An m-Government Solution for Complaint and Problem Management Designing a Solution for Government 2.0

Sammanfattning: In recent years emphasis has been placed on opening up governments and empowering and engaging citizens in governmental activities: this view of e-government is referred to as government 2.0. Government 2.0 focuses on governments becoming more transparent, accessible, and responsive, and on governments promoting increased collaboration and participation.  There is also an increasing demand from citizens to interact and gain access to government services through mobile devices. Adopting mobile and wireless technology within the public sector is referred to as mobile government (m-government) and this new phenomenon is expected to become an important part of the development of e-government. By combining government 2.0 and m-government, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the research community envisages benefits and calls for action within this field.This research answers this call, and addresses the research problem of how to design an m-government solution for complaint and problem management that enables government 2.0. Challenges that inhibit Swedish municipalities from adopting and utilizing such a solution are also identified in this research.Citizens in Sweden can submit complaints and problems concerning a community, such as broken streetlights, to municipalities. By enabling complaints and problems to be reported through mobile devices it facilitates reporting at the point and time of discovery of the issue. Complaint and problem reporting is therefore a suitable m-government service. The m-government solution for complaint and problem management was designed and evaluated within a research project. This compilation thesis builds on and communicates research performed within the research project. By following a design science research methodology, the complaint and problem management solution is designed and evaluated. The solution (Munizapp) comprises a mobile application (app) and an integration platform (ePlatform). The app is the front-end that enables citizens to report complaints and problems to municipalities. The ePlatform facilitates seamless two-way communication between the app and back-end case management system in municipalities. A theoretical evaluation shows that the solution has functionalities that enable all aspects of government 2.0. Additional evaluations indicate evidence of citizens finding the solution valuable and easy to use. There is willingness among municipalities to adopt and utilize the designed m-government solution, but there are challenges that inhibit them from realizing the full potential of the solution. The challenges identified in this research are described and related to business process management and to government 2.0. Future research should investigate how to overcome these challenges.