a need to identify some kind of model for managing this highly complex new phenomenon effectively and efficiently. By conducting research in the field with the help of case studies and international benchmarking, it was possible to identify the main variables in the degree of effectiveness and efficiency of multichannel public service delivery and develop the outline of a model representing the underlying factors.