Models of Improving e-Governance by Back Office Re-Organisation and Integration

Good service delivery for the users and efficient provision of the services in the back offices is a crucial objective of public administration. The article examines how governance among the different entities in the back offices of service production affects their interoperability and what the main conditions are to improve their integration and service delivery to citizens and companies as users. In a comparative study of back offices in public administrations in 17 European States three innovative strategies or ‘models’ were explored which can lead to improved integration of back offices jointly involved in the production of a specific service. This approach understands different solutions in different countries as functional equivalents. It takes into account that governance structures between entities of the different sectors of the governance triangle are historically grown and therefore cannot simply be copied from one state to another. It also provides leeway for political actors to look for the strategy that fits best their specific socio-political environment.