E - Government Adoption and Business Process Re - Engineering in Developing Countries : Sri Lankan and South African Case Studies

In 1995 the commercial legalization of the Internet immediately triggered e-Government initiatives all over the developed world. After more than e decade, e-Government initiatives in developing countries are still rendering poor results while they are struggling to catch up with similar applications in the developed world. Despite the strong base that BPR offered for the phasing in of new e-Government initiatives, most of them failed dismally in the developing world. A few spectacular successes were however recorded. In this paper the authors offer a balanced look at two cases studies in which BPR formed an integral part of their respective implementation strategies. A number of important implementation lessons regarding e-government initiatives are embedded these two case studies from Sri Lanka and South Africa. They also offer important pointers on how to make these initiatives work.