Citizen Relationship and Grievance Management System (CiR&GMS) through Multi-Channel Access for e-Government Services: A Case from India

Citizens are demanding greater access to interaction with government through their preferred channels or devices. The private sector uses different channels for their services, citizens except same level of services from the public sector. Therefore public sector needs to focus on creating multiple delivery channels (Traditional such as face to face, Telephone and Modern channels such as Website, E-mail, SMS), so that citizens can have ‘channels of choice', depending on specific needs, demands and preferences in order to increase citizens' participation and satisfaction. For this reason, the paper's purpose is 1) To understand multi-channel architecture, Integration, Management and its Strengths & Weakness 2) To develop a frame work for Citizen Relationship and Grievance Management System (CiR&GMS) for a single view 3) By applying proposed framework, To identify what types of channels are providing to access public services at National, State and Local level governments in India as a case study 4) To find out challenges and issues in implementation of multi-channel service delivery. The key findings of the case study are: a) There is no declining in providing traditional channels after introducing modern channels b) Many departments are offering mixed channels c) Usage of Mobile/SMS, Social media and Wi-Fi hotspots based channels are in initial stage d) t-Government channel is not yet initiated in any department e) Multi-channel integration and management is not yet initiated by many departments, these departments are managed channels as separate silos. The proposed framework may provide some guidance to the decision and policy makers in the public sector. However, such initiatives have many challenges to the developing countries like India.