U.S. still No. 3 in e-gov

The third annual worldwide ranking of e-government initiatives by Accenture LLP of Chicago leaves the Top 3 unchanged from last year: Canada and Singapore, followed by the United States [see story at ]. But the United States had the most services online-115 out of a total 117, at least to some degree, the Accenture study said. The Office of Management and Budget's 24 marquee projects have "refreshed" the information superhighway vision of the early 1990s, it said.Globally speaking, "governments that adopt customer relationship management principles early are improving at a much faster pace" in e-government than others, the study said. "Portals are becoming far more prevalent, but their potential continues to be unrealized due to barriers to cross-agency cooperation." Accenture defined CRM as "treating citizens and businesses like customers by tailoring services to their needs rather than the needs of the agency delivering them."The analysts studied 23 national governments' online services in the areas of defense, education, human services, justice and public safety, postal services, procurement, regulation, revenue and transportation. They rated maturity at three levels: informational, interactive and transactional.