Analyzing E-Government Development in Kudus Local Government Using SWOT Analysis

Analyzing E-Government Development in Kudus Local Government Using
SWOT Analysis
Edhie Wibowo
Faculty of Administrative Science University of Brawijaya, Jl. MT Haryono 163 Malang
Email: edhiewibowo@gmail.com
Abstract
E-government is an important tool for public sector transformation and a force for
effective governance, and the Government of Indonesia has been trying to utilize the
advances of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for the public. This
research tries to analyze the e-government developments in Kudus Local Government to
find the strength and weakness within the organization, as well as the opportunity and
threat outside the organization. Using qualitative analysis method, a field research has
been done in Kudus Local Government. All findings then analyzed to find the best using
SWOT Analysis. The result of this research shows us, that e-government development in
Kudus Local Government could be improved in the future by using the precise analysis in
the development process to create the best strategic plans based on the analysis and could
be used as an insight to develop a new system more effective and efficient in the future.
Keywords: SWOT Analysis; E-Government
Abstrak
E-government saat ini telah menjadi alat yang efektif bagi transformasi sektor
publik dan kekuatan untuk mewujudkan tata kelola pemerintahan yang efektif dan
partisipasi publik, dalam tataran nasional dan lokal. Pemerintah telah berusaha untuk
memanfaatkan kemajuan TIK (Teknologi Informatika dan Komunikasi) untuk melayani
publik. Riset ini berusaha untuk menganalisa pembangunan e-government di Pemerintah
Kabupaten Kudus dengan cara mencari kekuatan dan kelemahan dari dalam organisasi
serta kesempatan dan ancaman yang mungkin timbul yang berasal dari luar organisasi.
Menggunakan metode analisa kualitatif, sebuah penelitian diadakan di lingkungan
Pemerintah Kabupaten Kudus. Hasil dari penelitian tersebut kemudian dianalisa dengan
menggunakan teknik SWOT untuk mencari solusi terbaik bagi pembangunan e-
government di masa depan. Hasil penelitian riset ini menunjukkan bahwa pembangunan
e-government di Pemerintah Kabupaten Kudus dapat ditingkatkan di masa depan dengan
menggunakan analisa yang tepat dan dapat digunakan sebagai pedoman untuk
membangun sistem baru yang lebih efektif dan efisien di masa depan.
Kata Kunci: Analisa SWOT; E-Government
Introduction

The Government of Indonesia, started from 2003, has been trying to utilize the
information, communication, and technology (ICT) to the success of e-Government
development. The government issued The Presidential Instruction No. 3 Year 2003
(Instruksi Presiden No.3 Tahun 2003) entitled “Policy and National Strategy for e-
Government Development” as a guideline and roadmap for central and local governments
in Indonesia to establish the e-Government.
Although e-Government has been implemented in many agencies in central and
local governments, the result of it is not as good as the Government of Indonesia
expected, in other words, the development of e-government is not as successful as
Supangkat (2005, p.1) argues. The failure in implementing e-government, especially in
local governments of Indonesia, are due to the lack of a precise methodology and
competence skills in human resources, weak ICT leadership, and the advancement of e-
government development. Yustianto (2006, p.1) also stated that the problems which
occurred in e-government development in Indonesia, as follows: (1) Lack of commitment
from the government to perform change management; (2) The structure of organization
of ICT agency in government and its authority, which do not describe clearly the job
description and responsibilities among ICT officers; and (3) Limited authority of high-
level departments to access data across agencies. Abuali et. al (2010, p.170) stated some
factors and rules affecting the success of e-government, based on other researchers
findings. In his paper, he argues that the problem that sometimes arises with the
developing countries is that there is a gap of equality between current and future system,
which happens frequently.
In our initial enthusiasm for e-government during the late 2002, Indonesia tended to
view e-government as a tool to improve the quality of government. Yustianto (2006, p.1)
argues that e-government could be a tool for the changing system in the governance. The
most important role of e-government is as an aiding instrument to create a change in the
service of government to its citizens.
Theoritical Review

What is E-Government?
Electronic government or e-government is one of the most important elements on the
current public sector reform agenda. Electronic government refers to all political-
administrative structures and processes of government in which information and
communication technologies (ICTs) are utilized (Annttiroiko, 2008, p.xii).
Heeks (2005, p.4) defines e-government as the use of ICT by public sector
organizations. E-government means not only just internet, but also office mechanism and
internal management information systems and expert systems, including client-facing
websites. To better understand e-government, we have to know about ICT. The core of
ICT is manipulating data to produce information, storing data and make it useful for users.
Latter, as this traffic of data happens, it can be called a system. E-government, therefore
is called a management information systems.
E-Government could be defined as a relationship between stakeholders, namely:
1. Government-to-Government (G2G) interactions are concerned with the use of
technologies to enhance the internal efficiency of public bureaucracies.
2. Government-to-Business (G2B) interactions typically involve the use of the
Internet to reduce the costs to government of buying and selling goods and
services from firms (Bevir 2006, p.61).
3. Government-to-Citizen (G2C), as Bevir stated, is the interactions involve using
the Internet to provide public services and transactions online.
The importance of e-government:
OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Forum, stated the
importance of e-government as follows (OECD, 2005, p.15):
1. E-Government improves efficiency
ICTs help improve efficiency in mass processing tasks and public administration
operations. Significant future efficiencies are likely through greater sharing of data
within and between governments.
2. E-Government improves services

Successful services (both online and off-line) are built on an understanding of user
requirements.
3. E-Government helps achieve specific policy outcomes and can contribute to
economic policy objectives
The Internet can help stakeholders share information and ideas and thus contribute to
specific policy outcomes.
4. E-Government can be a major contributor to reform
E-government has underpinned reforms in many areas, for example by improving
transparency, facilitating information-sharing and highlighting internal
inconsistencies.
5. E-Government can help build trust between governments and citizens.
Building trust between governments and citizens is fundamental to good governance. ICT
can help build trust by enabling citizen engagement in the policy process, promoting open
and accountable government and helping to prevent corruption.
The SWOT Analysis Technique for E-Government
Probably the most basic assessment model is the SWOT analysis, which consists
of identifying factors that fall into each of four areas; strength (S), weakness (W),
opportunity (O), and threat (T).
SWOT analysis which consists of internal and external analysis, is used to
determine and analyze the conditions in data findings briefly, in order to make them
clearer to the readers of this research. All the internal and external factors in the
development of e-government in Kudus Local Government have a high cohesion level
and combination to affect each other.
The analysis of internal factors is beneficial for identifying and explaining several
factors that lies in Strength and Weakness domains. These two domains, actually, are the
analysis and evaluation of conditions, performance, and problems faced by Kudus Local
Government in terms of e-government development. On the other hand, the analysis of
external factors is used to identify and explain various factors in Opportunity and Threat
domains. One way of utilizing SWOT is matching and converting.

Matching is used to find competitive advantages by matching the strengths to
opportunities. Converting is to apply conversion strategies to convert weaknesses or
threats into strengths or opportunities. After having performed the SWOT analysis, the
local government could use these findings to define the main issues that must be
addressed in the strategic development plan. Decisions of these issues will lead to the
subsequent setting of objectives, strategies and tactics. Ritson (2011, p.41) stated that the
main purpose of the SWOT analysis is to identify strategies that align, fit or match an
organization’s resources and capabilities to the demands of the environment in which the
organization competes.
The components of the SWOT analysis are all the focuses of this research and have
been observed during the field research, namely: (1) Leadership, (2) Human Resources,
(3) Vision and Mission of Organization, (4) Organizational Structure, (5) Control of E-
government Development, (6) Infrastructure, and (7) System Maintenance.
Research Methods
The present research is the analysis of conditions of e-government development in
Kudus Local Government until recently.
In this research, the researcher tries to find the uniqueness of Kudus Local
Government in developing the e-government in terms of strength, weakness, opportunity,
and threat using qualitative analysis method. The purpose of this research is to describe
and analyze the past and current condition which support or halt the e-government
development, then propose the alternative strategic planning in the future to avoid the
failure in the future. The analysis of this research will be deducted from theoretical and
empirical perspective of e-government, combined with the current situation of Kudus
Local Government.
Discussion
E-Government Development in Kudus Local Government

Kudus regency, is still developing the e-government nowadays, with all the
strengths and opportunities to eliminates all the weaknesses and threats in the future. The
use of e-government in public service can help the government to better the quality of
their service to the citizens. Society is supposed to be the main recipient of the e-
government implementation. This is also the main theme of e-Government Survey 2012
released by the United Nations (UN) in their publication1
. A major theme from United
Nations this year is The E-government for the People, E-government to the Public. The
benefits that can be enjoyed by the community include the improving of the quality of
public services, transparency of the various processes of government, and the opening
door of direct participation in government’s activities.
The success stories of e-government development from other local governments
could be used as the inspiration to Kudus Local Government. The methodology being
used in this research is the descriptive research method with qualitative approach. This
research uses SWOT Analysis as a tool to analyze the condition of Kudus Local
Government in terms of e-government development.
The limitation of this research is only matching and converting some elements in the
SWOT Analysis into strategic planning in e-government development, due to the time
limitation and the need of discussion between leaders in Kudus Local Government in
several areas considering the urgency, budget, human resource, and infrastructure.
Findings and Analysis of Research
The findings in the field show that Kudus Local Government has its own strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on the e-government development. Some elements
of this analysis are the typical conditions of local governments in Indonesia, due to the
facts that the recruitment process of public officers in Indonesia follows the same way
under the authority of Ministry of National Public Officers (Kementerian Pendayagunaan
Aparatur Negara).
In this research, only some elements in the SWOT Analysis will be taken into
strategic plan in the future of e-government development in Kudus Local Government,
1 http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/12report.htm

regarding the fact that the full SWOT Analysis requires the collaboration with all
elements in Kudus Local Government in the development process.
Matching and Converting the SWOT Analysis
To utilize the SWOT Analysis, the first step to gain the benefit from it is matching
the Strength and Opportunity. An example of the SWOT Analysis Matching:
1. Strength: Top leader has a sympathy to the development of e-government
2. Opportunity: A young generation of leaders who are familiar with ICT will
support the development of e-government in the future.
Matching Result: Utilize the leadership from the leader who understand the
importance of ICT and e-government to support the development
Converting the Weaknesses and Threats into Strength and Opportunity could be done in
several ways, i.e: combining the weakness and strength, combining the weakness and
opportunity, or analyzing the weakness and threat to find the best solution for it. For
example:
1. Weakness: Several leaders are hesitant and not familiar with ICT
2. Opportunity: A young generation of leaders who are familiar with ICT
Converting Result: Leaders who have commitment in e-government could inspire
other leaders who do not interest and familiar with ICT
Considering the findings and analysis of the research combined with the SWOT
Analysis, the researcher views that some improvements need to be made in the future for
a better result. The strategy is to divide them into short-term, middle term, and long-term
planning in e-government development.
1. Short-term planning of e-government development
a. The crucial one is upgrading the ICT human resource capability. The
upgrading processes cover the recruitment process, training, and development of
the human resources.
1) The recruitment process

The recruitment process that can support the development of e-government
must be conducted. The alternative method as suggested by the researcher, is
conducting the independent civil servant recruitment.
2) The ICT Trainings
ICT training must be well planned and organized. In order to make the ICT
training more effective and efficient, a feedback from the participant must be
requested, and results from previous trainings must be kept as an insight or
direction for the next training.
3) The development of ICT human resources
To upgrade the capability of an officer in ICT field of study, an officer should
be sent to various ICT trainings regarding to the goals of the government, and
the relation between the training and officer’s jobs. The development of ICT
human resources must be available for leaders as well as staffs.
b. The next short-term plan is providing more infrastructures to the e-government
development. Ideally, one officer must have one personal computer or laptop. If
the ideal condition cannot be reach due to the limited budget, a system of credit or
aid in computer buying for public officer is recommended.
2. Middle-term planning on e-government development
a. Planning for Buying a necessary database software for specific use, but with a
similar type of database
In buying a new computer system, a data type used in the database must be
similar with the previous system, or can be exported and imported to or from a
desired type of data. Moreover, the researcher suggests that the new system has an
export-import function in database.
b. Conduct a survey for citizens in terms of e-government development
A survey about e-government may be distributed to the community in order to
gain the response from the public. What response do we need from the citizens?
The ideas, critics, suggestions, and recommendations may come from all around

the city, and it is very valuable for the development of e-government in Kudus
Local Government.
c. Publish the legislation to support the development of e-government
The guidelines in the master plan of e-government will be beneficial for all
organizations that need e-government system as an aid tool in everyday work.
d. Strengthening the official website as a portal for local government to serve the
public
The design, content, and capability of the website can be upgraded to a higher
level than just an informative website. It can be as a social network forum to
gather the ideas, critics, suggestions, and recommendation about the quality
service of the local government. Moreover, the website can be utilized as an
interactive media for serving the public.
3. Long-term planning on e-government development
a. Updating the Master plan of e-government in Kudus Local Government.
The master plan is very important to guide the development of e-government.
The meaning of updating the master plan, is updating the data in the guideline, due
to the fast speed of ICT advancement in the world, and the fast changing in the
Kudus Local Government environment.
b. Giving an opportunity to the officer to study in a higher education level,
especially in e-government related study.
An officer should be given an opportunity to increase the level of his or her
education, and after finishing the study; he must give a real contribution to the
local government.
Conclusion
We have to integrate e-government into the effort to ensure better and more
modern government of Indonesia. The use of e-government in public service can help the
government to better the quality of their service to the citizens. The road to better the
service to the citizen through e-government is not easy, considering that many local

governments have many other objectives such as economic, physical, education, and
health development. Also, it is not easy to change the mindset of people who lives in the
rural areas, so they can know that e-government could make their everyday living more
comfortable, increasing the economic development, and supporting the education of their
children.
Finally, the researcher suggests that there will be a further research on the
development of e-government in Kudus Local Government. Another methodology and
approach should be tried to overcome the problems in e-government development. The
research about e-government development will be more comprehensive if performed with
two different methods, qualitative and quantitative. In the future, the use of quantitative
method will enrich this present research and complete the analyzing of e-government
development in Kudus Local Government, and could be combined with this present
research. SWOT Analysis could be combined with IT Governance or quantitative
research method to gain the more comprehensive result on analyzing the e-government
development.

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